Innehållsförteckning för June 2019 från 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…

The CAGED vs three-notes-per-string systems debate is something I’m asked about all the time. So let’s see what they mean and then look at some pros and cons. Five-pattern system or CAGED This system (or 5P) looks at all the notes of a scale, then groups them around (C-A-G-E-D) chord shapes so the patterns fit closely around those shapes. This helps to see the ‘function’ of the notes, and scale steps are never more than a step away from a chord tone. With Major scales, you have three notes on most strings but on one string you would have just two. I teach a five-pattern system that works for me, so try my note positions and fingerings, explore the variations and see what feels best for you. Three-notes-per-string (3NPS) Here…

THIS MONTH’S LICK IS loosely based on the style of intervallic phrasing that Steve Vai has often used in his solos. Steve has always avoided the most‘obvious’and cliché guitar licks. Instead, he routinely uses intervallic ideas and phrases that make use of the whole fretboard. They also tend to be a tad quirky and unpredictable – in a very good way. Today’s lick (based on ascending 5ths) is not technically difficult to play. In the first bar the 5ths are phrased in eighth notes and always approached from a scale note above. In the second bar they are all‘double picked 16th notes’played using alternate picking. This is very much a Via-ism and always works great in solos. It’s good practice for your picking chops too – why not try…

READ MUSIC Each transcription is broken down into two parts... MUSICAL STAVE The five horizontal lines for music notation show note pitches and rhythms and are divided by bar lines. TAB Under the musical stave, Tab is an aid to show you where to put your fingers on the fretboard. The six horizontal lines represent the six strings on a guitar – the numbers on the strings are fret numbers. GUITAR TECHNIQUES: HOW THEY APPEAR IN WRITTEN MUSIC... PICKING Up and down picking • The first note is to be down-picked and the last note is to be up-picked. Tremolo picking • Each of the four notes are to be alternate picked (down-& up-picked) very rapidly and continuously. Palm muting • Palm mute by resting the edge of picking-hand’s palm…

LICK 1 Bars 1-5 MAIN MOTIF This section features the motif that Paul created and plays variations on throughout his solo. Be sure to learn the basic contour and where Paul adds in his articulations. From here you can free it up and include your own preferred variations to keep the listener interested. LICK 2 Bars 25-26 FAST TRILLS Paul uses fast trills to punctuate the end of his phrases. Make sure your hammer-ons and pull-offs are sound, then build up the speed slowly. LICK 3 Bar 40 TWO-NOTES-PER-STRING PATTERNS This lick features this concept repeated across three octaves. You only need to master the fingering for one octave and then shift the same pattern to the next two octaves. Genius!…

Rhythm and blues guitarist Chris Corcoran will be looking at some guitar licks and solos that sum up the musical style that emanated from the USA in the 1940s and 50s, one that was personified by the music of artists such as Louis Jordan, Leroy Carr and Cab Calloway. Chris Corcoran plays a range of blues, jazz and swing styles with his own instrumental trio and other artists. His major influences are from the 1940s, but he adds a fresh angle, blending elements as diverse as 60s organ-trio jazz and gritty New Orleans funk. It’s a style that can be traced back to where the blues migration from the Southern states met with the burgeoning jazz scene blasting its way through the streets of New York. This music shares elements…

In this issue, I’ve arranged the piece Crimond - best known as the hymnal setting for Psalm 23 The Lord’s My Shepherd. While there have been numerous settings of this psalm over the centuries from Johann Sebastian Bach to Leonard Bernstein, John Rutter, Howard Goodall, Charles Stanford and many others, this particular tune to the text of Francis Rous (1579-1659) is perhaps the most famous and established in popular culture. It was composed by the Scottish (reportedly amateur) musician Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836-1887) – Crimond being in a village in the north-east of Scotland. It was written around 1850, as a music lesson exercise when Irvine was only a teenager. When it was published in 1872 in The Northern Psalter, its arranger David Grant was credited as composer, and it…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 BB KING CD TRACK 19 Play this exercise with a lightly overdriven tone, keeping an 8th-note triplet feel and see if you can mimic BB’s fast and exciting vibrato. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 BLINK 182 CD TRACK 20 Attack these powerchords with a straight downward stroke using the picking hand as a mute on the rests. Go for a big, thick humbucking tone if possible. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 ROBERT CRAY CD TRACK 21 This blues lick uses quarter-tone bends up to the b 5 (F), some slides and wide vibrato for a Cray style feel. Use a light chorus if desired for an authentic tone. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 4 GEORGE BENSON CD TRACK 22 For this example, dial in a warm and jazzy neck pickup…

