Greg Howe- A Profile

by Eric Vandenberg

Introduction

Hi there...

OK, lemme try a different kind of introduction this time. Go and get yourself a pillow, let's roast some
marshmallows and I'll tell ya a little story. Nope, don't wanna put you to sleep, but I figured you might be bored
by my usual kind of introduction so...

It was the long hot summer of 35 ... uhmmm... actually it was like 1993 or so, but I thought I should try some
dramatic stuff. Anyway, I was in some kind of a rut back then. I had been practising a lot (this was prior to my
time at the GIT), and I had been listening to a bunch of shred-records, learning lots of licks off them.

But somehow I was looking for something else. In my mind I had these neat ideas, and I was looking for a player
who was doing something similar.

Now, back then the CD store in my town occasionally had some really cool CDs in stock, some rather unusual CDs
that looked weird next to all the "hip" rock & pop-stuff. (i.e. I found a copy of Vinnie Moore's "Meltdown" there...).
So one day I was browsing through the CD shelves and I see a CD by a dude called "Greg Howe". I had heard
about him, saw his name in a Shrapnel-ad in the GUITAR magazine. So, I went by my gut-feeling and just
purchased the CD.

Went home, put it into the CD-player and... man, was I blown away. Sure, the CD had some of that Varney-sound
(guitar-doubling in thirds, not the best production-sound), but the songwriting and playing was SO awesome.

So very different from the neoclassical, harmonic minor type stuff I had listened to for way too long, here was a
guy who had a very smooth sound, played some fusion / rock-style songs, and playing-wise he was just soaring...
amazing licks, very fast stuff, intervals so very different from the neoclassical stuff.

At first I was blown away, then I felt extremely inspired. I sat down, tried to transcribe some of this stuff, tried to
learn some of the licks.

I later got my hands on his video (by REH) and an old issue of the Guitar Player magazine, which featured a very
long interview, a transcription of one whole song, and a lesson with Greg. This cleared up a lot of it, it made it
easier to understand what he was doing, I learned a lot of cool licks and ideas from that.

To this day, Greg is one of my main influences, next to Ed Van Halen, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse and a few others.
His playing, note-choice and style inspired me, and I still do find a lot of "Howe-isms" in my playing.

Remember the two articles about the stretch-pentatonic ("Stretch It !" and "Stretch Some More")? Well, Greg
Howe was probably the first guy that I heard using the pentatonic scale in such a creative and cool way. I couldn't
even tell it was a lot of pentatonic stuff when I listened to his records. It just sounded like an alien playing really
melodic and cool stuff at about lightspeed.

And since Howe is such a big influence of mine, and still never ceases to amaze me with both his older and his
more recent releases I figured I could pay some kind of a tribute to him by telling you guys about him, his music
and his style.

Also, my songs "Groove Addict", "Rainy Night" and "Cab To Queens" are some kind of tributes to him, since they
feature lots of licks that definitely were influenced by Greg.

So, let's take a look at the man...

By the way... did you think that that story was boring?!? No?!? Good!!! Then maybe next time, I can tell you
about how I had to walk to school every morning, 7 miles one way, 9 miles the other, with the snow 9 feet high...
ok, maybe I won't, maybe I'm just full of...

Bio and discography

Greg started out playing guitar at age 10. His first big influence was Eddie Van Halen (he even learned to play the
tapping part of "Eruption"... without tapping!!! That's right, folks, he played it with his left hand only and came
pretty close to the original speed... the mind boggles...)

He taught himself how to play, and after the Van Halen-phase, he got into the music of guys like Larry Carlton,
Hendrix, Holdsworth... After being featured in Mike Varney's "Spotlight" column, he signed a deal with Shrapnel
records in 1988 and recorded his self-titled debut.

