Table of contents for July 2018 in Guitar Techniques

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 teaches for dime-online.org and has written for many of the world’s top guitar mags. CHARLIE GRIFFITHS Guitar Institute tutor Charlie first came to fame in Total Guitar’s Challenge…

THIS MONTH’S LICK illustrates a slick question and answer idea that would be equally at home in blues, rock or country. It mainly uses notes drawn from the A Blues scale (A-C-D-E b -E-G). However, the notes C# and F# are also present and can both be seen as coming from the A Major Pentatonic scale (A-B-C#-E-F#). Notice the bluesy b 3-3 (C-C#) move - this is a must-have in your dominant chord lickbag. In bars 1 and 3 the tonic (A) is used as a pedal tone and is fine when using the hybrid picking scheme in the notation, but also playable using alternate picking. Try both approaches and use whichever you prefer. As usual, experiment with similar ideas in as many keys and as many musical settings as…

We want to find the best new guitar talent for this year’s Guitarist Of The Year competition. If you’re reading this you’re already one step closer to lifting the trophy and bagging with some prize booty. Previous winners include Dave Kilminster, Guthrie Govan and James Bell (Guitarist YouTube channel’s most watched video), so this could be your springboard to similar greatness! Here’s Guthrie: “Winning GOTY laid an important foundation without which my career might well have taken a rather different turn. And my favourite part of all? Discovering that the panel of judges at the finals would feature both fingerstyle jazz monster Martin Taylor and Friday Rock Show host Tommy Vance: I remember deeming that to be a pleasingly eclectic panel.” We’ve got great judges this year, too: Paul Gilbert,…

RICHARD E AARON / GETTY IMAGES Ozzy Osbourne has collaborated with, and established, some of the most revered guitarists in the business. First, from his Black Sabbath days, is Tony Iommi, who has probably contributed more vocabulary and influenced more guitarists in this genre than any other. His crushing riffs and bluesy solos were created in spite of the artificial fingertips on the two middle fingers of his fretting hand (lost in an industrial accident as a teenager). When Ozzy went solo in the late ’70s, it was Randy Rhoads who set the precedent for much of what followed. Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman feature fast, accurate riffing and deft, melodic solos that reflected Randy’s love of classical harmony - and gave Ozzy’s career a much needed…

Hybrid picking The Lindisfarne style performance piece is a great workout for the hybrid picking technique. The fingerstyle technique in general is very versatile, and offers great facility and tone. The pick can be used in combination with the fingers, which provides a combination of tone and facility. It also means you can switch back to a plectrum style immediately for strumming and picked lines. We label the picking hand fingers P, I, M, A. When holding the pick, P and I are out of commission. So the picking direction is notated along with M for the second finger and A for the third. If you are new to playing ideas with hybrid picking, why not try it out and use our Lindisfarne style track as an excuse to give…

I’m a self-taught player for the most part so I learned things by ear from albums and tried to emulate the phrasing of my favourite players. I had a good ear for basic harmony and could manage the Ionian, Aeolian, Mixolydian, Dorian and Lydian modes quite well even though I had no idea what their names were. When I re-located to the USA I became friends with TJ Helmerich and it was TJ that introduced me to the Melodic Minor mode. He also told me the names of all the other modes that I was using so I learned a lot! I loved the ambiguity of the Melodic Minor sound with the minor 3rd and major 7th so I was keen to learn more. I don’t know a lot of…

Barre chords Barre chords on classical guitar can be tiring for the hand and forearm so it’s good practice to minimise them if possible. Adjusting fingering and only using barre chords when absolutely necessary is a worthwhile endeavour. Also, paying attention to which actual strings you need to be pressing down and training the first finger to apply weight to only those strings is an important part of technical development. Play a G major barre chord at the 3rd fret; 3 5 5 4 3 3 (low to high strings); you need a full barre but only need to be pressing sixth, second and first strings, and therefore the barring first finger can be curved and only be pressing said strings.…

