Tag: Guitar Lessons
s David Gilmour’s latest solo album hits the streets, we break down the Pink Floyd guitarist’s four- and five-fret string bending technique. You can expect to snap an occasional string playing these huge bends Notable ...
Lightning licks from the speed maestro Andy rounds off his lessons by sharing more of the secrets that have earned him a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable shredders. In his final lesson ...
Introduction No survey of the Marshall stack’s five-decade reign would be complete without honouring the players who have made them howl like fallen angels. Here, we present 11 essential licks in the style of 11 ...
This lesson shows how the guitar tuning dictates shapes we get on the guitar, and shows how we arrive at the various octave shapes, which in turn break a 12-fret block of the guitar into ...
Hey guys, this exercise involves 9ths up and down the fretboard using the lower strings. I hope you enjoy and please rate and comment! Tips: Memorize your three shapes first. Trwy and incorporate these into ...
Modes are one of the most important harmonic and melodic ideas used by guitar players and we need to study them so we have a solid handle on how we can use them to the ...
I was mucking around with some 2 string arpeggios and just messing with your standard 1, 3, 5 triad over 3 octaves and decided to add a descending run. I put a few different arpeggios ...
This is a great lick to learn! It has a pure ’70s rock ballad vibe in it. Expression is the key here. Pay attention to vibratos, bends and rhythm as well. Also be careful with ...
Hey guys, here’s a short lesson on single string pedal point shapes. It is all in C major but as usual, I urge you to apply this to every key and string. A pedal point ...
Most of the guitar books, Internet guitar lessons and guitar teachers show the fret-board’s scale patterns in tight fingerboard position layouts (approx. 4-5 frets horizontally). And, while some guitar licks are played from within those ...
Hello all, and welcome to Operation Shred Guitar IV: Strings Attached. My name is Jake Popowski. Since you clicked on this lesson, I’m assuming you are interested in learning some more of the magical tricks ...
Hey, guys! Today’s lesson is actually a request. A handful of people who have been especially helped by my Musician Psychology series asked me to answer the question of whether it’s ever too late to ...
Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this exercise. I use this one to practice alternate picking and speed while staying in a key. Diatonic Exercise 1 This exercise is in the key of C major ...
This lesson is a short etude, a chord solo on an F blues. You should be able to use it as inspiration and resource to make your own chord solos but if it was played ...
Key changes are almost a taboo subject in the music community. Some songwriters shun the use of them, while others like them so much they employ them constantly. So who’s right? The way I see ...
Guitar players can apply scales/modes much more effectively if the modes’ pitches are focused directly from off of their appropriate “tonal note.” This way, guitar players can create a strong tie-in to the shape of ...
The basic chord progression in modal music is the famous ii-V-I progression. This turnaround is common in jazz music but also in other popular music styles that are based on modal theory. It determines the ...
Hello and welcome to this lesson which I’ve purposely written for beginners. This time I’m going to address a topic that is relevant for each guitarist out there who wishes to play along to his ...
Hello everybody! Here is a great lesson to use to play scales diagonally as opposed to playing vertically all the time. Be sure you review my past lesson on 3 Notes per String as this will ...
Level: Beginner/Intermediate Tuning: E A D G B E (Standard) Who didn’t love crusin’ around in GTA San Andreas listening to this song and whomping people with baseball bats and ramming pedestrians with a motor ...
I’m no guitar hero but I’m very into improvising and soloing with my guitar. I have some advices for soloing strategies. Actually they are basic but I think they work out really good. Here’s my ...
This weeks lesson takes a look into the world of arpeggios on the fingerboard, (an area often neglected by guitar players). Arpeggio patterns on the guitar neck may be neglected due to the fact that ...
G–D–C–D, is the base for a large variety of songs people enjoy playing. You may encounter scenarios where you don’t know the song you are about to jam with someone but, after studying this section, ...
This weeks lesson takes a look at performing substitutions with diatonic pentatonic scale ideas. This is an easy idea to work on that can produce a fresh new sound into any solo or melody line. ...
If I’m being honest with myself, I’d say that I’ve gone through several long periods where guitar was a secondary – even tertiary – part of my life. Sure, ever since I started playing at ...
I was messing around with a pentatonic and started messing around with some taps. I found that if I tapped 4 frets up from the most common box shape of the minor pentatonic that all ...
This time I will cover a few of the basic ideas involved with entering into the world of playing rock lead guitar and how to solo over rock music in general. It presupposes that viewers ...
I truly believe that in order to become a better guitar player, one should listen and absorb as much inspiration from guitarists that one personally admires. These men are often kind enough to share with ...
When I think Hungarian minor I don’t just think about salami. I think about bands like Cacophony and Revocation with their enjoyment of exotic modes and abrasive intervals. Before we get stuck into the lick ...
