DIMEBAG DARRELL

This month Charlie Griffiths examines the exciting style of the man who made hs name in Pantera, but died a tragic death in Damageplan.

- Charlie Griffiths

Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Texas in 1966 and was tragically murdered onstage in 2004, age 38. 'Dimebag' Darrell made a huge mark on metal between 1990 and 2000, when Pantera popularised groove metal. His guitar style features tight, syncopated metal riffing with inventive lead playing. In this lesson we will look at some of the key approaches Dimebag used for his lead work and will focus on fast Blues scale based alternate picking, sweep picking and legato licks, wide stretch shapes and singing natural harmonics.

Example 1 shows two approaches Dime used with the E Blues scale (E-G-A-B-B-D]. The first half of the lick is an alternate picked pattern using six repeated notes and some string skipping to add a wider interval jump. The second half employs pull-offs and upward sweep picking for a southern, country-influenced descending pattern.