Innehållsförteckning för December 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! PHIL CAPONE Phil is a great guitarist who specialises in blues and jazz. He teaches at ICMP in London, writes for GT and Total Guitar and has published 10 top tuition books. LES DAVIDSON Les has worked with Mick…

“I’D LOVE A NUTS AND BOLTS, BELT AND BRACES SLIDE SERIES, TEACHING IT FROM THE GROUND UP” 10-MINUTE WORKOUT I enjoy your magazine a great deal. I have been a subscriber for a while now and had been purchasing it on the newsstand for a couple of years before that. Recently, I was working through Giuliani’s 120 Right Hand Studies and I thought that something similar would be a great monthly feature for your magazine. Say on the idea of your One-Minute Licks column. Picking hand workouts are pretty tedious and if you had a short column each month with a different workout, I think practicing in short bursts would make it less tedious. Thanks for listening! John Rhodebeck Funny how ideas we get from you keen-eyed readers often find…

HOFNER IS WORKING ON ITS 462/S acoustic archtop, affectionately known as the‘Cat’s-Eye’model due to its elliptical soundholes. This single-cutaway, fully bound beauty features a striking flamed maple body, selected cedar top, split trapeze tailpiece plus a pearloid scratchplate and two-tone headstock face. THE CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II ‘ at Westminster Abbey sparks a buying frenzy on television sets and it s estimated that a quarter of British households are now in possession of one. The BBC airs the first edition of Panorama, a still-going current affairs programme, along with variety show The Good Old Days and sci-fi thriller The Quatermass Experiment. BILL HALEY GIVES THE FIRST PERFORMANCE of Rock Around The Clock in America and rock and roll is born. We take a while to catch on –…

“ THESE PIECES ARE DESIGNED SO THAT, WITH REPETITION OVER TIME, THEY WILL REWIRE THE BRAIN AND THE FINGERS” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 3-22 Will improve your… Left and right-hand coordination Fretting hand posture Fluidity and clarity of phrasing Hearing a perfectly alternate or sweep-picked line in a solo is an undeniable thrill, and something many of us aspire to. Yet the focus of many technique tutorials is dedicated to the picking hand. This is, of course, a fundamental part of great soloing, so that is not meant in any way as a criticism. However, it’s possible that many players who aren’t satisfied with their efforts in this area are actually far better with the pick than they realise and would benefit from turning their…

“THERE IS SOMETHING DEVASTATINGLY NOSTALGIC, SIMPLE AND EXPRESSIVE ABOUT DEDICATORIA’S SHORT, LYRICAL MELODY” ABILITY RATING Info KeyVarious TempoVarious CDTRACKS 28-29 Will improve your… Melodic phrasing Melody and accompaniment separation Fretting hand stretches In this latest instalment of our classical guitar series we are looking at a work by the Spanish composer and teacher Enrique Granados (1867-1916). Granados was an accomplished pianist who wrote many pieces for the instrument (solo and with a chamber ensemble) as well as orchestral and operatic works. He wrote in a romantic style often imbued with strong Spanish nationalistic characteristics. It’s surprising, then, that he never wrote for the guitar, but his music eventually (through the support of such influential guitarists as Tarrega and Llobet) found a very natural home with the instrument and his work…

“IF YOU ARE AN EXPRESSIVE PLAYER, PEOPLE CAN FEEL THAT. IT IS AN EMOTIONAL THING AND IT BECOMES AN EXTENSION OF YOURSELF” Gary Moore ABILITY RATING Info Key:Am, Dm Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 31-34 Will improve your Blues and Minor scale playing Picking accuracy Fast legato phrasing Taken too soon in 2011, aged just 58, Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore leaves behind a potent legacy and a firmly-established reputation as one of the great British guitarists. Born Robert William Gary Moore in 1952 in Belfast Northern Ireland, Gary – like most aspiring young guitarists of his generation – grew up on a diet of Elvis Presley closely followed by Albert King, BB King, Freddie King and the other blues giants from that period. Gary was also fortunate as a young teenager…

DAVID REDFERN / GETTY IMAGES “LOUIS STEWART WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST JAZZ GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME” Martin Taylor ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 50-67 Will improve your… Bebop vocabulary Negotiation of chord changes Time feel and sense of swing We were saddened to hear of the recent passing of one of Ireland’s best and most-loved musicians, jazz guitarist Louis Stewart. Born in Waterford in 1944, Louis was one of the greats. He toured the world with many of jazz’s biggest names, including Benny Goodman, George Shearing and Stephane Grappelli. His bebop-inspired style balanced technical virtuosity with grace and beauty, with considerable command but equally impressive taste and restraint when the music called for it. His lines were involved, articulate and intelligent and his comping skills second to none.…

