Hey there! In this lesson we’re going to be looking at emulating the tones and sounds of other instruments on the guitar, focusing on 3 instruments from the Far East, the Pipa, the Koto and the Shackuhachi (Japanese Flute). Being brought up on a diet of old Kung Fu movies and Manga, the distinctive music of the Orient has always been of great interest to me Continue reading »
If you look at my last article, “superimposing arpeggios” you’ll read how it is possible to superimpose a different arpeggio of a chord from the same parent scale over the chord that you are improvising on. In this lesson I am going to take it one step further and combine it with another of my previous articles “Jazz Up Your Blues Progressions”, in which I describe how to add a jazz flavor to your blues progressions by adding different chord substitutions throughout the sequence. Continue reading »
When playing over a particular chord how many different arpeggios would you consider using? Over any chord you can superimpose a large number of different arpeggios which can give you greater harmonic choices. In this lesson I am going to look at one approach of doing this. By having a parent scale in mind (ie playing in a specific key) whether it’s for one chord, a chord sequence or for a whole piece of music, I’m going to show how to determine all the different arpeggios that are available to play over each chord in that key. Continue reading »
Kumoi Joshi is an exotic sounding Japanese pentatonic scale comprising of the intervals R b2 4 5 and b6. This scale can be used to spice up your solos with a fresh sound and as it is similar to Phrygian can be used to great effect in modern metal. Continue reading »
As a guitar player and guitar teacher I meet a lot of people who always wanted to play jazz but thought it was too difficult so they never give it a go. This lesson is kind of aimed at those players who want to jazz up their blues playing without too much stress. It’s not designed as quick-fix but will get you sounding much more jazzy in just a few simple steps. Continue reading »
In celebration of UK rock band Muse selling out the new Wembley Stadium in June, I’m going to be looking at the playing style of singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy, paying to particular attention to the band’s “Showbiz” and “Origin of Symmetry” era.
After forming in Teignmouth Devon in 1994 Muse have managed to become one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, although many would have thought their mind blowing headlining set at Glastonbury 2004 would have been the peak of their career, Muse have once again raised the bar for what it means to be the ultimate live band. Continue reading »
The blues scale was the first thing they taught me when I got into jazz band in high school. It’s a simple scale to learn, and all the tones sound good over blues changes. The advantage of knowing it Continue reading »
Whenever I’m learning a new lick, riff or scale, I always find it best to start off slowly then gradually get faster until I can play it faster than actually I need to, then it’s always a relief to play it at the correct speed 8). To help you do this, I’ve put together a range of drum backing tracks in various time signatures for you to practice your licks and riffs over.
Have you ever wanted to go to a music store and get a book that had the best information on how to play guitar, explained in ways that were easy to understand and made sense, and not know which book to buy? Ever go out and get that book, only to discover that it had a bunch of information that you didn’t need and didn’t make a good deal of sense after all? Ever wonder whether the “get chops quick” guitar methods so prevalent on the Internet today are really ripoffs? Well, no need for further frustration, help is here. Continue reading »
Just when you thought it was safe to return to the fretboard nasty Uncle Richie adds another finger and brain twisting section to the hell that is the Exercise of Doom. Continue reading »
As far as rock guitar lead is concerned, it is the scale of all scales, the mother lode so to speak, the scale used early and often by such lead guitar greats as Jimmy Page, Edward Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, and Neal Schon, to name a few. If indeed a rock n’ roll encyclopedia exists specifically for rock lead guitar (and who knows, there might be one floating out on the web somewhere), this scale would and should appear on the top, right up front. Continue reading »
George Van Eps first coined the phrase “lap piano” as a way to describe his style of guitar playing. I think I would have to agree with this methodology. In this lesson we’ll discuss an approach to the instrument that will make your harmonic playing more melodic, and your melody playing more harmonic. -This is a good one so check it out! Continue reading »
‘Octave’ is the term used to describe the distance (or ‘interval’) from a one note to another, with half or double the frequency. Continue reading »
As a guitar player who focuses a good deal of his attention on Jazz there have been things I have noticed along the journey to becoming a better musician. The understanding of Harmony is basically the most essential element in becoming a proficient jazz musician. Besides applying this knowledge to your comping it can be directly applied to your soloing and quickly put you on your way to sounding more melodic. Continue reading »
It’s interesting to me that while a guitar might have 6 strings, the majority of guitarists find using more than one at a time a real feat. In this lesson I touch on some simple techniques to spice up a single note melody. Continue reading »