Innehållsförteckning för September 2016 från 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…

“USUALLY, WHEN PEOPLE START TALKING ABOUT ALTERED SCALES MY BRAIN INSTANTLY SHUTS DOWN” BACK TO THE FUTURAMA - 2 I recently read your Talkback page in issue 259 of GT, and I noticed a letter from a Mr George Stapley inquiring about a Futurama Coronado Guitar. I know someone who is currently selling one and I would be happy to put them in touch with you if required? It is currently for sale in Twisty’s Music store in Liverpool and I have attached a photograph as evidence! Ian Ward Thanks, Ian. The power of print in action! I’ve forwarded your email to Mr Stapley so he can take it from here if he wishes. Thanks for your keen-eyed spotting. USE YOUR EARS! I absolutely loved John Wheatcroft’s Exotic Blues feature…

GIBSON LAUNCHES THE L-50 – an early dreadnought-shaped arched spruce top with a bound body and maple back and sides. It’s manufactured with a regular soundhole and pearl dot inlays in the ebony fingerboard but soon the body evolves into a regular dreadnought shape with f-holes and trapezoid shaped inlays. All are finished in dark mahogany sunburst with the scratchplate glued to the arched surface. THE RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL (in all its Art Deco glory) is opened in New York allowing the public to see high-quality entertainment in beautiful surroundings. Best-selling records include All Of Me by Louis Armstrong and (appropriate for the time) Brother Can You Spare A Dime by Bing Crosby. Buck Rogers of the 25th Century makes its debut on US Radio and in…

SIPA PRESS / REX LEBRECHT / ALAMY, GAB ARCHIVE / GETTY “OUR EXAMPLES WILL GIVE YOU AN OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNIQUES AND CHORD VOICINGS THAT GIVE THIS STYLE ITS SPECIAL SOUND” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo 225bpm CD TRACKS 3-14 Will improve your… Chord vocabulary Fretboard knowledge Rhythmic creativity Before we start, it’s worth pointing out that, although this feature is labelled ‘Motown’, these ideas are readily transferable (with perhaps a tweak here and there) to many other styles of music. Set up by Berry Gordy in Detroit in 1959, Motown kick-started the career of a long list of artists, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and many more than we have room to list here. However, this article is more concerned with the guitarists that…

CHRONICLE / ALAMY “DESPITE WRITING SOME OF OUR MOST ROUSING AND BOMBASTIC PIECES, ELGAR WAS, IN FACT, A HUMBLE AND MELANCHOLIC CHARACTER” ABILITY RATING Info Key D major Tempo 70 bpm CD TRACKS 49-50 Will improve your… Fretting hand precision Separation of melody and accompaniment Romantic solo repertoire In this instalment of our classical guitar series we return to the work of one of England’s most celebrated composers, Edward Elgar (1857-1934) whose Nimrod (from the Enigma Variations) appeared in GT225. Elgar was inspired by the great romantic composers of continental Europe (including Brahms, Schumann and Wagner) but somehow managed to develop this style into an individualistic – and now iconically English – musical voice. Despite writing some of England’s most rousing and bombastic pieces such as the (very Proms-friendly) Pomp…

ZUMA PRESS / ALAMY “THAT’S THE BIG PAY OFF: TO WALK ONSTAGE EVERY NIGHT AND WATCH THE FANS SING ALONG – IT’S TOTAL FULFILMENT” ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 52-55 Will improve your Minor Blues scale soloing Dominant 12/8 soloing Blues-rock feel and attitude Kenny Wayne Shepherd (Kenny Wayne Brobst) was born on June 12, 1977 and grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana. His grandmother gave him his first guitar around the age of four, but he says he really started working at his playing at the (still tender!) age of seven. His inspiration at that time came after being taken to a Stevie Ray Vaughan gig by his dad who was promoting the event. He was left, in his words, “pretty mesmerised” by the experience. Kenny…

KAZIMIERZ JUREWICZ / ALAMY “I CONSIDER MYSELF MORE OF A BLUES-ROCK PLAYER, BUT I BORROW FROM JAZZ AND I LIKE THE COLOUR IT BRINGS TO MUSIC ” Scott Henderson ABILITY RATING Info Key: G blues/A blues Tempo: 130 bpm CD: TRACKS 70-73 Will improve your… Sophisticated vocabulary Vibrato arm expression Ability to ‘make the changes’ Scott Henderson combines the dynamic expression of Hendrix and SRV with the harmonic potential of Coltrane and Miles Davis. A typical performance could contain Jimi-like Pentatonic blazing, huge Albert King style bends and Beck-style whammy bar antics. We might also hear chromatically-embellished chord tone action that wouldn’t sound out of place from the sax of Michael Brecker. Not surprising really when you consider the time he spent with Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, two of…

ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 78-87 Will improve your… Finger strength Fretting hand dexterity Finger stretch/reach This month we focus on fretting-finger dexterity with some exercises designed to test and improve control, independence and stamina between your fingers. As an added challenge, we’ll concentrate our efforts on what is for most people the weaker side of the hand and use only the second, third and fourth fingers, taking the more naturally strong first digit out of the equation. Players like George Lynch and Paul Gilbert actually favour using these fingers (certainly for practice regimes), but this could be because they have a huge amount of talent, remarkably long fourth fingers – or both! The exercises use a combination of legato technique and picking, which should help…

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN Buyit Excellent Good Average Binit! WONDERLAND PARK JUST GET IN (Wonderland Park Music) Allen Hinds has two new albums coming, this one is from his new trio, Wonderland Park. Containing seven (mostly) instrumentals, they are fusion based with lashings of Americana, southern rock, blues, New Orleans grooves and ambient Joni Mitchell-esque sonics (think Hejira). Fans of Scott Henderson or Michael Landau will revel in this. Allen’s rich electric tones perfectly shape his diverse vocabulary; All Due Respect features a great crunchy Strat while the glassy toned picking, ambient slide lines and soaring lead on Just Get In show his chord and string bending savvy. With its wide open production, Wonderland Park is as much about sympathetic rhythmic interplay as a context for Allen to weave his…

WE’VE DONE A few features on rhythm guitar over the years, and they seem to go down really well. As we so often say, rhythm is what we guitarists spend most of our time doing, and yet it’s an area where many of us fall down. The reason could be simply that it’s not as sexy as playing lead so we don’t bother. And yet, if you want a job in a decent band, or wish to do sessions, the ability to come up with interesting, cohesive and complementary parts will be vital if you’re to survive. One bunch of players that did just that was the three-guitar line-up of Robert White, Eddie Willis and Joe Messina at Motown, in Detroit. Said to have played on more number ones than…

NICK DELANEY “IMAGINE YOUR FAVOURITE SOLO IN YOUR MIND. CAN YOU HEAR THE NOTES, THE RHYTHM, THE TONE?” This month I want to delve into the mystical world of ‘playing what you hear’, what it really means, how I think it might work and how you can develop it. So to start with, what is hearing music? Think about your favourite guitar solo in your mind. Can you hear the notes? Can you hear the rhythm? Can you imagine the tone? Like most things I think the learning to ‘hear in your imagination’ is a skill that can be practiced by doing it; a little time each day imagining riffs, licks or lines is a great way to develop it. If you can sing what you hear in your imagination…

MICHAEL LAMONT “IT’S IMPORTANT NOT TO FALL BACK ON TECHNIQUE. A GREAT MELODY SHOULD BE ENOUGH IN ITSELF” GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you? SH: If it’s nylon classical, it’s the self sufficiency. If it’s electric, it’s the excitement that it produces. GT: What can an instrumental provide that a vocal song can’t? SH: Sometimes a poetic title is all the lyrics you need to make the dream complete. GT: What do you embrace or avoid? SH: It’s important not to fall back on technique too much. A great melody should be enough in itself. I try to tailor the tone to fit the phrase and the line. GT: Is a typical song structure always relevant? SH: An instrumental doesn’t need to be limited by…

1 Slow Blues in E Here we have a slow blues in E at just 55bpm, which you can approach in a variety of ways. E minor Pentatonic scale (E-G-A-B-D) will work – and so will E major Pentatonic (E-F#-G#- B-C#), although the latter works best on the I chord (E9) and V chord (B9). Try mixing in some E Mixolydian mode (E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D) – this works perfectly for the I chord (E9). 2 Rockout in G Here’s a fun uptempo rock track in G. Of course, you can use G minor Pentatonic (G-B b -C-D-F) and G minor Blues scale (G-B b -C-C#-D-F) as a starting point, but the track works well with quite a few more colourful scales. The chord progression is: G-B b maj7-Cadd9-A b maj7. Try using…

“ROBERT JOHNSON’S FINGERSTYLE ACOUSTIC BLUES EMPLOYED UNUSUAL DIMINISHED VOICINGS AND CHROMATIC MOVEMENTS TO LEAD FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 15-48 Will improve your… Authority as a soloist Range of approaches Stylistic awareness What do Chuck Berry, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Albert King, Jimi Hendrix and countless others have in common? No, there isn’t a punchline: the answer is a knowledge of the basic blues format and the ability to blend it into their own contemporary styles. The first thing you often hear on any blues record is a ‘taster’ of what is to come, courtesy of some fancy or soulful licks. Sometimes this is called a ‘turnaround’ – the bit at the end of a 12-bar progression when everything…