Hey guys! This lesson is for those of you who want to learn how slap technique. If you already know slap, this might help you a bit too. Hope you enjoy! What will I need ...
In this tune I’ll show the melody and the solo. There are two video lessons to the tune. In the first one I’m playing the tune and demonstrating the melody. And the second video is ...
Hey guys! So the legato is getting a bit more difficult in this lesson. We will focus on essential pull-off patterns that will strengthen that technique. Things to focus on: Play with a metronome Start ...
Level: Intermediate Tuning: E A D G B E (Standard) “Bark at the Moon“… Pretty win but also overlooked solo. I always loved Zakk and Randy… And poor Jake E. Lee is so easy to ...
I’ll be referring to this reference sheet and A minor throughout, but the same concepts can be applied to any scale. You’ll see 7 patterns and an A minor scale diagram. Those 7 patterns are ...
Sus4 chords are very handy structures to use as a variation from third based structures like triads and 7th chords. In this lesson I want to show how you can apply or find them when ...
Hello all ye brave lads and lasses, and welcome to Operation Shred Guitar III: The Shredding! My name is Jake Popowski, and in this lesson I will teach what I consider the most challenging and ...
Chord progressions are nice, and a lot of good songs have been made using them, but to move on to more complex patterns (or make your own progressions) you really need to learn the personalities ...
There is already a perfectly good way to name your chords, it already makes perfect sense, and, it describes what notes you are supposed to play, where you might play them on the neck and, ...
Level: Intermediate/Advanced Tuning: C# G# C# F# A# D# I’ve always loved Lamb of God. They’ve attributed to many speeding fines and weightlifting injuries as a result of my body surging from their unique brand ...
Because of the strict “up & down” nature of alternate picking, players will encounter difficulty when attempting multi-string playing because the picking always remains the same regardless of what passage/lick is being played. Sometimes the ...
I’ve had a lot of requests for a lesson on the Lydian mode, so I thought I’d finally try to honour that. I’ll try to give you some, hopefully new, melodic and harmonic tools to ...
Self-esteem is one of those things that seems like some people have it naturally, and others simply don’t. Unfortunately for those who seem to lack it, confidence in yourself is one of the most crucial ...
Sweep picking across small triad shapes is a very cool sound that can be applied into both instrumental melodies and within your guitar solos. If you’ve ever tried it, sweep picking technique is not exactly ...
This is a follow-up lesson to my last article, How to Avoid Sucking as a Self-Taught Guitarist – a simple song-learning strategy designed to help self-taught guitarists find direction, enjoy the learning process and get better results with less cut-and-dry ...
A great way to improve and expand your own guitar playing is to study the styles and techniques of others, and then apply what you like to your own playing. Chet Atkins is a great ...
You know your metal guitar scales like the back of your hand but you have noticed that your guitar heroes sometimes are simply “ignoring” the scale and play seemingly random notes … and yet they ...
You know your metal guitar scales like the back of your hand but you have noticed that your guitar heroes sometimes are simply “ignoring” the scale and play seemingly random notes … and yet they ...
This article is developed in line with my other post, “The Use of Scales.” Read this article before proceeding with practising scales for guitar, this is a more advanced method to incorporate what you have ...
This is part 2 of 4 in a Legato Series that I’ve written. These patterns will help develop your legato playing regarding hammer-ons. Things to focus on: Play with a metronome! Start slowly and don’t ...
In this lesson I want to first demonstrate 4 exercises that you can use to gain the necessary vocabulary to solo over a turnaround with chords. I also give three examples of how I would ...
This lesson isn’t going to deal with writing harmonies, so much as what to do with them once we have them. We’ll cover two simple concepts that will give awesome results for your writing. You ...
As a bassist it is very important to know how chords are made up, especially if you want to get better at improvising quickly and/or coming up with bass lines that are more than just ...
Two Finger Exercises This is part 1 of 4 in a Legato Series that I’ve written. These simple yet effective exercises should help you improve your technique. Things to focus on: Play with a metronome! ...
Funk is some of best fun you can have on the guitar. It’s a party; get on up! The simplicity to the style is a part of its beauty, but also becomes deceptive in how ...
The Angus Young lead guitar sound originates from his unique application of the common major and minor pentatonic scales, as well as, how he employs the diminished 5th tones from the blues scale. He orchestrates ...
Do I Need to Learn to Read Music? If you are a hobby guitarist, the outright answer is no. If you enjoy playing songs, can play along to backing tracks in time and can read ...
Mapping out the C scale. Let’s memorize those whole and half steps with scale degrees as well. C step D step E half step F step G step B half step C. Step = 2 ...
In this lesson I’ll show three pentatonic scales to soloing with in the Dorian mode. I’ll be in the key of A minor (Dorian). The common pentatonic scale in that key is the A minor ...
