Innehållsförteckning för December 2022 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. DECLAN ZAPALA Declan is one of the UK’s top classical guitarists and teachers. He is a Master graduate of RCM and his solo arrangements are sublimely creative. JON BISHOP Jon is one of those great all-rounders who can turn his hand to almost any style. He’s also rock legend Shakin’ Stevens’ touring and recording guitarist. MARTIN COOPER A tutor at BIMM Brighton, Martin’s Rock columns show an incredible breadth of technique and style. His 2006 album State Of The Union is out on iTunes. CHARLIE GRIFFITHS Charlie is a well studied guitarist who specialisesinhighendrockplaying and plays with top UK metal-fusion band Haken.…

Learning anything over a gradually increasing time frame is significantly more effective for memorisation than attempting to learn something in one block of time. This ‘Spacing Effect’ has been recognised since Ebbinghaus wrote about it in the late 19th century and has proven to be one of the most consistently replicable concepts born of experimental psychology. It’s solid science and has its own Wikipedia page with a huge list of referenced studies if you want to further deepen your understanding after this article. But still, many people seem somewhat confused by how this can be used to help you learn guitar faster and better. So let’s get this sorted out. You should nearly always practise specific exercises in short bursts (commonly that's around five minutes) to maintain full focus for…

➊ C Dorian Jam We start with a CDorian vamp (Cm-F7) on a bluesy shuffle. Use C Dorian mode (C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb), C Minor Pentatonic (C-Eb-F-G-Bb) and C Minor Blues scale (C-Eb-F-Gb-G-Bb) to get started. This is from Quist’s new jam album The Sexy Series, Vol. 4. ➋ Slow Blues - G Minor For this slow blues in G Minor, G Minor Pentatonic (G-Bb-C-D-F) and G Minor scale (G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F) are your first ports of call. For the Dominant chords (D7), go for G Harmonic Minor scale (G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F#). ➌ I-VI-II-V Jazz Practice (Bb) This is a I-VI-II-V in Bb Major. Chords are Bb-G7-Cm7-F7. Bb Major scale (Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-A) works throughout, except on the G7, where C Harmonic Minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B) is better. ➍ Sweet Groove Blues (B) For this three-chord blues in B you can…

This month we welcome back Steve Morse to wow us with a performance over Jason’s track, The Dude Ranch. With a straight eighth-note rock feel and a tempo of 110bpm, it has a steady groove with space for lots of colourful rhythmic and melodic phrasing. To begin his solo, Steve plays with strong blues phrasing in the style of players such as Albert King. To keep the delivery authentic plenty of space is left between the phrases. From a melodic perspective, Steve alternates between F# Major Pentatonic (F#-G#-A#-C#-D#) and F# Minor Pentatonic scales (F#-A-B-C#-E). For the chorus he switches to C# Minor Pentatonic (C#-E-F#-G#-B), and elaborates on the C# Minor Pentatonic shapes using extra chromatic notes. Steve uses chromatic notes throughout the solo – it’s been a trademark throughout his…

ON VIDEO Miguel Llobet is one of the most influential classical guitarists to have emerged from the early 20th century. A concert performer and former student of one Francisco Tarrega (GT251, GT330) Llobet is perhaps best known for ‘that’ arrangement of the piano piece Asturias (Leyanda) by fellow Catalonian Isaac Albeniz, which to this day remains one of the most performed concert pieces in the classical guitar’s vast repertoire. Its popularity was mostly aided by Andres Segovia who chose to play many of Llobet’s compositions and arrangements. The music presented this month is my adaptation of one of Llobet’s most beautiful Catalan folk song transcriptions, El Noi de la Mare - the child of the mother. As is the way with all folk music, a melody is passed down through…

Brought to you by… German rock guitarist Michael Schenker has had a career that has so far lasted for more than 50 years, and he has been an integral member of UFO, The Scorpions alongside brother Rudolph, and MSG. He has also been linked with many bands that he didn’t join, including Deep Purple and Ozzy Osbourne. Schenker has also been the recipient of many awards over the years, and his contribution to the rock scene cannot be overstated. Michael Schenker began playing guitar at a young age when brother Rudy was given a Flying V. He was influenced early in his playing career by the likes of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. This is where he learnt to play many of his easily recognisable Pentatonic and Blues…