In jazz-speak the term ‘comping’ is used as an abbreviation for accompanying. The ability to comp sensitively is one of the most effective skills to develop. Though you might have incredible single-note chops and phenomenal speed and articulation, if you can’t comp well you’ll probably never get to showcase these assets as nobody will want to play with you. Secondly, rhythm is not the poor relation to soloing. With consideration and skill, the rhythm part can be every bit as creative, challenging, hip and impressive, and you’ll find your popularity among musicians rise exponentially as your skills develop. To be a good rhythm player, you need to be a team player. Familiarise yourself with the roles of each instrument in the ‘rhythm section’, usually the drums, bass and often in…

In Cream Clapton used Gibson guitars: an SG, Les Paul, ES-335 and Firebird; and of course Marshall JTM100 amps. Although a neck humbucker with an overdriven amp is preferred, any guitar will do. To achieve Eric’s ‘woman tone’, select the neck pickup and roll the tone completely off. You will need an overdriven sound with the gain set to around 6/7. This will give you a velvety midrange honk with plenty of sustain. Cream often employed quite heavy reverb and delay, so experiment to find the tone that suits.…

In this lesson we will gain some fundamental skills with the slide. Start by finding a slide that fits your finger comfortably; not too tight that it restricts movement, but not too loose either as this will be difficult to control. Place the slide on your second, third or fourth finger and use your remaining fingers to mute the strings on the nut side of the hand. This will prevent any unwanted string resonance, particularly on acoustic guitar. The purpose of the slide is to be able to glissando from note to note, effectively making the guitar into a fretless instrument. We can of course use the frets as a guide and when playing a note, you should position the slide directly over the fret-wire to ensure good intonation. The…

JULIAN LAGE LOVE HURTS Mack Avenue ★★★★★ Lage is 31, looks much younger yet plays with the maturity of a jazzer in his 50s! This 10-track album is trio based (guitar, upright bass, drums); only two penned by Julian but all arranged by him. Julian has a rich, intimate tone, just on the edge of breakup, that fills out the trio as he comps, plays melodies and spits out crazy intervallic jumps with a perfectly honed technique. Standout tracks include Keith Jarrett’s The Windup with a bouncy bass line, a country meets Metheny melody and some stunning soloing. On The Everly Brothers’ Love Hurts Julian’s chord melody carries the essence while drums and bass add colourful weight. Jazz standard, I’m Getting Sentimental Over You is exquisite; Julian milks strong melodies…

The problem with this new fangled rock and roll craze, is that it’s an aural thing. By which I mean it’s usually conceived, composed, and performed without recourse to the expense and inconvenience of manuscript paper and sundry accessories. Which is just dandy until it becomes necessary to ponder a guitar part that was once played spontaneously, without a care in the world. How well do I remember the exact opposite of this scenario, when for many years I performed on dozens of sessions for a highly successful composer where he would refer to me as ‘The King Of Funky Strum’, hand me a sheet of A4 containing a few chord symbols and a vague map of the tune and tell me to get on with it. All he was…

This month we present an exclusive masterclass with rock guitar legend Paul Gilbert. PG exploded onto the 1980s rock music scene with his exciting blend of fast technical soloing and power tools! He has maintained a fabulous solo career and has been part of legendary rock bands Mr Big and Racer X. PG starts his detailed solo analysis with a handy tip for creating a memorable motif. A strong melody frames his playing on Not To Meander and is the launch pad for his solo. Paul vocalises a melody and then adds lyrics, helping to establish an organic, memorable rhythm: “It’s hard not to meander, when you ain’t got nothing to say,” intones Paul. The scale of choice for the A section is B Dorian (B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A), which sounds great against…

Sometimes you put a record on, not knowing quite what to expect, and what leaps out of the speakers holds you spellbound from the first note to the last. So it was when we played the aptly named Listen Up! by British guitarist Chris Corcoran and his trio for the first time. Imagine T-Bone Walker meets Scotty Moore, with a bit of Barney Kessel thrown in, and you’ll have an idea where Corcoran’s sound comes from. He uses no effects, his guitar cost £80 from a junk shop and you may well not have heard of him before. And yet the album is one of the most exciting, raw and inventive jazz-blues records you’ll hear all year. What’s more, it’s all instrumental. Most guitarists have some breathing space when the…

At some point most acoustic guitarists become aware of ‘The Celtic Sound’, be it through early forays into DADGAD tuning, hearing the whimsical sound of standards like Danny Boy or through listening to traditional acts like The Chieftains. Broadly speaking there are two ways in which the guitar operates in the Celtic environment – either as an accompaniment tool backing up vocals and other instruments, or as a complete solo instrument performing repertoire from the vast Celtic canon. There are some important distinctions to be made as to what constitutes a ‘Celtic sound’. Many players incorporate elements of the Celtic tradition within their playing but fall under the softer ‘New Age’ banner, while others will explore DADGAD tuning or similar to see what they can discover. Really, in order to…