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 Lowell Fulson’s fascination with guitar started when he heard Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller. Around the age of 12 he would sneak away with his uncle’s guitar, always making sure to return it in perfect order to hide the unauthorised loan. His first performances were at church but by his teens Lowell had flown the nest and hit the road with the Dan Wright String Band. In 1944 he was drafted into the Army and posted to the Pacific island of Guam. Once discharged, Fulson landed himself a record deal in California and started making a name for himself with classics such as Three O’Clock Blues, and Everyday I Have The Blues. A young BB King who was at DJ in Memphis…

When you think of Keith Richards your first image is probably of the Teletoting, bandana-wearing wildman of rock. However, delve into the Rolling Stones’ back catalogue and you’ll find that acoustic instruments feature heavily – from strummed and fingerpicked acoustic guitars to 12-strings, mandolins and Nashville tuned guitars. For anyone interested in acoustic songwriters, the styles of Richards and accomplices Brian Jones and Ronnie Wood provide an invaluable source of learning. Keith Richards was born on 18th December 1943 in Dartford, Kent. The story of how he came to learn guitar is rather charming – his grandfather Gus Dupree was a working musician who told the young Richards that he would teach him guitar if he could reach it off the shelf. After many ingenious attempts Richards finally grasped the…

Welcome to the eighth part in our series looking at developing fretboard fluency. Following on from our last lesson, where we worked through a multiple element ‘master exercise’ in D Mixolydian, and with the associated chord, scale, arpeggio and intervallic pattern in 3rds and 4ths arranged in positions 1 and 4, this month we’ll revisit the same idea using 5ths and 6ths. In order to develop legato and alternate picking approaches to scale and arpeggio playing in tandem, this month we’ll practise the Mixolydian mode using a legato approach, with the dominant 7 arpeggio executed using the sweeping technique in combination with hammer-ons and pull-offs. All intervallic patterns will be played as usual using alternate picking starting on a downstroke. Playing through the scale using intervals of 5ths and 6ths…

FEATURE #2 WHEN COUNTRY WENT ROCK Distortion mania in Nashville! On modern country tracks the tones are more George Lynch than George Jones. Learn some white hot country licks today! CLASSICAL TAB WILLIAM HENRY MONK Abide With Me Bridget arranges and transcribes a hymn beloved of everyone from King George V to Mahatma Ghandi! VIDEO MASTERCLASS BRETT GARSED: SUNRISE Glorious slide workout Brett is a master of slide guitar with feel, technique and tone to die for. If you play slide you’ll want to learn this! TECHNIQUE & THEORY TOP THINGS TO LEARN Fretting stretches & enclosure Longer stretches bring new ideas; and enclosing notes with chromaticism and scale tones ands sophistication Use three-notes-per-string licks to... TAKE YOUR BLUES T0 THE NEXT LEVEL! Playing those two-notes-per-string Pentatonic licks can only…

IN A WAY the tone of this issue was set by last month’s, where we looked at the great British R&B bands that predated our blues boom. That was the early-mid ’60s, and in just a year or two R&B and blues were gone and ‘rock’ was in the ascendant. As I recall it the term ‘rock’ wasn’t coined until about 1968, as bands like Cream, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and the fledgling Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, beefed up the blues and broke its three-chord barriers. Although The Beatles, Kinks and Who had pioneered guitar riffery, the rock bands took things further. Riffs were heavier and often the core of the song, whereas The Beatles and co used a guitar figure to introduce a number, and often little more.…

Here’s the thing. You practise assiduously. You put in the hours. You nail those diminished scales, the Lydian modes and the sweep picking arpeggios. You work. You sweat. You stop for a cuppa and a couple of Neurofen. You return to the shed of tears and repeat to fade. You retire for the evening, blistered of brain and addled of finger, up again at the crack of lunchtime to continue your travails. And ever onwards, upwards and deeper into it. All worthwhile, laudable and essential if your goal is to make plucking progress along the endless path towards musical nirvana. And then it happens. You nip out in the motor for some milk. The man comes on the radio. He plays five notes with little or no technique to speak…