EPA / ALAMY While guitarists love the Lydian mode for solos (check out Joe Satriani’s Flying In A Blue Dream to start with; the main melody is drawn from C Lydian), they also love using them for chords and chord progressions. Let’s start with the basics; Lydian is the fourth mode derived from the Major scale. If we looked at D Major (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#), counted up four notes to G and used the same notes starting from G we’d get G Lydian (G-A-B-C#-D-E-F#). If we compared G Lydian to the standard G Major scale (G-A-B-C-D-E-F#), we’re able to see what the difference is: the fourth note. G Lydian has a sharpened 4th (#4 = C#) whereas G Major has a perfect 4th (C). It is this #4 note, unique to the…

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN Buyit Excellent Good Average Binit! GARY HOEY DUST & BONES Provogue Back in 2013, Massachusetts guitarist Hoey released his first album, Deja Blues, which proved he had the chops to do justice to the genre after his previous rock and surf leanings. Back again to dig even deeper, Dust & Bones is brimming with great rock-blues guitar. Gary certainly makes various nods to the greats – the Zeppelin groove on opening track, Boxcar Blues, the Brian Setzer swinging Who’s Your Daddy (nice licks!) and the Hendrix wah meets ZZ Top stomper Born To Love You (Gary’s voice almost sounds like Billy Gibbons here!) all show great taste and variety. There’s a fantastic duet with rocker Lita Ford on Coming Home, while the huge production on 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…

THIS MONTH’S LEAD feature is all about improving fretting-hand technique. Many readers complain about lack of left and right-hand co-ordination and blame it on poor picking technique, believing their fretting ability to be up to scratch. But try this: fast alternate pick (tremolo pick) a single note at the 12th fret, first string, using your first finger; I bet you’ll play it perfectly, without a hitch. Now retain that picking speed but run a finger per fret up to the 15th fret and back down. Unless you’re really well sorted in the technique department I’d bet one or two notes get fluffed here and there. I’d also bet that your picking hand remained machine-gun steady throughout, leading us to conclude that your fretting isn’t quite what you believed it to…

➊Blues ballad (Cm) Slow blues at 60 bpm with a G-A b -G turnaround. You can use C Minor Pentatonic (C-E b -F-G-B b ), C Minor scale (C-D-E b -F-G-A b -B b ) and C Harmonic Minor (C-D-E b -F-G-A b -B) as a starting point. Triads will also come in handy: Cm (C-E b -G), Fm (F-A b -C), G (G-B-D) and A b (A b -C-E b ). Enjoy! ➋2-5-1 jazz jam (Gm) This fundamental jazz progression consists of the chords Am7 b 5, D7 and Gm. Plenty of space is left for you to practise your chord playing as well as your soloing – or both at the same time! Use G Minor scale (G-A-B b -C-D-E b -F) for Am7 b 5 and Gm…

“ THE ROCKABILLY IMAGE IS A STRONG PART OF THE GENRE, AND BIG-BODIED GUITARS HAVE BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH IT” ABILITY RATING Info KeyE(main Tempo190bpm CDTRACKS 23-27 Will improve your… Fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique Rockabilly soloing Jazz/country chording ROCKABILLY IS AN exciting fusion of several music styles, most notably country, blues and jazz. The goal of this lesson is to equip you with some solid rhythm and lead techniques to help you get an authentic rockabilly sound. There are 10 examples to study, all of which are inspired by rockabilly’s (and rock and roll’s) most famous guitar players. The licks highlight important areas of the rockabilly vocabulary including double-stops, chord tones, chromatic passing notes and endings. Whether you intend on getting deep into the subject or simply learning a lick…

“LYNYRD SKYNYRD HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE SOUTHERN ROCK MOVEMENT SINCE HELPING TO DEFINE IT FOUR DECADES AGO” ABILITY RATING Info Key:D Major Tempo:125 bpm CD:TRACKS 35-37 Will improve your… Rhythm playing Theory knowledge Southern rock phrasing Lynyrd Skynyrd formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964 with the moniker My Backyard. They went through various name changes before settling on Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969. After playing throughout Florida to sell-out crowds, the band was discovered by songwriter and record producer Al Kooper. Kooper produced their debut album, Pronounced ‘Leh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd, featuring Ronnie Van Zant on lead vocals, guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, and Ed King on bass (Leon Wilkeson had left prior to the album being recorded, but rejoined soon after). Drummer Bob Burns and keysman Billy Powell…

