Innehållsförteckning för June 2024 från Guitar Techniques

SIMON BARNARD Simon is agraduate of ACM and The Guitar Institute, holding aMasters 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 aMaster 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 Atutor 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 awell studied guitarist who specialises in high end rock playing and plays with top UK metal-fusion band Haken.…

A few weeks ago we welcomed a new baby boy to the family. Being a father is really fun, but extremely challenging in many areas, and having a second born with a daughter aged seven has given me previously unseen pressures on my time. I’m in the lucky position to take time off to enjoy these early weeks, but I suspect there are many of you that have periods where quality time with your guitar is limited. So how can you keep connected to music? First, I’d like to say that time away from the instrument is not always a bad thing. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. So if you find yourself in a position where you need to take time out, don’t beat yourself up…

1 Sweet Whiskey Blues Jam (G) We start with a sweet blues jam in G Major. Our old friend GMinor Pentatonic scale (G-Bb-C-D-F) will work, but for those sweet, uplifting vibes, try out GMajor Pentatonic (G-A-B-D-E), the same five notes as E Minor Pentatonic, and add bends, vibrato, slurs, etc. 2  EPhrygian Groove Jam Next up is a fun modal groove jam (chords: Em-Fmaj7). Use E Phrygian (E-F-G-A-B-C-D) or take a bluesy approach with E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) and E Minor Blues scale (E-G-A-Bb-B-D) to get going on this one. 3 DDorian Jazz-Funk Here we have a high-energy jazz-funk type of jam, where DDorian (D-E-F-G-A-B C) and DMinor Pentatonic (D-F-G-A-C) are great places to start. 4 A Major Jam We finish on a groove in A. A Major scale (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#) is…

Early Days How old were you when you had lessons from Joe Satriani? GT: I met Joe when I was 13. I had one lesson a week with him for the next few years. I’d go to his studio after school and wait around until he was done yelling at his other students. I played everything he showed me constantly so I think I was the only student that he never got angry at. He once called me his ‘shining silver lining’ in his teaching routine because everyone else sucked so much. Soon after starting, he scheduled me at the end of his teaching day so he could spend more than one hour with me. Frequently, our lessons would continue long past that first hour, just jamming and being crazy.…

Everyone at GT was saddened to hear of the passing of Dean Brown, the incredible American jazz-fusion guitarist and session musician. Perhaps best known as a frequent collaborator with the virtuoso bassist and producer Marcus Miller, or maybe for his work with heavyweight jazz artists such as Michael Brecker and The Brecker Brothers, Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham, and David Sanborn, Brown fitted in perfectly among jazz-fusion’s elite. The Sanborn connection led to Dean working with Eric Clapton. As a sideman, Dean’s guitar featured on way over 100 albums, and he also released an impressive portfolio of recordings under his own name. Alongside his performance credits, Brown was an active educator, with a number of books, magazine articles and video lessons to his credit. He was also a regular instructor at…

VIDEO Boston-based rock band Extreme boasts a bona fide guitar legend in Nuno Bettencourt, a player heralded by the likes of Brian May, Steve Lukather and George Lynch as a true one of a kind. Bettencourt was born in Portugal before relocating to the United States, and in addition to playing and writing for Extreme, has also recorded with Janet Jackson and Robert Palmer, plus been guitarist and MD for Rihanna, which included performing at the 2023 Superbowl half-time show. The rest of the band comprises singer Gary Cherone, bassist Pat Badger and (newer) drummer Kevin Figueiredo. Previous encumbents of the Extreme drum stool were Paul Geary and Mike Mangini. Although most well-known for the massive acoustic hit More Than Words, the group’s albums have always been a blend of…

VIDEO Mike Zito is one of the co-founders of blues-rock supergroup Royal Southern Brotherhood, alongside Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Charlie Wooton and Yonrico Scott. In this line-up he shared lead guitar duties with Devon (son of Gregg) Allman, drawing comparisons with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts’ twin-guitar assault in the Allman Brothers Band. While the Brotherhood was a great outlet for Zito, it was only a matter of time before he struck out on his own. After leaving the band in 2014 Mike continued the upward trajectory of his solo career. He has been prolific in releasing albums full of original songs, and his wonderful singing is supported by a tasteful yet forceful lead guitar style. While rooted firmly in the blues he wears the influence of his rock guitar…

This month I will be focusing on the techniques and approaches of three early country artists: Merle Travis, Lester Flatt, and Hank Williams. While these players sat firmly within the country and bluegrass genres -Flatt, as one half of the legendary Flatt & Scruggs guitar and banjo duo; Travis, a country megastar after whom Travis picking was named; and Williams, a troubled songwriting genius who died just before his 30th birthday - today’s Americana artists blur all of these stylistic boundaries. Today Americana incorporates techniques from bluegrass, country, folk, “Americana encompasses elements of folk, country, bluegrass, blues, and Louisiana cajun music.” blues and more to create its unique sound. In its earliest form Americana means Appalachian mountain music, which then develops into a number of different styles from bluegrass to…

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READY TO SUBSCRIBE? www.magazines direct.com It’s almost unthinkable not to know of and/or to appreciate The Beatles. They are in many ways the fundamental core of popular music with pretty much everything that’s been created since, having been influenced by them, directly or otherwise. It’s a bold statement perhaps, but no group of musicians has had the success, the respect, the study and the fanbase as these four Liverpudlians. This issue, partly inspired by the new(ish) re-releases of the famous red and blue albums (the blue one has their last new song on, Now And Then), we take a look at the rockier side of the Fab Four. With five bespoke pieces to learn, you’ll play their stylistic chords, riffs and rhythms plus dip into their blues-rock soloing and slide…

EVEN THE MOST ‘ROCK AND ROLL’AMONG US have probably marvelled on occasion when hearing the harmonic possibilities coaxed out of a guitar by the likes of Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow. While this feature doesn’t claim to be the last word in how to achieve this, it should give you some interesting information, not just for chord playing, but in note choices for embellishments and solos, even over blues-rock powerchords. Though the underlying chord may be simple, there's usually scope for adding melodic interest by superimposing more harmonically detailed ideas. Even the Blues scale contains a b7th, which is not present in your average blues accompaniment. We are simply extending that principle a little further, moving to jazzier pastures with this ‘standard’-style chord progression of Cm7-F7-B…

GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you? RB: Guitar for me is the same thing as a vocal for the singers - the ability to tell the story, to express feelings and emotions through the music. I don’t feel guitar music as only instrumental. For me this is the same art of self-expression as all other musical genres, just a little more difficult for an unprepared listener to find meanings in melodies and harmonies without words. The same as classical works, the art requires preparation to understand. GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can't? RB: It's just a different genre, like science fiction compared to detective. I think it can broaden one's horizons to some extent. Good instrumental music is…

T-Ride is one of those bands that sadly didn’t gain the fame it deserved. And possibly like that fellow three-piece outfit Kings X, was a band hard to pigeonhole stylistically. The group featured tight syncopated grooves, rich vocal harmonies, dramatic and unorthodox chord progressions, and immaculate production. The band’s debut, and tragically only album was released in 1992, at a time when we witnessed a huge shift in rock. But unlike many of the ‘hair’ bands that fell victim to the grunge movement, T-Ride had everything that the eclectic rock fan would love. I was introduced to them by my old teacher Phil Hilborne, back in 92. And while I was inspired by the guitarists of the 80s, was always searching for bands that were musically more advanced, not just…

Ask a classical guitarist to name a famous composer from the guitar’s relatively short history and one of the first names you will hear is that of Francisco Tárrega, the great Romantic era Spanish virtuoso and composer. Tárrega was born in the Castellón province of Spain in 1852 and during his 57 years helped popularise the guitar internationally, and inspire future generations of players. He was one of the first to benefit from the updated ‘modern’ Antonio de Torres design of the classical guitar that we are familiar with today. Previous iterations of the guitar were generally much weaker in volume which, despite its rich musical heritage, had previously prevented the guitar from competing as a serious concert instrument alongside its much louder peers such as the piano and violin.…

Dave Mustaine has been the driving force of Megadeth since day one, when the singer-guitarist assembled the band in Los Angeles, in 1993. Heralded as one of the ‘big four’ thrash metal acts alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, Mustaine remains the group’s longest surviving member. Despite his unique soloing style and a revolving door of A-list shredders on lead guitar duties, Mustaine’s rhythm parts are a significant factor in band’s success. The ferocious down-picked powerchord sequences put Megadeth firmly within the thrash domain, but the inclusion of singlenote figures and arpeggio lines means the rhythm parts carry a strong sense of melody. In addition, the songwriting makes regular use of passing chords to develop the harmonic range, and further the tension within their chord progressions. “Ferocious down-picked powerchord sequences put…