➊ Dorian Blues (D) We start off with a fun and straight-forward blues shuffle jam. Harmonically, this stays within the framework of D Dorian mode (D-E-F-G-A-B-C) throughout. You can also simply use D Minor Pentatonic (D-F-G-A-C). Arpeggios would be Dm (D-F-A), G (G-B-D) and Am (A-C-E). ➋ Easy Jazz Jam (Am) Here we have a super-open jazz jam in A minor, ideal for jazz newbies as well as more advanced players, with plenty of space to practise your chord shapes, whether for comping or chord-fuelled soloing. Use A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-D-E-G) and A Minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) and add extra 6th and 9th colour with A Dorian mode (A-B-C-D-E-F#-G). ➌ Im-V7Vamp (G Harmonic Minor) This track is a simple two-chord vamp, moving between the Im chord (Gm) and the V7 chord…

1. All entries must be via video, uploaded to YouTube with a link emailed to guitaristoftheyear@futurenet.com. No other emails or points of contact please. 2. Don’t call us – we’ll call you if we like what you’re doing. 3. You need to be okay with us sharing your video to our wider online audience, appearing in the magazine and playing live on stage in London in September. 4. As ever, the judge’s decision – picking our finalists and our eventual winner – is final. 5. Young Guitarist entrants must be 16 years of age or under on 30 September 2018.…

FLUENCY Whether picking or playing legato style (or anywhere in between, come to think of it) it’s important to have a clear plan of exactly what notes you are going to play and where they are going to fall over any click or backing track. Obvious I know, but when tackling tricky material, the majority of us reach a certain point where we become impatient and try to turn up the speed before we are really ready. If we do this consistently (and most of us do), we wire our brains and fingers to skip over the parts that aren’t falling under the fingers, or compromise our technique for a ‘quick fix’. Basically, the message here is... don’t do that! Always use a click to keep tempo consistent and build…

Single-coil guitars are often but not exclusively used for folk-rock, and on Strat,Tele or 335 styles a‘two pickups on’ setting is a great starting point. A mild overdrive setting will work best, in order to emulate a hard-working valve amp. In this era heavily saturated sounds weren’t really available, and other effects were minimal too. A touch of reverb and light slapback can work well though. We have provided pickup selections and effects combinations in the tab for you to follow.…

LICK 1 Compound String Bending lick, bars 27-28 Brett bends from the major 7th (B) to the root (C) and this bending up twice adds excitement to the phrase. Bending up from the 7th of the chord is a really effective concept and well worth adding to your bag of tricks. LICK 2 Ascending dissonance, bars 48-49 In this lick Brett cleverly ascends and lets the notes on the fourth and third string run into each other. As these notes are only a tone apart a cool dissonance is produced. This concept could be stretched out for longer should you wish. LICK 3 Free-time ending lick, bars 70-72 Here Brett uses a combination of Lydian legato and arpeggios to create a beautiful end phrase; the perfect choice for a floaty…

Bon Jovi has been around for 35 years since Jon Bon Jovi formed the band, adding Richie Sambora (guitar), David Bryan (keys), Tico Torres (drums) and Alec John Such (bass). After the first two Bon Jovi albums achieved only modest success so Jon, Richie and the boys were heading towards their potentially final chance third album before being dropped by Vertigo. So under the watchful eye of producer Bruce Fairbairn they set about giving their third album their best shot. That 1986 album Slippery When Wet went on to sell over 12 million in the US alone, and the tour that followed grossed nearly 25 million dollars and included a headline set at Monsters Of Rock, Donington. The album included Livin’ On A Prayer, which Jon had originally wanted to…

In this series, we’ve been looking at the use of non-scale notes in order to add spice to our lines. By mobilising notes that are not in the key (chromaticism), we get to nearly double the amount of different notes in our musical palette (from seven per octave, to 12). Crucially, chromaticism provides us with the opportunity to use tension (dissonance) and then resolve it (consonance), rather than just dwell on consonant notes all the time. So far, we have looked at: 1) Chromatic Approach-notes: either from a semitone above or below the target note. 2) Chromatic bridging: whereby one note is linked to another (however far apart) by a consecutive series of chromatic steps. In classical music, when a chord tone is arrived at via a chromatic route, it…

