Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Guitar Techniques

JOHN WHEATCROFT A phenomenal guitarist, John is a master at many styles but a legend in Gypsy Jazz. His latest album First Light, is out now on iTunes and Amazon. DECLAN ZAPALA Declan is one of the UK’s top classical guitarists and teachers. He is a Master graduateofRCM andhissolo 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 specialisesinhigh-end rockguitar and plays with top UK metal-fusion band Haken. His debut…

I’ve been reading a bit about AI lately and been pondering ways that it might affect my job and the role of music education generally. I don’t think it’s imminent, but at the rate that AI is growing, I can imagine that significant changes in the way we learn are certainly coming in the next decade. Things have already changed a great deal over the last 15 years with the rise of online education. When I first started making online lessons, I was concerned about the possibility of local teachers losing students to the internet. Now it seems that the vast majority of music students use online learning, many doing so exclusively. A lot of people still enjoy taking private lessons and building a relationship with a teacher. For many…

➊ Blues Riffin’(E) We start with a fun bluesy jam where you can dig deep into your E blues licks without thinking too much about chord changes. Start with the E Minor Pentatonic scale (E-G-A-B-D), using legato, bends, vibrato and more! ➋ PhrygianVamp (C#) This is a groove jam made specifically for jamming on C# Phrygian mode (C#-D-E-F#-G#-A-B). It comes from my album Groovin’ Through The Modes, Vol. 5, and it’s worth remembering that C# Phrygian contains the same seven notes as the A Major scale (and its relative Minor, F# Minor). ➌ Sweet Groove Jam (A Minor) Here we have a simple chord progression in the key of A Minor, where A Minor Pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G) and A Minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) are great places to start. ➍ Super Slow…

This month we are looking at another tasty solo courtesy of blues fusion master Oz Noy. Oz is a big fan of mixing blues with jazz and funk styles so Jason Sidwell wrote Streetwalk especially for him. It’s a straightforward Minor 12-bar with a groove set at 106bpm. The eighth notes have a swing feel so to keep our presentation easy to work with we have notated this using a 4/4 time signature rather 12/8. Based mainly in the key of B minor (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A), a few extra chords from outside this key have been added for harmonic colour. The Minor 12-bar blues form is used for the verses so the chords are Bm7-Em7-F#m7. However, to provide a greater sense of resolution back to Bm7, the F#m7 in the last bar…

ON VIDEO Born in 1883 to Indian and Portuguese parents, João Teixeira Guimarães (later known by his more familiar name João Pernambuco) grew up in poverty in Jatobá, a drought-stricken rural countryside town in the northeast of Brazil, part of the Pernambuco region. It is an area with a long history of colonial intervention by the Portuguese, French, and Dutch, followed by a succession of post-independence military dictatorships up until 1985. As such, life would have been particulairly harsh growing up for his family, especially with his father passing away when Pernambuco was just eight years old. João’s solace throughout it all was music, specifically viola, and when his mother moved his family to Recife after remarrying, Pernambuco thrived in the music culture there, and by the age of 12…

Brought to you by… Television guitarist Tom Verlaine is one of the musical legends that we lost in early 2023, and although he was not a household name like some of his contemporaries, his influence on the music scene and on later artists was considerable. Verlaine’s style of writing and performing helped to pioneer the new wave and alternative rock scene in the 1970s. He had moved to New York City in the early 1970s with the dream of making his living as a poet, but ended up forming the band Television, alongside its most established line-up of guitarist Richard Lloyd, drummer Billy Ficca and bass player Fred Smith. The band gained a cult following playing at legendary venues such as CBGBs, and their status as pioneers of the 70s…

“His technique is impressive to say the least, playing left-handed and strung upside-down” Eric Gales has worked his way to the top of the crop of current blues players, having started out as something of a prodigy, playing a Hendrix-infused style of modern blues. Eric seamlessly fuses classic blues language and a more modern style that owes some of its character to the influence of Eric Johnson. Gales often covers rock classic in his live sets from Don’t Fear The Reaper to Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. His virtuoso take on the blues has won him mainstream acclaim in addition to the respect of the blues community. His albums reflect his wide-ranging taste and experience in many genres, taking in soul-inspired chords and metal-style riffs. There are quite a few elements that…