Brought to you by… A good, solid fingerstyle technique is important for so many reasons. It can change the way you approach playing the guitar as whole, offer a new tonal palette and be incredibly useful if you ever drop your plectrum mid performance. Many would associate fingerstyle with classical, flamenco or acoustic guitar, but it lends itself extremely well to the electric guitar; just ask Richie Kotzen or Mark Knopfler, to name just two great players who prefer to play sans plectrum. Fingerstyle is very popular in genres such as flamenco, bossa nova, country, blues, country and slide guitar, but is also preferred by some rock guitarists. It is also perfect for those occasions where you don’t have a plectrum, which I’m sure most guitarists have been caught out…

Brought to you by… This month’s topic is the use of triplet and sextuplet rhythms. This means dividing the beat into threes or sixes. This is a common device in many forms of music, but you’ll probably know it best from classic and modern rock guitar. Triplets and sextuplets can sound more flowing than constant streams of four-note groupings. Another point to note is that triplet rhythms can be useful if the tempo is too fast to play groups of four. Using triplets is a useful step between using eighth notes (quavers) and 16th notes (semiquavers). And sextuplet 16ths are a good step between 16ths and 32nd notes (demisemiquavers). All of the great modern blues players commonly use these rhythms too. When you add rhythms based on these subdivisions, it…

READY TO SUBSCRIBE? www.magazinesdirect.com MARK KNOPFLER has one of the most distinctive playing styles around. His picking technique - thumb and first two fingers in the main - is born from a multitude of influences not least the late, great Chet Atkins. It means his chords and riffing have a distinctive warm bite, be it the clean Strat licks on early Dire Straits songs like Sultans Of Swing, the rich humbucker drive on Brothers In Arms, or the beautiful acoustic chords of Sailing To Philadelphia - there’s a really nice throaty Strat solo on that last song too. We here at GT are big fans, so we felt with the release of his solo studio albums boxset (The Studio Albums 1996-2007), it was time for a reverential appraisal. Andy Saphir…

We’re going systematic and theoretical this month, which might seem boring, but it can generate new avenues. We’re working with the interval of a 5th. You’ve encountered this if you’ve ever played powerchords, as they’re simply 5ths. E5 is E and B, root and 5th. What happens if we take two 5th intervals (four notes total) and space them differently? What chords will we generate? THE ANSWER IS ‘a lot’, so we’ll just use the C Major scale, giving a manageable number of 5ths (C-G, D-A, E-B, F-C, G-D, A-E). Taking pairs of these, systematically varying the intervals in between, we get a palette of chords. For example, if you put D-A on top of F-C (whole tone interval between C and D), the resulting chord is a Major 6th…

ON VIDEO Regular readers will be well aware of the Australian virtuoso’s smooth and fluid technique, and his sophisticated and hip melodic phrasing. Brett is a master at hybrid picking, using a combination of the plectrum and fingers to articulate endless lines of great intervallic intricacy and beauty, and it’s this area of his playing that we are exploring here today. While the use of hybrid picking has become increasingly common in many modern guitar styles, one aspect that sets Brett aside is his seamless integration of the pinking hand’s fourth finger into his lines. In this lesson Brett presents a set of short but highly effective exercises, that he has personally used and will subsequently be of great help to you, to promote the integration of all available fingers…

EXAMPLE 1 JOEY SANTIAGO (PIXIES) This phrase uses eighth notes and voice leading, enabling the downbeats to outline the chord progression while the ‘&’ of each beat establishes a smooth melody line in a higher register. The last two beats of bar 2 provide a turnaround that completes the melody while encouraging the sequence to cycle back to the beginning. To get a bright, lively tone, use your bridge pickup, a moderate amount of gain on the amp, and boost the treble. EXAMPLE 2 NANCY WILSON (HEART) This riff is built from powerchords and alternates between ringing, sustained notes and palm muted strums. This creates variety within the phrase while making the rhythms punchy and articulate. Study the strumming sequences, as this helps to achieve a smooth momentum during the…

