Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i 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. He’s also rock legend Shakin Stevens’ touring and recording guitarist. MARTIN GOULDING One of the world’s foremost rock and metal guitarists, Martin teaches for dime-online.org and has…

I’m writing this in an airport lounge having just spent a week in Italy. I was running a workshop aimed at acoustic guitarists getting into playing electric with a band for the first time. There were a few more experienced guys but the majority were electric virgins. The song the first day was Satisfaction. After the morning song prep lessons we have lunch and then offer further lessons related to song, developing solos and that kind of thing. But it became apparent over lunch that people were in shock and needed more time working on the song. “But it’s so simple,” said a doctor, “Why are we struggling so much?” “Simple ain’t easy” is one of my favourite catchphrases, and while often applied to AC/DC, I think it works across…

THIS IDEA IS played over a G major chord and uses a notes drawn mainly from the G Major scale – G-A-B-C-D-E-F#. There is, however, also an added b 5 (D b ), b 3 (B b ) and b 6 (E b ). The E b and D b really only function as chromatic passing notes. This lick is played using a pick and fingers (hybrid) approach. In the notation I have given the playing directions that I use, but there are a few alternative ways that you could play this, so experiment and use whatever works best for you. After playing through it be sure to develop similar ideas of your own - particularly in the remaining‘open string’keys of E, A, D and B. Also, experiment in…

Learning acoustic guitar styles can seem overwhelming at first so initially it’s best to focus on the core elements of what you are looking at. So, with fingerstyle ensure that you have the rudiments in place and are confident with them before tackling complex pieces and arrangements. Indeed, if you are new to fingerstyle then it’s worth learning some classic singer-songwriter material at first as the parts usually won’t be too challenging but will be melodic and give you an idea of how the technique works in practice. If you are an electric player getting into styles like bluegrass then learning the repertoire and vocabulary will be key to success.…

Aside from his work with his own band, Little Barrie, plus several years with Glasgow’s seminal indie band Primal Scream and, more recently, touring with The The, Barrie Cadogan is a lifelong student of the blues. Barrie has traced the playing styles of many of his initial 60s and 70s guitar heroes back to their own sources, putting together a sort of family tree of how different techniques evolved as they moved from one genre to another. Naturally, of course, he has drawn much of this into his own approach as a very busy working guitarist. We begin this video lesson with Barrie by taking a look at the much-neglected art of rhythm playing. It’s easy enough to get distracted from this vital facet in any guitarist’s armoury, in your…

In this issue, we examine yet another stunning work from the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart’s brilliance and productivity are of course well documented, and yet they’re still hard to fully appreciate. To provide some context, by the time he composed the opera Don Giovanni (from which this arrangement is taken), he was just 30 and had already composed hundreds of incredibly beautiful and skilled works, including a staggering 38 symphonies, 37 concerti, and 17 other operas. Compare that to certain modern bands with whom we readily tag with the title ‘genius’. Don Giovanni was premiered in 1787 in Prague and advertised as what would now be considered a ‘drama-comedy’. It tells the story of the eponymous, arrogant, womanising and amoral nobleman Don Giovanni and his shenanigans, before…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CD TRACK 25 This slow but controlled part should be approached with a strong pick attack for the chord work and bluesy bend. Play this using a classic amp tone with a light overdrive. Try knocking the volume control down for an even more authentic tone. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 ROBERT JOHNSON CD TRACK 26 A rootsy blues intro lick that sounds great on acoustic or dirty electric with tremolo, this could be played with fingers or a pick, and is based around E Minor Pentatonic in the open position. You’ll need a nice relaxed swing feel as you descend from the 5th fret, using the third finger for the pull-offs to the open strings. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 JIMI HENDRIX CD TRACK 27…

JOHN VAN HASSELT / GETTY IMAGES When considering the history of jazz, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt are rightly acknowledged for their monumental contribution in bringing the guitar to the forefront as a soloing instrument. Part of what made these players so great was their vision and ability to take influence from sources outside of the guitar, with Christian acknowledging Count Basie saxophonist Lester Young, while for Django the playing of trumpet virtuoso Louis Armstrong, had a massive effect on the direction and evolution of his style, right down to quoting specific lines in his solos. This tradition has continued and it’s this connection we’re exploring today. There’s a huge amount we can learn from our horn-playing cousins. So much of the language of jazz has been defined by the…

