Sex Type Thing Guitar Lesson – Stone Temple Pilots
In this Sex Type Thing guitar lesson video, I will show you how to play this Stone Temple Pilots' hard rock masterpiece in it's entirety.
There really is no let down in this song, from the very first moments to the highly dissonant and in your face chords that end the song, "Sex Type Thing" just pummels along in a very melodic, catchy fashion using HUGE guitar riffs all along.
The opening riff is what I would call the main riff. It is pretty simple to play but does requires a bit of a stretch. If you are unaccustomed to doing stretches this large on the guitar, make sure you position your fret hand thumb behind the neck at about the mid point of the neck. This position will enable your fingers to spread out more and reach the notes more easily.
The picking for the main riff is pretty simple, just make sure you don't forget to add the low E open string between each chord during the first half of the riff.
The verse riff doesn't move around much, but is a little awkward to play rhythmically. Guitarist Dean DeLeo uses mostly downstrokes to play this riff when you watch him do it live. Playing it like that might make it a bit easier for you to control the rhythm as well. I will demonstrate the muting and harmonic techniques he uses in this riff as well.
The chorus riff is the easiest part of the entire song and uses just basic power chords.
The only other section to tackle is the dissonant little turnaround riff they use a couple times throughout the song. Most of this riff is based around moving a dominant 7th chord shape up the fretboard while keeping the low E and high E strings ringing. There is one other sus2 chord shape thrown in there, but for the most part the entire riff is pretty symmetrical and not hard to play.
Don't forget about the very end of the song where Dean DeLeo introduces a dissonant tri-tone.
Have fun playing this one, it rocks hard and is a great song for any upper beginner and above level player to learn!
Carl...
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