There are mainly two reasons why I was never interested in computerized guitar riff generators when I had made it a goal to learn riffs and write them myself. I found it hard to believe that a computer can ever come up with riffs like Crazy Train, Whole Lotta Love or Hell’s Bells. There are …
When I came up with my first guitar lick, using the A minor pentatonic scale in its most commonly used guitar scale pattern, I was over the moon. It sounded like the real thing, and it was. I went back to my A minor pentatonic scale and came up with another guitar lick, and another …
How to Connect Guitar Scale Patterns to Write Better Solos Read More »
If string bending and vibrato are the techniques the lead guitar player can’t get enough of, palm muting technique is the one rhythm guitar players cannot do without. For good reason. As we’ll explore below, palm muting technique gives a different sound to the same note/chord you’re strumming, thus it gives you an infinite amount …
How to Use Palm Muting to Write Great Electric Guitar Riffs Read More »
If you are learning scales on guitar, you have probably encountered guitar scale sequence exercises like this: Or this: These exercise are just two examples of guitar scale sequences you may use on the A minor pentatonic scale. The purpose behind these exercises is that the scale gets ingrained in your head, that you develop …
How to Use Guitar Scale Sequences to Create Licks and Riffs Read More »
If you’re an advancing beginner or an intermediate guitar player, congratulations, you’ve survived the hardest stage of all – being a complete beginner on guitar! Many people think the beginner stage of guitar playing is the easiest, because the things they’re learning, actually are easy compared to what intermediate and advanced guitar players are doing. …
In this lesson, we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of writing your first song, using guitar chord progressions. There are different places you can start from when writing a song. The most common three are the words, the melody, and the harmony (that is, guitar chord progressions). I’ve used all three as starting points …
How to use Guitar Chord Progressions to Write Songs Read More »
What’s the difference between a lead guitar solo that makes you beg for more, and one that bores you to death? Is it the scales the guitar player is using? Is it the number of positions the guitar player can play the scales in? Is it how fast the guitarist can play? Is it an …
Guitar Phrasing: How to Improve your Solos by Simply Understanding a Concept Read More »
Some people are afraid to have their music criticized. They love what they create so much and are so protective of their music that any form of negative criticism is taken as an attack they feel obliged to defend. Other people on the other hand, are always looking for criticism from everyone, expecting everybody’s approval, …
“Practice, practice, practice”. If you are learning to play the guitar, you have probably come across this advice before. But what leads to successful guitar playing? Is it just a matter of how many hours you put in? Practicing is king, right? Great guitar players are the ones who practice a lot, and the mediocre …
In 7 myths about music theory, I explain what music theory is not, what it is, and have hopefully convinced you that you need it if you’re learning a musical instrument. But how much music theory do you need? In this lesson, I will show you that this question isn’t the most ideal question to …
