Indice dei contenuti per May 2016 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…

“TO MAKE GT EVEN BETTER, HOW ABOUT A BIT MORE POST-PUNK, NEW WAVE AND ALT-ROCK?” JUST LIKE EDDIE I was ecstatic to come across your February 2016 issue with the Jazz lesson devoted to Eddie Lang. The examples were authentic and covered the many facets of Eddie’s playing very well. It was also quite helpful to see how modes applied to his playing, whether he consciously thought of them in that way or not. And now I even know what brand of strings he used! One small error concerns Example 5 in the lesson. That particular solo break in Blue Room was played by Lonnie Johnson, not Eddie. Eddie took the first solo and Lonnie took the lead for the remainder of the song. By that time in his career…

IGF Residential Summer School and Festival offers a unique contemporary guitar summer school experience with five courses that run side-by-side across the week for all abilities and many tastes including, jazz, blues, rock, acoustic and a brand new course for 2016, The Top 40 Guitarist – perfect for those who can’t choose between your favourite genres. In the evenings you can join the IGF House Band for jam sessions until late as you hone your performing skills for the end-of-course final student concert. As well as jamming and lessons there will be a number of gigs and concerts throughout the week for you to enjoy. The IGF Summer School is fully residential and all in one place: the picturesque grounds of Shrewsbury School. Five different courses run side-by-side during the…

MORE AND MORE PLAYERS are taking notice of luthier John Monteleone’s exquisite guitars. Particularly stunning are the Radio Flyer, a contemporary single-cut acoustic archtop and the Radio City that offers a more traditional flavour. The names acknowledge the importance of the radio for all forms of American music and both portray stunning attention to detail. The Flyer has‘dolphin’sound holes on the top and incorporates Monteleone’s side sound holes too. SCOTLAND VOTES TO CREATE ITS OWN parliament; Scottish scientists successfully clone an adult sheep and call her Dolly; the greenhouse effect is blamed for the increase in ground ice breaking off in Alaska; and El Nino forms in the oceans causing unstable weather conditions including increases in hurricanes and drought. DIANA PRINCESS OF WALES CALLS FOR a ban on international land…

K MAZUR / GETTY IMAGES “THE BACKING TRACK COULD MAKE A GREAT LAUNCH PAD FOR YOUR OWN IMPROVISATIONS, IN THE SPIRIT THAT BB AND ERIC PLAYED” ABILITY RATING Info Key Bmajor Tempo 78bpm CD TRACKS 8-9 Will improve your… Phrasing Timing Improvisation Three O’Clock Blues was originally recorded by bluesman Lowell Fulson in 1946, then covered by BB King in 1951. More than any other song, it is responsible for catapulting BB into the international spotlight. Interestingly, though it was his first hit it wasn’t his first recording. There had been a few previous releases produced by Sun Records’ legendary Sam Phillips (pre-Elvis), but sales had been relatively low. However, something about the comparatively lo-fi sound recording – reputedly made in a makeshift studio at Memphis YMCA – and the…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 GREEN DAY CD TRACK 12 A simple pop-punk riff is almost always made of harmonies of intervals such as 4ths and 5ths. Play this example with a strong right-hand attack and overdriven high-gain amplifier – and try to muster as much teenage angst as you can! EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 DAVE MATTHEWS CD TRACK 13 This is a nice chord pattern played with a funky folk rhythm, given the nature of the Dave Matthews style. Pick down on the bass section of the chords and up on the top strings to give the part a brighter attack. There are also some ghost notes to help the part sound more dynamic. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 KIRK HAMMETT CD TRACK 14 This tapped lick from the Master Of…

“IT’S GOOD TO BE ABLE TO VISUALISE THE NEW SCALE UNDER THE FINGERS BEFORE THE CHORD HAPPENS”Allen Hinds ABILITY RATING Info Key:F# minor Tempo:112 bpm CD:CD-ROM Will improve your Switching between tonalities Rock and blues vocabulary Speed and fluency Sometimes, guitarists like nothing better than to play over a wild tempo track with a slight swing feel to it. There’s room for numerous rhythmic groupings (eighths to sextuplets) as well as space for emotive feel playing. We conclude Allen Hinds’ six-part video series with a track just like this: Jason Sidwell’s Bada Bling. As Allen explains, the backing track is an interesting one as there are already guitars recorded, which can happen on sessions. A choice needs to be made between copying certain phrases or playing in between them. As…