Watching George Benson on the second Sky Arts series of Guitar Star, he recalled a comment made by his early mentor, the organist Jack McDuff. Jack thought he was too ‘mousey’, too quiet for him to assess his pupil’s musical quality. Turning up his amp’s volume made George’s playing count, improving not only his conviction but also how the other musicians could interact with him on stage. A win-win scenario. Volume and dynamics isn’t a hugely discussed topic in GT as we’re usually focused on technique, theory, etc. But volume is an issue that affects you, your band members and your audience. Too quiet and no one really clocks what you’re doing (if you’re not adding to a band’s sound, sooner or later you’ll be dismissed). Likewise, too loud a…

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES “DICK DALE’S PLAYING INFLUENCED OTHER ROCK GUITAR ROYALTY, SUCH AS JIMI HENDRIX AND EDDIE VAN HALEN” ABILITY RATING Info Key: A minor Tempo: 147 bpm CD: TRACKS 56-57 Will improve your… Surf-style picking Exotic scale knowledge Playing along one string Dick Dale is an American guitarist known as the King of Surf guitar – and the man who pioneered surf style music in the 1960s. His fast staccato, tremolo-picked guitar lines are often cited as being the precursor to heavy metal music. He is a guitar player who pushed the boundaries of what technology could do at the time by starting to overdrive his amps into a distorted tone. Notably, he worked closely with Fender in designing the first ever 100-watt guitar amplifier. His…

WENN LTD / ALAMY “McLEAN STARTED IN THE AMERICAN FOLK SINGER-SONGWRITER SCENE IN THE EARLY 70S WITH PETE SEEGER” ABILITY RATING Info Key: G Tempo: 94 bpm CD: TRACK 74 Will improve your… Accompaniment Picking accuracy Open position scale ideas Conjure an image of Don McLean and the first thing that comes to mind is probably his über-smash strumming tour de force American Pie, a modern classic that topped the charts at the start of 1972. Listen to tracks like Vincent and Empty Chairs, however, where the guitar is playing a more prominent, fingerpicked role and you’ll hear McLean’s full range on his favoured Martin. As with many other artists of his generation McLean started out in the folk singer-songwriter scene of America in the 1960s, performing alongside his friend…

Welcome to this issue’s instalment of Chord Camp. As you expand your chord vocabulary you will find some chords are described as ‘altered’. These are chords that have specific notes changed from their basic formulae. Let’s start by looking at one of the most common and useful families: dominant 7th chords, and the ‘alterations’ of the 5th degree, the dominant 7th chord with a diminished (or flattened) 5th and the dominant 7th with an augmented (or sharpened) 5th. To clarify, the description ‘altered’ is being applied to specific notes (here the 5th) within the chord, not to the overall chord itself (ie: it’s not a 5 chord that’s being ‘altered’). This is another topic that will be discussed properly later on. Let’s kick off this month’s lesson with a recap…

ERIC CLAPTON I STILL DO Bushbranch/Surfdog A new album from Clapton can arouse mixed feelings. Sometimes it’s like he’s doing what comes so naturally but without, it seems, a great deal of effort. Other times he’ll surprise us with the spirit that gave us All Your Love, Crossroads, Layla – and other assorted lovely songs. I Still Do is mostly the latter: it’s Clapton from the instant you hear his distorted bottleneck and moody vocal on Alabama Woman Blues. Can’t Let You Do It is one of those mid-tempo JJ Cale-style shuffles that EC does so well, its wah-wah slide and Stratty licks sitting perfectly in the mix. Eric’s Robert Johnson moment here is Stones In My Passway – more slide, plus great singing and fine support from a band…

FEATURE #2 THE THREE KINGS Giants of blues! Albert, Freddie and BB King arguably shaped the sound of electric blues. Now you can learn the licks that did it. TRANSCRIPTION PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY Dance Of The Little Swans Bridget Mermikides tackles another legendary composer with a brand new arrangement and tab for you. VIDEO MASTERCLASS ROCK SOLOING With Brett Garsed Brett plays an improvised solo over the Jason Sidwell track, The Investigation Of Johnny F, and we tab and explain it. TECHNIQUE & THEORY COOL, PLAYABLE LICKS Blues scale, Pentatonics, triads Bag a bunch of cool and usable licks in this month’s In The Woodshed, Creative Rock and Jazz columns. Don’t hide in the Shadows... GO INSTRU-MENTAL! Few can match The Shadows when it comes to playing timeless melodies. Discover how…

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. DISC AUDIO Sometimes the GT CD features some articles’ backing tracks as mp3 files due to space. These will be…