After that, he recorded to albums with the band Howe II (featuring his brother Al on vocals), and they even were
featured on MTV a bit. It took a while until he released his second solo-album, "Introspection" (which, besides the
debut, is probably my favorite Howe-record). He released several other instrumental albums, including two
together with Richie Kotzen.

He also filled in for Jennifer Batten as the live-guitarist of Michael Jackson at one point. In 1997, Greg played n
keyboard-virtuoso Vitalij Kuprij's "High Definition" CD (this is some neoclassical stuff, and Greg did a great job
here, too). His most recent solo-album is called "Hyperacuity", but as of now (Nov. 2002) he is working on his
next solo-release.

He is also doing sideman-jobs. He toured with the extremely popular boygroup N'Sync, and also was part of
Enrique Iglesias' live-band. The newest project he is involved in is the solo-project of one of the N'Sync-guys,
Justin Timberlake...

Releases (selected discography):

With Howe II:

"High Gear", 1989
"Now Hear This", 1990

Together with Richie Kotzen:

"Tilt", 1995
"Project", 1997
With Vitalij Kuprij:
"High Definiton", 1997

As a solo-artist:

"Greg Howe", 1988

"Introspection", 1993
"Uncertain Terms", 1994
"Parallax", 1995
"Five", 1996
"Ascend", 1999
"Hyperacuity", 2000

Most of this stuff can be purchased at Guitar9.com

More info about Greg:GregHowe.com

Sound, tone etc.

Greg has a very smooth & warm sound. If you listen to "Little Rose" from his debut, or one of the tracks from his
most recent album, you'll notice that his sound features plenty of gain, and hardly any effects.

In the older days, Greg used the "STRAT" (aka "Heavy Metal Strat")by Fender, which was some kind of a hyper-
version of a Stratocaster. Backrouting, HSS-configuration, double locking whammy bar, three knobs and a five-
way switch. Greg emphasized that he especially liked the neck profile of these guitars. He still owns several
models.

Later, Greg got into other instruments by Fender and ESP (he endorses ESP guitars these days). He seems to
prefer classic-style guitars with modern features, like i.e. regular Stratocasters with humbuckers and a Floyd Rose
system. His current favorite is a red strat with a humbucker in the bridge-position, a singlecoil in the neck, and a
Floyd Rose system.

These days, Greg endorses Johnson amps, the JM 150 and JM 250. Before that, he used a modified Fender Dual
Showman Head (which also is seen in his instructional video. Greg also appeared in an ad for that amp in the late
80s). Modifications include installation of EL34s (the amp usually runs on 6L6s), to add some compression and
allow for more gain from the poweramp-stage.

Greg says on his site that (before he used Johnson amps), this modded Dual Showman provided the sound that
was compatible with his style and playing.

Howe-style

General things about his playing

OK, before we get to the licks and exercises, lemme point out a few things. Greg has a very unique style of
playing. It involves many different aspects of playing. He has a great alternate-picking technique, but also
commands a flawless legato-technique, and he merges both of these extremes perfectly.

Also, he uses a lot of right-hand tapping. Not as a special lick-thingy, not in the Van Halen style. Nope, he uses it
as an extension of the left hand to create extremely fast & smooth runs, where the listener almost can't determine
anymore which note is picked and which one is tapped.

This PERFECT incorporation of tapped notes allows fast runs with huge, quite surprising intervals. Greg must have
studied the styles of many players, cuz he uses all the popular shred-techniques, such as picking, legato, tapping,
sweeping, string-skipping. And he merges them in a mind-boggling way.

He also has some trademark-licks, techniques, approaches, like i.e. "barring" (we'll get to that later), and a certain
tapping / hammer-on / pull-off-technique that he's using a lot.

His songwriting has gone a long way. The songs on "Hyperacuity" are far more complex and improvised than the
tunes on his debut. Back then, he often had great, memorable themes combined with impressive solos (by the
way, the solos often were played over one or two static 7th-chords...), while these days, the songs are full of
improvisation and some kind of a "freedom", playing-wise.

