Sommaire pour Spring 2019 de Guitar Techniques

SIMON BARNARD Simon is a graduate of ACM and The Guitar Institute, holding a Masters degree in music. He teaches, examines and plays everything from rock to jazz. 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. RICHARD BARRETT One of the finest blues and rock guitarist we know, Richard is a stalwart columnist for Total Guitar, Guitarist and GT. He’s also Tony Hadley’s touring six-stringer. 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!. MARTIN GOULDING One of the world’s foremost rock and metal guitarists, Martin…

I’m just back from the NAMM show in California and I got to meet loads of people, many of whom mentioned they read GT and a few suggesting I do an article on singing and playing guitar at the same time. I wasn’t gifted with a great voice but I found singing while playing wasn’t difficult – but I had figured out a plan which I use, and I’ll share it with you here. There is a video lesson on this topic on my website; if you’d like to hear the exercises, just type ‘sing’ into the search box at the top. Start with an easy song. I’m not including this in my 10 steps, but it’s really important to find a nice easy song to get going with. Trying…

THIS MONTH’S LICK is an ascending legato idea followed by a descending arpeggio phrase. The legato part is a‘must know’sequence that’s great for getting extra mileage out of a scale fingering – in this case A Mixolydian: A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G. To play this effectively you will need a relaxed fretting hand while minimising movement away from the strings. Also, aim to fret the notes with your fingertips, positioning your thumb around the back of the neck. The arpeggio section contains the triads of A and G – which work great against A7. These can be sweep picked or using pull-offs and fretting-hand hammer-ons – it’s entirely your preference. As always, try to come up with ideas of your own based on this example.…

IN SPITE OF BECOMING THE BEST-SELLING  brand for 1985/86 and spending vast amounts on advertising and endorsements, Kramer sadly calls it a day. Although championed by the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Richie Sambora and Vivian Campbell relatively poor sales and lawsuit payouts made the closure inevitable. Fortunately in the not too distant future Gibson will step in. MARSHALL UNVEILS ITS NEW RANGE  of JCM-900 amp heads and combos to replace the JCM-800 lines. In a similar fashion the range offers 100 and 50-watt models but here both are switchable to half power. Each features a valve chassis, two channels and effects loop in classic black Marshall finish. The combos are offered with either one or two 12-inch speakers and retain that distinctive sound. GLASGOW IS DECLARED  the Culture Capital…

No less a luminary than Steve Vai is a big advocate for practicing as you perform - standing up. Why perfect those speedy runs and deft chord changes on a chair, when you’ll be performing them on your feet? The geometry of hands, arms, shoulders, body and the guitar itself, are likely to be be quite different. And although it may seem a trifle‘Spinal Tap’check yourself out in the mirror. Is your body twisted or your shoulders hunched? Does your fretting hand look too bent or your picking arm a bit tense? The mirror can be a great friend: try it; you may be surprised at the results.…

All guitarists get that lightbulb moment when a technique or theory suddenly becomes transparent. For Tommy Emmanuel it was looking at a Chet Atkins album cover and spotting a thumbpick: “So that’s how he does it,” said the young lad. Fundamentally, a thumbpick adds weight to the thumb, giving basslines clarity and space in the mix between the thumb and fingers. In his interview Tommy talked about songs like Guitar Boogie that are used as a skeleton for taking wherever you want, using the skills you’ve learned that enable you to improvise. Freight Train is also often used as such a vehicle, especially in the acoustic or country world where it lends itself to fingerstyle, hybrid picking or, as we shall see, the thumbpick style of Atkins, Tommy and others.…

Transcribe, transcribe, transcribe! I don’t know any great players who didn’t transcribe - on paper or via memorisation - from different instruments be it saxophone, piano as well as guitar. Emulation of other musicians’phrasing and vocabulary is healthy for all players at any ability level, and is not something that will reduce your individuality. I approach a solo as if I am writing a melody that anyone could remember. It’s very important to internalise your notes, not just wander around the fretboard and hope for the best. It helps to sing the notes that you play but it’s more about feeling and hearing the notes from within yourself; you are making your own music statement.…

“WHAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT THIS PIECE IS THE SOPHISTICATED RHYTHMS, PERHAPS INSPIRED BY EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK MUSIC” The Czech composer Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) was an extraordinary and influential musical figure of the late 19th century. An exceptional organist, violist and teacher, Dvorák produced a diverse opus with no fewer than nine symphonies, 10 operas, three concerti as well as hundreds of works for a variety of solo instruments and small ensembles. Rather than compose solely within the ‘high art’ domain of ‘classical music’, Dvorák drew on Czech and Slavic folk music of his homeland, which allowed him to develop an individualistic voice as well as acknowledge and embrace a far wider range of music making and culture. Dvorák was one of the first of this wave of ‘nationalistic’ composers and this…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 JAMES BAY CD TRACK 17 A former student of mine at BIMM, James was always a great part writer. This example of 10ths ascending and descending up the fifth and second strings creates a chord progression from C to G. Use the thumb (p) and first finger (i) to accentuate this. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 MALCOLM YOUNG CD TRACK 18 This example in the style of rock’s riffmaster general is based on a simple blues idea. Play hard downstrokes with a breaking up amp tone and bridge pickup (humbucker if you have it). Use your second finger to play the D note on the upper voicing. Plenty of attitude is required here. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 OZ NOY CD TRACK 19 Oz takes a unique combination…

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES It’s often said that understanding how to use verbs forms the backbone of any language. As far as jazz is concerned, it could be argued that understanding harmony, how the chords relate, progress and develop throughout any given piece, is its own backbone. Harmony inspires your melodic choices; suggests suitable scale and potential harmonic replacements and much more besides. In jazz, the ubiquitous II-V-I major progression is king. So much so, that if you were to open up a Real Book with your eyes closed and simply point at any page, odds on that you’d likely have you finger directly above, or at best an inch away from an example of this sequence in action. At its most basic form, the II-V-I…

In this new series, we’re looking at a series of melodic Mixolydian solo studies that are medium-paced throughout so that you can aim to play each from start to finish. In the previous lesson, we used triads as the main theme. In this one, we’re going to focus on using a range of parental arpeggios from the root of each new chord. Triads and arpeggios help to give our lines harmonic strength as our melodies will be derived from chord tones rather just scale tones. To establish parental arpeggios stemming from the root of a particular scale, we can start with the basic triad notes (1-3-5) and then simply add one more note from the scale. For example, A Mixolydian (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G) would contain the following potential parental arpeggios: Many players…

APRIL GT293 PLAY BLUES-ROCK SLIDE Slide is the most evocative of guitar sounds. From vicious rock to moody blues & melodic pop it’s the go-to technique for uplifting a track. Beginner or slide demon, this lesson is for you! Plus: Dan Patlansky & Allen Hinds videos; ZZ Top, Arctic Monkeys & more! MARCH GT292 PLAY ROCK & ROLL This lesson with all examples in full video is one of our most exciting yet. Rock and roll when played by the greats is just so cool and exciting. You will learn tons that can be applied to other styles too. Plus: Dan Patlansky blues video lesson, John Mayer and more! FEBRUARY GT291 BRITISH & IRISH BLUES-ROCK Play like the legends of ‘70s blues-rock: Taste, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, Whitesnaske and more!…

ROBIN TROWER COMING CLOSER TO THE DAY Provogue ★★★★★ This is powerful solo work from the blues grand master. Trower’s career stretches back to the 1950s with The Paramounts and onto 60s success in Procol Harum, with whom he recorded five albums. Solo acclaim followed with the indelible Bridge Of Sighs in the mid-70s, vaulting him to stadium-filling fame. Fast forward to the present day and his solo work still impresses with its depth of passion and that distinctive Uni-Vibe-enriched guitar sound. Coming Closer To The Day follows a string of recent albums but does the new one’s title have a subliminal message? No, he assures us: “I’m saying that I’m nearer to the end than the beginning, but if I went tomorrow I’d feel like I’d been blessed with…

