A Guide to Randy Rhoads' Acoustic Techniques and Riffs — Video | Guitar World 03/12/2016 13:36

A Guide to Randy Rhoads' Acoustic

Techniques and Riffs — Video
When Ozzy Osbourne was booted from Black Sabbath and went solo in
1979, his quest for a heavy-metal soulmate ended with his discovery of
Randy Rhoads.

The pair would go on to pen such classic metal cuts as “Crazy Train,” “I
Don’t Know,” “Mr. Crowley” and “Flying High Again,” among others.
Unfortunately, Rhoads was around long enough to record only two full-
length albums with Ozzy: Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman (the live
album, Tribute, was released posthumously in 1987).

On March 19, 1982, while “joyriding” in a small plane piloted by Ozzy’s

tour bus driver, Rhoads was killed when the pilot flew too close to the
band's parked tour bus, clipped its wing and careened into a nearby house.

A fan of classical music, Randy Rhoads was one of the first American
guitarists to successfully incorporate classical music elements into heavy
metal. (“Euro-metal” guitarists, including Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie
Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker, had also experimented
with melding the two genres.)

Reportedly, Rhoads was contemplating retiring from rock after the tour to
study classical guitar at UCLA. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at examples
in the style of Rhoads’ classically influenced solo piece “Dee” as well as
“Diary of a Madman” and “Goodbye to Romance,” two other Ozzy favorites
that prominently feature acoustic guitar.

Randy pulled out all the stops for Diary of a Madman’s title track, an epic
six-minute-plus piece packed with acoustic and electric guitar textures. Its
intro, similar to FIGURE 1, is structured around an elaborate arpeggio
passage reminiscent of a modern classical guitar etude by Leo Brouwer
http://www.guitarworld.com/hole-notes-randy-rhoads-acoustic-techniques-and-riffs Page 1 sur 4
A Guide to Randy Rhoads' Acoustic Techniques and Riffs — Video | Guitar World 03/12/2016 13:36

(entitled "Etudes Simples: VI," published in 1972) which Rhoads likely

learned in his classical guitar studies. Use economy picking to tackle these
arpeggios throughout, employing a single pick stroke to sound successive
notes found on adjacent strings, as indicated.

Rhoads also had a talent for composing striking ballads, as evidenced by

the track “Goodbye to Romance” (Blizzard of Ozz), the first song Ozzy
cowrote with Rhoads.

Penned as Osbourne’s personal farewell to Black Sabbath, the song blends

clean-tone electrics with steel-string acoustic sounds, resulting in an
almost “harpsichord”-like tonal quality. FIGURE 2 depicts a composite
in-the-style-of arrangement.

“Dee” (Blizzard of Ozz), which inspires FIGURE 3, is a lilting waltz (3/4

meter felt “in one”) that Randy dedicated to his mother, Delores. (Perhaps
as a further tribute to his mom, the majority of "Dee" falls in the key of D.)

With this track, Rhoads used one of his favorite acoustic multitracking
approaches: overdubbing a steel-string acoustic on top of his primary
nylon-string part for added sparkle (he also did this in “Diary of a
Madman.") Note the pick-hand fingerings included below the notation. For
further insight into Randy’s classical guitar technique, check out the “Dee”
studio outtakes at the end of the Tribute album.

Check out the videos below and the complete tabs below that.

Part 1

http://www.guitarworld.com/hole-notes-randy-rhoads-acoustic-techniques-and-riffs Page 2 sur 4

A Guide to Randy Rhoads' Acoustic Techniques and Riffs — Video | Guitar World 03/12/2016 13:36

Hole Notes with Dale Turner: Randy Rhoads' Acoustic Technique…

Part 2

http://www.guitarworld.com/hole-notes-randy-rhoads-acoustic-techniques-and-riffs Page 3 sur 4

A Guide to Randy Rhoads' Acoustic Techniques and Riffs — Video | Guitar World 03/12/2016 13:36

http://www.guitarworld.com/hole-notes-randy-rhoads-acoustic-techniques-and-riffs Page 4 sur 4