Playing Style
Li draws influences from rock, all sub-genres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early-90s arcade, and PC games. For example, Li has been known for making several Mario-type noises in the song "Through the Fire and Flames" on Inhuman Rampage. His playing style consists of fast descending and ascending legato and staccato licks, exotic scale runs, making extensive use of the harmonic minor and Phrygian dominant scale, extreme use of his whammy bar, quick full ascending and descending sweep picking arpeggios, alternate picking and tapping (especially two-handed) on the higher frets as well as incorporating many other shred guitar style techniques. Li is left-handed but learned to play right-handed. Recently, he has started to use a device called the Hot Hand that sits on his right hand like a ring, which causes extreme vibrato when shaken, giving him greater capacity to emulate certain video game sounds. Li has stated Michael Romeo's fast guitar playing heavily inspired his own style.
Read more about this topic: Herman Li
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