Combining Chords & Scales

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…

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Blues Rock Soloing

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…

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Classical Fun – Minuet

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…

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Get to Know Your Bar Chords Better

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…

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Blues Rock Introductions

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…

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Blues Scale Primer

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…

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Effect Pedals and Racks?

Many guitar lesson students ask me questions about what type of pedals, multi-effect, or rack mount effects units to buy. First of all we should look at what the professionals use and then you can make up your mind, as this will give you a good place to begin. I will assume that you want…

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Bubble Parts

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…

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Metronomes

Are you having blues guitar lessons? Rock guitar lessons? Metal guitar lessons? Jazz guitar lessons? No matter what you are studying every serious guitarist needs to have a very good sense of musical time. The better the quality of musician you play with,the better their sense of time will be, so you need to be…

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The Harmony Shuffle

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…

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