Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
  • Guitars
  • Amps
  • Pedals
  • Drums
  • Synths
  • Software
  • Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Recording
  • Buyer’s guides
  • Live
  • DJ
  • Advice
  • Acoustic
  • Bass
  • About Us
  • More
    • Reviews
Magazines
  • Computer Music
  • Electronic Musician
  • Future Music
  • Keyboard Magazine
  • Guitarist
  • Guitar Techniques
  • Total Guitar
  • Bass Player
More
  • Purdie on the Purdie shuffle
  • Type beats
  • 86000+ free music samples
  • How to make an AI cover song
  • Three-chord trick

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. News

Periphery's Misha Mansoor: my top 5 tips for guitarists

By Rich Chamberlain
published 12 July 2016

Prog king on business, seven-strings and gain

Introduction: III: Select Difficulty
(Image credit: Future)

Introduction: III: Select Difficulty

"A lot of people want all-encompassing solutions," laughs Periphery’s Misha Mansoor. “Well, I’m here to ruin your day and tell you that there’s no such thing.”

It's a typically Misha response as we press him to deliver his top five tips for guitarists. He is never one to take the easy route or blindly follow those that have gone before him, and that applies to sharing advice with MusicRadar or making a new Periphery record.

That much is evident from the fact that just 18 months on from releasing their monster concept dual Juggernaut albums Alpha and Omega, the tech prog kings are back with another album, III: Select Difficulty.

“We ended up having a bit of downtime last year and we hit a creative spark and really wanted to do another album,” Mansoor explains of the band’s purple patch.

We wanted to do something that was philosophically the antithesis to the last album

“We were itching to get together and write an album together. We wanted to do something that was philosophically the antithesis to the last album, which was a big concept album. The concept brings limitations, so on this album we ran with doing whatever we wanted.”

Removing the confines of working to a concept opened up Mansoor’s sonic palette.

“There was all of these criteria that had to be met with the last album,” he explains. “It was all about serving the motif and the story - everything had to be very well calculated. On this one it could be whatever we felt like; it could be a collection of our favourite ideas that we came up with.”

We have no interest in repeating ourselves, because that is boring. We don’t want to do anything boring

He does, however, stress that despite his excitement at escaping the shackles of a concept record, he certainly has no regrets regarding the Juggernaut albums.

“Making a concept record was fun at the time because it was different,” he says. “We have no interest in repeating ourselves, because that is boring. We don’t want to do anything boring.

“The whole point of being in a band and making music is to have fun. We try to always find new ways of keeping it interesting for ourselves, and making a concept record was one way for us to keep it interesting. But that caused it own stresses as well, and that made it more satisfying when we got it right.”

With the record set to land on 22 July, you might expect to see Periphery jump into a huge year-long worldwide tour. But, again, we return to the fact that these guys don’t always do and say what you might expect.

“We’re at a point now, especially with the state of the market, [where] we don’t need to tour in the way that a lot of bands need to,” Mansoor explains.

“We don’t pay our bills by touring. In fact, right now with the climate, if we just toured we would not make much money, and they would not be good looks.”

A group of musicians that clearly have their heads screwed on, then, which brings us perfectly on to the first of Misha Mansoor’s top five tips for guitarists…

Don't Miss

Periphery's Misha Mansoor talks seven-strings, eight-strings and Jackson guitars

Me and my guitar interview with Periphery's Misha Mansoor

Track-by-track - Periphery's Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
1. Balance the books

1. Balance the books

“The business is getting tougher. The climate is very competitive. A lot of band guarantees are stagnating or even dropping. That isn’t because those bands are losing their fanbase; it’s because it’s a more saturated market.

“There will always be a balance of putting on a show. It might be tempting financially for us to strip our show back to nothing, but that would be doing a disservice to the people that come to the show. But we are going try to streamline it to the point where we have the stuff that makes a difference, but without being frivolous. That is the difference between us making money and not making money.

“We’ve had tours where we have lost money despite having VIPs that sold well, good guarantees and we sold good merch. We lost money because we went overboard with the light show and production.

"As cool as it is to have that, we can’t afford to lose money every tour. We have to calculate it carefully. There is no formula that will work the numbers out for you; it needs to be done on a band-by-band basis and a tour-by-tour basis.

