In The Style Of Joe Satriani (Riff Axelerator)

26 April 2013 | 4:10 pm | Steve Flack

In summing up, I think In The Style Of Joe Satriani is worth having in your library.

After watching the Riff Axelerator lesson by Brisbane-based guitarist Andrew Farnham a few points came to mind. Firstly, the amount of instructional material on Joe Satriani, including full transcriptions of everything that he'd ever recorded, is huge but that doesn't necessarily mean that the fledgling, aspiring guitar player will be able to make his or her way through it easily or even be able to find any of it accessible. In fact, it could be discouraging if you're ill-equipped technically with underdone strength in the finger department. My second thought was that if there are small steps we can take to build our technique so that we can approach the level of skill needed to play either Satriani's music or create our own at that standard, then these steps are well worth exploring and may be of enormous value. What Farnham has done with his In The Style Of Joe Satriani is to have composed ten riffs based on or “inspired by” Satriani that, if learnt thoroughly, could just be those small steps or even part of them to help a 'Satch' student make that breakthrough and reach the goal of playing at a masterful level. The strategy is that the ten riffs given as examples are able to be heard at a series of speeds so they can each be worked on at the speed that's just right for where your playing is at. So you could start at the slowest speed and once you can play the riff comfortably at that tempo, move it up a notch until you ultimately play it at the top speed. In summing up, I think In The Style Of Joe Satriani is worth having in your library. www.riffaxelerator.com.