Performance Notes
“WAY COOL JR.”
Ratt
FEATURING AN INFECTIOUS swing-16ths groove and soulful guitar riffs and licks, this late-Eighties gem showcases Ratt’s highly appealing “blues-rock hair metal” swagger. Guitarists Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby serve up tastefully crafted parts that incorporate elements of traditional, “swampy” blues playing, such as fingerpicking open-position E minor pentatonic melodies over a “dead thumb” open low-E-string pedal tone and chromatically resolving 6th intervals (see bars 13, 20 and 56), combined with flashy modern rock techniques like palm muting (P.M.), string bends, finger vibratos and pinch harmonics (P.H.).
When playing the song’s intro and first verse, which are performed fingerstyle, you’ll want to keep your pick tucked into your palm (pick and fingers technique) to articulate the previously mentioned 6th intervals in bar 20, which are on non-adjacent strings.
