[Dez’s custom Wirebird guitar is tuned down to an Amin7 open chord: A A C G A E.]

The Ghosts That Wait For Spring Chorus Riff

Dez starts his lesson by demonstrating the chorus riff to the song ‘The Ghosts That Wait For Spring’ off of The Safety Fire’s latest album Mouth of Swords. Dez’s guitar part darts between syncopated bass notes on the sixth string and fast, descending patterns on the higher strings. Taking care to mute any strings you aren’t currently playing will help keep the transitions between the two registers clean, and starting the whole riff slowly with a metronome will help ensure that your tempo is consistent and that the doubled notes that span the higher strings are clearly articulated.

Glass Crush Verse Riff

Dez shows us the verse riff from ‘Glass Crush,’ which is full of pull-offs and quick slides on the top three strings. Notice that although the notes are all the same duration throughout, they are grouped together in several different ways. To execute the riff properly, strive to maintain a consistent volume between your picked notes and unpicked notes.

Glass Crush

Check out the continuation of Dez’s lesson, where he shows us how to play part of ‘Beware The Leopard (Jagwar),’ featuring vocals by Tommy Rogers of Between The Buried And Me. To learn to play even more music from The Mouth Of Swords, check out the complete transcription book at SheetHappensPublishing.com

[Special thanks to Alon Mei-Tal for his excellent transcription work, Brandon Epling for his detailed video closeups, Igor Stolarsky for his stellar audio mixing, and Chris Dingman for his superb editing assistance!]