Inhaltsverzeichnis für January 2017 in Guitar Techniques

RICHARD BARRETT One of the best players around, Richard is adept at most styles but truly excels in the bluesier side of rock. He currently plays with Spandau’s Tony Hadley. SHAUN BAXTER One of the UK’s most respected music educators, Shaun has taught many who are now top tutors themselves. His Jazz Metal album is considered a milestone. JON BISHOP Jon is one of those great all-rounders who can turn his hand to almost any style. No ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’, he nails every one with ease! PHIL CAPONE Phil is a great guitarist who specialises in blues and jazz. He teaches at ICMP in London, writes for GT and Total Guitar and has published 10 top tuition books. LES DAVIDSON Les has worked with Mick…

“WE WANT TO SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM OTHER MAGS BY BEING MORE EXPLICIT ABOUT TECHNIQUE” TAPPING INTO THE SOURCE Congrats! I love Guitar Techniques. I think it’s a must for any serious guitar player. Many, many thanks for the Tim Lerch and Brett Garsed lessons. Talking about Brett, what about an article, transcription or a series of lessons on his former partner in shredding, TJ Helmerich’s wonderful tapping technique? Or a combination of various tapping masters like Daniele Gottardo, Scott Mishoe, etc? Ruben Rosario, Puerto Rica Those are names that meant so much back in the days when those advanced techniques were initially being explored and expanded upon by a particular brand of player. Another one, the amazing eight-finger tapper Steve Lynch springs to mind. It was such a joy having…

I LOVE STRING-SKIPPING arpeggios and the open intervallic sound they have. This lick is typical of what can be played over Dm7 using Dorian arpeggios from C Major. They are: Dm7 (D-F-A-C); F Maj7 (F-A-C-E); and Am7 (A-C-E-G). These are the arpeggios of the accompanying chord itself plus those built on the b 3 (FMaj7) and the 5th (Am7). It’s an efficient way to get extended chord sounds into your playing. This can be played with a pick or hybrid. In this latter case the fingers play the notes on the first string only. Watch your timing – it’s easy to rush the left-hand slides. This lick has been fingered as straight 16ths, but there are lots of other rhythmic possibilities available – so please do experiment!…

➊Blues Ballad (E) Slow Blues with a BB King inspired feel-good vibe to it. You can try mixing the E Major Pentatonic scale (E-F#-G#-B-C#) with E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) for a great bluesy sound, adding the b 5 (B b ) to the mix as well. ➋Jazzy Funk Jam (Cm) The basic chord progression here is Cm-F, but when practising your rhythm playing I recommend trying out chords like Cm7/Cm9/Cm11 and F7/F9/F13. Start with C Minor Pentatonic scale (C-E b -F-G-B b ) for your funky riffing and soloing and then move on to C Dorian mode (C-D-E b -F-G-A-B b ). ➌Slow II-V-I Jazz Practice (C) This classic jazz progression goes Dm7 (2), G7 (5), CMaj7 (1). You can essentially use C Major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B) throughout, but the jazzy…

“THE TEXAS BLUES STYLE IS A SPICY MIX OF BLUES VOCABULARY, COMMITTED ATTACK AND A SUPERCHARGED GUITAR/AMP TONE” ABILITY RATING Info KeyVarious TempoVarious CDTRACKS 4-23 Will improve your… Finger vibrato and string bending Super-charging your tone General blues vocabulary Welcome to this titanic Texas blues guitar feature. The aim of this lesson is to take a look at the style of 10 of the biggest blues names to come out of the Lonestar state. Once the techniques of these great players are uncovered you can incorporate the key elements into your own trick bag. Both rhythm and lead guitar ideas are notated and we will be mostly working in the familiar setting of the 12-bar, major blues format. However, to provide variety and stylistic accuracy the tonality and feel of…