This month’s lick contains three short melodic ideas or‘cells’that are moved in sequence down the neck. The lick will work great over Major or Dominant chords – here it’s played against D9. All the‘cells’are four notes long. The first ascends chromatically from the 3rd (F#) to the 5th (A); the second is a bluesy approach of R-2- b 3- 3; and the final cell ascends from the 5th (A) to the root (D) – 5-6-7-1. These cells are repeated an octave lower and then cells 1 and 2 are played another octave lower before coming to rest on the root note. With practise and re-application, this idea can propagate many other interesting lines. So, experiment with these and other‘cells’in both ascending and descending directions. Have fun!…

WHO? Denise Greenwood TOWN: Longfield, Kent STYLES TAUGHT: Rock, pop, blues, general SPECIALITY: Acoustic and electric for children and adults. LEVELS: Casual, and also RGT tuition for help towards grades from beginner to intermediate. CHARGES: £20 per 1hr lesson, £10 for 30-min lesson, group lessons also available SPECIAL: Fully-equipped music room, with amps, can also supply guitars if you’d like to try out first before you buy. TEL: 07789146769 EMAIL: greenwoodgang@mac.com…

“BRETT WILL TAKE YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS OF PLANNING A FRETBOARD ROADMAP USING TARGET NOTES AND CHORD TONES” ABILITY RATING Info Key: B/Bm Tempo: 120 bpm CD: CD-ROM Will improve your… Ability to switch between tonalities Rock and fusion lead work Use of 16th-note syncopation The complexity goes up yet another notch this month with a tricky backing track to navigate as we continue our six-part video masterclass series with legato legend Brett Garsed. Here we are going to look at the fourth track by Jason Sidwell, entitled Grasshopper. As Brett explains, the track really keeps you on your toes and the chord changes are quite varied to solo over. The use of chord tones and target tones is key to navigating these tricky changes and Brett will take you…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 CRASH TEST DUMMIES CD TRACK 51 This group rose up during the 90s and is remembered for melancholic melodies and stunning harmonies. This chord change is a simple representation of an acoustic part they might employ. Take note of the controlled 6/8 movement and pick steadily. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 MöTLEY CRüE CD TRACK 51 The Sunset Strip hellraisers always played with attitude and this riff is a good example. It’s all down strokes with syncopation between the bass note and the upper 4th interval. Practise the movement between 3rd and 2nd frets on the fourth string to make the change flow smoothly. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 JOHN SCOFIELD CD TRACK 51 The lead guitar arpeggio in this example needs to sound swinging and vibey with…

FRANS SCHELLEKENS / GETTY IMAGES “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAS SO PACKED FULL OF EMOTION IT MADE GROWN MEN WEEP INTO THEIR FRETBOARDS!” ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 58-69 Will improve your… Alternate picking String skipping Big ballad soloing This Grammy-nominated 1990 release came five years after Steve Vai’s debut solo album Flex-able. With its creative songwriting, pristine production and jaw-dropping skill it’s hard to believe that Passion And Warfare was his second release. Of course, Steve was already a seasoned live performer and session guitarist, having had a stint with Frank Zappa on the albums, You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch and Them Or Us – to name but a few. Steve’s David Lee Roth period…

DAVID LYTTELTON “MANY PLAYERS NEW TO USING TRIADS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO USE INTERVALS OF A MINOR 3RD OR GREATER” ABILITY RATING Info Key: A (A7) Tempo: 120 bpm CD: TRACKS 75-77 Will improve your… Extracting triads from within a scale Incorporating triads in your solos Developing triad-based lines In previous lessons, we’ve looked at ways of deriving triads from A Mixolydian to be used as the basis for new lines. Triads can introduce harmonic propulsion into your lines by implying chord motion, creating results that sound ear-catching and powerful. So far, we’ve looked at the ‘vertical’ use of triads whereby ideas have been confined to a single area of the neck; however, now we’re going to look at playing ‘lateral’ ideas: ones that take us along the neck. Rather…

AUGUST GT259 EXOTIC BLUES Spice up your playing, learn new notes to excite your sound and ditch those tired, predictable licks with our Exotic Blues feature! Learn the rhythm and lead styles of Angus and Malcolm Young, plus Gaspar Sanz’ Canarios transcribed and much more! MAY GT256 ACOUSTIC BLUES Four fantastic acoustic blues pieces for you to try – from simple to challenging. Learn BB King’s classic Three O’Clock Blues as re-imagined with Eric Clapton for Riding With The King. Plus, style studies in Mötley Crüe, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Buckley and Emily Remler. JULY GT258 ABOVE THE 12TH FRET New licks to play and a whole new lickbag for the ‘dusty end’. Plus, we pay tribute to the staggering talent of Prince; Derek And The Dominos’ Key To The Highway…

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…