Getting bigger as a band does not always financially pay off for you

“As your band gets bigger, you start to take in more money, but you start to pay out more money, too. That means that at the end of the day your net is the same or sometimes even less as you get bigger because of the team that is required to look after you as you get to a bigger level. Getting bigger as a band does not always financially pay off for you.

“As well, touring-wise, we don’t want to just take whatever’s available; we want to go with quality over quantity. We want to find the right time with a good line-up, and that is when we will tour and get back to Europe. We won’t neglect Europe and the UK: it’s never a matter of 'if', it’s a matter of 'when'.

“Maybe we have fallen in to a trap in the past of thinking you should tour all the time. We didn’t realise how empowered we are to be able to do what we want.

“We wanted to get to a place where if the market got tough we wouldn’t be screwed. Unfortunately, we are seeing the market is kicking some bands out because the bands can’t justify working nine months a year touring to make no money.

“We saw the market going that way, and we wanted to be less reliant on touring. That was a calculated effort, and now we want to make the most of that and be strategic.”

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
2. Don't burn yourself out

2. Don't burn yourself out

“We’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ve learned a lot of lessons, but that has been a process that has taken us to where we are now. I have enjoyed that process.

"We made our first album ourselves at my place. Things that you would usually give as advice to someone starting out, like be prepared and play to a click, were things that we were already aware of.

At 7pm, you stop working and go back to real life. That really changed our studio experience for the better

“We didn’t face a lot of the traditional problems, so I think more abstract and think of advice like don’t put the pressure on yourself and don’t work super-long days.

“Looking back, we maybe worked too hard and in a condensed format. That’s great at first; in the first week, you’re pulling 15-hour days and killing it. But by the end of that first week you hate yourself and still have another month left in the studio.

“It’s like running a marathon and giving everything you’ve got in the first quarter. You’ll cover a lot of distance, but you’ll be running on empty for the last three-quarters of it, and that’s not a good place to be.

“On Juggernaut, Nolly suggested we follow a schedule, and we did 11am to 7pm. At 7pm, you stop working and go back to real life. That really changed our studio experience for the better.”

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
3. Want to try seven-string? Just have fun

3. Want to try seven-string? Just have fun

“Just have fun with playing seven-string. There is an expectation that seven strings are better or it is just a six-string with one extra string. That’s not true: it has its own feel; it is its own instrument. Even coming down to the physical dimensions.

“I prefer a seven string with a 26.5” scale. That scale will change the feel and how bends feel. At the end of the day, it is a different kind of guitar and the same is true of an eight-string.

“If you have an idea and develop them on a six-, seven- and eight-string in parallel universes, those songs will turn out very differently. I like having all three as tools for composition.

“I would urge people not to think that they have to play them, though. You shouldn’t play a seven-string because you feel you have to. If it’s not for you, just play a six-string - don’t fall into the expectations of prog music.”

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
4. Record yourself

4. Record yourself

“People always say to practise to a metronome. I would say that is not enough. Doing that doesn’t give you the feedback of how well you’re really doing.

"You might think that you’re really nailing it, but maybe you’re not. My advice is to record yourself to a click.

Analysing yourself forces you to become a much tighter player

“I got good at playing to a click without realising it, because I was using one to serve a purpose. I was double-tracking something and it didn’t sound tight, but then I had the feedback and so I was able to see where I was going wrong.

“There’s been times where I’ve thought I was nailing something, and then I’ve listened back and I was not nailing it at all. In those instances, if I had just played without recording myself and listening back then I wouldn’t have realised where I was going wrong.

“Analysing yourself forces you to become a much tighter player. If you are serious about guitar and you want to be better in the studio, just record, record, record.”

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
5. Don't overdo the gain

5. Don't overdo the gain

“You should dial back the gain. I see a lot of people going overboard with the gain.

“That can be satisfying, but there is also a sweet spot, I think, where you can get that level of saturation but you’re also getting the definition. I always try to hit that sweet spot.

“When I’m practising, I keep the gain at that spot or just below. Some people will say to practise on clean, but I don’t think that is correct. If you practise on clean, you won’t learn your muting technique, because you won’t be dealing with gain.

“I think it’s best to practise with a slightly crunchy tone where you have to manage excess noise but also make sure that you have the definition and that the gain isn’t covering up your mistakes.”