 appeal, as well as why it is adopted so successfully by such a wide range of instruments. Not only the traditional ‘classical’ instruments but also electric guitar and band (courtesy of none other than Slash). It is also a seminal piece for the theremin instrument with its ethereal sound that you’ll recognise from early sci-fi movies and, of course, Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. “THE VOCALIST IS INSTRUCTED TO SING THE MELODY NOT WITH LYRICS BUT WITH A VOWEL OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING” ABILITY RATING Info KeyEm Tempo42bpm CDTRACK 34-35 Will improve your… Melodic phrasing Melody /accompaniment separation Fretting hand stretches Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist, whose music is characterised by rich, widely spaced chords and ferociously technical yet highly-expressive melodies. This makes him…

“ALONGSIDE A STELLAR SIDEMAN CAREER, FORD ALSO ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AS AN ARTIST IN HIS OWN RIGHT” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 37-40 Will improve your Jazz-blues soloing Ability to think less is more General touch and feel Blending sophisticated and subtle note placement with a punchy tone and jazz influences, Robben Ford encapsulates a fresh take on American blues. Born in 1951 in Woodlake, California, Robben taught himself how to play guitar aged 13, having had his ears opened to the blues by Michael Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag. Alongside his two brothers, Mark and Patrick, the three siblings formed the Charles Ford Blues Band (named after their guitar toting father). Having cut their teeth playing the usual circuit of high school dances and…

JP JAZZ ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES “IF CHARLIE WERE ALIVE TODAY, WE’D STILL BE TAKING LESSONS FROM HIM” Herb Ellis ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 55-72 Will improve your Sense of swing Use of arpeggios in soloing Blues-based jazz vocabulary Charlie Christian found acclaim with the Benny Goodman Sextet And Orchestra and is widely acknowledged as the first significant musician to embrace the electric guitar. One can only imagine what Christian would have achieved had he not died of tuberculosis in 1942 at the tragically young age of 25. In an incredibly short time the Texas-born virtuoso set the music world alight, inspiring generations of guitarists to amplify their ‘boxes’ and explore exactly what this new instrument had to offer. Christian was one of the first to challenge the…

Some of the most fun chord scenarios involve what’s known as slash chords. These are written as a chord name followed by a bass note with a line (slash) between them. For example, C/B b is a typical slash chord – C is the main chord with C the slash bass B note b or C being over B B b b . , and It is common would be for spoken the as main (upper) chord to be major – so A/G, or F/B b , or D/A, etc – but this can be extended to a 7th, 9th or 13th; or another type such as minor, augmented or diminished. What is great about slash chords is, while providing quite a lot of detail about a chord’s voicing –…

Album of the Month BLACK SABBATH THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION As the 60s became the 70s, so white blues became rock, and bands like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath took over where Cream had left off. Brummy boys Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Tony Iommi’s debut, 1970’s Black Sabbath was perhaps the first to turn rock into metal with its dark riffs and pointed lyrics. As the decades came and went so did personnel, with line-up changes including Ozzy’s dismissal, subsequent solo career and eventual reunion with his bandmates. As they embark on a ‘last ever tour’ in January, so the time for a reappraisal of Black Sabbath’s output seems ripe. The Ultimate Collection double CD and four-album vinyl set includes the inevitable Paranoid, Iron Man and…

FEATURE #2 VINTAGE BLUES Original Electric Masters Otis Rush, Elmore James, T-Bone Walker and others laid down the template for what we do today. Learn their secrets! TRANSCRIPTION SCHUBERT Serenade Bridget Mermikides arranges a stunning piece by one of the greatest composers of the 18th century. VIDEO MASTERCLASS AYNSLEY LISTER Soloing Secrets One of the UK’s finest blues-rockers plays an off-the-cuff improv to show you how he composes a solo on the spot! TECHNIQUE & THEORY THINGS TO DO AND PLAY Close-voiced chords and harmonics Discover how close-voiced chords can make you sound fantastic, then top them off with mega-cool natural harmonics! Sound better by tweaking your... PENTATONIC SCALES Changing a note or two in simple scales can drastically change the way you sound. But knowing which ones is key.…