In terms of speed, what would you say was the perfect blend for a well-balanced guitar solo? Perhaps 20% slow, 60% medium, and 20% fast? Whatever the precise ratio, most players would probably agree that medium-paced ideas should be the dominant category; however, many rock players spend the bulk of their time shredding (fast category) punctuated by ear-catching Steve Vai-like effects (such as harmonics, whammy bar gurgles etc, that reside in the slow category) leaving the medium-paced category relatively unexplored. Depending on the tempo and feel, most medium-paced ideas will involve either 16th notes or eighth-note triplets and, because they don’t practise them, many players experience difficulty playing these rhythmic denominations securely and accurately even though they can play things that are much faster, because, rhythmically, notes are under less…

Missed one of our recent fabulous issues? Get one now while stocks last. AUGUST GT298 PLAYING PROBLEMS SOLVED! We all need a technique shake-up from time to time to hone weak areas or fix bad habits. This article addresses every area to refine your style and improve ability. Plus: Learn 12 fabulous Lukather licks from the man himself, play Morning Has Broken for solo guitar & more! JULY GT297 BUILD BETTER SOLOS We’ve all heard guitarists playing cool solos and wondered what ‘secret scale’ they were using. Often they’re simply mixing in arpeggios to link the notes more closely to the chords for a more musical outcome. This month you too can ‘Build Better Solos’ using arpeggios! JUNE GT296 PAUL GILBERT EXCLUSIVE Mr Big’s ace guitarist brings us a stunning…

Blues: Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, SRV, Gary Moore. R&R: Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore, Hank Marvin, Brian Setzer. Classic Rock: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Brian May, Angus Young, Ace Frehley. Hard Rock: Ritchie Blackmore, EVH, Slash, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen. Metal: Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag Darrell, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine. Instrumental Rock: Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jason Becker. Prog: Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, Alex Lifeson, John Petrucci, David Gilmour. Country: Chet Atkins, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, Brad Paisley, Brent Mason. Jazz: Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, George Benson, John McLaughlin. Funk: James Nolan, Nile Rodgers, David Williams, Al McKay, Leo Neocentelli. Don’t miss this unique GT issue! FREE BOOKLET! 50 Great Chords You Must Know! FEATURE #2 VIDEO…

ALTHOUGH THE GUITAR industry is changing fast, with online instrument sales soaring while certain retailers struggle, the perception that the six-string is in trouble couldn’t be more wrong. Despite Gibson’s well reported troubles they too have seen a recent rise in sales. The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) in the States reports guitar purchases up by a significant margin over the past 10 years. While the big ‘heritage’ guitar companies continue (and indeed need) to cater to the old guard who can’t live without their vintage-style Strats, Les Pauls and D-28s, many have begun seeking out a new breed of player that couldn’t care less what Peter Green, Hank Marvin or CSN&Y played; they simply want a guitar that does the job And that’s good news for the future.…

If you were offered the chance to board a Time Machine Airways flight to 1960, travel Business Class at the speed of light with unlimited complementary canapés for the entire fifty-second journey, and then date Marilyn Monroe every day of the week for the rest of your life upon arrival, here’s the thing. After about a fortnight of chauffeured limousines to a succession of Michelin starred restaurants complete with obsequious attention to your every whim, followed by chaperoning said young lady back to her Manhattan hotel hovel for a series of entertaining nights discussing Proust, guess what? You’d tire of it, is what. In the rather more elegant words of Mark Twain, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not…

PAUL NATKIN / GETTY IMAGES ➊ Slow Blues (E) We start with this simple 12-bar blues shuffle in E. Use E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) and E Major Pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#) as your starting point, and then see if you can work some of the arpeggios in: E7 (E-G#-B-D), A7 (A-C#-E-G), B7 (B-D#-F#-A). ➋ Latin Groove Blues (Am) Here we have a standard A Minor jazz-blues progression featuring a Latin-inspired groove. Lots of fun! Start with A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-D-E-G) and then go chasing after some of those colourful chord tones (aim for the 3rd( b 3rd), 5th and b 7th of each chord). ➌ Jazz Jam (C ) This is one of the most basic progressions in jazz, so it’s a great thing to learn to play on, whether you’re a…

