jeff beck
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Jeff Beck rose to prominence as a member of the rock band The Yardbirds. After his time in The Yardbirds, Jeff founded and fronted The Jeff Beck Group - which consisted of Jeff Beck on guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood playing rhythm guitar. Jeff Beck was also a part of Beck, Bogert & Appice consisting of bassist Tim Bogert, drummer Carmine Appice and of course, Jeff Beck.
Jeff Beck’s playing style is legendary, constantly switching from blues to jazz-fusion to metal (and more!) throughout his career. He is well known for his technical prowess combined with his true perfectionism.
Although he was a phenomenal player already, after ditching the plectrum and picking up the Stratocaster the iconic Beck techniques appeared. Alongside incredible left-hand techniques, using minor pentatonic and mixolydian modes, one of these techniques is how Beck would use ‘scoops and drops’, hitting the whammy bar immediately to give the note a slightly out of tune pitch - A very advanced technique to perform whilst fingerpicking.
He’d shake the whammy bar and aggressively ‘throw’ it upwards, creating a unique harmonic, fluttering, screaming sound. Jeff would typically set the tremolo floating high, meaning he can pull the whammy bar up and down.