GT: How long have you been performing with Westlife? PS: I’ve been with the band since 2019. How did you get the gig? PS: An older friend of mine, who had been a bit of a mentor to me in my early 20s, was called for the gig. He was unavailable, so he put me forward for it. They were looking for an exciting, rock orientated guitar player who was confident with shredding and soloing and he thought I’d be a great fit. I’d also recently won Guitar Idol (hosted by LickLibrary) in December 2016. They saw my winning live performance and asked for a few more videos to check I could play different styles. I sent some clips and some session work I had done, and that was that.…

‘T was in another lifetime, one of toil and blood. I’m sure you’ve been to similar dinner parties. The lady to my right had become quickly acquainted with Monsieur Merlot and employed repetition (if not hesitation and deviation) as she prodded me in the chest. The gist of her message was the claim that she could acquire any guitar for me at cost price through her extensive connections. I must have mentioned a Guild F50, upon which she thrust a business card into my mitt and instructed me to call her. A couple of weeks later I was driving to Brighton to collect my trade priced, steel-strung, sunburst beauty. The lady had been as good as her word, if a tad economical with the actuality. I arrived at the warehouse…

Known for his superb guitar playing, unique sound and deep ‘rough cut’ vocal tones, Mark Knopfler is nothing short of a modern musical genius. One of the truly all-time great guitar players, he is much more even than that, being a singer, songwriter, film soundtrack composer, and producer. His playing style and songs mix influences from many musical genres such as folk, country, rock and jazz, with his signature fingerstyle technique encompassing acoustic and electric guitar in both lead and rhythm approaches. He is always supremely tasteful, instantly recognisable, yet almost inimitable. Born in Scotland, and growing up in the north-east of England, Knopfler started his musical journey with the guitar listening to heroes like Hank Marvin, Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt and James Burton. After discovering early blues artists and…

Jazz, rock and blues master Scott Henderson first found fame as the original guitarist in Chic Corea’s mid-80s fusion project, The Elektric Band. After a stint with Mahavishnu violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, he continued to stake his claim as one of the most significant guitarists within the fusion genre with his stellar contribution to the legendary Joe Zawinul’s post Weather Report project, Zawinul’s Syndicate. At the same time he achieved both commercial and critical acclaim with his own progressive fusion project, Tribal Tech, in collaboration with the virtuoso bassist Gary Willis. Alongside his impressive jazz credentials, Scott has released a steady stream of albums under his own name that proudly display his blues roots. Scott’s take on the blues is both firmly rooted and totally forward thinking. His influences cover a…

Brought to you by… Earl Hooker may not be a name that immediately rolls off the tongue when considering classic Chicago bluesmen. His music is all too often overlooked, shadowed by giants such as BB King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others, but his contribution to the genre and to the guitar’s role in popular music is easily equal to his more commercially successful peers and should not be dismissed in a hurry. Hooker was born in rural Quitman County, Mississippi, in 1930, but his family moved to Chicago when he was just one year old. Part of a musical household, Earl picked up the guitar around the age of 10 and began to teach himself to play, copying the sounds that were developing in the big city around him.…

Last issue we began a five-step method that will allow us to master arpeggios across the fretboard then turn them into authentic jazz vocabulary. Here’s a reminder of the method we’re following: learn the basic box shape patterns for the arpeggio; learn extended arpeggio patterns that use a much greater range of the neck; play arpeggio connections that join up the arpeggio shapes; learn arpeggio lines that avoid starting from the root note; and add passing notes to arpeggio shapes to create effortless bebop language. It’s a really effective way to go from jazz newbie to someone that can solo in an authentic and convincing fashion. Last month we completed the first three steps and this time we’ll finish the process. “We often want to avoid the root and disguise…

You may not think you have heard ‘guitarist’ Glen Campbell but rest assured you most definitely have. As a member of the famous Wrecking Crew set of studio musicians, Campbell played on many of the biggest hits of the 1960s before going on to become a solo star in his own right with hits like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Born in Pike County, Arkansas on April 22nd, 1936, Campbell learned how to play guitar from an uncle. He moved to Los Angeles and spent the 1960s working as a studio guitarist and solo artist signing with Capitol Records in 1962. A multi-stylist (an essential trait for a studio player), Campbell moved seamlessly from burning country licks alongside legends like Jerry Reed to high-level bebop skills when jamming with George Benson.…