Alter Bridge lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Myles Kennedy talked about how he learned a new and strange way of playing the guitar from Slash during an interview with Ultimate Guitar’s Justin Beckner while promoting his new solo album ‘The Ideas of March.’
Along with his distinguished musical career in Alter Bridge, Kennedy is also known for his collaboration with Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Slash in his backing band Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Their first album entitled ‘Apocalyptic Love’ was released on May 22, 2012. It was followed by ‘World on Fire’ on September 10, 2014, and ‘Living the Dream’ on September 21, 2018.
In the interview, Kenney shared how he learned to play the hard guitar parts with the help of observing Slash’s method. Challenging guitar solos of ‘Farther Than the Sun’ led him to realize a new way of playing. It was easier to play in the studio when he was sitting.
However, he had to find another way while performing on the stage. Then he tried Slash’s method which was putting the knee up on the monitor and lifting the guitar up high to play the challenging parts easier. So, Kennedy understood the reason why Slash was performing like that.
Here’s what he said:
“Yes, there are a few, but there is a solo on a song called ‘Farther Than the Sun’ off 2013’s ‘Fortress’, and the solo on that is challenging. It’s one of the solos that you do in the studio, and I do most of my solos sitting down, but it’s a totally different world when you’re standing up performing.
So it was really hard for a long time where I was trying to figure out how to hold the guitar to where I could get up, and the solo starts on the 14th fret, and do these runs, and pull them off effectively.
What I learned was from guys like Slash, and I see Zakk Wylde do it a lot, where they’ll lift the guitar up so the headstock points straight up.
I never understood why they did that until I realized that when you do that, and you put your knee up on a monitor, it’s easier to reach those higher frets and execute those higher parts.
Obviously, the frets are closer together up there, so it just helps to put your arm at a more convenient angle to execute that correctly.”
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