Though the terms guitar lick and guitar riff are frequently used interchangeably, there are differences between the two, and understanding them helps you to make better sense of the music you’re learning.  This lesson first explains the differences between these two terms before showing how riffs and licks are used in various musical genres.  Finally, […]

In addition to string bending, vibrato is a phrasing technique that can make your guitar sing. This technique provides a lovely, vocal sound to the notes it is applied to and is frequently used by other instruments, including the human voice.  In this lesson, we will cover all you need to know about vibrato on

Being an intermediate guitar player should be an exciting step toward becoming a proficient guitarist. However, I often encounter guitar players who still consider themselves to be at an intermediate level, despite having played the instrument for many years, even decades.  This is sometimes caused by shyness or imposter syndrome. That is, the player is

The primary goal of learning scales on guitar is not to increase your speed.  Rather, it is to have a toolbox of patterns, proven effective by countless great musicians before us, from which to create music. The guitar scale exercises in this lesson show how to do this: turn scales into melodies. That being said,

Intermediate guitarists have a wide range of songs to learn from.  Instead of giving you a ton of intermediate guitar songs to learn, I’ve chosen seven songs that cover a significant amount of the theoretical and technical elements you’ll be using in your guitar playing as you advance further.  Among them, these songs should provide

Being able to play the guitar is just one of the many benefits of practicing the instrument. I started playing guitar with one main goal in mind: to become a rock star.  I was a shy 15-year-old who had been in love with Heavy Metal for a few years. Heavy metal was my escape, and

Do you think music theory for guitar can’t be fun, useful, or effective? I had similar beliefs for more than a decade. Then I realized I was approaching music theory in a way that was not only boring, but also ineffective for me as an aspiring rock guitarist.   While studying for my Grade 7 music

When I started learning my first guitar phrasing techniques (vibrato, string bending, slides, hammer-ons and pull offs), the one that gave me most trouble was the pull off. It took me some time to get my vibrato to sound nice, or my string bends to accurately reach the target note, but during the process of

The intermediate level of guitar playing is a very exciting stage. It is the point at which you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals and can begin to apply them. If you don’t approach it with the right mindset, though, the intermediate stage can also be frustrating. Unlike at the beginner level, when everything