Top 5 Habits of Alex Lifeson 

Thank you for the kind words!!

Hes not underrated, for god sake he's a hall of famer that sold 50 million albums and made 50 million dollars in the music business and has a chord named after him,how rated does someone need to be?

I guess it depends on what social group of players you've been around. A lot of the players I came up around didn't give him the attention I feel he deserves. They were all consumed with the neo classical shredders.

@@MusicWithMarky The same here. Alex was always one of my favorites and did not get the recognition he deserved until later in their career. I remember that Neo-Classical Shredder time period. Yes, some of those guitar players are amazing, Yngwie comes to mind but most of the rest were ripping him off. It also got boring really fast. There was a time about 15-20 years ago when Rush & Alex started getting the recognition and respect they deserved all along. By the time they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame they were getting much love and respect, especially from other bands who started listing them as a huge influence. Neil did get noticed as one of the best drummers even if the band was looked down upon. We were Rush geeks but I wore that label with pride by having Rush pins and patches on my Levi Jean Jacket & Rush stickers on my home made book covers. I had several Rush Tee-shirts as well & still have a few newer ones. I even have a Rush tour poster(a real one) from the Vapor Trails show I saw. That was both my kids first ever concert while my wife had seen them many times already. So my wife & two kids love Rush as well. Maybe not as intensely or in the way I do but they still love them. My daughter even brought her husband to a Rush show when they first got married and my son-in-law loves Rush as well & said he was blown away!!

@cygnals524 That's amazing!!

Thanks, Georgie!

Anything specific that you'd like to see?

@@MusicWithMarky Hey there, just discovered your channel via the Fractal forums. I've been playing for a long time but have absolutely no left-hand speed for shredding/alt picking. Looking and your videos now and digging into your "30 Day Guitar Shredding Workouts." Anything Alex, the scales he uses? How you would practice the scales to build up speed? Thanks!!

@@theanalogkid4171 Oh glad you found me then! The 30 day workouts will help and my Secrets to Speed videos: (Start @ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aFFzpLZgJYE.html). Mostly Alex stays within the modes and likes Phrygian quite a bit (I put that link in the video). You can see my series on modes @ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2j8VDXe54qc.html

@@MusicWithMarky Thank you! Very much appreciated!

@@MusicWithMarky PS- sell me that PRS! 😋

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks for checking it out. Yeah, it's hard to get to everything that a player does what I do these lessons I just try to pick 5 that had the biggest influence on my own playing.

Thank you!

Well said!

Sorry, I don't know that equipment enough to say.

I have a bunch more in a playlist at Learn Don't Copy From Famous Players: ru-vid.com/group/PL5nXZdmaIH4jl_vCtQIflp4MWpWAg3vt_

Great thanks Matey 👍

Sure thing!

Yes. Like, the giant that is Steve Morse please!!!

I show that in this video at about 5 mins in. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hyi4JAPDVaY.html Best of luck and enjoy the journey!

That's a good idea thanks.

Yeah very much so!

Phrygian is the third mode of the standard major scale (minor being the 6th). Harmonic minor is the minor scale of the same mentioned above, but with the 7th note of it raised a half step. I have a whole series on the modes if you're interested in taking that journey?

@@MusicWithMarky that's right, I'm.also a teacher and modes is a standard part of my.curriculum ,been a fan of rush for 45 years too which is a great learning experience, thoroughly enjoyed your video and thanks for your reply, great player

Thanks much. That means a lot coming from a fellow teacher!

Alex does use Phrygian Dominant which is the 5th mode of the Harmonic Minor scale. I can hear it on parts of his solo(s) in the song "Jacob's Ladder" from Permanent Waves. I can also hear it on his solo for the song "The Anarchist" from Clockwork Angels. I am sure he uses it in other songs it just really sticks out in those two songs for me. Thanks for doing this video, I really enjoyed it and became a subscriber after watching this video.

@cygnals524 thanks for checking it out and following!!

Nice. Thanks for the share.

These are the 5 things I got from his playing and influenced me. As I say in all these videos, there is always much more to a great player like this, but I can only approach it from the perspective of what it taught me.

It's a shame that something meant to honor a great player makes you upset. No one can ever really embody the work of another, but hopefully videos like this bring fans to a guy like him who wouldn't have otherwise checked out his playing.

Sure of course there is so much more that I could talk about, but I had to focus on the five things that had the greatest influence on me as a player and that is the genre that I am mostly playing in.

They certainly aren't for everyone. They give me the nostalgia feels when I hear them still.

@@MusicWithMarky They definitely give me the nostalgic feels, too. Because I’ve always been a casual fan of Rush, I’ve never dug into Lifeson’s sound like this. Much appreciated!