'A Legato Workout Changed My Life'

Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge on the secret to fast picking, and the best fretting-hand exercise he ever learned

- By Amit Sharma. Photographs by Scott Diussa

THINK LIKE A CAVEMAN!

I remember when I was diving deep into theory, I was asking [Alter Bridge frontman] Myles Kennedy a lot of stuff. He’s a very studied guitar player with a very theoretical approach. And he told me he wasn’t sure if I really needed to learn much more, because I’d already found ways to create on my own - thinking outside of the box because I didn’t know what I was doing. He basically told me that coming up with my own rules had given me my own sound. Looking back now, that was great advice. I didn’t need to become a jazz guy and learn about every chord voicing and mode in every scale. Of course, everyone should know some theory. It can only help you get to where you want to go as a guitar player. But finding your own voice by thinking like a caveman – ‘what is this thing and what am I going to do with it?’ – is what helps carve your sound.

YOU CAN PICK FAST FROM THE ELBOW