Table of contents for Spring 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! LES DAVIDSON Les has worked with Mick Taylor, Rumer, Jon Anderson, Pete Townshend, Tina Turner & more. He also runs a recording studio and teaches at BIMM London. CHARLIE GRIFFITHS Guitar Institute tutor Charlie first came to fame in…

CHORD MELODY SOLO? I’d really appreciate some help with a problem of arrangement that I can’t seem to solve. For years I’ve been learning solo jazz pieces. I started with Guitar Techniques transcriptions and have acquired material through tab, songsheets and good old-fashioned listening, as well as re-learning my playing technique. The result is a good repertoire of jazz standards which have been well received by everyone I’ve played them to. So what’s the problem? Well, whenever I hear a professional guitarist playing a chord melody solo it’s just different from what I do - it has a structure and style that goes far beyond the original song. My versions are well-developed with extended chord voicings, but they often sound more like ‘easy listening’ music than jazz. It would be…

MARTIN GUITARS INTRODUCES a simple border of straight lines on its archtop range in stark contrast to the traditional‘herringbone’ purfling that has been used since the 1850s. It’s a bold move but definitely serves to give their models a more modern persona and of course the excellence in design and build remains constant. However the herringbone is retained on the new D-28 which features a solid spruce top, rosewood back and sides and an ebony fingerboard with pearl diamond shaped inlays. BOLDLY ARRIVING INTO THE WORLD ARE Sam Cooke, Lonnie Donegan, Skeeter Davis, Ike Turner, Jim Nesbitt along with actors James Dean, Diana Dors, Les Dawson, Lionel Blair and Star Trek stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. ASTRONOMER EDWIN HUBBLE AND ALBERT Einstein begin doing research at the California…

“A COMMON MISTAKE IN FREE STROKE IS FOR THE FINGERS TO BE CLAW-LIKE AND PULL THE STRINGS” ON THE CD TRACKS 24-39 ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 24-39 Will improve your… Picking hand stability Rest and free stroke Tremolo and rasgueado Any fingerstyle player knows how crucial it is to develop good technique in their picking hand. Once in full flow this hand relies almost exclusively on touch and feel. However, unlike the fretting hand, which gets plenty of visual attention, the picking hand is rarely glanced at. This feature focuses mainly on classical techniques with some basic flamenco elements thrown in. And although everything here can be translated to steel-string, I am addressing tone and touch in a way that’s more relevant to nylon strings…

ILPO MUSTO / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK  ON THE CD TRACKS52-53 “MIKE RUTHERFORD’S PLAYING HAS ALWAYS BEEN RESTRAINED, AND THE SONGS NEVER FEATURE GRATUITOUS GUITAR SOLOING” ABILITY RATING Info Key: A Tempo: 127 bpm CD: TRACKS 52-53 Will improve your… Playing in odd time signatures Playing for the song Intricate part writing Genesis has been around since their formation at Charterhouse School in Surrey in 1967. Original singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett (who replaced Anthony Phillips) have become legends in their own right (particularly Gabriel), but it is the long-term line-up of Phil Collins on drums and vocals, Mike Rutherford on bass and then guitar, and Tony Banks on keyboards, that has seen the most commercial success. Moving from folk to progressive rock during the ’70s, the band had…

DAVID LYTTELTON “THREE-NOTES-PER-STRING SHAPES PROVIDE CONVENIENCE FOR SOME TECHNIQUES BUT WILL OFTEN MEAN STRADDLING OR DRIFTING BETWEEN CAGED SCALE SHAPES” ON THE CD TRACKS72-74 ABILITY RATING Info Key: A (A7) Tempo: 120 bpm CD: TRACKS 72-74 Will improve your… Pulling 7th arpeggios from a scale Executing 7th arpeggios 7th arpeggio-based lines Recently, we have focused on various ways of creating freshness and variety by being selective with our note choice, rather than simply playing up and down each scale. We started by looking at ways of extracting three-note entities from the scale in the form of triads; now we are going to study four-note entities, by learning how to extract various 7th arpeggios from the scale. To establish the 7th arpeggios within A Mixolydian we simply have to extend the…

