Posts by Kevin Downing

In the guitar lessons with me, many guitarists think there is a division between rhythm (playing chords) and lead guitar (playing single notes) styles, but in reality experienced players don’t think like that at all. No matter what the genre, I like to think that I am either comping (accompanying a singer or instrumentalist), or…

An important part of being a guitar player is to have some great solo ideas that you can pull out at any time you need to. lt is a common occurrence that unexpectedly someone in the band will turn to you and say, “Guitar solo”. What will you do if that happens? See here to…

Many guitarists never get to venture outside of rock music, but there are plenty of great songs within other genres of music that lay undiscovered. One favourite of my students is classical music. Yes, you can play classical music on your electric or acoustic guitar and it will sound fine….to find out more you can…

Many players know how to play a few bar chords, but do not know the mainly used forms or their associated names. Although they are not advanced chords by any measure, you still need to know them well as they lead onto more advanced concepts later on. This lesson assumes you know how to play…

This lesson has come about because on a gig a while ago I was asked by many musician observers “how could I navigate my way through a gig with bluesman Bullfrog Rata and make it sound like we had rehearsed it?” Even though we hadn’t rehearsed or played together for years. Since then I have…

The minor pentatonic scale is a favourite scale for rock guitarists to get ideas for soloing, with the Blues scale being a close second. Many beginning players tend to overplay the minor pentatonic sound so that it can get boring after a while without realising that they can extract some great ideas from the blues…

Many guitar players seem to be unaware of bubble parts within songs they listen to. A bubble part is normally a simple single note line that is palm-muted, but can also be very complex and involve numerous single notes with added double or triple stops. You download the Bubble Parts lesson here. You can hear…

The shuffle pattern for playing back up blues and rock guitar is an essential one to know because it is used in many genres and you will be required to play it on many gigs or jam sessions. Download the Harmony Shuffle lesson here. Click here to hear what the Harmony Shuffle sounds like. Here…