THE STATE OF my scrappy technique has been gnawing away at me recently. However okay you think you are live, or messing around in front of the TV, record yourself and all manner of horrors come to light if your technique is not up to scratch. Live, the notes are forgotten in seconds, but in the studio there’s nowhere to hide. I’ve been putting some of my own stuff down lately, and when I listen back it’s often painful: I’m hearing explosions in front of notes, extraneous noises around them, and pick scrapes after the lick has finished. It’s quite disheartening. There’s a blues solo I played that I actually liked (a rare thing), but there’s so much extraneous noise on it that, if we can’t trim it off one…

On a rare free day during this year’s ‘Strictly’ arena tour, I found myself in reflective mood as I waited for my broken body to heal sufficiently to put plectrum to Pasadoble once more. Perhaps it was the conflation of our Nottingham venue with the iconic Marley classic, I Shot The Sheriff (Sheriff of Nottingham – geddit?) that rekindled memories of my own brush with Jamaican rhythms. And near death. But in a career consisting of The Gig, The Bad And The Ugly, who could have known that my first touring experience might well have been my last? It began promisingly enough with the offer of money and its instantaneous acceptance. The remaining loose ends drifted past my telephone receiver with scant regard for the details. Upon mature reflection, I…

ANTHONY SCARLATI Had you been the guitarist that created the memorable opening lick on Elvis Presley’s comeback hit, In The Ghetto, and the even bigger-selling chart-topper Suspicious Minds, both credited with igniting the King’s comeback career, you’d probably be pretty pleased with yourself. Had you also done exactly the same for Dusty Springfield on Son Of A Preacher, Neil Diamond on Sweet Caroline, Dobie Gray on Drift Away, Willie Nelson on Always On My Mind, Billy Swan on I Can Help, The Box Tops on The Letter and many, many more, you’d probably be puffing out your chest like a preening prize pigeon. But the great session hero Reggie Young, who sadly died on January 17th this year, did all that and so much more. And Reggie was among the…

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). 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 quickly. 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. CHORD EXAMPLE (WITH CAPO) The blue line represents a capo – for this A chord, place it at fret 2. Capos change the fret number ordering – here, the original fret 5 now becomes fret…

Thumbpicks come in similar thicknesses, materials and prices as regular picks. They also take a while to get used to so spend time discovering which type works for you. Don’t go too expensive at first; you can pay 10s of £££s but Tommy Emmanuel (the master) is happy with medium gauge Jim Dunlops. If you find the pick part is too protruding you can file it to shape and smooth the edges using a good nail file; and if the pick doesn’t quite fit you can heat it in a cup of hot water and bend it to the desired  shape before it hardens.…

LICK 1 [Bars 3 -8] VOLUME SWELLS Allen opens the track with some ear-grabbing volume swells. Volume swells cut off the attack of the note. This provides an interesting effect that disguises the guitar sound and provides more of a keyboard or synth style sound. This also makes the delay sound more ambient and ethereal, as there is no hard front to the repeats. LICK 2 [Bars 29-30]  DIMINISHED CHORD RUN The F diminished 7 sound provides another ear-catching contrast with the rest of the song. Here Allen expertly navigates this with a chord-based line inspired by George Harrison. LICK 3 [Bar 32 – F#7]  FLAMENCO STYLE ALTERATIONS Here Allen uses the b 9 interval (G) to provide a flamenco flavour. Altering the notes of the extension of a dominant…

In terms of your fretting hand, how much do you think about what position you are in - say where your first finger should be at any given point and therefore the other three fingers respectively. Are you consciously aware of it and are you maintaining a hand shape where the four fingers are spaced evenly and hovering close to their frets? When shifting positions maintain the hand shape and finger spacing and shift the thumb too, keeping the relationship between it and the fingers the same. Being clear about your fretboard position is a sure way to increase security, confidence and accuracy in your playing.…