“A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF THE MINOR PENTATONIC INTERVALS IS A STEPPING STONE TO YOU CREATING OTHER, FULLER SCALES” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 43-54 Will improve your… Down-tuned riffing Natural harmonics Whammy bar control Mötley Crüe have been rocking for three and a half decadent decades, having formed in Los Angeles in 1981 and eventually playing their final show in the same city in December 2015. For a band so renowned for their hedonistic behaviour, they have remained surprisingly loyal to one another. Bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist Mick Mars were stalwarts of the band throughout, whereas drummer Tommy Lee and vocalist Vince Neil were both there at the beginning and end, despite a couple of blips in the middle. Mötley Crüe’s breakthrough album was the 1983 release Shout…

“BUCKLEY’S GUITAR STYLE IS A FASCINATING BLEND OF BLUES, ROCK, JAZZ AND EASTERN MUSIC INFLUENCES” ABILITY RATING Info Key:D Major Tempo:62 bpm CD:TRACKS 71-72 Will improve your… Awareness of chord progressions Relaxed strumming in 6/8 Resolving of dissonant chords It’s rare for the son of a musical legend to supersede his father but Jeff Buckley was an artist that achieved that feat. The son of 60s folk hero Tim Buckley, Jeff lived a short life but left an incredible musical legacy that continues to inspire today. Jeff Buckley was born in Anaheim, California in November 1966 and was raised by his mother and stepfather – interestingly, he is supposed to have only met his father, Tim, once when he was eight years old. When Tim died of a drug overdose…

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN Buyit Excellent Good Average Binit! Album of the Month BEN POOLE TIME HAS COME Manhaton Records Currently touring the UK this is the ideal time for a new album, and it’s nothing short of a triumph. Ben says that for this outing he wanted to get a balance between his performance playing and studio work and he’s confident that it’s been achieved. We agree wholeheartedly and this album exudes class and prowess throughout. His wide musical tastes and influences mean we get rock, pop and soul elevating it above most blues-based albums around today. Ben is playing his heart out and his vocals have never sounded better. The material is strong, from the riffy and forceful Lying To Me to the gentler strains of You’ve Changed,…

TRANSCRIPTION #1 STEELY DAN Don’t Take Me Alive Phil Capone tabs a stunning track from one of jazz-rock’s finest bands with a glorious Larry Carlton guitar solo. TRANSCRIPTION #2 FERNANDO SOR Study: Opus 6, Number 11 Bridget Mermikides arranges and transcribes another fantastic piece by the master of classical guitar etudes. VIDEO MASTERCLASS #1 SOLO JAZZ With Tim Lerch If you’ve not checked him out on YouTube – do so. Tim comes to GT with some great pieces you’ll want to play. VIDEO MASTERCLASS #2 ROCK SOLOING With Brett Garsed Be prepared for some more staggering playing as Brett takes over from Allen Hinds. Check out this amazing slide fest! What they are and how to use... SLASH CHORDS D over G? C over E? What’s that all about? We…

I LOVE ACOUSTIC guitars and guitarists just as much as I do electrics and their players. And, just as many of us ‘need’ both humbucking and single-coil tones (in my case P-90 too) the same sonic case can be made for acoustics. I have two steel-stringers – a Martin D-28 and a Gibson J-185. The Martin, my all-rounder, stays home but might do the occasional pub gig with mates – it’s second-hand and I traded it with another Martin. It has a good pickup fitted so is ready should I get the call. The Gibson is my stage acoustic: it looks fabulous, like a slightly scaled down and less overtly ornate J-200 and I only ever use it for strumming. I got into acoustic via James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and…

BASED UPON A simple E7-D7-A7 (V-IV-I) progression, this month’s lick is a constant 16th-note phrase that uses notes from the underlying chords with the added open first string played as a pedal tone throughout. Nearly all the fretted notes on this string fall on downbeats, while the open-string notes fall on up beats. The second-string notes then fill up the gaps and are played on the remaining second and fourth 16th notes. You can play this using just the pick, with pick and fingers or, as I personally prefer, with fingers only – thumb and first finger playing the second and first strings respectively. To me, it sounds a lot more ‘snappy’ and appropriate like this. On the recording I used a Telecaster with a clean-ish sound but it will…

