Jordan (song)
Encyclopedia
"Jordan" is a song by American musician Buckethead
Buckethead
Brian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...

. Originally featured as a playable track on the 2006 music video game
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...

 Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane. It is the second installment in the Guitar Hero series and is the sequel to Guitar Hero...

, "Jordan" was officially released as a downloadable
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 single via iTunes on August 18, 2009.

Background

Prior to the inclusion of a studio version of "Jordan" on Guitar Hero II, the song was performed live by Buckethead at a number of shows. While performing the song, Buckethead would omit the guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...

s and interpolate another song (often "Post Office Buddy" from Giant Robot), a series of songs or an improvisation. One such early live version was released as "Vertebrae" on the Praxis
Praxis (band)
Praxis was the name of an ever-changing musical project, led by prolific producer Bill Laswell. Praxis combine elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz, hip-hop and heavy metal into highly improvised music...

 live album Tennessee 2004
Tennessee 2004
Note: Track 8 is derivative of The Interworld And The New Innocence from the Transmutation album-Personnel:* Praxis:** Buckethead - guitars** Bill Laswell - bass** Bryan "Brain" Mantia - drums** Bernie Worrell - keyboards...

in 2007. Since the release of the studio version, Buckethead has often included the solo in his live performances of Jordan.

An alternate version of "Jordan" was re-created specifically for the video game Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane. It is the second installment in the Guitar Hero series and is the sequel to Guitar Hero...

. It is considered one of the most difficult songs to play in the series on Expert difficulty, due to the complexity of its guitar solos, particularly the "Guitar Solo B" and "Guitar Solo C" sections. On the Xbox 360 version, the "Kick the Bucket Award" is an achievement worth 30 gamerscore, and is awarded for completing the song on Expert difficulty.

The fastest tapping portions
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...

 of the solo reach approximately 15.47 notes per second (32nd-notes @ 116 BPM in a 4/4 meter). In this part of the solo, Buckethead frets the notes using only his left hand, instead of resorting to two-handed tapping.

The picking portion of the solo reaches a speed of 11.6 notes per second (16th-note triplets @ 116 BPM in a 4/4 meter).

The Guitar Hero series' resident guitarist Marcus Henderson
Marcus Henderson
Marcus Henderson is a critically acclaimed rock and heavy metal guitarist from the San Francisco Bay area. His previous bands include Drist and Hellbillys as well as work for En Vogue and Simon Stinger. In 2005, he was chosen to take the role as one of the lead guitarists for the Guitar Hero series...

 stated that Buckethead feels "Jordan" to be one of the best things he has ever recorded. It was also stated in an interview with Marcus Henderson that "Jordan" is named after Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...

, of whom Buckethead is a huge fan, even referencing the single cover to the Jumpman
Jumpman (logo)
The "Jumpman" logo is used by Nike to promote its Michael Jordan-related merchandise, including the famous and successful Air Jordan brand of basketball shoes....

 logo seen on many Jordan-related merchandise, like the Air Jordan
Air Jordan
Air Jordan, also known simply as Jordans, are a brand of shoes and athletic apparel produced by Nike originally designed for and endorsed by NBA Hall of Famer and Six Time NBA Champion Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan line is now sold by the Jordan Brand subsidiary of Nike...

 shoe brand.

Technique

The main riff of "Jordan" is played using left hand hammer-on
Hammer-on
Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off...

s and pull-off
Pull-off
A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note.-Performance and effect:...

s, while Buckethead's right hand uses his trademark kill switch. The main guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....

 also features extensive use of a Digitech Whammy
Digitech Whammy
-Overview:The WH-1 Whammy pedal, the original whammy, first engineered and manufactured in 1989 by IVL Technologies and discontinued in 1993, remains the most sought-after.-Controls:...

 pitch shifter. The off-beat 16th note rhythm scheme is reminiscent of Buckethead's earlier songs "Jump Man" (also dedicated to Michael Jordan) and "Night of the Slunk", both first released on Monsters and Robots
Monsters and Robots
- Notes :* The songs "Jowls" and "Scapula" are both re-recorded versions of songs of the same names on Giant Robot .* The song "Night of the Slunk" has a similar riff as "Jump Man", but longer with less distortion....

(1999).

In popular culture

The song is mentioned in the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

 episode Guitar Queer-O
Guitar Queer-o
"Guitar Queer-O" is episode 1113 of Comedy Central's South Park, which aired on November 7, 2007. The title and plot parody the video game Guitar Hero. The episode aired ten days after the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock in the US....

, when Stan Marsh
Stan Marsh
Stanley Randall "Stan" Marsh is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Trey Parker. Stan is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...

asks Mr. Kincade if Thad can play Buckethead on Expert level.
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