During the ’60s the young Robert Cray was tucked away in his bedroom with the Harmony electric guitar that he begged his mother to buy for him, bingeing on the music of Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and The Beatles. Alongside his parents’ rich record collection Cray would sit and listen to the radio, picking up whatever he could along the way from R&B, soul, Motown and jazz. “We had no concept of all these separate genres of music,” Cray has said of those times. “If you liked the song it was cool. I kept this in my head as a youngster learning the guitar.” No doubt this attitude massively impacted the music that Cray would later give to the world, as although by the late ’60s…

This month’s piece takes the framework of the blues, a I-IV-V progression in E, but adds a twist with some jazzier chord voicings and phrasing. When playing this style as either a soloist or accompanist it is vital to have a large stock of intros, endings and turnarounds at your disposal. Although intros and endings are self-explanatory, the ‘turnaround’ can be trickier to get a handle on; in essence it’s a short phrase that takes you from the end of a chord sequence back to the beginning. A turnaround often gives a great opportunity to add something creative within a standard progression - one of the most appealing aspects of blues and jazz is that you can make it up. This month’s piece has an abundance of intros, endings and…

Welcome to the fourth part in our series on the Melodic Minor scale. As you know, this scale consists of the formula: R-2- b 3-4-5-6-7, and can be visualised either as a Major scale with the 3rd degree lowered, or as a Natural Minor scale with the 6th and 7th degrees raised. Over the last three months we’ve looked at the five Melodic Minor scale shapes based around the CAGED system, as well as the seven harmonised chords, modes and arpeggios which follow the order: I m/maj7 – Melodic Minor II minor 7 – Dorian b 2 III maj7#5 – Lydian #5 IV dom7 – Lydian b 7 (Lydian Dominant) V dom7 – Mixolydian b 6 VI m7 b 5 – Locrian natural 2 VII m7 b 5 – Superlocrian…

GARY HOEY NEON HIGHWAY BLUES Provogue ★★★★★ This new album from Hoey is a rocking bluesy affair with 11 new tracks displaying his Strat panache. Along for the ride are some great guests: opener, Under The Rug is a funky affair with great clean and driven tones from Gary and Eric Gales which is followed by a sultry 12/8 blues featuring the outstanding Josh Smith (great solo trade-offs!). Later on, there’s the pounding Damned If I Do that has some filthy interplay between Gary and Lance Lopez - a strong wedge of ZZ meets Zep. If you want some smoking slide then Your Kind Of Love is crammed with slinky licks and a greasy upbeat groove. For instrumental fans, closer is Neon Highway Blues; a short and sparkly love letter…

GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? MU: Herco Fex 75s. They are dull, grey and absolutely characterless, but I can’t live without them. They sit nicely between my thumb and finger and nothing else will do. A kind of plastic security blanket! GT: If you had to give up all your effects pedals but three, which ones would they be? MU: I don’t use a lot of pedals, in fact I only have two at the moment. My Boss tuner and my Boss Blues Driver. GT: Do you play another musical instrument well enough to do so in a band, and have you done it? MU: I dabble with synths and have used them on stage since 1978 but I would never call…

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 All the mag’s main lessons have the audio built in with a moving cursor that shows you exactly where you are in the music. Simply tap the ‘play’ button and you’re off - 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 (recommended) or smartphone. PLUS! Get a FREE iPad/iPhone sample of GT. For full details and how to…

CHICAGO TRIBUNE / GETTY IMAGES ➊ Chicago blues in E To start we have a fun 12-bar blues shuffle with a Chicago style turnaround, in the guitar-friendly key of E. The progression at the end of each cycle is: E-E7/D-A/C#-Am/C-E/B-B7. Try mixing E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) and E Major Pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#) for that old-school blues sound. ➋ Funky C blues This one is a basic 12-bar blues in C with a funky feel and groove. Again, you can mix C Major Pentatonic (C-D-E-G-A) with C Minor Pentatonic (C-E b -F-G-B b ) for some nice bluesy colours. Major Pentatonic works best on the I chord (C) and V chord (G7), whereas the Minor Pentatonic works best on the IV chord (F7). ➌ Slow Blues (Bb) Here we have a slow…