GIVEN THAT AMERICA is so vast it’s no real surprise that each state can throw up its own variant of a particular style. Look at the difference between New York and LA jazz – the former is hard edged and mean, whereas the latter is generally smoother (huge generalisation, but you get my drift); and New Orleans, a different kettle of fish altogether (and, of course, the original). It’s the same with blues. Consider the country blues that began in Mississippi. Then compare it to what it transmuted into when those originators migrated up to Chicago and went electric, turning it into the robust and often menacing style of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. The two couldn’t be more different. Back down in the south west in Texas, they created…

PER SVIGGUM “THE LITERALLY LIMITLESS CHOICE OF CHORDS THAT COULD ACCOMPANY ANY GIVEN NOTE, IS HEAVEN TO ME” GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you? MK: I’m not certain that I have a specific preference for a given instrument to be the lead voice. I certainly enjoy making instrumentals that are keyboard-based. But I absolutely express myself differently on a guitar than I do a keyboard – undoubtedly there are details of articulation, attack and timbre that are only readily available to me on a guitar. And there are emotional aspects to the sound of a guitar, which are very similar to the human voice, so it’s really appealing on that front as well. It’s like a drug to me. GT: What can an instrumental provide…

NAME: Mark Stratton TOWN: Basingstoke, Hampshire STYLES TAUGHT: Rock, pop, blues, funk and reggae – general overview of all styles SPECIALITY: Rock – modern and classic QUALIFICATION: DipLCM (TD) – Diploma London College of music (Teachers Diploma) LEVELS TAUGHT: Casual and RGT exam grades if desired; style-based tuition from beginner to advanced SIGHT-READING: Early grades only CHARGES: £25 per 1hr lesson, £14 per half hr SPECIAL: Fully-equipped private soundproof music studio with recording facilities; guitar set-up service. TEL: 01256 336178; Mobile 07940434673 EMAIL: studio-12@ntlworld.com…

“THIS FEATURE’S AIM IS TO ARM YOU WITH A WEALTH OF FINGERSTYLE ESSENTIALS THAT COVER 10 DIFFERENT PLAYING STYLES INCLUDING BLUES, JAZZ, FOLK, COUNTRY AND LATIN” ABILITY RATING Info KeyVarious TempoVarious CDTRACKS 24-33 Will improve your… Breadth of fingerpicking styles Accompaniment creativity Hand-to-hand co-ordination The world of fingerstyle guitar can seem overwhelming. So rich is it in stylistic roots, from Brazilian bossa nova, to American singer-songwriters and the folk songs of Britain. So this feature’s aim is to arm you with a wealth of fingerstyle essentials that cover 10 different playing styles including blues, jazz, folk, country and lush-sounding Latin. Even if you already play fingerstyle, I’ll bet you’ll find something new and interesting here. I have grouped the patterns roughly into ‘families’ of approaches to make sense of the…

“A MULTI-PLATINUM, GRAMMY-WINNING ARTIST LENNY KRAVTIZ WRITES, PRODUCES AND PERFORMS THE MAJORITY OF HIS ALBUMS BY HIMSELF” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Em Tempo:90 bpm CD:TRACKS 41-42 Will improve your Rhythm playing Timing and groove Blues-rock soloing Born in New York in 1964 Lenny Kravitz’ career spans nearly 30 years. His music features a blend of rock, blues, rhythm and blues, funk and psychedelic traits, and his appeal straddles many different genres and age ranges. Perhaps best known for the classic track Are You Gonna Go My Way and the Number 1 hit Fly Away, Lenny Kravitz has also written for artists such as Aerosmith and produced music for the likes of Madonna. Lenny began playing drums and guitar as a boy and became a fan of music when he saw The…