Developing your finger stretch should be approached very slowly and carefully so as to avoid injuries. Everybody has different sized hands and different levels of suppleness, so go at your own pace and adapt the examples to suit you. Wide stretches are mostly associated with rock and fusion players Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Eddie Van Halen and others, all of whom have notable stretches and can reach wide intervals with accuracy and strength. Being able to reach wider intervals while staying on the same string increases your the palette and the creative possibilities of legato licks becomes much greater. Our first example is chordal warm-up inspired by Dream Theater’s John Petrucci. This is purely an exercise to warm up the hand muscles. So you will put a one-fret space between…

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! Get a FREE iPad/iPhone sample of GT. For full details and how to…

GT: What is it about instrumentals that appeals to you? JM: My answer is pretty much self evident: I’ve loved the guitar since the age of 11, and while I’ve always loved the human voice, my real passion is playing the guitar. Naturally, the great guitarists have always had a special place in my heart. My desire from the very beginning was not to accompany a voice, but to really play the guitar. GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can’t? JM: The pleasures obtained from instrumental music are not necessarily the same as the pleasures derived from listening to vocal music. I’m the first one to say that there is no equivalent to the human voice, it is the supreme instrument, but not everyone…

TOKAI’S TALBO BLAZING FIRE makes an appearance in the UK after being in production for almost a year. The Talbo (Tokai Aluminum Body) marks a welcome departure from its quality‘copy’models in a most revolutionary manner with a sculptured double-cutaway aluminium-alloy body with an internal chamber that lessens the weight and acts as an electronics shield. The bolt-on maple neck has a rosewood board with dot inlays and the headstock has a visible black metal strip under the tuners. THE USE OF SEATBELTS BECOMES MANDATORY for drivers and front seat passengers. Wheel clamps are introduced in an attempt to stop illegal parking in London. The extending of London Underground’s Piccadilly line at Heathrow Airport begins in order to serve the new Terminal 4. And the Austin Metro is officially Britain’s best…

READ MUSIC Each transcription is broken down into two parts... MUSICAL STAVE The five horizontal lines for music notation show note pitches and rhythms and are divided by bar lines. TAB Under the musical stave, Tab is an aid to show you where to put your fingers on the fretboard. The six horizontal lines represent the six strings on a guitar – the numbers on the strings are fret numbers. GUITAR TECHNIQUES: HOW THEY APPEAR IN WRITTEN MUSIC... PICKING Up and down picking • The first note is to be down-picked and the last note is to be up-picked. Tremolo picking • Each of the four notes are to be alternate picked (down-& up-picked) very rapidly and continuously. Palm muting • Palm mute by resting the edge of picking-hand’s palm…

RAY STEVENSON / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK Although more complex in its evolution, for our purposes let’s point to when Bob Dylan slung on a Tele and went electric, and The Byrds covered his Mr Tambourine Man using an electric 12-string Rickenbacker, as the moment folk-rock was born. That the archbishop of American folk was turning his back on acoustic guitar, meant that the way was open for others to do so too. But where Dylan’s music had been harmonically simple but lyrically supreme, the folk-rock movement that sprang up, primarily in Britain in the late 1960s, was to be a far more deep and mystical affair, with time signature changes and playing ability to rival that of many prog bands. In fact, some of the folk-rock outfits, notably Fairport Convention,…

This month we step up the pace with one of Brett’s trickiest tracks to date. As he explains the tempo is brisk and there are quite a few chord changes. The song starts out with a B dominant 7 sound over the intro so B Mixolydian is the natural choice (B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A). To add some extra tension Brett includes a bit of B Altered scale, the 7th mode of C Melodic Minor (B-C-D-E b -F-G-A). The verse moves to an E minor tonality and Brett mixes E Natural Minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D) and E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) to excellent effect. The chorus switches to an E major sound and E Major (Ionian) (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#) is the clear choice here. “IT’S A QUICK GROOVE SO LOCK IN AND HAVE…