THE BLUES TURNAROUND is the part of the solo that inevitably separates the men from the boys. Even in a simple three-chord trick a good soloist will outline the changes and bring colour to those final couple of bars. And when things become a little more complicated - let’s say a jazzy I-VI-II-V-I - or E-C#-F#-B-E in the key of E - the need to ‘play the changes’ becomes ever more vital. Yes, you can blast through the chords with a nicely played Pentatonic lick or two - and sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered - but do it every time and things soon begin to sound stale. And that’s what this month’s cover feature is all about. We look at how 10 blues greats have approached this short…

Things are going to change. That’s the only thing that is certain. People and things will come and go and tastes will change as you grow. Don’t be afraid of it. Respect it. Embrace it if you feel you should, but trust your gut; sometimes it’s better to rebel. Your taste will change; music you love now might bore you in years to come. How I laughed as a longhaired metal head kid when my teacher told me that I would grow to love jazz. Don’t be afraid of being wrong. Try and be in the company of people much better than you so you can learn from them. You’ll often find the highest concentration of them in big cities where you have to be strong and focused to survive;…

“SOME SONGS ARE STRUCTURED WITH A SONG SENSIBILITY IN MIND, BUT WE TRY TO MAKE IT DIFFERENT IN SOME WAY” GT: What can an instrumental provide that a vocal song can’t? TA: With instrumental song form, you don’t have to adhere to the traditional rules like verses and choruses, so there’s more freedom to experiment. Also, without lyrics and the human voice, space is freed up in the listener’s imagination. With the boundaries of what’s generally considered a song and the a human voice removed, there is not only a lot more scope to be creative; you can actually do a lot more with the instruments and parts without making the music too busy. GT: Any tendencies that you tend to embrace or avoid? TA: I approach each track differently…

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…

“I USUALLY THINK OF MY LEAD PLAYING AS ARPEGGIOS, AS OPPOSED TO MODES OR THREE-NOTES-PER-STRING SCALES” Nick Johnston ON THE CD TRACK CD-ROM ABILITY RATING Info Key: Am Tempo: 137 bpm CD: TRACKS CD-ROM Will improve your Hybrid picking Rock to blues vocabulary Semiquaver triplet rhythms GT is very excited to have this fantastic guitarist offering us rare insight into his talents. We open with a brilliant track chock full of Texas blues and instrumental rock vocabulary. Nick says that playing over the track was a challenge, so our video captures a spontaneous performance without too much over-thinking. The first thing to note is that Nick is tuned down a semitone on all strings (E b -A b -D b -G b -B b -E b ) This was popular…

ON THE CD TRACKS 42-47 EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 CHUCK BERRY CD TRACK 42 Having just released an album just before his sad death at 90 years old, we should remember the bread and butter licks Chuck that gave us - he all but invented an entire style. Here’s a classic introduction using A Minor Pentatonic scale - slide up from the 4th to the 5th fret with the first finger using triplet timing. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 JIMI HENDRIX CD TRACK 43 A variation on a couple of classic Jimi tunes. This part is a combination of rhythm and lead guitar, at which Jimi was so adept. Use downstrokes throughout focusing on solid eighth notes through the chordal parts and use a fat phaser or rotary effect (if you…

CHRIS MCKAY / GETTY IMAGES ON THE CD TRACKS54-69 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 54-69 Will improve your… Blend of bebop & blues vocabulary Rhythmic placement & phrasing Fluency through a range of keys If you can list artists as impressive and diverse as Annie Lennox, Incognito, Herbie Hancock, Jack Bruce, Pee Wee Ellis, The Crusaders, Craig David and a whole load more on your musical resume, then it’s likely that you are a highly-accomplished player and doing something that aspiring musicians should pay attention to. Such is the case with this month’s chosen artist, the London-based guitarist Tony Rémy, who for over 30 years has maintained a remarkable career as a session guitarist and touring band member ,with a bursting portfolio of recorded work, including…

ALAMY ON THE CD TRACKS75-76 In this new series, we’ll explore the essential approaches a well rounded rhythm guitarist can draw on to enhance a song. Covering numerous genres, we will focus on areas such as rhythmic patterns, chord voicings, pitch allocation (ie high/middle/low notes), single note fills and how two guitars parts can be arranged well. There is a particular art to being a great accompanist who enhances a rhythm section so this series will provide many insights into how you can excel and keep employed! So, let’s start the series with this month’s instalment that unpicks the classic blues shuffle from the 50s through to the 70s with players like Chuck Berry, Mike Bloomfield, Canned Heat, Hendrix, John Mayall, ZZ Top as well as more modern blues players…