PICTORIAL PRESS / ALAMY “WHILE THE ACOUSTIC COMMONLY FORMS A BEDROCK TO THE RHYTHM SECTION ON SMITHS TRACKS, OFTEN IT COMES TO FORE” ABILITY RATING Info Key:C/E Tempo:134 bpm CD:TRACKS 73-74 Will improve your Acoustic rhythm playing Using sus and 6th chords Embellishing chords Born in Manchester in October 1963, Johnny Marr’s guitar style is perhaps the very definition of ‘indie’ playing at the highest level. Think of Marr’s classic guitar parts with The Smiths and you probably conjure words like ‘jangly’, ‘textured’, ‘layered’ and ‘rich’. Although often bashed by players of a technical or lead-focused bent, Marr is a fantastically inventive guitarist whose parts combine a wide range of influences to produce something distinctive and memorable. Like that other great player from the 1980s, Andy Summers, here we are…

PICTORIAL PRESS / ALAMY WITH PRACTICE YOU WILL EASILY GET USED TO ‘ADDING’ 24 FRETS TO THE NOTE YOU ARE PLAYING IN THE ‘VIRTUAL FRET’ AREA ABOVE THE FRETBOARD ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACK 88-97 Will improve your… Pinched harmonic accuracy Knowledge of harmonic nodes Ability to create excitement Harmonics are created by dividing the string at particular points in order to isolate the many overtones that make up regular notes. Harmonics can be produced with a few different techniques, but the mechanism behind all of them is the same. The simple way to produce a harmonic is to lightly touch one of the strings directly over the fret-wire with your fretting finger and then lift off the finger while simultaneously picking it. As you will see in Example…

Tap the links Finding your way around the magazine is easy. Tapping the feature titles on the cover or the contents page, takes you straight to the relevant articles. Any web and email links in the text are tappable too! Animated tab & audio Songs and lessons have the audio built in with a moving cursor showing you exactly where you are in the music. Simply tap the ‘play’ button then you can fast-forward or scroll back at will. Play the videos Certain articles have accompanying videos full of useful insight and additional information. Once again, tap the play buttons to enjoy video masterclasses on your iPad or smartphone. PLUS! Get a FREE iPad/iPhone sample of GT. For full details and how to receive our digital edition regularly, go to…

 GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? “I LIKE A MEDIUM ACTION AND BIG FRETS, BUT NOT TOO LOW AS I LIKE TO BEND STRINGS UNDER THE OTHERS” IS: I use the Gibson big triangle heavy gauge picks because I hit the guitar pretty hard and any thinner and I snap them. I’ve tried using the smaller ones but I just drop them. GT: You have to give up all your pedals but three, what will they be? IS: My most important pedal is my Boss tuner; because I hit the guitar pretty hard and bend strings a lot I have to watch my tuning. The Thorpy Peace Keeper drive pedal is great because the knobs are protected so I don’t kick them. Lastly,…

ALONG WITH OPENING ITS CUSTOM shop division Martin produces solid-body electric guitars! The E-18 and EM-18 are almost identical with the E-18 having two covered DiMarzio humbuckers while the EM-18 has exposed coils and tweaked wiring. The body is a nine section multi-laminate of walnut, maple and rosewood with a natural finish. The rosewood fretboard has simple pearl dot inlays but the headstock has a rosewood veneer. 1979 IS DECLARED AS THE INTERNATIONAL year of the child; Sony introduces the Walkman; the Village People’s YMCA tops the UK charts selling over 150,000 copies a day; Queen are singing Don’t Stop Me Now and Michael Jackson releases Off The Wall, his fifth studio album, following his theatrical performance in The Wiz. After a successful run on Radio 4 Douglas Adams’first…