This month we move things up a notch in the third part of our video masterclass series. We’re looking at another Jason Sidwell track, this one entitled Back On The Road. You may well find this particular track very user friendly as the thrust of it is essentially a minor blues in the key of C. As Mattias explains, his main scale of choice for soloing over this type of progression is C Aeolian mode, also referred to as C Natural Minor (C-D-E b -F-G-A b -B b ). We have included a popular fingering for the scale for you to experiment with, as it will work for all the sections of the track. You may also wish to simplify the tonal palette by opting for C Minor Pentatonic (C-E…

Effective practice How effective is your practice? Are you alert and mentally engaged or does your mind wander and get easily distracted? Effective practice is as much brainwork as it is finger work. Aim to cultivate conscious awareness of the musical content in your practice - the notes you are playing, their fretboard positions and harmony. This will boost your musical memory and expertise. Also, be aware of how you feel physically - is your posture good and are you playing with precise accuracy at all times? Developing good habits in your practice determines how you play in performance.…

PAUL NATKIN / GETTY IMAGES Luther Allison had his big break with blues legend Howlin’ Wolf after hanging outside the blues clubs of Chicago as a young man. It was there he took over the great Freddie King’s job in the house band, allowing him to cut his teeth, jamming with the likes of Magic Sam and Otis Rush, until he scored his own recording deal in 1967. He would later go on to sign with Motown in 1970, being one of the only blues artists ever to join that label. This allowed him to tour Europe in the mid 70s and establish a wider fan base, resulting in him relocating to France towards the end of the decade. Luther became known for his fiery style of playing, accompanied by…

Martin Taylor MBE is a legend, one of the very few British guitarists ever to be treated as an equal among the finest American jazz musicians. Among his many incredible strengths is his ability to play entire songs and solos picking out the bass note, the partial chord and the topline melody - all at the same time. It’s a staggering feat when you watch it live. For the next few issues Martin is serialising his book on that very subject. Take it away, Martin! Last lesson we began laying the foundation of polyphonic solo guitar playing, where the melody, bassline and ‘inner’ chords are viewed as three separate ‘voices’. We saw how to create two-note 10th voicings with the root on the sixth string and the 3rd (10th) on…

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been looking at Superlocrian mode (also known as the Altered scale), which is commonly applied over altered dominant chords (dominant chords with alterations to the 5th and/or 2nd (9th) degrees. Superlocrian: R- b 2-#2-3- b 5-#5- b 7. As we can see from the formula above, Superlocrian mode contains all the possible combinations of altered 5th and 2nd (9th) degrees, in addition to the root, 3rd, 5th and b 7th of the dominant chord. Typically found within jazz and blues progressions, altered dominant chords function as a means of creating tension, which helps guide the listener’s ear towards the resolving tonic chord a 4th higher (5th lower). So far, we’ve worked through the E Superlocrian mode in five shapes along with some diatonic…

Album of the Month THE ARISTOCRATS YOU KNOW WHAT…? Boing Music The Aristocrats, in the guise of fearsome instrumental talents Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller and Marco Minnemann, have carved out a unique niche for themselves since delivering their first album in 2011. The problem comes when you are tasked with defining exactly what that niche is. To call their output alternatively ‘jazz fusion’ or ‘rock’ is still far from hitting the bullseye. There’s too much humour in the music to simply pass it off as being jazz fusion, and yet there are certainly elements of that genre present. And rock is far too all-encompassing a term in any case. So how do we pin the tail on this particular donkey? Let’s inspect the goods. Track titles like the opener D…

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 guitar instrumentals that appeals to you? JM: I guess that I don’t have to write lyrics, lol. Also, in the absence of lyrics you have to find ways to be expressive and unusual melodically without the lyrical vehicle. Plus you have a legitimate reason to let rip at some point. GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can’t? JM: That’s it’s painting a picture without words. Lyrics have a visual pointer so in some ways that sets the precedent for mental imagery off the bat. GT: What do you embrace or avoid with instrumentals? JM: I aim to avoid at all costs pointless shredding from the outset. It has to be about dynamics. If you start a song playing 32nd notes…

GIBSON INTRODUCES THE EH-100 combo, with eight watts’output and a varying complement of valves. It uses a 10-inch field-coil speaker (like on early radios), with two inputs at the back but no controls. It’s destined to be modified on a regular basis and in order to supply other dealers not on their certified distribution list, Gibson releases many under the Cromwell label. MAKING THEIR WAY INTO THE WORLD are Buddy Holly, Bill Wyman, Buddy Guy, Tommy Steele, Roger Miller, James Jamerson, Glenn Campbell, Roy Orbison, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bobby Darin and Kris Kristofferson. On their way out are John Mills Jr (The Mills Brothers), Frank Hornby (Hornby Model Railways, Dinky Toys and Meccano) and author Rudyard Kipling. THE FIRST RUPERT BEAR ANNUAL IS PUBLISHED featuring stories and artwork by Alfred Bestall;…

With so much emphasis on electric guitar playing in popular music history it’s tempting to view the acoustic as the rhythmic tool to add foundation to the track, staying out of the way while the soloist goes for glory. However, the acoustic guitar is a hugely versatile instrument that has shaped music history for much longer than its electric brothers. Go back to the 1930s and before and you’ll hear acoustic guitars driving bluegrass, jazz and blues. Jump to the ’60s and ’70s and you’ll hear pop royalty The Beatles and rock gods such as Jimmy Page or Pete Townshend making acoustic guitars the core of their sound. There is so much you can study from acoustic guitar styles so in this special feature we’re going to examine it from…

The past few years have been particularly eventful for Barrie Cadogan. When we spoke to him, he had just finished a tour with Matt Johnson and The The, which included gigs in the UK and across Europe, America and Australia. Johnson hadn’t toured since 2002, after deciding to take time out of the music industry’s glaring limelight. But once lured back, he decided to put a band together and, thanks to a certain Mr Johnny Marr, Barrie got the job playing guitar. “Johnny had worked with Matt before,” Barrie tells us, “and recommended me to him. Matt recognised my name because he had Shazam’d the Better Call Saul theme, so he heard the name before.” The aforementioned TV show theme music was another event in Barrie’s calendar, and we’ll be…

TIM MOSENFELDER / GETTY IMAGES Journey formed in San Francisco in 1973, from members of Santana and Frumious Bandersnatch. They gained great commercial success between 1978 and 1987, and have seen a massive resurgence in popularity in the past few years, due to the ongoing appeal of their classic hit, Don’t Stop Believin’. The song has been featured in numerous TV shows such as Glee, and in films and Broadway shows like Rock Of Ages. It is also one of the most downloaded and streamed songs on digital platforms. The classic line-up featured Steve Perry (vocals), Neal Schon (guitar), Steve Smith (drums), Ross Valory (bass), and Jonathan Cain (keys). All remain in the current touring line-up, with the exception of Perry who has been replaced by Arnel Pinada on vocals.…

Formed in 1965 in San Francisco, The Grateful Dead fused a multitude of genres, along with extended jams to create their unique sound. Fans were so devoted that they branded themselves ‘Deadheads’ who would follow them on tour, selling their own merchandise to fund their allegiance. Still very much alive in the hearts of their followers, the Dead released 13 studio album, 10 live and nine compilations, plus 27 singles among other releases on different formats. They have over 35 million album sales to their credit. Formed by guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Phil Lesh on bass, Bill Kreutzmann (drums) and Ron McKernan (keyboards and harmonica), The Grateful Dead’s eponymous first album was released in 1967. Recorded in just four days it was produced by David Hassinger. The band…

The interval we’ll be exploring this month has at least two names; the b 5 or the #11. You could also call it the #4 or the tritone. Whatever you call it, the point is it can be an extremely evocative and powerful interval and can have radically different effects depending on the harmonic context. For example the tritone intro to Purple Haze is a little scary and dangerous sounding, but the intro to the Simpsons is playful and quirky. In common harmonic settings like pop or rock songs, playing the a b 5 for an extended time will sound grating, so usually it’s more suitable as a passing note; great for a moment of tension, but not to be lingered upon. In the following examples we will use the…

“BEST GUITARIST OF ALL TIME? MY VOTE GOES TO KEITH RICHARDS. HE’S GOT SWAGGER AND STYLE AND HE BRINGS ALL THINGS COOL TO THE GUITAR” GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? SF: I have no particular brand of pick. Anything with a matte finish and around 1mm thickness works fine for me. GT: If you had to give up all your effects pedals but three, what would they be? SF: Analog Man King Of Tone, MXR Carbon Copy, and maybe a fun thing like a Micro Pog octave. GT: Do you play another musical instrument well enough to do so in a band, and if so have you ever done it? SF: I played drums early on. I have dabbled with bass... It…