SPRING GT268 3-STRING CHORDS Three-string chords and arpeggios are great to revitalise your rhythm and lead; check out the chords and soloing style of Steely Dan’s guitarists; play Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus; and cop the styles of SRV, Status, Quo, Toto, Tracy Chapman, Joe Diorio & more! APRIL GT267 BLUES CHORDS All the blues chords you need to know (yes, there’s more than three!), with cool ideas on how to use them. Fusion - crack the code with 10 cool jazz-rock ideas. Play Elgar’s Land Of Hope & Glory, and learn the styles of The Edge, Judas Priest, George Harrison & more! MARCH GT266 TECHNIQUE MAKEOVER Get in shape with our Technique Makeover - all aspects covered! Fancy some stylish things to play? Then Go Latin, with 10 gorgeous styles…

MARCO VAN ROOIJEN “PLAY EVERY NOTE WITH FEELING. IF IT DOESN’T HAVE EMOTION BEHIND IT, THEN IT DOESN’T MEAN A THING” Danny Bryant GT: Who was your first influence to play the guitar? DB: There was always good music around the house when I was growing up. I remember my parents had a VHS tape of Eric Clapton from one of his blues nights at the Royal Albert Hall. That really was the first thing to catch my interest. GT: What was the first guitar you really lusted after? DB: I just wanted anything that was Strat style. But my first guitar was an Encore. GT: What was the single best gig you ever did? DB: l have played some big festivals alongside some of my heroes but usually I…

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…

THIS LICK ILLUSTRATES four blues‘moves’all using notes drawn from A Blues scale (A-C-D-E b - E-G). They can be used in isolation or repeated and combined with other licks, so treat them as small cellular ideas that can be embellished upon. Move #1 involves the root (A) played as a pedal on the second string while the b 5-5 (E b -E) is played as a slide on the first. Move #2 uses funky triads on the top three strings as a base for the phrase. Move #3 is a variation on #1 with the root on the first string and the b 5-5s on the second. The final move is a country favourite - a descending 5- b 5-4 on the fourth string played against a third string A…

➊ Blues shuffle (E) Here’s a feel-good Blues shuffle in E major to get us started. You can mix E major pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#) and E minor pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) for that classic blues vibe. Knowing the main 7th arpeggios will also come in handy: E7 (E-G#-B-D), A7 (A-C#-E-G) and B7 (B-D#-F#-A). ➋ Funk fusion jazz (Gm) This jam consist of two sections. The A section goes Gm9-Eb9#11-C9-Gb/Ab and the B section goes Eb9#11-D7#9-Eb9#11-Ab13. Start with the G minor pentatonic scale (G Bb C D F) and work your way from there! Arpeggios: Gm7 (G-Bb-D-F), Eb7 (Eb-G-Bb-Db), C7 (C-E-G-Bb), Gb (Gb-Bb-Db), D7 (D-F#-A-C) and Ab7 (Ab-C-Eb-Gb). ➌ Ab Jazz blues This is a standard jazz blues progression, but as it’s basically blues you can use Ab minor blues scale (Ab-B-Db-D-Eb-Gb) as your…

DALLE / PHOTOSHOT “THE TURNAROUND CONTAINS ALL THE BLUES CHORDS BUT IN CONDENSED FORM, SO YOU NEED TO KEEP ON TOP OF THE CHANGES” ON THE CD TRACKS4-23 ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 4-23 Will improve your… Overall harmonic awarenes Playing with the changes General blues soloing What exactly is a turnaround? As its name suggests, the turnaround is a musical tool that’s used to provide harmonic interest while ‘turning’ the music back around to the start of the next verse. Generally speaking, a turnaround will be two bars long and located at the end of the chord sequence; this applies to all common forms of the blues (and jazz standards too), whether you’re faced with an eight-bar, 12-bar, or 16-bar form. But let’s consider the…

