Introduction
The "Riff Playbooks" column is designed to make you a better player. By gleaning some insight into the technique, composition, and execution of these fine riffs by fine SH artists, you are bound to make headway in your own playing. We cordially invite you to steal a page from our books in order to expand your own diabolical playbook of musical wizardry (not literally though, the books are expensive to create).
Posted — January 2, 2019
We at Sheet Happens like to keep our friends close and our enemies closer, and we are very, very close with Dez Nagle. He and his band, Good Tiger, were part of Protest The Hero's Fortress X tour in the spring of 2018, and we had the pleasure (and the pain) of watching him do what he does best, which is riff. Dez's particular style of writing conveys a penchant for both technicality and subtlety, which the following demonstration showcases perfectly.
Dez decided to share with us the verse of the song "The Devil Thinks I'm Sinking" from Good Tiger's sophomore release "We Will All Be Gone". This section is a perfect example of Dez's ability to write technical leads that are catchy and melodically complex, while servicing the song well and giving the vocals the space that they need. In the book, we are looking at bars 33-44, starting on page 3.
Here's Dez swallowing his pride and playing this riff at a slower tempo:
We asked Dez a few questions about himself, which he begrudgingly answered in an attempt to get away from us as quickly as possible. Check out the short interview below:
To check out The Complete Guitar Transcription for Good Tiger's latest album We Will All Be Gone, click HERE.
If you'd like to listen to the song The Devil Thinks I'm Sinking it its entirety, head to one of the links below:
