Table of contents for May 2019 in 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…

TINA K The changes that have come with the age of the Internet have affected every industry. But for musicians, songwriters and producers, the game has changed drastically, and many people are wondering how to go about keeping a steady income in this new world. Since I’ve made a living through all the shifting dynamics of the industry, I figured there are some hints I can share to help some of you in your own quest to make a living in music. When I was still a teenager, I remember my old man telling me that I should figure out ways to make money while I was asleep. That’s something I’ve had in mind the whole of my life, and something I’d encourage everyone to think about – though of…

THIS LICK IS DERIVED from various scales that change to accommodate the underlying chords: In bar 1 against the Em and the D/E you’ll notice the natural 6th (C#). This line could be seen as coming from E Dorian (E-F#-G-AB-C#-D). Beats 1-2 of bar 2 over the C chord uses C Major (C-D-E-F-G-A-B). Finally, from beat 3 the scale is B Phrygian Dominant (B-C-D#-E-F#-G-A). This is little tricky to play cleanly, particularly up to tempo. If you find that this is the case, aim for accuracy in your fretting hand – particularly during position shifts - and also a relaxed and not too wide picking hand motion throughout. Do experiment with similar ideas of your own – you never know what you might come up with.…

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…

“YOU CAN’T SOUND LIKE ANYBODY ELSE. YOU’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO PLAY LIKE SO-AND-SO OR SO-AND-SO. YOU CAN DO IT A BIT AS AN EXERCISE, BUT THEN YOU JUST GET ON WITH BEING YOURSELF” Not only has Martin Simpson spent time researching country blues, he’s also lived and travelled extensively in the USA, absorbing the culture at first hand – an experience that has resulted in him authoring classic songs such as Love Never Dies, honouring the spirit of Delta blues while capturing the essence of the best of this country’s traditional music. Nominated for countless awards and recognised as one of the best acoustic slide players around today, he’s also covered songs by his heroes, including a hauntingly beautiful version of Blind Willie Johnson’s I Can’t Keep From Crying…

Welcome to the final instalment of our six-part video masterclass series with session legend Allen Hinds. In it we are going to examine a challenging Jason Sidwell penned track entitled Soul Magic. As Allen explains, the tonal centre for the track is G Natural Minor (G-A-B b -C-D-E b -F). You can also view this from the relative major key of B b (B b -C-D-E b -F-G-A) as they share the same notes. Allen points out that knowing the theory is good, but the deciding factor is to use your ear to find the good sounding notes. There are a couple of moments that the backing uses non-diatonic chords (chords not from the key) such as D7. To navigate the D7 chord Allen shares the idea of playing G…

Kings Of Leon formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999 and features brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill and their cousin Matthew Followill. Caleb is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, while Nathan plays drums, Jared plays bass and Matthew takes on lead guitar duties. The brothers grew up in Oklahoma, Tennessee with their father Ivan Leon Followill (the band actually took their name from their grandfather, Leon) and mother Betty. Their formative years were spent listening to country bands around Tennessee before discovering Thin Lizzy, Rolling Stones and The Clash. Upon beginning their further listening journey they began to hone their songwriting skills, and formed the band when cousin Matthew moved to Nashville in 1999. The band’s first EP Holy Roller Novocaine was released to critical acclaim in 2003, and…

Perhaps the most famous of all bluesmen, Robert Johnson’s allure is fuelled by the mystique surrounding his life, and indeed his death. Like many of the bluesmen of his time, he was a traveller, fascinated and obsessed with music. Born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst Mississippi, he suffered tragedy early in his life - in 1930 his young wife died during childbirth (the baby was also lost). In 1930 he met blues legends Willie Brown and Son House, although at the time he was apparently a dreadful guitarist and jibes from House contributed to Johnson taking to the road. When he returned he had developed into an astounding player which added to the myth that he sold his soul to the devil, although any improvement was more likely a…

Recently, we’ve been looking at a series of medium-paced Mixolydian solo studies designed so that you can have a go at playing each from start to finish. So far, we have used triads and parental arpeggios as the main theme. In this one, we’re going to focus on using a range of diatonic arpeggios that exist within the Mixolydian scale that stems from the root of each new chord in our A7-C7-D7-F7 -G7 chord progression. Arpeggios help to give our lines harmonic strength as our melodies will be derived from chord tones rather just scale notes. To establish the diatonic arpeggios within each scale, you simply take each note of a scale and play consecutive 3rds (every other note). Diagram 1 shows all the diatonic 7th arpeggios within A, C,…

FEATURE #2 VIDEO CHRIS CORCORAN Jump blues masterclass This super lesson will make you want to get some of these ideas under your fingers. Cool licks, neat chords & more! CLASSICAL TAB VIDEO JOHN RUTTER The Lord’s My Shepherd There’s always room for a moving religious piece in the repertoire. Here Bridget arranges one of the classics! FEATURE #3 VIDEO STUART RYAN Celtic guitar lesson Stuart is a master of trad styles that offer fingerpickers tons of fine tunes. All beautifully played and explained! TECHNIQUE & THEORY COOL THINGS TO LEARN Slide intonation, jazz comping Poor slide tuning and vibrato show our weakness all too easily. Sort this and hone your jazz comping today! Exclusive video lesson with the incredible... PAUL GILBERT! One of the most inspiring…

CHORDS FORM THE backbone to almost all music. Whether it’s the luscious arrangements of classical composers like Thomas Tallis; Hilton Valentine’s timeless intro to House Of The Rising Son, or Joe Pass’s wondrous jazz accompaniments, it’s all about harmony. And that means chords. Our earliest brush with chords is usually our earliest brush with the guitar. A friend showed me open A minor and I found other ‘shapes’ that my musical mother told me the names to. I put these ‘shapes’ to the songs I was learning and it began to fall into place. Except it hadn’t, really. I didn’t for once consider that the chords were made up from scale tones, with certain intervals dictating each chord’s nature. I was mostly playing six-string beginner ‘shapes’ or barre chords (once…

Question: How do you persuade a guitar player to turn down? Answer: Put a piece of music in front of him. It seems to be the perceived wisdom that wielders of our particular fretted instrument tend to be less than proficient at accurately transforming written musical information into an aural representation of the intentions of the composer or arranger. Whether or not this has any basis in fact is a matter of opinion. But the perception seems to have taken hold. However, we can all agree that there are a helluva lot of pickers and strummers out there. Therefore, the sheer weight of numbers suggests that there must be a fair number of ‘em that struggle. I will concede from the outset that the guitar is relatively unusual in that…

GETTY IMAGES ➊ Soul-blues ballad in C This is a typical soul ballad in the style of Percy Sledge or Otis Redding. C Major Pentatonic (C-D-E-G-A) will work great over most of it but when it comes to the technically ‘out of key’ E7 try targetting the G# (maj3rd) note as it makes the listener know you are in control of the harmony and that it’s not leading you. ➋ Pop I-VI-IV-V in C Again, Pentatonics will work here. But since all the chords in the progression are made up from notes in the C Major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B) that’s clearly your prime source of ammunition. However, as each change happens in turn it’s always great to target chord tones, again to let the listener know that you know... ➌ Swinging…

Grown-up or ‘adult’ chords. No we’re not referring to the guitarist that played on those dodgy 70s soft porn soundtracks; we’re talking tasteful, ‘clever chords’ for want of a better term. During the 60s a new genre was spawned, AOR or ‘Album Orientated Rock’. Albums became the coolest format and they freed artists from having to write catchy, throwaway pop songs. Pioneers of the genre were undisputedly The Beatles (Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and Cream (Disraeli Gears); these two seminal albums opened the floodgates for a wave of creativity that extended well into the 70s and beyond. “THE PURPOSE OF THIS FEATURE IS NOT TO MAKE YOU SIT DOWN AND MEMORISE A BUNCH OF CHORDS PARROT FASHION” At the jazzier end of the spectrum AOR encompassed ‘full on’…

Acknowledging during his formative years that there’s no division between folk and blues (blues being another form of folk music), means that Martin Simpson’s guitar style is a rich blend of diverse elements. As he told us, “People used to say to me, ‘you can’t do it all, so make up your mind’. But I said, why not - it’s all the same stuff? I thought, if I can get good at playing this stuff, learning to make one note sound good on a blues, then I can also do it on slow airs. But you want to make it your own; you want your own voice on the guitar.” Simpson certainly has his own voice, plus an endless supply of ideas that he can bring to the table; with…

I’d suggest not assuming that everything on YouTube is 100% correct as regards song learning or theory. I think using your ears and searching for how to play something is the most valuable lesson. It’s a bit like reading a book as opposed to watching a movie; making your imagination go to work and digging deeper for that inspiration. Even if you don’t get to your goal exactly how you thought you would, the journey is the educational part and you end up doing things more your own way. And I think that’s the best outcome. The finest compliment I can ever receive is when folks say they could tell it was me after hearing only a few notes, because I had a uniqueness to my playing.…

SOERFM In this issue, I’ve arranged a work by the Bavarian-born operatic composer Christopher Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). Gluck resisted the obligation to follow his father’s profession of forestry by leaving home in his early teens, moving to Prague and supporting himself with his prodigious talent as a church musician while continuing music education. In his early 20s he moved to Vienna and found the connections and studies to develop what would be an illustrious international career as an opera composer. Gluck’s bold dramatic style revealed itself through a staggering 49 operas, which transformed and reinvigorated both the Italian and French operatic traditions. Gluck’s profound compositional skill resisted the flowery arias and ‘crowd-pleasers’ of the day, in favour of a more purified style, which was in a way more timeless, morally…

EASY EXAMPLE 1 FALL OUT BOY CD TRACK 29 Approach this example with a confident picking hand bearing down on the sixth string, and being sharp with the E and D notes (7th & 5th frets). The chord changes to G and A require the same fifth string motif: aim to get good clarity on the low doublestops! EASY EXAMPLE 2 JIMMY PAGE CD TRACK 30 Jimmy is an often under-rated master of the heavy blues. This example is emulating many of the classic Zeppelin riffs based on E Minor Pentatonic at the 5th fret. Focus on the groove, adding typically bluesy quarter-tone bends at the appropriate places. INTERMEDIATE EXAMPLE 3 PAUL JACKSON JR CD TRACK 31 Paul Jackson Jr is a well-documented session player from the 70s and 80s.…

The minor II-V-I is as present within jazz as the major II-V-I, and can be seen as being derived from a combination of sources. While the Natural Minor scale (Aeolian mode) gives us a half-diminished (R- b 3-5- b 7) as chord II (IIm7 b 5), and a minor 7th (R- b 3-5- b 7) as chord I (Im7), the chord we’d generally see at position V is a fairly uninspiring minor 7th (V7). But as this final chord doesn’t produce a significant pull back to the minor I chord, we change the Vm (R- b 3-5- b 7) to a V7 (R-3-5- b 7), and produce a perfect cadence along the way. This change to the harmony also requires a change in scale choice. A common option that reflects…

Procol Harum formed in 1967 and within months had released one of the best known songs of all time. Selling over 10 million copies A Whiter Shade Of Pale took direct influence from Bach, to produce a composition based on a descending bassline and haunting melody, with lyrics that would have tickled even Lewis Carroll. Although it was original guitarist Ray Royer that played on A Whiter Shade Of Pale, the now legendary Robin Trower replaced Ray for the follow-up single Homburg, and the rest of their self-titled debut. Trower appeared on Procol’s first five albums before forming the Robin Trower Band in 1973. Nowadays Trower is associated with Fender Strats, but back in the Procol days he was a Les Paul or ES-335 player, as showcased on the self-titled…

STEVE THORN / GETTY IMAGES The Melodic Minor scale consists of the formula R-2- b 3-4-5-6-7, and is often visualised as a Major scale with the 3rd degree lowered; a Natural Minor scale with the 6th and 7th degrees raised; or more appropriately for this month’s lesson, as a Dorian mode with the 7th degree raised. As we’ve seen so far, the Melodic Minor scale is usually associated with the tonic minor-major 7 chord; however it’s more commonly used in conjunction with the Dorian mode when improvising over static IIm7 chords, and with the major 7th momentarily heightening tension before resolving either up a semitone to the root note or back a semitone to the b 7th found in the Dorian mode. This works in the same way that a…