This month it’s time to head to the metaphorical guitar gym and pump some iron - well, some steel (strings, that is). If you notice inconsistencies or apparent sloppiness creeping into your performances, or find yourself running out of steam when playing those fast runs or that song with the horrendous barrage of barre chords, then this is the feature for you. We have designed this program to address various popular areas of weakness in both the fretting and picking hands. Classic issues like that of holding down the aforementioned passage of barre chords, keeping string bends in tune and involving the fretting-hand’s fourth finger are all addressed. To keep it interesting we have also included a few more challenging and certainly more impressive sounding techniques such as fast hybrid…

A Tommy Emmanuel concert is enough to send the average acoustic player home with thoughts about consigning their treasured instruments to the nearest bonfire. But that would be the last thing that Tommy himself would have them do as he is passionate about passing on his formidable knowledge about the acoustic guitar and the music it delivers to as many people who want to listen. He has established guitar camps in the US, sharing the teaching honours with players like fellow CGP John Knowles, the phenomenal Richard Smith and top-drawer jazzer Frank Vignola. The camps are very well attended, too – his recent residential course in Scotland saw 120 students turn up to hone their skills and absorb advice on technique, tone and stagecraft. We invited Tommy down to our…

This month features Allen soloing over another Jason Sidwell penned track. This one’s entitled Secret Beginnings. The first part of the process for Allen is to decide on a suitable guitar sound. Right from the offset a clean tone with a smooth jazz vibe along the lines of Pat Metheny was what he was hearing. The Les Paul is a great choice for this type of tone since that was what the guitar was originally designed to do. The song is in B minor for the most part, but as Allen reflects there are always some tricky changes in the backing tracks that Jason sends him, “to keep me on my toes”. The B section is still in the B minor ballpark, but he once again drives home the importance…

STEVE THORNE / GETTY IMAGES The Manic Street Preachers formed in Caerphilly, Wales in 1986 with vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield, bass player Nicky Wire and drummer Sean Moore. They were later joined by Richey Edwards (guitar, lyrics), and went on to become one of the most successful British bands. As well as three UK number 1 albums, numerous awards including eleven NME, eight Q and four BRITs, they have also had two nominations for the Mercury Prize. All this plus headlined shows including Glastonbury, Reading and the V Festival. Their lyrics are often politically charged and controversial; their debut New Art Riot EP aimed verbal attacks at fellow musicians and one of their early video appearances featured Nicky Wire dressed as Marilyn Monroe plus visual references to Aleister…

One of the original guitar heroes, Jimi Hendrix helped to change the face of both music and guitar playing. His death in 1970 puts him in the fabled ‘27 club’ alongside Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Robert Johnson and Richey Edwards. James Marshall Hendrix was born in Seattle in 1942. By his late teens he had been caught in numerous stolen vehicles and was given an ultimatum - either go to prison or join the US army. In 1961, Hendrix started basic training before joining the 101st Airborne Division. Here he met bassist Billy Cox who was most impressed with Hendrix’s playing. Jimi performed in various army clubs, but his passion for the instrument often found him being punished for neglecting army duties. Not surprisingly,…

Harmonics come in various forms and in this lesson we will look at different ways to incorporate them into chords. We will utilise natural harmonics, a mix of fretted notes and natural harmonics as well as tapped and artificial harmonics. Our first example uses natural harmonics to outline an E minor chord progression. Prog fans will recognise this as a Steve Howe trademark, made famous in his work with Yes. The open strings automatically provide us with an E minor chord, so the natural harmonics tend to work well within that key. Place your finger directly over the fretwire and touch the string gently, without pushing down on to the fret. Now strum while simultaneously lifting off your fretting finger and you should hear a nice chiming sound. This works…