The amazing Dweezil Zappa was in town recently and invited me to play a tune with his band at New York’s Town Hall. This is a historic venue beloved by NYC music fans. And of course Dweezil is the best. So this was a pretty cool and slightly terrifying invite. There was a non-zero chance this would all go sideways once I was up there.
And some of that did happen! But thankfully, Cracking the Code training provided enough muscle memory to avoid completely freezing up. I also had a few tricks up my sleeve as far as error-resistant patterns for outlining the relevant chord changes in the Zappa classic “Muffin Man”.
If you weren’t there, never fear, because you can relive the terror in our latest lesson! In this 23-minute investigation, we take a look at what happened – and what didn’t happen! – in the live performance. Here’s the YouTube version:
The lesson includes a cool Muffin-style backing track I did in the studio for the express purpose of giving myself a “do-over” on my own time. It includes a cool keyboard part and live drums, and the type of more thoughtful overall approach to the solo that I would have taken if I had been able to spend a little more time in preparation:
The lesson is also up on the platform, with Soundslice integration for the “Arcade Pattern” lick and a few others. It’s fully playable even with a free account, so feel free to head on over here if you’re looking for notation:
Many thanks to Dweezil and to his absolutely killer band for having me. Watching them tear through this crazy repertoire is not only impressive, it’s theatrical in the best way and super entertaining. If you get a chance to check them out, I highly recommend it. You never know who might show up!
@Troy Awesome stuff, and Dweezil is a super cool guy from the one time I met him.
Any reason why you chose the trailing edge DT style form for the performance, over your bread and butter typical USX form? Extra shred power?
Pretty much. I didn’t know which tecnique felt the most natural because everything was so weird and adrenaline-fueled. But I always get some nice physical comfort and speed with either of the wrist motions, whether RDT or DT, when using trailing edge.
It has to do more with the form, not the grip itself. And this will be highly dependent on finger lengths, thumb joint range of motion, and so on. Not everyone can do this, and even if they can, not everyone will get any benefit from this beyond whatever they normally do.
As usual, I recommend using whichever technique feels the most comfortable and gets the best results in testing.
when i heard Troy launch into these sequences i immediately thought of MAB and Nitro!
Very cool, what an awesome experience.
Yes! I was so happy when I saw this…truly great work and I know that this was fun despite the pressure or maybe even because of it! Dweezil is such a sweet guy and it’s just a gas to be around him. So, so cool that these two cats that I respect so much got together onstage!