Ladies! Gentlemen! Cyborgs of indeterminate sex! It’s time for a brand new installment of “This is Why You Suck at Guitar.” It’s been far too long since Uncle Ben here dropped a TiWYSaG lesson on ...
Using chromaticism with swing picking Hi Guys. I’m taking a break from interval-related theory, to show you some ideas for working with chromaticism and the technique of swing picking. This can really help open up ...
For a quick overview on how to play gypsy jazz, check out this excellent lesson by TheWall27! It covers all the basics. I will be focusing more directly on the harmonic and chords aspect. Django ...
Ladies! Gentlemen! Cyborgs of indeterminate sex! It’s time for a brand new installment of “This is Why You Suck at Guitar.” It’s been far too long since Uncle Ben here dropped a TiWYSaG lesson on ...
In this lesson, I want to first demonstrate 4 exercises that you can use to gain the necessary vocabulary to solo over a turnaround with chords. I also give three examples of how I would ...
I was always pretty into rock and heavy metal as a whippersnapper. As I grew older though I found myself getting very used to the sound of pentatonics, diatonics and arpeggios working “in key.” It ...
In this lesson we discuss how to phrase melody lines over progressions that will leave the key centre to include the use of multiple modes. Modes are often thought of as being used within a ...
In this lesson we’ll look at how to use numbers and a grid to expand your musical vocabulary and invent new musical ideas you perhaps wouldn’t normally come up with! Essentially we’ll look at breaking ...
In this video lesson I’ll demonstrate how to start thinking more like a drummer/percussionist. The idea is to practice playing along with songs etc. Just tapping out rhythms on your knees, desk, steering wheel – ...
The aim of this lesson is to take licks, scales, bass lines etc that you already know and turn them into something new and cool by simply adding 5ths or octaves. If you don’t know ...
Hello once again fellow shredders, and welcome to Operation Shred Guitar II: Soloing on a Dead End Road! My name is Jake Popowski, and in this lesson, you will learn how to play my solo ...
In this lesson I want to introduce a type of chords that I use a lot which are a versatile and practical way to play chords with 2nd intervals in them which is often difficult ...
Jimi Hendrix is arguably one of the most influential players ever to wield an axe. His mind, his touch, his technique, were a magical combination of talent, prowess, dexterity, and explosive creativity – it was ...
Setting goals on guitar We’ve all been there: you listen to Steve Vai‘s or Satriani‘s or some other guitar god’s latest album and you think it’s so cool that you go “This is it! I’m ...
Difficulty Level: Advanced Tuning: E A D G B E (Standard Tuning) When I first purchased the “Countdown to Extinction” album I was a pretty die hard fan of Metallica and thought that guitar solos ...
Example for This Lesson Look at the pattern of coloured circles on this next diagram. The solid red circle, numbered zero, is placed at an arbitrary fret. The pattern shows it uses pitches that are ...
Jeff Beck is without argument one of the world’s most famous guitar players. Both his compositions and his guitar playing style are quite diverse. He plays a unique blend of rock and jazz alongside of ...
I used to really suck getting better at guitar. Actually, that’s a pretty blatant understatement. I was a terrible self-teacher and progress was agonizingly slow. Back in high school, I lived and breathed rock music, so naturally ...
Were you ever discouraged in math class when you were deducted points for not adequately showing all of your work? It seemed like a trivial thing. The answer to 1 + 1 is 2. The ...
It has become more and more popular over the years to create unplugged acoustic versions of electric songs. Sometimes these acoustic versions you hear sound great, and other times they can kind of miss the ...
When you start out playing blues guitar one of the most challenging things is to make the blues scale actually sound bluesy. It’s one of those scales that require an extra effort in order to ...
I am Greg Studley, and this is Lesson 6 of Improvising With Knowledge on Ultimate Guitar. These lessons are designed to get you accustomed to yet another pentatonic scale shape, which can be used as ...
Hey guys, I decided to make a very random but informative video about Neapolitan Chords! These chords are my absolute favorite when it comes to chromatic harmony. Neapolitan Chords: Neapolitan Chords have a very distinct ...
I’ll keep this as short as possible. The motivation for this video is the fact that most lessons out there require you to perform sweeps in downward/upward motions. That means, you start either by picking ...
Standard tuning: E A D G B E Level: Intermediate I’ve always loved this song. I just think the chorus is great. It’s the kind of chorus you sing really loudly whilst quite intoxicated and ...
Practicing can be a lot less tedious when you play music instead of many exercises in a row. If you are having trouble with a certain technique, or want to explore what sort of musical ...
Hey guys! Here is a simple worksheet that will help guide you through the modes of C Major. I enjoy this because it opens up a whole lot of exercises that I will cover later! ...