1 Funk jam (G) Let’s start with this old-school funk jam in G. At 71 bpm it’s quite slow and ideal for warming up as well as practising your 16th -note funk strumming patterns. There are two sections; one based on a G chord (G7, G9, G13, etc) and one based on a C chord (C7, C9, C13, etc). For single-notes lines and soloing, try G minor Pentatonic (G-B b -C-D-F), G Mixolydian (G-A-B-C-D-E-F) and G Dorian (G-A-B b -C-D-E-F). 2 Slow blues shuffle (G) You can play along to this slow blues shuffle jam in G using easy open chords (G-C-D) or practise your soloing using the G minor Pentatonic scale (G-B b -C-D-F). It’s also a great idea – and a classic blues trick – to mix in…

“HOLST WAS ALSO AN ARRANGER, A MUSIC FESTIVAL ORGANISER, A TROMBONIST AND A DEDICATED TEACHER” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 10-11 Will improve your… Simultaneous melody and accompaniment Chord voicing and inversions Technical accuracy of both hands The British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) is perhaps most famous for The Planets orchestral suite (written before the discovery of Pluto, so it became dated and then prescient when it was ‘declassified’ to a dwarf planet in 2006). He was, in fact, also a brilliant and prodigious composer of over 200 works in a range of genres. He had a vigorous style influenced by such diverse composers as Vaughan Williams, Wagner, Strauss, Grieg and Ravel, which in turn inspired many composers including Tippett, Britten and – in reciprocation -…

“JEFF BECK DEDICATED HIS INSTRUMENTAL, BECAUSE WE’VE ENDED AS LOVERS, TO ROY” ABILITY RATING Info Key:A and G Tempo:45 bpm CD:TRACKS 18-21 Will improve your Country blues soloing String bending Pinched harmonics Born Leroy Buchanan on September 23 1939 in Ozark, Arkansas and raised in Pixley, California – a farming community near Bakersfield, Roy Buchanan enjoyed his early musical influences at mixed-race Pentecostal revival meetings with his mother, Minnie. Although blues was always his first love, he started off on steel guitar, which explains the country-style string-bending that formed a large part of his approach to improvising. Aged 15, Roy was already on the road playing with Johnny Otis’s rhythm revue band. Circa 1958 he made his recording debut with Dale Hawkins, playing a solo on the cut My Babe…

“WHEN SOLOING, THE ACID TEST IS THAT YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO CONVEY THE SOUND OF THE CHORD PROGRESS EVEN WHEN THE CHORDS AREN’T THERE” ABILITY RATING Info Key:A Tempo:120 bpm CD:TRACKS 26-30 Will improve your… Use of tension and release Ability to employ chord tones Blues solo sophistication In the previous series of lessons, we looked at combining the minor Blues scale with Mixolydian over dominant 7th chords. In this and the following lesson, we’re going to put a lot of the principles that we have learned into practise via a series of single-note 12-bar blues choruses. Firstly, let’s take a typical 12-bar blues progression in the key of A. (See chart opposite). Generally, it’s important to work on each of the three following basic soloing approaches individually before…

“I DON’T BELIEVE ANYONE IMPROVISES 100% OF THE TIME. THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS YOU NEED TO FALL BACK ON TO FILL IN SPACE”Emily Remler ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 55-70 Will improve your… Phrasing through changes Picking technique Stylistic authenticity Born in New York in 1957, Emily Remler started her career as something of a rocker. Particular favourites were the classic blues-rock legends such as Hendrix, Clapton, Johnny Winter and The Beatles. A passion in high school for Indian music prompted her to take her musical education more seriously so she enrolled at Berklee College of Music. It was here that she became exposed to jazz, turned on by the recordings of Charlie Christian and Paul Desmond, saxophonist from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. From here she moved onto…

“THE MECHANISM FOR VIBRATO IS THE SAME AS FOR BENDING, BUT NOW WE HAVE TO PERFORM A QUICK SUCCESSION OF STRING BENDS” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:90 bpm CD:TRACKS 73-82 Will improve your… General technique Finger vibrato Hand strength In our previous visit to the woodshed, we looked at bending strings with all four of our fingers while making sure that the forearm muscles take the strain and not the fingers themselves, so as not to cause pain and even injury. On the whole, the mechanics of string bending involves resting the side of your first finger knuckle on the underside of the fretboard and using that as a pivot while turning the wrist to change the angle of your finger in relation to that pivot point. This effectively turns…