Melodically, Greg was one of the few players on the Shrapnel label who didn't play neoclassical stuff. His music
was rather pentatonic based, fusion-style. (Other Shrapnel-artists included Jason Becker, Vinnie Moore, Racer X,
Tony MacAlpine...)

But when he worked with Vitalij Huprij, he demonstrated that he even was able to play that style of music, and
still sounded convincing.

Another thing I like is that he uses the pentatonic scale to a great effect, without playing any old-fashioned,
overused blueslicks. He used 3 note per string-pentatonics, string-skipping and huge interval leaps to create some
quite innovative melodies and leads. And the guy grooves, and he still plays with a lot of fire and conviction.

By the way, for a quick introduction to his technical abilities (I am not talking about songwriting, I mean the
technical side), check out:
- the solo "Strat-o-varius" which he recorded for the "Guitars On The Edge" Sampler. Tough to find, but worth the
effort
-The intro of the second Howe II-album. The album was called "Now Hear This", the solo's title is "Fat Cat"... a
mindboggling 22 sec.-tour de force
-The solo of "Direct Injection", the seventh track of "Introspective". Amazing stuff. We'll get to that later...

LICKS !!

Yee-haw! Finally, we get to some licks and exercises.

Here's one of my favorite Howe-techniques. I was immediately intrigued by its sound and possibilities, so I
practiced this kind of stuff and use it a LOT these days. Greg himself called it (and he was smiling, dudes, so don't
take it TOO seriously) "a cheap way to sound like Holdsworth". Here's how it goes...

Let's take a descending pattern of the A-Miyolydian scale. For now, we start on the G, 15th fret, high E-string
(we'll get to the A once the right hand is involved).

K, memorize that pattern. Do you remember the sequences I showed you in my alternate picking articles, where I
i.e. played a "3 down, jump 2 back up, 3 down, jump 2 back up etc." sequence. If we'd play the pattern above
with that sequence, starting on A, we'd play A G F# E, G F# E D, F# E D C# etc.

OK, here is how Greg (or I) would play this:

You tap the high A (17th fret) with your right hand. Your left hand fingers should already be in place, fretting the
next 3 notes of the pattern, G, F# and E.

OK, so you tap the A, pull off to the G (left hand 4th Finger), pull off to the F# (which is fretted by your 3rd
finger). Then you re-tap the G with your right hand, pull off to the F# (14th fret), pull off to E (12th fret). Now,
re-tap the F# (get the idea?), pull off to E. Hammer on the D at the 15th fret of the B-string with your LEFT hand.
Now, tap the E on the 17th fret, B-string, pull off to D, pull off to C# etc.
Do you understand the pattern ?

The finger you use for tapping (in my case, that'd be the middle finger, so I can still hold my pick with the index
finger and thumb) is like an extension or extra finger for your left hand.

When you play this pattern and sequence with this approach, you will most likely be able to speed it up more than
you could if you'd play it with your left hand only, picking or hammering-pulling. You can seriously speed up that
way.

Ok, the example we just went through stops on the D (12th fret, D-string). Of course you can continue this further
down the neck or till you reach the low E-string. Here is the pattern on six strings:

And here is the "tap-pull-retap"-sequence I explained above, applied to this 6 string-pattern.

You'll definitely have to get used to this and work on it for a while, but this might open some new doors for you.
You can speed up quite a bit, and you can play stuff you couldn't with only the left hand fretting the notes. Try
using it with different scales... You can hear this technique in use in many of Greg's songs and solos.

OK. Next step. Do you remember me saying (writing) that Greg uses the pentatonic quite a bit? Then let's see
how that sounds. Here is our good old pentatonic pattern, key of G Major:

And here is our tap-pull-retap-Howe-technique used with this pattern. The difference is: There are less notes per
string, so this is quite different from a modal scale. You have to change strings more frequently.
Is that a cool sound or what?!