“ALBENIZ GAVE HIS FIRST PERFORMANCE AGED ONLY FOUR, AND PASSED THE ENTRANCE EXAM TO THE CONSERVATOIRE DE PARIS, AT JUST SEVEN YEARS OLD” ON THE CD TRACKS 40-41 ABILITY RATING Info Key Dm Tempo 34bpm CD TRACKS 40-41 Will improve your… Melodic phrasing with accompaniment Legato and ornamentation Fretting hand stamina Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) was a Spanish composer and virtuoso pianist whose music has at its heart a deep Spanish identity. He drew great influence from Spanish folk music and made a huge contribution to both the repertoire and appreciation of the music of his homeland. Albéniz was a truly astonishing piano virtuoso and prodigy – making his first performance aged only four and passing the entrance exam to the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of seven. By his…

ICONICPIX “WITHIN JUST A COUPLE OF YEARS DEEP PURPLE WERE AN INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS, CREDITED AS FORERUNNERS OF HEAVY METAL AND NEOCLASSICAL ROCK GUITAR MUSIC” ON THE CD TRACKS 48-51 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 48-51 Will improve your Rock-tinged bues solos Mix of picking and legato Clarity of execution Born in Weston-Super-Mare, Ritchie Blackmore has gone from humble beginnings to playing in stadiums around the world. He also gained himself a reputation as a pioneering guitarist who fused blues, rock and classical styles and helped to forge the sound of heavy metal. Ritchie first picked up a guitar aged 11 when his father told him he could have the instrument if he agreed to classical lessons. Ritchie honoured the promise and these lessons would give him…

EVERETT / PHOTOSHOT  ON THE CD TRACKS70-71 “FREY’S SONGWRITING PARTNERSHIP WITH DON HENLEY YIELDED SOME OF THE MOST MEMORABLE SONGS OF ALL TIME” ABILITY RATING Info Key: G Tempo: 109 bpm CD: TRACK 70-71 Will improve your… Syncopated fretting-hand strumming Knowledge of Major 7 and 6 chords Fretting-hand chord changes The death of Glenn Frey on January 18 2016 robbed the world of one its greatest country-rock songwriting pioneers. Frey’s work as a songwriter with both The Eagles and as a solo artist set him apart from his peers, and hits like Lyin’ Eyes, Take It Easy and New Kid In Town will be forever remembered. His writing partnership with fellow Eagle Don Henley yielded some of the most memorable country rock tracks of all time, a fact bolstered by…

ON THE CD TRACKS77-80 ABILITY RATING Info Key: A Tempo: 80 bpm CD: TRACKS 77-80 Will improve your… Playing ‘scale per chord’ ideas Targeting of chord tones Blues sophistication Last month we discovered that ‘playing the changes’ over a Minor blues can yield a more sophisticated sound and generate more musical ideas than the typical approach of jamming over the whole thing using the first position of our favourite Minor Pentatonic scale. In this lesson we will use the same approach and play over a simple Major 12-bar blues with a view to playing a different scale over each chord. Our blues progression has three different chords: A7-D7-E7, so we will also need three different scales. The chords in a Major blues are typically Dominant 7th, which has the intervals…

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN Album of the Month STEVE HACKETT THE NIGHT SIREN Inside Out Much of Hackett’s appeal is his balancing of work from his Genesis days (Wind And Wuthering’s 40th on his latest tour) with new music that involves many musicians and musical strands. The Night Siren has singers from Israel and Palestine and instruments ranging from the oud to uilleann pipes. It’s prog rock in bold strokes, interlacing virtuosity, clever arrangements and cinematic production. Behind The Smoke makes use of a quiet-loud arrangement where the heavy guitar and orchestral middle eastern riff serves as bedding for scorching lines from Steve. Martian Sea is uptempo with rich harmony vocals and killing guitar, before changing into a psychedelic mid-tempo groove. El Nino has a mix of Gilmour soaring and…

FEATURE #2 ELECTRIC BLUES... ...Fingerstyle! Playing blues using fingers only is a great sound and offers a whole new bag of licks! Published first in GT217. TRANSCRIPTION MENDELSSOHN Wedding March As the marrying season begins, what better piece for Bridget to arrange &| transcribe? Now where’s that ring? VIDEO MASTERCLASS NICK JOHNSTON Rock guitar lesson This wonderful guitarist is back for his second and final video tutorial, offering insight into his staggering playing style. TECHNIQUE & THEORY THINGS TO LEARN & PLAY New Rhythm and Slide series As direct reader requests we’ve introduced two great new series. Slide with RGT and Rhythm with ICMP. Tips, talk and musical examples on how to become a... SESSION GUITARIST We’ve got a panel of top London show and studio players…