LIVEPIX “DIFRANCO STARTED PENNING HER OWN MATERIAL AGED 14, WITH INFLUENCES INCLUDING DYLAN AND THE BEATLES” ABILITY RATING Info Key:D Major/F# Major Tempo:94 bpm CD:TRACKS 68-69 Will improve your… Rhythmic fingerpicking Clean chord embellishments Fretting hand chord work Born in Buffalo, New York on September 23rd 1970 Ani DiFranco is the very definition of an independent musician eschewing the major label scene to release all her work on her own Righteous Babe record label, which she started at the staggeringly young age of 18. As with many musicians who pursue creative freedom instead of major label riches (or such that were!) she can be hard to classify as she has moved within the punk, hip-hop, funk and jazz idioms. However, delve into her guitar work and you will find beautiful,…

“SWEEP PICKING IS A TECHNIQUE BEST SUITED TO PLAYING ARPEGGIOS USING A ONE-NOTE-PER-STRING APPROACH” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACK 83-92 Will improve your… Sweep picking technique General pick control Speed and fluency Sweep picking is a technique best suited to arpeggios played one note per string. The picking technique itself is much the same as strumming a chord in slow motion. Try holding a barre chord and slowly strumming across the strings, making sure your hand is moving at a steady speed. As your pick passes across the strings the notes will naturally occur at an even rate. With practice you can make these notes conform to subdivisions like 16th-notes or triplets etc. The similarity to strumming is important as it is one continuous motion, rather than six individual…

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…

This month’s lick is a sequenced arpeggio idea loved by Greg Howe. It sounds cool and works great! It’s based on a descending and ascending tapped triplet pattern using notes from an A major arpeggio (A-C#-E). It’s challenging to play, especially cleanly and fast. Handling noise and fretting-hand hammer-ons that are not loud enough are key areas to watch. To combat handling noise you can use a fret-wrap or hair tie around the 1st fret; but if you play accurately and mute offending strings the result will be worth it. After playing through it as written, work on ideas of your own using different types of arpeggio in a similar manner, then apply these ideas to various chord progressions. It’s a fun challenge!…

“I’M NOT A BAD DRUMMER AND I’VE PLAYED DRUMS AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL FOR OCEAN COLOUR SCENE” GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? AB: I use 60mm Dunlop picks. I used to use the embossed type but they don’t make them any more, or I can’t find them. GT: You have to give up all your pedals but three: which remain? AB: I don’t really use pedals much but I do like my wah-wah (Dunlop original Crybaby), also my Boss digital delay (DD-6). But the pedal I can’t live without is my Boss TU-2 turner as I hate being out of tune. GT: Do you play another musical instrument well enough to be in a band? And have you done so? AB:…

WHO?Nick Mackey – Clitheroe Guitar Studio TOWN:Clitheroe, Lancashire STYLES TAUGHT:All styles of guitar, bass, ukulele and mandolin SPECIALITY:Acoustic and electric guitar QUALIFICATION:RGT examiner LEVELS: Structured but informal, style-based tuition from beginner to advanced; RGT grades if desired READING:Any level CHARGES:£25 per one-hour lesson, £14 per half-hour SPECIAL:Fully-equipped music room and studio; can record lessons; vast library of resources TEL:01200 422933 (07952 550712) EMAIL: nick_mackey@hotmail.com…

“JIMMY PAGE TOOK ME ASIDE AND SAID, ‘YOU SHOULD BE PROUD OF BEING A STUDIO MUSICIAN; I USED TO BE A STUDIO MUSICIAN AS WELL’” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACK CD-ROM Will improve your Blues-rock phrasing Breadth of style Thinking ‘out of the box’ Steve ‘Luke’ lukather has one of the most impressive CVs in the business. He has done it all, from being a hired gun on a zillion studio sessions, coming up with memorable riffs and solos and writing killer songs, to being Toto’s frontman and a successful solo artist. He is still going strong both live and in the studio. Some people take umbrage at the success of session musicians. But the ability to walk into a studio, perhaps with a megastar in front of you…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 SUM 41 CD TRACK 30 Steady downstrokes are key to making this part work rhythmically. Based around a G tonality with a descending chromatic line, this is a melodic and useful idea for any rock or pop-punk part and is typical of the band during their nu-metal heyday. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 WARRANT CD TRACK 30 A big part of the sleaze-hair metal scene in the 1980s and 90s, Warrant sold millions of albums and were one of many bands that utilised common pop and rock chord sequences including this A, C and D progression. Then they mixed in bluesy fills and an overdriven humbucker tone and – voila! INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 JOE BONAMASSA CD TRACK 30 This blends Mixolydian (R-2-3-4-5-6- b 7) and Minor…

