“STILL LOVING YOU”

Scorpions

ONE OF THE most artfully composed power ballads from the Eighties, this dramatic song is built around a hauntingly beautiful, classical-style chord progression. It’s also one of the few popular ballads from the classic rock era that’s in a minor key. Scorpions guitarists Rudolph Schenker and Matthias Jabs, with their Gibson Flying V and Explorer guitars plugged into cranked Marshall amps, make great use of dynamic and textural contrasts and practice the lost art of rolling back the volume knobs for their instruments’ bridge pickups to around “2,” to effectively clean up their otherwise high-gain overdriven tones.

Schenker (Gtr. 1) begins the song by gently flatpicking a series of chordal arpeggios in G minor, fretting high, piano-like voicings and interjecting, at the end of the first bar, a tart melodic fill based on the G

Bb, Db, blues scale (G, C, D, F), which works

Ebmaj7 surprisingly well over the underlying

Eb7 chord, briefly implying an sound. Notice the guitarist’s highly unusual fret-hand fingerings for the first four chords, which he chose to facilitate playing the aforementioned melodic fill while holding down

Ebmaj7 the previously picked notes in the shape. If these “pretzel knot” fingerings feel too awkward to you, consider playing the chords conventionally, fretting the B-string notes with your pinkie and temporarily borrowing it to fret the first two notes of beat 4.

At the 1st interlude (section C), Jabs plays a short, lyrical lead melody over the repeating intro progression, employing shimmering finger vibratos, slides and bends as expressive elements. Notice how he cranks up his pickup’s volume control for his second phrase, beginning in bar 12.

Throughout the song, both guitarists make fantastic use of bend vibratos in their leads, applying vibrato to a bent note. This is done by repeatedly releasing the bend by only a quarter step and restoring it up to the target pitch in a quick, even rhythm. It’s a highly refined technique that takes a lot of practice and critical listening to master. Bend with your 3rd finger, supported one fret below by the 2nd finger, and hook your thumb around the top side of the fretboard.