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 Hinds videos; ZZ Top, Arctic Monkeys & more! MARCH GT292 PLAY ROCK & ROLL This lesson with all examples in full video is one of our most exciting yet. Rock and roll when played by the greats is just so cool and exciting.…

DEVIN TOWNSEND EMPATHY InsideOutMusic ★★★★★ Devin Townsend is one unique metaller, from his guitar tuning to ‘how does he make such huge walls of amazing noise?’. Opener on this 10-song album, Castaway takes us by surprise; a beautiful clean guitar melody washed with cavernous reverb, beach waves and a soft female choir. This morphs into dance metal hybrid, Genesis with punchy guitars and arresting vocals. Half-way in, Devin’s ‘massive sound’ kicks in and takes your breath away. His claim of this album being different to any previous is well made, not least with the likes of Steve Vai, Mike Keneally and Chad Kroeger on board. Arguably the most commercial track, Spirits Will Collide is full of vocals and tight distorted guitars. For sheer brutality, Hear Me takes some beating -…

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. PLUS! * PLEASE NOTE: Only the Apple version contains interactive tab and audio. Zinio…

CoNCePt AND APPRoACH GT: It’s great to have a new Paul Gilbert album. Can you tell us how it all came about? PG: Well, a new album gives me a chance to play guitar, write new music, jam with great musicians, take new photos, and pay the rent. All good things. So I do them again and again. GT: What prompted the title? PG: My original title was very long. I wanted to warm up the listener to the idea that I would be combining a lot of different styles. So my title was ‘Behold My Rock, Blues, Jazz, Pop, Metal, Electric Guitar Album’. Or something like that. I know my reputation is built on ‘shredding’, but I’m really into blues and jazz lately, so I wanted to be able…

SLINGERLAND INTRODUCES THE SONGSTER, a solid electric Hawaiian styled guitar with a through-neck construction and maple veneer top. The horseshoe magnet pickup has the poles individually wound in opposite directions to keep background noise to a minimum while the frets are ground down flush with the rosewood fingerboard. The company will soon abandon the guitar to concentrate on percussion. SEPTEMBER 1ST GERMANY INVADES POLAND and the BBC prepares for wartime broadcasting. The Home Service begins transmission, and blackouts are made compulsory. On September 3rd Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announces“this country is at war with Germany”on the BBC. National Service for all men aged between 18 and 41 is introduced along with identity cards and petrol rationing. Lord Haw-Haw begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda to Britain. AS WORLD WAR II DARKENS THE…

To create extended chords you start by stacking an additional 3rd on top of a basic triad; this creates a four-note or 7th chord. You can keep stacking 3rds until you get to a 13th via 9ths and 11ths. Note that all previous intervals are technically included so Amaj13 contains: R-3-5-7-9-11-13. However the 11 is usually omitted in major and dominant 13th chords as this is a dissonant interval, except when using the #11 which is actually more consonant (for fun bedtime reading check out George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization). Obviously as guitar players we can only play a limited number of notes at a time so you’ll see many voicings here with notes omitted. The root and 5th are the least important and the first to…

A thorny subject among acoustic guitarists, with players like Tommy Emmanuel espousing the virtues of thumbpicks while some combine thumb and fingerpicks and others choose fingernails (often bolstered by nail gel or other concoctions including superglue and tissue paper, or even ping-pong ball plastic!). Martin tells how in the days of no PAs in folk clubs, the guitarists he could actually hear all used thumbpicks so that’s what influenced his choice. But he does also forego the plastic appendage for fingers-only when the song requires it. Many players go to nail bars to get their nails gelled; this offers a great compromise and is the one favoured by Martin Taylor among others.…

LICK 1 Bars 23 & 28 – STRETCHY LYDIAN CHORDS This section features stretchy chords that sound great if you let the notes ring. These stretchy chords outline the Lydian mode sound nicely and this concept is used for both the E b Lydian (F/E b ) and D Lydian (E/D) chord sections. LICK 2 Bar 40 - SEMIQUAVER SYNCOPATION A key rhythmic element Allen uses is ear-grabbing rhythmic syncopation. Syncopation means playing off the beat, and using this concept adds sophistication to the sound. If you are more used to playing music styles that feature rhythms that fall on the beat, this may take some getting used to. LICK 3 Bar 53 – STACCATO LEAD PALM MUTING This lick features a nice display of light and…