This is the first Howe-style lick I learned back then, after I had finally figured out how he does it. And it was so
much fun to use it... big intervals, and speed, too. I was playing it ALL THE TIME (almost got kicked out of my
band back then it's cool as long as it isn't overused, but when I used a similar lick in almost every solo, the guys
were like "DUDE ! LOOSEN UP ! PLAY SOMETHING ELSE !")

So, don't overuse it, try to add it to your "vocabulary" and use it when it makes sense. Greg doesn't overuse it
either.

Or how about a bluesy version of that? Again, G major pentatonic, this time we're gonna throw in the b5 for a
nastier, bluesy sound. Here's part of the pattern:

And here is the run:

Now, if you like this technique / approach, here's your homework: Sit down, work on it, and use it with many
different scales, patterns and backgrounds. All above the neck.

More Howe-Isms

OK, now to some other "Howe-isms" Greg often throws tapped notes into his lines. It doesn't sound like your
typical Van Halen-style tapping lick that way. Instead, it sounds like Greg has the fastest and BIGGEST hand in
the world.

Let's take our good ol' E Minor Pentatonic. Remember the Em-pentatonic licks in "Stretch It". Now, this time we'll
go easy on the left hand and we'll tap the highest note on each string, instead of hammering it on with the pinkie.
But we'll skip every other string...
Here's what I mean:

OK, you might say "So what? In the stretch pentatonic articles, we had the same kind of lick, and it worked just
fine with the left hand only... why tap the highest note?!?"

See, first of all, I am not saying anything against the "left hand only" approach. Worked just fine, and I am still
using that approach, too.

But when we tap the highest note like in the example above, we are going a bit easier on the left hand. No wide
stretch necessary. That means we might even go a bit faster here. And we can also play this stuff in the lowest
areas of the neck, where those wide stretches are almost impossible to do. (Imagine... 3rd fret, 5th fret, 8th fret
on the low E-string, all notes hammered on with the left hand at high speed). So, tapping the highest notes is the
better solution for some of those licks.

Now, let me show you another cool thing that you can do this way (and most likely can't with the left hand only):

What I am doing here is I skip one note of our pentatonic scale. We're playing E and G. (first sixtuplet). The next
note SHOULD be A. But instead, we tap the B. This is a very nice sound, some cool, HUGE interval leaps. Check it
out...
OK, another way to incorporate tapped notes into a pattern or run is displayed here: This is similar to the
beginning of the solo of "Direct Injection" (as mentioned above, one of the most impressive solos I ever heard
Greg do).

The first note (B) is hammered on with the left hand, than we hammer on to C#, and tap the D#. Then, again
with the left hand, we hammer on to E, hammer on to F#, tap the G#, pull off to F#, pull off to E, TAP the D# on
the A-string, pull off to C#, pull off to B. Next time, we tap the G# on the D-string, slide up to B (with the tapping
finger), slide back to G#, pull off etc.

This approach, tapping a note, then sliding up to another and back, is a technique often used by players like Greg,
Joey Tafolla and Richie Kotzen.

Now, take a look at the next bar. Here, we have a huge string-skip, skipping from the D-string to the high E-
string.

These kinds of huge interval leaps are what the guitar is really good for. After all, we have six strings, so such a
leap is way easier than it would be on, let's say, a one-string instrument. So, Greg here actually shows us what
kind of wacky interval leaps can be done.

Barring

Barring is a technique closely related to the concept of sweep-picking. Greg knows how to sweep-pick and
occasionally uses the technique, but he usually prefers his "barring technique". The concept is to play two notes at
the same fret on two adjacent strings. Both notes are fretted with the same finger.
Take a look at the next example to see what I mean:
The first note is fretted with the 1st finger and picked with a downstroke. Then you hammer on to the next note, 2
frets higher, with your 3rd finger. The next note is at the same fret but on the adjacent string.