Brought to you by… The whammy bar, or the vibrato arm, comes in many different guises, each with its own unique way of altering the pitch of your guitar strings. The Vibrola system designed by Doc Kauffman and introduced back in the 1920s, suffered from poor tuning. Paul Bigsby developed his well-known vibrato as a more stable unit to replace the troublesome Vibrola. In the 1950s, Leo Fender came up with the industry standard floating design, before Floyd Rose and Kahler, with their double locking systems, came to the attention of guitarists who liked to abuse their whammy bars while keeping their guitars in tune. Over the years many more designs have come into use, from companies such as Gotoh, Wilkinson, Ibanez, PRS and Vega-Trem. The whammy bar has been…

IT’S HARD TO THINK of anything more embracing to the worldwide guitar community than licks. We all love them for their immediacy, brevity, and audience appeal. This issue we’ve 40 great licks based in that most fundamental of all harmonic terrains; the world of the Pentatonic scale. This five-note wonder comes in various forms (Major, Minor, etc), and with varying intervals (2nds, 3rds, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths). But for many, talk of Pentatonics tends to mean Minor Pentatonic (R-b3-4-5- b7), and Major Pentatonic (R-2-3-5-6). Drawing upon the CAGED system as a backdrop - afundamental framework to understanding the fretboard, based upon the simple chord shapes of E, G, A, C, and D - our 40 licks cover five short examples in the Major and Minor versions of the keys E, G,…

CONTINUING in our quest to demystify non-standard chord voicings (not your straight Major or Minors) we turn our attention to the 'sus' and 'add' chords. When we see the word‘sus’in a chord name, such as Dsus4, it is an abbreviation of D suspended 4th. So instead of the usual D Major chord tones – D(root), F# (3rd) and A(5th) – the 3rd is replaced by the suspended note, in this case G, the 4th interval of the D major scale. Playing a Dsus4, then a DMajor chord gives the feeling that the first‘suspended’chord‘resolves’to the Major chord – like an‘Amen’! Sus2 chords work in the same way. What about 'add' chords, you may ask? Well, we simply add notes to the existing chord rather than replacing the 3rd. See the examples…

This month we present an exclusive video lesson from virtuoso prog-rock guitarist Terry Syrek, with six examples that showcase his phenomenal chops, fiery picking, sweeping and more. Terry is renowned for his command of the instrument, his dedication to perfecting his playing, and his overall musicianship. He has performed with the likes of Paul Gilbert, Allan Holdsworth, Marty Friedman, Brett Garsed, Zakk Wylde and many more and has an impressive portfolio of album releases. Here are some pointers on how to develop Terry’s impressive facility, directly from the man himself... “It’s not so much about what you practise, but HOW you practise. The majority of my technique came though doing very simple things, consistently each day, but in an almost meditative state. I would play the same three-note pattern over…

NEVER MISS ANOTHER ISSUE Time to subscribe! SEPTEMBER GT351 PAUL GILBERT -SOLOING The rock legend joins GT for a 37-minute video masterclass on expressive soloing. Chris Duarte plays his favourite Texas blues licks. Plus: 6 Latin American rhythms, 2 Albert King solos, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, Michael Romeo & more! AUGUST GT350 ROCKIN’ AND A-ROLLIN’! Learn 10 solos in the style of the 1950s’ most innovative rockers. The biggest names & some less well-known players. Plus: Two Peter Green solos from Remi Harris, BB King, Shane Theriot video, Matt Schofield, Nickel Creek & more! JULY GT349 MO’ BETTER BLUES! Inspired by Joe Bonamassa and six of his cohorts, we show you how to solo like these greats! Plus: Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Chris Rea, Jared James Nichols, Martin Taylor, Andy…

ON VIDEO “You’ll often see Kacey Musgraves using a capo on the higher frets. It’s a great writing tool” Abig star on the modern country scene, Kacey Musgraves was born in Golden, Texas on August 21st 1988. A six-time Grammy winner, music has been a part of her life from a young age. She began songwriting aged eight, took up mandolin soon after with guitar coming into her life when she was 12. Remarkably, she selfreleased her first album when she was just 14 years old and at 19 appeared on the reality TV show Nashville Star. By 2008 she had been discovered and signed to independent label Triple Pop which gave her a platform to release her music and led to widespread discovery and a quick-growing fanbase. A heavy…