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…

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 bit.ly/guitartechniques (if you…

LISA RITTER “CLAPTON MADE A HOWLER OF A MISTAKE AND A CAPTION CAME UP ON SCREEN SAYING ‘OOPS!’” GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? BP: I play a lot with my fingers, but when I do switch to a pick I use Dunlop Jazz III XLs. SN: I played Dunlop Tortex standard .73 until recently, when Orange gave me a bunch, which were up a gauge and I enjoyed using them. They are the only pics that I can use without dropping them. GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three...? BP: The Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster is a great boost that just thickens the tone slightly. Octavius by Big Knob Pedals in LA is a great octave and…

“USING AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR STRIKES AT THE VERY HEART OF THE TRADITIONAL BLUES SOUND” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 4-7 Will improve your… Blues feel and phrasing Solo acoustic guitar playing Knowledge of blues vocabulary The aim of this feature is to improve your solo acoustic guitar playing and overall knowledge of blues vocabulary. You’ll find a wealth of classic licks and I’m sure plenty of new ideas, whichever level your playing is currently at. The acoustic guitar strikes at the very heart of the traditional blues sound and you simply can’t beat it when looking for that smoky campfire party piece. We have split this feature into four levels with a complete performance piece for each level. The ideas and techniques get steadily more advanced…

“THERE ARE FREQUENT MOMENTS OF DAZZLING VIRTUOSITY ON DISPLAY, BUT NEVER AT THE EXPENSE OF THE SONG” ABILITY RATING Info Key:A major Tempo:128 bpm CD:TRACKS 23-24 Will improve your… Tapping and legato Part writing for guitar and bass General rock technique The Winery Dogs is a truly virtuoso rock trio. They’ve recently released their second album and are going from strength to strength. The band comprises Richie Kotzen on vocals and guitar, plus Mr Big bassist Billy Sheehan and ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Kotzen was a teenage whizzkid from the Shrapnel Records days of the late 1980s and spent time in both Poison and Mr Big. His successful solo career has seen him record rock, blues, jazz and acoustic-based records. He’s also a formidable singer and The Winery Dogs’…

As you may know the Major scale can be harmonised into four-note chords by building in 3rds: R-3-5-7 from each scale degree. This process gives you four important chord types: major 7, minor 7, dominant 7 and minor 7 flat 5. There are two approaches to voicing these chords, first up is close or (closed) voicings. Close voicings have the notes of the chord placed in a row of 3rds in the order they appear in the parent scale (R-3-5-7), and are contained within an octave: the other approach is open voicings, which have larger gaps between the notes, especially from the root to the next note; and can be ordered differently (R-5-7-3, R-7-3-5 etc); here the voicings are contained within two octaves. Let’s look at chords derived from the…

“THE OPTIONS ARE ENDLESS AND THE CREATIVE POSSIBILITIES THAT PRESENT THEMSELVES ARE SERIOUSLY EXCITING” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACK CD-ROM Will improve your… Musical creativity Fretboard knowledge Lateral thinking The capo is a familiar tool for guitarists needing to change keys effortlessly and retain common fingerings without resorting to barre chords. But for many of us, it’s left gathering dust. Yet, this little device can impact on your playing in many ways, including acting like alternative tunings but without the hassle! Yes, you heard right: without the hassle! There are an overwhelming range of capo types on the market, but many modern versions give us the option to cover four or five strings instead of all six; there are even some that can cover three in the middle, or…

SPRING GT255 THE EAGLES Remembering Glenn Frey and other Eagles six-stringers: Leadon, Walsh and Felder. Pantera’s Cemetery Gates tabbed, with a monster solo from Dimebag plus another great video lesson from Allen Hinds and style studies in The Pixies, Whitesnake and more. APRIL GT254 GENIUS OF CLAPTON With nine pages of solos, riffs and licks, we explore the genius of Clapton! Plus, our tribute to David Bowie is a look at his personal style and an exploration of his stellar six-string sidekicks! Plus, video lessons from Allen Hinds and Chris Woods and more! MARCH GT253 FASTER FINGERS Follow our step-by-step plan for quicker, slicker, better playing – guaranteed! Get your fingers around Free’s 70s smash hit rocker, Wishing Well; learn the art of modern percussive playing in part 1 of…