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN THE FIRST TO ADMIT THAT JIMI WAS A VERY BIG INFLUENCE ON MY EARLY STUFF” Robin Trower” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Free time CD:CD-ROM Will improve your String-bending flair Adding of ‘flavour’ notes Use of the blues ‘rake’ We were lucky to grab some time to sit down with guitar legend Robin Trower. Among other things, he was kind enough to share five signature licks with GT. Robin first came to prominence in Procol Harum, a band famous for such classics as Conquistador and A Whiter Shade Of Pale. He has been involved in other side projects with Cream’s Jack Bruce (BLT) and his own power trio (The Robin Trower Band). For his early work Robin played mostly Gibson guitars but shifted his allegiance to the Fender…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 NIRVANA CD TRACK 36 Using a droning string is useful to create dissonance, and harmony, but also to fatten things up considerably. This example is typical of early Kurt Cobain stylings and uses an open first string with solid downstrokes against a chromatic movement on the second. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 RICHIE SAMBORA CD TRACK 36 Let’s continue the above idea but using vibrato and the A Mixolydian scale to create a‘sitar’style effect. This idea was used back in the Bon Jovi’s New Jersey days, no doubt influenced by psychedelic groups like The Beatles. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 GEORGE BENSON CD TRACK 36 George is a very exploratory player, with an extraordinarily deep understanding of jazz harmony. But the minimalist 70s and 80s background riffs using…

THEY RECORDED THEIR FIRST DEMO AT PRINCE’S PAISLEY PARK: THE TRACK, GAME OF WAR, APPEARED IN BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 43-54 Will improve your 16th-note riffing Natural harmonics Scale sequences Guitarist Erik Turner formed Warrant in 1984 and worked the LA club scene for years. Joey Allen completed a guitar partnership that would take the scene by storm. Their first demo was recorded in 1987 at Prince’s Paisley Park, and one of the tracks, Game Of War, was used in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. In 1988 Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich became an instant hit on the metal scene and contained some excellent guitar playing. 1990’s Cherry Pie and its title track became a bona fide rock anthem with its singalong chorus,…

DAVID LYTTLETON ABILITY RATING Info Key:A (A7) Tempo:128 bpm CD:TRACKS 75-77 Will improve your Use of sus 4 triads in a scale Recognition of sus 4 triads Sus 4 triad-based lines So far in Creative Rock, we’ve looked at ways of deriving triads from A Mixolydian and using them as the basis for new ideas: an approach that can be duplicated for all other scales too. Triads can introduce harmonic propulsion into your single-note lines by implying chord motion; producing results that sound both ear-catching and powerful. In this new series, we will explore the use of a contemporary-sounding variation where the 3rd note of each triad is replaced by a fourth in order to create a suspended 4th triad. It is called suspended because, when played as a chord,…

DECEMBER GT263 FLAWLESS FRETTING Better accuracy for chords and soloing, improved hand-to-hand coordination and clarity in tone and expression. Plus! Learn the touch and tone of Gary Moore and style studies in Skid Row, Ani DiFranco, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Louis Stewart. NOVEMBER GT262 MIXOLYDIAN MASTERCLASS Use this king of scales to play blues, rock, country, jazz, rock and roll and more! Plus Jimmy Page rock lesson, George Handel’s Lascia Ch’io Piango; exclusive video lesson with Brett Garsed and style studies in Rory Gallagher, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Pass. OCTOBER GT261 THE SHADOWS Go instru-mental with our in-depth look at Hank and Bruce’s styles. Check out this issue’s Bonamassa bonanza with two full solos in the style of the blues-rock titan. Plus, style masterclasses on Jeff Lynne, Winger, Steve Khan, Joan…

RELATING TAB TO YOUR FRETBOARD HAND LABELLING Here are the abbreviations used for each finger: Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T) Picking hand: p (thumb), i (first finger), m (second), a (third), c (fourth). CHORD EXAMPLE The diagram represents the G chord in the photo. The ‘O’ symbol is an open string, and a circled number is a fretting finger. Intervals are shown below. SCALE EXAMPLE The diagram shows the fret-hand fingering for the A major scale (root notes in black). The photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with first, third and fourth fingers. NUT & FRETBOARD The fretbox diagram above represents the fretboard exactly, as seen in the accompanying photo. This is for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or chord shape…