VIDEO Picture Keith Richards and your first image is probably of the Tele-toting, bandana-wearing wildman of rock. However, explore The Rolling Stones’ back catalogue and you’ll see that acoustic instruments feature heavily, from strummed and picked acoustic guitars to 12-strings, mandolins and Nashville-tuned guitars (the high strings from a 12-string set). For the acoustic singer-songwriter or accompanist, the styles of Richards and his accomplice Ronnie Wood are essential study. Keith Richards was born in 1943 in Dartford, Kent. His grandfather Gus Dupree was a working musician who famously told the young Keith that he would give him guitar lessons when he could reach the instrument on the shelf. Richards finally got the guitar in his hands and lessons began. His early influences were the prominent jazz musicians of the time,…

The fretboard can be a complicated terrain to navigate. Many notes can be played at the same pitch in multiple positions, and the third and second strings are tuned a Major 3rd apart, whereas the rest are tuned to the interval of a 4th. With this in mind, the CAGED system is a useful tool to help the fretboard make a little more sense. This system is based on any chord being able to be played in five different positions, based upon the five main open-position Major chord shapes of C-A-G-E-D. In essence, each one of these chords can be moved up the guitar neck, most commonly utilising the first finger to barre across the fretboard. Most guitarists are familiar with the E and A shape barre chords that are…

GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? AS: For the longest time I’ve been using Jazz 3 style picks. There’s a company that makes them for me out in the States and I have to make them white so I can see them when I drop them on the stage, ha-ha! GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three, what would they be? AS: My pedals are all quite simple, though my favourites have to be the Analog Man Beano Boost, the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, and also an old Ibanez chorus pedal I use with the setting maxed out. The others I could live without. GT: Do you play another instrument well enough to do so in aband, and…

Now, here’s a paradox for you: I gorra lorra geetars but I’m not a collector. With a very few exceptions, my instruments have been acquired simply to assist with the messy business of carving a crust from Life’s Great Bakery. While it’s undeniable that almost any iteration of guitar, be it acoustic or electric, is aesthetically pleasing, I’ve never viewed my instrument as neck candy (ahem), hung ‘em on walls or endlessly debated the merits of Lake Placid Blue versus Salmon Pink (or Fiesta Red as it's more correctly termed by Fender). Which segues neatly into this year’s significant anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster (it's the old girl's 70th, would you believe?) - and my relationship with said model. I’ve owned a fair few because this guitar exemplifies the very…

The aim of this lesson is to learn and apply some of the concepts behind the rockier side of the three guitar-playing Beatles. With a body of work as iconic and influential as theirs, studying and learning from their approach can benefit your own musicianship no end. The Beatles were rockers first and foremost, with influences like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore and Carl Perkins. Blues and R&B were also key elements for their music. All three guitarists in The Beatles (John, George and Paul) went onto become fine players and their individual musicianship is often overshadowed by the sheer enormity of the group’s success. Paul, although nominally the bass player due to nobody else wanting the role, was a guitarist at heart and played some of the…

This month we have something rather different in store as we welcome Brazilian psychedelic master Fabio Golfetti. As with all our video masterclasses each example has been transcribed and then analysed from a technique and music theory point of view. You can then learn the techniques and concepts with a view to broadening your vocabulary and musicianship. The main concept demonstrated by Fabio is to detach the whammy bar and use it as a device for slide playing. By rubbing the bar back and forth on the fretboard in a similar way to how a violinist uses a bow, it is possible to add sustain to notes. The whammy bar can also be moved up and down the strings like a slide guitarist does, to create swooping glissandos. If you…

Feel, touch, soul, and phrasing. These are words you will often hear when the topic of blues guitarists arises, and while you may not associate this month’s artist strictly with the blues, he certainly embodies the aforementioned characteristics. This month we’re looking at the legendary David Gilmour, known for his pivotal role in Pink Floyd as well as an impressive solo career. While David may not be a blues guitarist in the most traditional sense, the genre clearly had an influence on his playing style, which was combined with prog rock and psychedelic elements in his work with Pink Floyd. He merged these styles with great effect, and the group is responsible for producing some of the most iconic music of the 20th century. David’s guitar playing is a huge…

Los Angeles born Nita Strauss initially gained her reputation as a shred guitar force to be reckoned with as part of the respected tribute band, The Iron Maidens. In 2014 she landed the rock guitarists’ dream gig as Alice Cooper’s axe woman. Nita currently tours with Alice, as well as pop superstar Demi Lovato while also finding time to write her own music, so far releasing two solo albums. Nita’s style is rooted in classic rock and metal with a skilful mastery of alternate picking, legato and sweep picking as core techniques, without losing sight of the importance of a strong melodic sensibility. Example 1 is a single-string alternate picking lick in E Harmonic Minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D#) played over a heavy groove riff. Keep your picking hand moving in even down…