Nails for tremolo If you are serious about learning tremolo you will need extremely well cared for picking-hand fingernails. It is essential to have a good understanding of how to shape them to make a clear and identical tone with the three fingers; a m i. The point of contact with the string should be with both the flesh of the fingertip and the edge of the nail. The nail acts as a ramp and the string glides from fingertip to nail in a seamless move. Filing and smoothing off the edges of the nails should be a regular ritual and you will need good nail files - Micro-Mesh Flexi Files are excellent. I use three-way, 2400/4000 from Axminster.…

DAVID REDFERN / GETTY IMAGES “THE PLAYERS THAT GOT HIM EXCITED WERE THE ROCK AND ROLLERS OF THE LATE 50S, EARLY 60S: SCOTTY MOORE, FRANNY BEECHER, CHUCK BERRY” English guitarist Alvin Lee is a legend among the great blues players, with tons of soul, technique and effortless musicality. Lee had a wide range of influences, many of them gleaned from his parents’ record collection. He loved all the blues giants - Muddy Waters, Albert King, BB King, Freddie King and John Lee Hooker to name just a few. He also loved listening to jazz guitarists like Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, and specifically cited Benny Goodman’s legendary guitarist Charlie Christian as having a big influence on his own swing phrasing. But the players that really got him excited were the…

The music of Africa is so rich and vast in its diversity that to do it justice in just one article is impossible. The continent of Africa is so huge that, obviously, each separate country has its own musical styles, melodies and traditions. However, African guitar playing has also permeated western mainstream music. South African Ray Phiri is one of the most widely heard African guitar players thanks to his association with Paul Simon and his beautiful, bright guitar work on Graceland. Here I have tried to capture some of the verve and energy of master musicians such as guitarist Ali Farka Touré and kora player Toumani Diabaté. On first listening to this piece you will realise that all is not as it seems. In fact, my acoustic guitar doesn’t…

PATRICK FORD / GETTY IMAGES In this current series, we are looking at a range of Mixolydian solo studies that are medium-paced throughout so that you can aim to play each from start to finish. In this lesson, we’re going to focus on how diatonic arpeggios can be played using complex rhythms. This will be achieved via a combination of various irregular note-groupings, phrase lengths and polyrhythmic devices that will help to provide rhythmic interest and therefore lack of predictability for the listener. First off, let’s start by revising the concept of diatonic arpeggios and how they feature within the A7-C7-D7-F7-G7 chord progression we’ve been using in this series. Arpeggios help to give our lines harmonic strength as melodies will be derived from chord tones rather just scale tones. To…

MAY GT295 CHORD MASTERCLASS Ever heard a guitarist play gorgeous chords, and wondered what they are? This lesson highlights those jazzier shapes and shows where and how to use them. Plus brilliant Martin Simpson acoustic video masterclass, Bonamassa and Gilbert Q&A and more. SPRING GT294 STRONGER FASTER BETTER! We have devised 10 brilliant mini-workouts to beef up your finger and hand strength, leading to greater control over bending, vibrato, general accuracy, cleaner picking and overall execution. Plus: superb video lesson from Tommy Emmanuel & loads more! 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…

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. DISC AUDIO (PRINT VERSION ONLY) Sometimes the GT CD features some of the backing…

ANDERS BRYNGEL GT: What is it about instrumentals that appeals to you? Mattias: There is a vast freedom, playing, writing and listening to instrumental music. I do adore a good vocal tune but few things can trigger me like uncharted territory, when you go where you haven’t gone before and have no clue what’s lurking behind the corner. That’s instrumental music to me. GT: What can an instrumental provide that a vocal song can’t? Mattias: I’d say the human voice is a tough one to beat. There are few things that can grab the attention to the ear of a homo sapiens like vocal cords in action. However, there’s instrumental music that can give you the most astounding of vibes if you let it really get under your skin. Composing…

PRS SUCCESSFULLY APPEALS against a ruling that its Singlecut design infringes the copyright of Gibson’s Les Paul guitar. The Court of Appeals argues that‘Only an idiot would confuse the two products at the point of sale!’It’s an important ruling for guitar manufacturing as who knows where it would have led to next. Meanwhile PRS introduces a series of 20th Anniversary instruments. TONY BLAIR BECOMES the longest serving Prime Minister for the Labour Party, even before he’s returned to office in the General election; employment is at an all time high with over 28 million in work; sadly the Ellington Colliery in Northumberland is closed, bringing to the end deep coal mining from under the sea in the North East of England; hunting with dogs is banned in England and Wales;…

