MASTER Alternate Picking With These Al Di Meola Lines | Jazz/Fusion/Rock Guitar Lesson

Here are two great lines from Al's solo on Race With The Devil On The Spanish Highway from his album Elegant Gypsy. Al Di Meola was easily one of my biggest influences early on in my playing, and these lines will give you a great insight into his alternate picking and the scale runs he likes to play!
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0:00 Intro and Example 1
3:27 Picking And Rhythm
4:07 Example 2
6:14 Harmonic Analysis
6:37 How To Build Speed

[@JazzStrat781]

Great video Mike 👍🎸 Al Di Meola was so influential to me too and like you sent me in many new directions artiist wise. Best to you brother, keep up the great work!

[@mbacarellaguitar]

Which were your favorite albums? Mine were Romantic Warrior, Casino, and Friday Night In San Francisco.

[@JazzStrat781]

@@mbacarellaguitar Casino and Land of the Midnight Sun were my favorites at the time, just totally loved his playing!

[@mbacarellaguitar]

In addition to his playing, I absolutely LOVE his compositions on those two albums. Such creative music.

[@iloverumi]

sick stuff... thank you.

[@mbacarellaguitar]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@fenderlead1]

Saw Al last week from very close. What surprised me was his right hand work. Great writing and playing but, unlike you, he moves his whole forarm( rigid) and seems to be picking from the shoulder. At the time he developed his technique there was no Cracking the code lol
Great content btw. I appreciate your approad!

[@mbacarellaguitar]

I have yet to see him live. One day, I hope to! Al just goes to show that there is no one perfect way to pick, since every single person is different. While I could never pick using his technique, we can’t argue that it doesn’t work for him! He’s one of the best out there!

[@aleksik4028]

His picking looks bit different now, 70s - early 80s, it looks more wrist action. Now days its more whole arm along with wrist when playing fast. Anyways he really can hit those strings hard and precise. Other players seem bit weak compared to, especially on acoustic guitar.

[@innocentoctave]

Di Meola was one of the 70s players who redefined what was possible on the instrument. That said, I wonder how far his technique dictated and limited the music he played: ideally, it should be the other way around. For example, the 'alternate-pick everything' approach: the 'strings of 16th notes played very evenly'; and the 'one finger per fret no stretches' fingering that the lines you illustrate here suggest. I remember listening to the famous 'One Night in San Francisco' album, and thinking that in spite of his obvious accuracy and speed, Di Meola's phrasing sounded stiff and mechanical by contrast with McLaughlin and de Lucia.

[@sizaiza]

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