One fine summer’s night I arrive in London’s delightful West End, unfashionably early. My prior engagement in Hampstead has provided more than ample time to drive and then park adjacent to my place of employment. And free, to boot. For legal reasons, I’m not at liberty to disclose the name of the organisation in question but their initials are BBC. I have taken care to present myself with the bare minimum of accoutrements - one beautiful Collings semi-acoustic guitar, one volume pedal, one guitar tuner, two jack cables and my featherweight DV Mark amp. And so the time-honoured ritual begins. I am directed to the entrance marked ‘Radio London’, a thinly disguised euphemism for ‘Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here’. They’ve never heard of me. I explain that I’m…

It’s unlikely that many would disagree with the notion that Pentatonic scales are the guitarist’s best friend. Used in every genre of music and countless songs of the past 70 odd years, it really is as versatile as it is valuable. Its handy two-notes-per-string layout and uncomplicated musical application has made it the perfect choice. Whether it’s Jimmy Page crafting riffs, Gary Moore blazing or Eric Johnson improvising over vast instrumentals, the Pentatonic is there as a foundation, the main ingredient, and the secure footing for great players. The name of the scale comes from the Greek word ‘penta’, meaning five, and ‘tonic’ referring to tones, so it’s easy to discern that we are dealing with a five-note scale. Viewed simply, we are taking two notes away from the Major…

ON VIDEO Greg Koch is an amazing guitar player, plus he’s also a wonderful showman and an extremely funny guy with an obvious love and infectious enthusiasm for music and all things guitar. If you’ve not heard him play then probably the easiest way to get us in the right place would be to look at his influences. Koch started playing at the age of 12, inspired by his elder brother’s vinyl collection, and in particular records by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. From here he progressed onto Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck before tracing all these players’ roots backwards via BB and Albert King. Discovering Albert Lee on an old Eric Clapton album prompted an exploratory excursion into county territory via Ray Flacke and Ricky Skaggs and let’s…

Brought to you by… Jimi Hendrix is one of the most significant musicians of all time. His impact was such that he has remained an icon to the present day. Although influenced by many of the usual suspects, Jimi didn’t just build on the work of his heroes, he pushed guitar music forwards. In the 1960s the new Marshall amplifiers afforded players ear-splitting volume, and more distortion and overdrive than had been previously achievable (or desirable!). Not only that, in 1960 the first fuzz pedal went on the market, and by 1962 the iconic Fuzz Face came into production. Combined with the aggressive overdriven tones of the Marshall, the Fuzz Face not only provided more distortion, but also tamed the amp’s aggressive highs, giving single-coil pickups a rounder, smoother…

Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Texas in 1966 and was tragically murdered onstage in 2004, age 38. ‘Dimebag’ Darrell made a huge mark on metal between 1990 and 2000, when Pantera popularised groove metal. His guitar style features tight, syncopated metal riffing with inventive lead playing. In this lesson we will look at some of the key approaches Dimebag used for his lead work and will focus on fast Blues scale based alternate picking, sweep picking and legato licks, wide stretch shapes and singing natural harmonics. Example 1 shows two approaches Dime used with the E Blues scale (E-G-A-Bb-B-D]. The first half of the lick is an alternatepicked pattern using six repeated notes and some string skipping to add a wider interval jump. The second half employs pull-offs and…

Brought to you by… During my late teens and early 20s, I gigged relentlessly, playing around 300 shows per year in small clubs across the States. While that didn’t make me rich, it refined my playing and distilled my ideas down to what really works. The process of playing live helps to dispense with throwaway, average ideas and focus on the good stuff - the licks that get a reaction from the audience. In this series of articles, I want to pass onto you the blues vocabulary that stood the test of many tough audiences. As we go, I’ll explain both the techniques being used and the musical thinking behind it. But before we dive in, here’s an overview of the musical ‘tools’ you’ll be using. Tools of the modern…