You fret that note with the same finger as the previous note, so you're playing some kind of a "mini-bar-chord".
You hit that note with an upstroke, go back to the previous note (hitting it with a downstroke), pulling off etc.

This barring-technique will enable you to play very fast sequences. Also, the intervals on the adjacent strings are
pretty big too.

OK, look at the next example. I applied this barring-technique, the same sequence, to a pattern of the A major /
F# minor pentatonic.

Note that on the B-string, we hit the D# once, which is a note not included in the A Maj Pentatonic (or A Major
Scale, for that matter). But it's easier to play the sequence there this way, and it adds some nice, nasty sound to
it, too.

Here's the final lick. A friend of mine once attended a Greg Howe-workshop, and this is one of the licks Greg
played there. It's a very cool, but also very difficult pedaltone-style lick in F Major.

Groove Addict and Epilogue

Groove Addict
"Groove Addict" is a song of mine, and will be featured on my upcoming album, "Talking Hands". The song is
inspired by the music of Greg Howe and Richie Kotzen, and the main-solo definitely shows the influence of Howe
on my playing.
Some of the "Howe-isms" have become part of my style, and they are featured here. I didn't plan on including
them on purpose. The solo was created when I was jamming over the song bunches of times.

Once I had the solo together I was like "Hey, there are some of the "Howe-Isms" in here. Howe cool =) "
Here are the first 4 bars of that solo:
Click HERE to hear a MIDI-version of those 4 bars

In measure 1, I play an ascending stretch-pentatonic sequence similar to the ones I showed you in the stretch-
pentatonic articles (see the transcription of my solo in "Rainy Night"). I end that run with a tapped B (measure 2),
then I play the "Howe tapping sequence", utilizing the G major pentatonic. I play it twice, "elaborating" the second
time (measure 3), going down the scale even further than the first time. Then, in measure 4, I play one of my
trademarks, utilizing the 3NPS-pentatonic incorporating tapped notes... Hope you liked this excerpt of the tune.
Audio samples should be available on my site or on the finished CD soon.

Epilogue

Ok, let all those licks and exercises INSPIRE you. The approaches and techniques I explained here can be used in
a very creative way, not only by rock- or fusion players.

Listening to Greg always gave me a new direction, inspired me, provided me with new ideas. Greg, to me, is not
only one of my main-influences, but also one of the technically best and most creative players. Also, he is one of
the best-kept secrets in the guitar-scene.

IMHO, he never really got the attention he deserved. Sure, many people are familiar with his name, but his
records never sold that much, and he never became as famous as his fellow Varney-colleagues such as Jason
Becker, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen or Tony MacAlpine.

He influenced a bunch of players though, not only me. Prashant Aswani, who is one of todays hottest new talents
(and received critical acclaim for his first two albums) took lessons with Greg, was influenced by him and even had
him sit in on one of his songs.

And there are more players that play stuff that, at least to me, sounds very much like inspired by Mr. Howe. But
do a search with an internet search-engine and you'll see that there isn't much information available on him... his
official site, some reviews and places to order his albums.

Hopefully, I got some of you interested in Greg's music (and believe me, it's not only about speed and amazing
chops, he also has a very melodic style and wrote some very inspiring tunes).

Whether you wanna hear him use his amazing chops (maybe to pick up some ideas and licks just like I did) or
whether you just wanna check out his music, I hope you'll like it as much as I did. And to me, writing this article
and showing you some of Greg's unique style, to me, is one way of saying "THANK YOU" to Greg for being a major
influence of mine and for all the great music he gave us and will hopefully continue to record.

Oh, and in case you're a daddy (or a big brother or sister) and one of your kids (or siblings) wants to go see
N'Sync, Justin Timberlake or Enrique Iglesias live, I recommend to take them and go to the show... cuz Greg will
most likely be on stage too, and that's something YOU will enjoy

Thanks, Greg!