Black Star
Tuning: All
strings Down a 1/2 step
Key: D-Major
Pentatonic, G-Harmonic Minor, F#-Diminished
Equipment: A delay or echo pedal, acoustic and electric guitar (preferably with tremolo), reverb, distortion, .009-.010 guage strings, and a light to medium pick.
This song starts out acoustically. Turn your reverb up to about 4-6. Turn your mids all the way down. You want a deep smooth sound for this song, so the bass needs to be cranked to about 5 or 6. Now balance the sound out by turning up the treble from 6-8.
Yngwie does some classical finger-picking at the beginning which is fairly easy. After playing the F# Arpeggio, he plays harmonics on the 7th, 12th, 5th, and then returns to the 7th fret. Let the last harmonic ring out. The drums and bass come in, giving you plenty of time to change your rig from acoustic to electric.
When the electric comes in, Yngwie does three sweeping arpeggios. Play these arpeggios, like you would play a chord. The key element to get these sweeps down, is perfect coordination of the two hands. For the next part you will have to tweak your echo pedal, to create a triplet effect. Yngwie plays this riff using volume swells. You can try this if it is easy to do, or you could use a volume pedal.
After the sweeping arpeggios, the second guitar comes in, playing one-and-a-half steps above the notes played by guitar one. The two guitars harmonize with eachother throughout the rest of the song, creating an incredible sound. Yngwie then brings in the melody of the song.
The melody consists of a lick with 16th notes, followed by a lick with 32nd notes, in harmonic-minor. The run with the 32nd notes is incredibly hard at first. I recommend practicing it to perfection. Don't worry so much about the speed at first, but more about the clarity of the notes. If you worry about the speed, you will probably end up missing a few notes and playing very staccato. Yngwie loves using 32nd notes, so it is essential that you get this lick down perfectly. It will help you greatly later.
Following the melody, is an incredibly easy descending riff. The only thing you might find hard about is doing vibrato with your pinky. Vibrato is incredibly easy to do on a scalloped neck, so you will find Yngwie to use it a lot. This riff is immediately followed by the melody. After the melody comes one of the toughest runs in the song.
The run remains in the harmonic-minor key. The reason why the run is hard, is because it involves so many 32nd notes. You might have to wood shed with this part of the song for a little bit. After you get the first riff, you get a little break, only having to bend-and-returns in the diminished scale. When you complete the bends, it is back to the 32nd riffs. This second riff is much harder than the first, because you have to add a soft harmonic at the end. Now comes the last part of the run. It consists of a bunch of descending pull-offs in the diminished scale. When you do the last pull-off, you have to move your hand incredibly fast, back up to the 17th fret, where you will again play the melody.
Repeat everything from the melody, up to the last ascending bend in the diminished scale. Instead of playing the harder 32nd riff, you will now play an ascending riff in the diminished scale, consisting of 16th notes.
I am currently learning the solo, and will soon have the method for it