Learn to Play Jason Hook’s Guitar Solo from 'Hired Gun' [TAB]
![Learn to Play Jason Hook’s Guitar Solo from 'Hired Gun' [TAB]](https://www.jeffperrinmusic.com/blog/images/2018/08/jason-hook-tab.png)
Guitar tab and lesson shows you how to play Jason Hook’s blistering guitar solo, showcased during his on-screen interview for the rock music documentary Hired Gun.
Released in 2017, Hired Gun is a rock music documentary focusing on session and touring musicians from famous bands and artists such as Metallica, KISS, Nine Inch Nails and others. While the majority of the film concentrates on capturing the stories and accountings from a handful of venerable session players in the industry, one of the memorable highlights which stood out to me as a guitar player was Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Jason Hook performing a blistering rock guitar solo in the midst of his own personal recording studio. On the anniversary of the Hired Gun theatrical release, I reached out to Hook (who is also the executive producer for the film) to give some insight into his performance and to share a few tips for guitarists looking to learn how to play some of his blistering solo licks and melodies.
Check out Hook’s solo below, then download the PDF here.
[Update: Video link on YouTube no longer available. Hired Gun is currently available for purchase or rent on Amazon Prime.]
Performance notes:
- As Hook ascends the A minor pentatonic scale throughout the first two bars, he frequently applies palm muting to certain notes in order to create powerful, punchy-sounding rhythms. In the transcription, the abbreviation “P.M.” illustrates exactly which notes should receive a palm-mute technique.
- Bars 2-4 largely revolve around a fifth-position, A minor penatonic blues scale. To replicate Hook’s flowing lead lines, pay attention to any arced lines, called slurs, appearing above notes. Slurs indicate wherever Hook performs any hammer-ons or pull-offs.
- If you have any trouble figuring out how to finger a particular note passage, try locating the corresponding part in the YouTube clip and viewing at a slower playback speed.
- Throughout the transcription, diagonal lines indicate where Hook uses a slide technique to move into or between notes. For example, Hook uses ring finger notes slides to create the cool-sounding ascending 5th-interval lick in bars 7 ad 8.
- When performing the massive two-step note bend on in bar 10, Hook adds his middle and index finger in behind the note to help support and reinforce the string bend. The additional digits act as extra finger “muscle.”
- To create the screaming note bend on beat two of bar 11, Hook intentionally catches the second string under his ring finger while performing the bend technique. The dissonance created by playing two notes with different bend intervals, combined with heavy distortion results in a cacophony of harmonic overtones which really makes his note jump out from the speaker!
- At bar 13, Hook engages a digital delay pedal to create a hypnotic-sounding melodic run up and down the first string. He creates this particular lick by syncing his picking in perfect timing to the dotted 16th-note rhythms created by a specific delay timing. While Hook specifically uses a Boss DD5 pedal set to a “dotted-8th” setting, you can recreate the sound with your own pedal or multi-effect device by following the text notes below the tablature in the transcription. (You can also hear Hook employ a similar delay effect in 5FDP’s cover of “House of the Rising Sun.”)
- The solo concludes with a dramatic “stutter effect” applied to a pick scrape and subsequent note slide. Hook says; “The stutter effect was created using the old blue line6 Mod pedal set to OPTO TREMOLO and the ‘Tweak’ and ‘Tweeze’ cranked up to the extreme setting.”
Download the PDF to view or print the full transcription.
Visit https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4026034/ to learn where you can watch the documentary in it’s entirety.