Are you pushed for time when it comes to practising? To get the most out of your practice session you need a plan. If you are learning a new piece break it into small manageable sections and practise one section at a time - and not necessarily the whole piece in one session. Play very precisely and at a speed that enables you to play with absolute accuracy. Cultivate a conscious awareness of hands/fingers and think about the notes/chords you are playing. The more awake and aware you are, the more beneficial your practice will be and therefore time well spent!…

Growing up in the late 50s and 60s, Scott Henderson’s formative musical years were spent in South Florida, playing classic rock, funk and soul. With that clear grounding in rock and blues guitar Scott went on to develop his own fusion style, combining the harmonic sophistication of jazz and the groove of funk with the muscular power and tone of his greatest rock heroes. Scott cites Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore and Albert King as his major influences. Arguably most famous for his work with 22-time Grammy winner Chick Corea and with his own band, the mighty Tribal Tech, Scott quickly earned recognition as one of the world’s most accomplished jazz-fusion instrumentalists. Guitar World named him the number one jazz guitarist in 1991 and 92, and he…

JACK VARTOOGIAN / GETTY IMAGES For a classic jazz tone select the neck pickup and dial in a clear amp tone. For more body, pick closer to the neck and for single-note lines you could add a touch of gain for a more modern tone. These ideas will also sound beautiful on either a nylon or steel-string acoustic and while all the audio examples were played predominantly plectrum style, going completely fingerstyle or choosing a combination of pick and fingers both have their merits. Experiment!…

JORGEN ANGEL / GETTY IMAGES For the rockier tones, a British amp sound is best (think Marshall, Vox, Victory etc). You could also use a little bit of reverb and delay for some extra ambience. For the chordal parts in the first piece, a clean sound with some reverb would suffice. Guitar wise, Robin Trower favoured a Gibson Les Paul during his early days with the band, but is now very much a Strat player. Humbuckers would sound more authentic here, but any guitar and pickup combination would work.…

DAVID REDFERN / GETTY IMAGES The E7#9 has become synonymous with Jimi Hendrix because he used the chord so effectively, especially in songs like Purple Haze. The construction of the chord is a dominant 7th with an added #9 interval. The #9 is essentially a b 3rd only an octave up, so there is an inherent major versus minor tension within the chord, which makes soling over it an interesting prospect. This chord also appears frequently in jazz and fusion music so we can look to those players for direction, too. The first example shows the parent scale of the E7#9. Superlocrian, otherwise known as Diminished Whole-Tone scale is the 7th mode of Melodic Minor. The intervals of the scale are 1- b 2- b 3- b 4- b 5-…

GEORGE BENSON WALKIN TO NEW ORLEANS Provogue ★★★★ This is interesting. The mainstream face of jazz guitar, George Benson has an album (his 45th!) that pays homage to Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. With a cracking first-call Nashville band and 10 great songs, this is a striking R&B showcase for his smooth guitar and vocals. Opener, Berry’s song Nadine (Is It You) grabs straightaway - that voice sits so well over a backbeat and the two short solos sparkle with bluesy licks and tasty syncopations. Ain’t That A Shame (the Domino classic), with its lovely swinging bass and exclamatory chord hits follows, and features one of the best solos on the album. More uptempo still is You Can’t Catch Me (Berry); on top of the busy piano George sure sounds…

GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? JB: Dunlop Herco Gold Jazz 3. I’d rather not play than carry on without them. I’m not joking. GT: If you had to give up all your effects pedals but three, what would they be? JB: Haaa! You ask the most hated man in Pedalandia that? What rock have you been living under? I use just three: Crybaby wah, Way Huge Overrated Special and Blue Hippo. GT: Do you play another musical instrument well enough to do so in a band scenarion? And if so have you ever done it? JB: I can fool you for 45 seconds into thinking I am a world class mandolin player. Then the facade crumbles and you figure out I am…