COLUMNS
FIGHTING WORDS
How to play “Kung Fu Grip”
For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/February2021
by Vinnie Moore
IN THIS COLUMN, I’d like to demonstrate some of the techniques I use to play the melodic lines in my tune “Kung Fu Grip,” the third track on my 2019 album, Soul Shifter.
There's a specific technique I use to play the single-note lines that appear during the chorus sections of the tune. It involves fretting a specific note and then bending back up to that same note from a half step and one fret below. This technique is one used often by the great Jeff Beck, as well as John McLaughlin, both of whom are two of my biggest guitar heroes. Keyboardist Jan Hammer would play similar phrases when he’d trade solos with Jeff on the many great recordings they made together.