Guitar trill technique is frequently used as an exercise by students starting out, or trying to improve, their legato technique. And while trills do make a good exercise, one shouldn’t miss the fact that they’re also a very expressive melodic ornament you can use in your guitar riffs, licks, and solos. In this lesson you’ll […]
The Phrygian mode has a very particular sound and its use is found in many genres of music including Heavy Metal, Jazz, Classical music, even electronic music. Songs that make use of the Phrygian mode include Symphony of Destruction (Megadeth), Wherever I May Roam (Metallica) and Sails of Charon (Scorpions). In this lesson you will […]
In this lesson I explain the basics of rhythm. If you don’t know what a quarter note, an eight note, and a sixteenth note are yet, I suggest that you get a general idea of the basic elements of rhythm before proceeding with the rest of this lesson. In today’s lesson we’ll be taking one […]
The Dorian mode is very popular among guitar players and is used in various genres of music including Blues, Jazz, Rock, Metal, and Fusion. In this lesson you will be learning the Dorian mode using five 3 note per string scale patterns that cover the entire guitar fretboard. With each scale pattern, you will be […]
Guitar modes explained and how to use them to improve your playing Guitar modes are a scary topic for many intermediate and advancing guitar players. While the theory behind the modes can get a bit complex unless you have a solid basis of music theory you can, and should, start using them even if you’re […]
A guitar interval is the distance between two notes on the guitar fretboard. If these two notes are being played at the same time we call it a harmonic interval (also called a double stop in guitar terminology). If they’re played after each other we call it a melodic interval. An interval of an octave […]
The natural minor scale is very commonly used by guitar players and is found in guitar riffs, licks and solos in most genres of music including Jazz, Blues, Rock and Heavy Metal. In this lesson we’ll first go through a bit of theory on the natural minor scale. Then I will give you 3 notes […]
The reason I didn’t title this article “How to learn the guitar fast” is that I would risk misleading you into thinking that you can learn the guitar in a short period of time. Promises that you can learn the guitar in 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 weeks tend to give the wrong impression […]
Guitar chord construction for beginners Simply put, a guitar chord is a group of three or more notes played together on the guitar. Thus, if you’re strumming say, the chord of C major you’re playing the notes C, E and G. Now, if you strum the C major chord in the open position, you will […]
The harmonic minor scale is very popular among guitar players and is used in a variety of genres including Jazz, Heavy Metal (especially Neo-Classical) and Surf guitar. In this lesson I will show you 5 positions of the harmonic minor scale to cover the entire guitar fretboard using 3 notes per string patterns, as well […]