"I never practiced": Unpicking Yngwie Malmsteen's guitar claim

Yngwie Malmsteen walks his own path. When others say less is more, Yngwie simply wants more. And he lives and plays by his words. Even so, his recent claims to France's United Rock Nations in an interview at the recent Hellfest event that he never practiced guitar initially puzzled us.

"I didn't practice. I never practiced — never practiced ever," he said when asked if he spnt a long time wood sheding when he was a mini Malmsteen. "I played as if I was performing. 

"I wouldn't accept myself going [Yngwie hums what seems to be an illustration of playing a scale]. Never", added the Swede. "Only play perfect now. I [would be] telling myself, 'Don't sound like you're fucking trying to do something. Do it.'"

This Yoda-approach sounds very assured, and as we'll discover later – he's said it (and similar) before. But out of context in a headline, it simply doesn't explain how Yngwie built up his buttery legato shops, unless he went down to the Swedish neoclassical version of the crossroads?  

"[I committed to] mental focus so much that it became just every day more and better and better and better," continued Yngiwie before he started to reveal what really happened. "I never practiced. I mean, it's inadvertently practicing, because I played so much. But I improvised. And I would say, 'I wanna improvise in A harmonic minor,' for instance."

So he was practicing – he just wasn't practicing scale exercises at that point. But by his own admission, he was using a scale in the context of improvising. Which suggests he already knew scales. 

"But there was no way I'm gonna play a wrong note; there was no way I'm gonna play a B flat in that scale," said the Nordic maestro.  "I just wouldn't do it. [I was playing guitar] like crazy, improvising. Not scales. I mean, obviously scales. I'm very well aware of music theory — I know it super well — but I would never practice. That's the wrong word."

So not quite what the headline quote suggests then. Malmsteen clearly grasped the theory scales quickly enough to use them in the context of his playing, and views the concept of 'practice' as simply playing scales out of context. It's a definition thing. 

Despite the clear influence of Richie Blackmore on his playing (and scalloped Strat frets), Malmsteen has stated in the past how he rejected guitar playing technique and instead applied that of another instrument.  

In this context he probably already practiced what he needed to know in terms of scales in terms of that instrument – enough to then decide he wanted to apply it to guitar. But it was sparked by hearing a prog-rock band – not Deep Purple or Rainbow.

"My classical influence comes from originally hearing Genesis," Malmsteen told Japan's Young Guitar in 2022. "Wondering why these tonalities happen that are not standard rock n' roll. I realised it was all Bach-influenced stuff what I like."

"My classical influence is 100 per cent from Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Nicolai Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and so on," added Malmsteen. "My classical influence does not come from other guitar players; let's make that perfectly clear."

Are we clear? Not quite… 

And Yngwie does go into this in the United Rock Nations interview you can hear above. Just like he did back in 2005, when he dug into the roots of his playing with Guitar Techniques magazine. “When I was eight years old I was given Fireball by Deep Purple, and learned every Ritchie Blackmore solo on it. Every one!” the guitarist remembered. “In fact the very first thing I learned to play was blues. My mum had a Bluesbreakers album, which I loved and I still remember to this day.”

The classical violin influence came after this. So by this measure, Yngwie was putting in the groundwork and learning Blackmore's (often classically influenced) solos at a young age and discovering how they applied to songs from the off. Then he began applying that to violin-influenced guitar licks.

“I always taped everything I played and when I listened back I would hear things I didn’t notice when I was playing," he told Guitar Techniques. "I would note what was good and what wasn’t and that’s how my style developed. I didn’t practice per se; I just played all day every day.”

Some would call that practice – but not Yngwie. 

Check out the full interview above.