“THE SKID ROW LEAD STYLE IS CLASSIC 80S HARD ROCK, USING MINOR PENTATONIC AND BLUES SCALES AS THE BASIS” ABILITY RATING Info Key:Various Tempo:Various CD:TRACKS 38-49 Will improve your… Pinched harmonics 16th-note bluesy phrasing Double-stop riffing The two-pronged guitar attack of Scotti Hill and Dave Sabo has remained unchanged since Skid Row began in the late 80s. Prior to this Sabo was briefly with Bon Jovi, but left for Richie Sambora to resume guitar duties. When Skid Row’s self-titled debut album came out in 1989, Jon Bon Jovi helped his old friend by taking Skid Row on a worldwide stadium tour, lifting them to instant success. Having anthems like 18 And Life, I Remember You and Youth Gone Wild was an important factor too. The heavier sounding 1991 follow-up, Slave…

DAVID LYTTELTON “IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT MANY LATERAL IDEAS WILL STRADDLE TWO OR MORE DIFFERENT CAGED SHAPES AT ONCE” ABILITY RATING Info Key:A (A7) Tempo:120 bpm CD:TRACKS 70-72 Will improve your… Extracting triad pairs from a scale Execution of triads on the guitar Developing of triad pair-based lines In this recent series, we’ve looked at ways of deriving triads from A Mixolydian in order to use them as the basis for new musical lines. Triads can help to introduce harmonic propulsion into your single-note lines by implying chord motion; producing results that sound both ear-catching and powerful. In the previous lessons, we’ve looked at different ways of creating lines by extracting diatonic triads and triad pairs from the scale and shifting them laterally along the guitar neck. In this…

NOVEMBER GT262 MIXOLYDIAN MASTERCLASS Use this king of scales to play blues, rock, country, jazz, rock and roll and more! Plus Jimmy Page rock lesson, George Handel’s Lascia Ch’io Piango; exclusive video lesson with Brett Garsed and style studies in Rory Gallagher, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Pass. 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! OCTOBER GT261 THE SHADOWS Go instru-mental with our in-depth look at Hank and Bruce’s styles. Check out this issue’s Bonamassa bonanza with two full solos in the style of the blues-rock titan. Plus, style masterclasses on Jeff Lynne,…

CORRADO RUSTICI AHAM Corrado Rustici Corrado Rustici is a staggeringly good jazz-rock guitarist appreciated by many including Frank Gambale and Allan Holdsworth. Aham is Corrado’s first studio album in 10 years and almost everything performed is guitar based courtesy of pedals and digital plug-ins. It’s a refreshing listen; while there are plenty of shred moments (fast acoustic picking and rock legato on Roots Of Progression), it’s intriguing to hear the broad variety of acoustic and electric tones that sometimes sound like voices or orchestra strings. Stylistically, there are nods to Allan Holdsworth, Soft Machine, Frank Zappa and early 70s fusion groups headed up by Tony Williams or Narada Michael Walden. While largely an instrumental album (his lead tone is as liquidly emotive as Holdworth’s), there is a wonderful acoustic guitar-driven…

FEATURE #2 FINGERPICKING 10 patterns you must know! Get these 10 vital picking patterns under your fingers and gain a solid foundation to many great styles TRANSCRIPTION RACHMANINOV Vocalise Bridget Mermikides arranges another glorious piece, this time from the Russian master of stirring melodies VIDEO MASTERCLASS 5 BLUES LICKS With Robin Trower In this special, one-off video lesson, Jon Bishop guides us through some gems with this master of the Stratocaster TECHNIQUE & THEORY THINGS TO DO AND PLAY Slash chords & pinch harmonics Get to the bottom of slash chords and how to use them. Plus, learn how to play ‘note specific’ pinch harmonics What’s so hot about... TEXAS BLUES? It’s spawned so many great players, that’s what! Freddie King, Albert Collins, T-Bone, SRV, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, David…