MATEUS ASATO
For this month’s article Charlie Griffiths takes a look at one of the guitar world’s newest heroes, the virtuosic Instagram superstar from Brazil.
Mateus Asato is was born in Brazil in 1993 and now resides in Los Angeles where he studied at the Musicians’ Institute. He gained widespread recognition through his Instagram account, through which he has garnered over a million followers. He blends elements of rock, blues, and soul and has a precise technique with blinding alternate picking, smooth fingerstyle, emotive phrasing and expert control of dynamics. In this lesson we will focus on Mateus’ more shred-rock moments as seen on his social media accounts, while also including some jazzier, neo-soul approaches.
Lick 1 uses first-finger slides to move through scale positions. You can apply this manoeuvre to any scale or mode but here we are using the Dorian mode, which is a favourite of Asato. To think of Dorian,
(1-b3-4-5-b7), visualise the Minor Pentatonic then add the Major 2nd and Major 6th
(1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7) intervals for the complete scale. Add to this the interesting rhythmic interplay of the four-note phrase played in a triplet feel and you have the beginnings of an improvisational concept which can be applied elsewhere.
Asato’s shred-rock style picking is up there with the best of them and lick 2 focuses on alternate picking through three-notesper-string scale shapes. Slow the lick down and focus on hand synchronisation. Split the lick into four-note fragments and check which fingers coincide with downstrokes and which use upstrokes. Make sure your pick doesn’t get caught on the strings, or hit the wrong one. Instead of digging in, use the very tip of the pick to glide across the string.
Example 3 uses a clean tone, doublestops and harmonics for Mateus’ cool neo-soul style. The double-stops must flow as seamlessly as possible so be mindful of which fingerings offer the smoothest transitions. You can play this with a pick or fingerstyle, so feel free to experiment.
Our fourth example uses hybrid picking to play smooth arpeggios with a clean tone. Hybrid picking is a combination of picked downstrokes and plucked notes using the second and third fingers, shown as ‘m’ and ‘a’. This lick also finishes with some sweep and alternate picking for that Asato flair.
Finally we switch back to the distortion channel for sweep picking and tapping. Matteus is a master of the fretboard and these ascending four-string arpeggios show how he might play through a scale. All the notes are in A Dorian but offer a different sound than a scalar approach offers. Use flowing pick motions and slowly build your hand synchronisation for a fluid result.
Play each example slowing and accurately at first, and only when you can sense that muscle memory and hand synchronisation is attained, then you can gradually speed up in small increments. Good luck!