Russian composer and piano virtuoso Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was one of that rare breed of composers who managed to marry high technical skill with accessibility in their music. His work is characterised by powerful orchestral forces and deep harmonic ideas blended with highly expressive melodic themes. Rachmaninoff wrote prolifically in a range of contexts, but large-scale piano and orchestra virtuoso pieces, was a recurring approach. This richness of orchestration, stunning virtuosity and harmony makes it a challenge to translate his music satisfyingly to the solo guitar. In GT264 we tackled the ever-popular Vocalise, and here we turn to Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paginini op.34, which was written in his Swiss villa in the summer 1934. It is in the form of a ‘theme and variations’, a well-established structure which…

Brought to you by… EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 PETER BUCK CD TRACK 24 This example in the style of R.E.M. follows a simple chord progression arpeggiating the voicings with slow and controlled picking in the directions notated. Emphasise beats 1 and 3 for rhythmical dynamics. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 JIMMY PAGE CD TRACK 25 This E Minor Pentatonic style riff needs a loose and laid back approach in the fretting hand but plenty of attitude in the picking hand. Watch out for the quarter-tone bends as they lend the licks their bluesy essence. A big fat humbucker sound is the order of the day. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 JOHN MAYER CD TRACK 26 A smooth, and carefully executed idea, this example needs attention to details such as the slides and…

If the measure of a music teacher is in the success of their students, then Mick Goodrick is possibly the best in the world. During the extensive period he’s taught at Berklee College of Music, his students have included John Scofield, Mike Stern, Julian Lage, Bill Frisell and many more. In fact, I could probably fill my next year of articles with famous players that have benefitted from Goodrick’s sage wisdom. While touring with vibraphone virtuoso Gary Burton, he acted as mentor to a young Pat Metheny, and guitarists from all over the world have broadened their musical horizons with the help of his legendary book, The Advancing Guitarist. Goodrick’s playing credentials are equally impressive and, as well as Burton, include stints with Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow, Jerry Bergonzi and…

Sonny Landreth’s approach to slide playing is instantly recognisable. While influenced by the early blues players, he has taken slide playing further by fretting behind the slide, mixing fretted notes and slide notes in a unique way. No wonder then that his career has seen him share stages and studios with Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton and John Mayall as well as being Grammy nominated. Indeed, Clapton calls him, “the most underestimated musician on the planet and also one of the most advanced.” The Mississippi-born guitarist settled in Lafayette Louisianna at an early age and his earliest influences were Creole and Zydeco based, which influenced his rhythmic approach to the blues. Landreth started out playing in Clifton Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana band, a prominent Zydeco group, moving on to John Hiatt…

Album of the Month DETROIT RISING A COSMIC JAZZ FUNK ADVENTURE Downjazz Records 4 out of 5 If muscular modern funk and R&B is your thing then this is for you, for sure. Comprising members that have played or play for Parliament and Funkadelic, the credentials for Detroit Rising are well in place. Among the band are two great guitarists - Duminie Deporres and Blackbyrd McKnight, the latter having played with Bootsy Collins, Herbie Hancock and Red Hot Chili Peppers. With 10 tracks (three clocking in at over nine minutes long), there’s a lot of riffing, syncopating and melodic blazing going on. Opener, Lashing Out is a laid-back groover powered by a thick bass synth riff that shows great muscularity. Little Bit is faster with a dark chord progression that…

ROB BLACKHAM GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? LJ: I use Dunlop Tortex 1.0mm. I never used to think picks were that important until I started doing 200 shows a year. They are very high quality so it takes a long time for them to get shredded. And they are super easy to grip when sweating on stage. My favourite thing is that they don’t make a clicking noise on the strings when you play them. GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three... LJ: That’s an easy one as I only have five pedals on my board. So it would have to be my Mojo Hand FX Rook overdrive. I keep this on all the time and use…