Don't Miss

Periphery's Misha Mansoor talks seven-strings, eight-strings and Jackson guitars

Me and my guitar interview with Periphery's Misha Mansoor

Track-by-track - Periphery's Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
Rich Chamberlain
Rich Chamberlain
Social Links Navigation

Rich is a teacher, one time Rhythm staff writer and experienced freelance journalist who has interviewed countless revered musicians, engineers, producers and stars for the our world-leading music making portfolio, including such titles as Rhythm, Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, and MusicRadar. His victims include such luminaries as Ice T, Mark Guilani and Jamie Oliver (the drumming one).

More about guitars
Nirvana In Utero cover

Nirvana session cellist Kera Schaley talks about playing on In Utero: "The funny thing about All Apologies is Steve kept trying to talk Kurt out of putting cello on it"

Wampler Tweed '57 and Black '65

Wampler brings back its Fender-inspired Tweed ’57 and Black ’65 amp-in-a-box drive pedals – for a limited time only

Latest
Chad Smith at Drumeo

Watch Chad Smith play 30 Seconds To Mars’ biggest hit in one take after hearing it for the first time

See more latest ►
Most Popular
Instrumental guitar music has never been more exciting than it is right now - here are 10 albums that prove it

By Michael Astley-Brown22 September 2023

“It makes it exciting and dangerous and fun”: Yngwie Malmsteen says he doesn’t need to rehearse anymore and explains why he mostly ignores the setlist

By Jonathan Horsley22 September 2023

9 tips for buying second-hand music gear without getting scammed

By Andy Jones22 September 2023

Pro Tools Sketch: industry-standard DAW gets Ableton Live-style clip launching and a free iPad app, but will it convince you to switch?

By Si Truss22 September 2023

Elon Musk allegedly turned up at the studio with a gun while Grimes was recording dialogue for Cyberpunk 2077: "The studio guys were sweating"

By Matt Mullen22 September 2023

Electro Harmonix unveils the 9 mini Pico effects pedals for its NYC DSP Series – with reworked old favourites and new designs

By Rob Laing21 September 2023

DAW not doing it for you? Cantor is a free “music playground” for looping, sampling and sound design

By Ben Rogerson21 September 2023

Watch bluegrass guitarist Ian Ly become the 2023 US National Flat-picking Champion

By Rob Laing21 September 2023

Audiomovers launches Off The Record interview series with first episode featuring Dire Straits producer Chuck Ainlay

By Matt Mullen21 September 2023

“I thought, ‘have I done something heinous?’”: James Blake reminds Brian Eno that he once accused him of using ‘the arsehole chord’ and demands to know what it actually is

By Ben Rogerson21 September 2023

The Vai, Bonamassa, Di Meola and Abasi-backed guitar virtuoso Matteo Mancuso dazzles again on new song Silk Road

By Rob Laing21 September 2023

  1. Zakk Wylde, Dave Grohl, Lemmy Kilmister and Slash backstage during Dave Grohl's birthday bash at The Forum on January 10, 2015 in Inglewood, California
    1
    16 famous musicians who almost joined very famous bands
  2. 2
    Marty Friedman’s guitar teacher told him to take a bong hit every time he played an exercise correctly, but the ex-Megadeth guitarist has better advice for students
  3. 3
    6 of the best classic tape emulation plugins
  4. 4
    “Right now I’d like to do a song, it’s a little thing by Howlin’ Wolf…”: Listen to Jimi Hendrix’s newly unearthed performance of Killing Floor at the Hollywood Bowl, 1967
  5. 5
    “He doesn’t do Zoom”: Mick Jagger reflects on how his songwriting partnership with Keith Richards has changed and discusses Paul McCartney’s bass playing on new Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds
  1. universal audio
    1
    6 of the best classic tape emulation plugins
  2. 2
    Hania Rani on bringing synths and drum machines into contemporary classical: “I spent 20 years playing one instrument, but I’m still interested in investigating others”
  3. 3
    Cindy Blackman Santana tackles the iconic In The Air Tonight drum fill as she joins Chris Stapleton and Snoop Dogg on a new version of the song for ESPN’s Monday Night Football
  4. 4
    Watch bluegrass guitarist Ian Ly become the 2023 US National Flat-picking Champion
  5. 5
    “It makes it exciting and dangerous and fun”: Yngwie Malmsteen says he doesn’t need to rehearse anymore and explains why he mostly ignores the setlist

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.