I often think this thought. What does it mean? It means that you can take advantage of the fact that on the guitar nearly any set of notes gives you many choices in how they lay out on the fretboard. In my teenage years, I would squeeze every scale into three-notes-per-string patterns, so I could rip through them quickly and percussively. And it worked. For that. But those same notes can be laid out horizontally on a single string for superior versions of patterns like descending fours. Yngwie Malmsteen and Michael Schenker are masters of this. And it doesn’t end there. Pentatonic shapes can be great for creating a swing feel (like the intro of Lynynd Skynyrd’s, I Know a Little. Sweep picking is great for glissandos, while the same…

“I set up a little show that we do called Blues Guitar Summit show, and I play with a guy called Paul Garner and a guy called Mal Barclay. Basically, I realised that there’s a load of great players out there, but I never get to see them because if I’m working, or they’re working, you never get to have a chat with them unless you were passing on the way to a gig or something. So we put this show together with us playing three guitars, plus bass and drums, you know. And that works really well, because they’re great, great players and so we get to have a bit of fun. Those two guys are two of the top players out there – and there’s a couple of…

Approaches and tunings Celtic guitar features some idiosyncratic fingerstyle techniques that borrow from the conventional classical ‘pima’ approach but develop them – one of the main challenges is to try and recreate the bowstrokes of the fiddle player and you’ll find an example of this in The Bird’s Nest where I play the rapid repeating pattern on the third string in the A section. This is very demanding stuff so if you are new to fingerstyle I’d focus more on pieces like Farewell To Lochaber where you can really explore playing slowly and aiming for clarity, accuracy and tone. Beyond the techniques involved is the huge array of altered tunings that the Celtic guitarist will employ – I’ve used standard and DADGAD here but in playing this repertoire you will…

GIE KNAEPS / PHOTOSHOT Bullet For My Valentine is a Welsh heavy metal band that formed in 1998 while various members were at Bridgend College. The current line-up includes Matthew Tuck on vocals and rhythm, lead guitarist Michael Paget, Jason Bould on drums, and bassist Jamie Mathias. They began their career as Jeff Killed John, playing Metallica and Nirvana covers, before switching direction to include harmony guitars and melodic choruses. With the style shift also came the change of moniker. After turning down an offer from Roadrunner Records they signed a five album deal with Sony BMG in 2002, with the debut album The Poison being released in 2005. It was eventually certified gold in the US for sales of over 500,000. The band has supported many successful rock and…

DEZO HOFFMAN / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK Famed for their explosive sound and fraught relationships, Cream formed in 1966 and disbanded just two years later. They were the world’s first supergroup and one of the first power trios before Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and Rush found success with similar line-ups. Cream came to be after Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker met, and discovered they were both feeling stifled in their current bands: John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and the Graham Bond Organisation. Baker asked Clapton to join his new group and Clapton agreed, but insisted that Jack Bruce be recruited as the third member. Unfortunately Bruce and Baker had a history of animosity from previous ventures; to the point where there would be fighting on stage and they would tamper with each…

RICK DIAMOND So far, we’ve studied the chords, scale shapes, modes and arpeggios of this popular scale as well as its use in conjunction with modes such as Dorian when improvising over m7 vamps. This month, we’ll look at the fourth mode of Melodic Minor – Lydian b 7 (otherwise known as Lydian Dominant). Although we can view this scale as Lydian with a b 7th, it’s more commonly used when improvising over non-functional dominant 7 chords in conjunction with the Mixolydian mode, and therefore may be visualised as Mixolydian with a raised 4th. Lydian b 7: R-2-3-#4-5-6- b 7. Mixolydian: R-2-3-4-5-6- b 7. This approach of using Mixolydian in conjunction with Lydian b 7 over dominant 7 chords works in a similar way to last month’s lesson on using…

PAUL GILBERT BEHOLD ELECTRIC GUITAR Mascot ★★★★★ As you will have seen from this issue’s unique video masterclass, Paul can talk a lot about guitar and play even more! It’s fitting that his new album’s title can seem like an exclamatory re-introduction as to what an iconic 80s shredder can become in 2019. Sporting sunglasses and his signature Ibanez Fireman on the cover, the 12-track album may well be his best instrumental release since the very different Get Out Of My Yard (2010). Opener, Havin’ It is a bluesy stomper that is as much about chord tone nailing (the I-IV phrasing is tasty) as about flashes of speed, rich vibrato and a great exploratory solo (cracking band too). Following its wacky intro riff, the melody on I Own A Building…

GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? AP: I have an AP signature heavy pick made by Dunlop that I’ve been using for years. GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three, what are they? AP: Original Ibanez Tube Screamer. Dunlop MC404 wah pedal. Boss Vintage CE-2 chorus. GT: Do you play another instrument well enough to do so in a band, and have you ever done it? AP: I don’t play any other instruments except guitar. I’ve always been very interested in drums and if I wasn’t a guitar player I would have been a drummer. GT: If a music chart were put in front of you, could you read it? AP: I could but I would need time.…