Innholdsfortegnelse for December 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. 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. CHRIS BROOKS Aussie metal and prog guitarist Chris’s Speed Strategies For Guitar is published by Fundamental Changes. CDs include Axis Of All Things and The Master Plan. MARTIN GOULDING One of the world’s foremost rock and metal guitarists, Martin teaches for dime-online.org and has written for…

TINA K I’m just starting a new podcast series in which I interview teachers, academics and skilled players about the future of music education and how students should approach learning music in this ‘new world’ where information is mostly free and there is a LOT of content available (from a vast range of people with varied quality of output). It’s been fascinating and I’ve only just scratched the surface. One thing that became apparent very quickly is that the modern musician requires a much broader skillset than they did when I was learning my craft – and it’s that that I’d like to explore today. If you want to be a pro (or semi-pro) musician you need to be able to play – and the path you take to learn…

THIS IDEA will work well at all tempos and in many styles. It is played against an A7 blues‘vamp’and uses notes from A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-DE-G) and A Major Pentatonic (A-B-C#-E-F#) with a Blues scale b 5 (E b ) thrown in. Combinations such as this are often called‘hybrid’scales. Bar 1 to beat 3 of bar 2 is all Minor Pentatonic. Beat 3 of bar 2 contains a typical minor to major 3rd (C-C#) move followed by a Blues scale idea incorporating the b 5 (E b ). Bar 3 has another b 3-3 into a short Major Pentatonic idea – notice how the final two beats of this bar contain an A6 arpeggio and also an Em6 arpeggio that implies A9 – no root. The final two bars…

Some of the following ideas are admittedly a little trickier than anything we’ve looked at in the previous columns. But hey, it’s all in the name of fun! The unifying theme throughout the following selection of licks is that they all utilise multiple strings, some of which are bent while others remain static. Consequently, there’s a distinctly ‘country’ flavour this month. It’s probably fair to say that country players have more fun with string bending than the rest of us do, and this is at least partially because the cleaner tones typical of the genre allow multiple strings to ring out simultaneously with great clarity, facilitating all kinds of new double- and triple-stop bending ideas that wouldn’t sound anywhere near as defined if you tried to play them through a…

Practice awareness I find that the most beneficial practice is achieved when one is in a state of emotional calm, combined with alert mental focus. Being eager and ambitious to play/learn is a wonderful thing but be careful that eagerness does not turn into tense and aggressive practice which can be detrimental to progress. Resist the temptation to rush or ‘perform’ in the practice room before you are ready. Instead, adhere to good habits by being poised, aware of yourself physically, technically and keep your mind fully focused on the music you are learning.…

TIM MOSENFELDER / GETTY IMAGES At only 36 years old, it’s mindblowing to think that Jonny Lang has been as successful as he has for the last 20 years. Recording his first platinum record at just 15 years old, Lie To Me set him apart from the other blues prodigies of his day. An incredibly lyrical and expressive player, you won’t hear the usual generic blues guitar vocabulary, but a distinctive sound all his own. Listening through Lang’s back catalogue reveals a wonderfully diverse and eclectic taste in music, with his early stuff strongly in the traditional blues ball park. His later albums start to get funkier and more modern sounding, with gorgeous R&B and contemporary gospel favours combined with his earthy blues guitar style. This wonderful mix of influences…

This series is derived from my book, Neoclassical Speed Strategies For Guitar, written to explore the speed picking strategies employed by Yngwie Malmsteen. As we venture through both conventional and unconventional aspects of the nimble-fingered Swede’s powerhouse picking, you can expect solutions to stumbling blocks you may have already encountered in your own playing. Let’s begin with some crucial biomechanics for doing things The Yng Way. ‘Pick edge offset’ reduces friction and latency by using the edge of the pick to attack the strings rather than the flat surface area. Offsets are applied using wrist placement and pick grip. To offset the pick as Yngwie does (along with many other elite pickers), turn the pick clockwise from the flat to string position (Figure A). This starting point means the outer…

DANIEL KNIGHTON / GETTY IMAGES As we saw in last month’s lesson, the Harmonic Minor scale consists of the formula: R-2- b 3-4-5- b 6-7, and can be visualised as a Natural Minor scale with a major 7th degree, as you can see here... Natural Minor: R-2- b 3-4-5- b 6- b 7. Harmonic Minor: R-2- b 3-4 -5- b 6-7 This month, we’ll continue our study of this very interesting scale by taking the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees from each consecutive note and arranging it as a family of diatonic 7th chords along with their respective modes. Within this family of chords, we can identify the more familiar minor 7, dominant 7 and minor 7 b 5 forms found within the diatonic Major and Natural Minor scale…

MORE OF THE WORLD’S BEST LESSONS… FEATURE #2 VIDEO JOHN ETHERIDGE Going beyond blues Soft Machine’s longtime guitarist gives us a personal insight into his style of playing, fusing jazz, blues and rock. CLASSICAL TAB VIOLETAS Julio Sagreras Bridget Mermikides arranges and transcribes a delightful waltz by the Brazilian-born prodigy and composer. FEATURE #3 VIDEO ROCCO ZIFARELLI Harlem 72 Film composer Ennio Morricone’s superb guitarist plays and describes a great solo over an exclusive new track. TECHNIQUE & THEORY GREAT STUFF TO LEARN Modal Pentatonics; minor riffs Pulling five-note scales from modes  offers whole new sounds; plus, create cool Pentatonic and Blues scale riffs. MORE GREAT LESSONS 30-Minute Lickbag Six more licks to test your skills Robin Trower Blues master of the Stratocaster Mötley Crüe Hot lcks from…

I CAN VIVIDLY remember the moment I discovered legato. And where. And what guitar I was playing. I lived at home in Essex and I was 18. I was a huge fan of all the late 60s bluesy-rockers and listened and played to Cream records for hours a day. I was using my brother’s six-guinea Egmond and had detuned it, Albert King style, so I could bend notes on the wholly unsuitable strings. There was a thing Clapton and others used to do where they seemed to play impossibly quick clusters of notes. I couldn’t pick anywhere near that fast so believed they were possessed of superhuman powers. Then one day I was noodling on the Egmond, when my third finger accidentally slipped off the edge of the fretboard and…

“Working for other people is important. It’s what separates us from the animals. And those with individual voluntary arrangements.” I like to think that Homer Simpson, the bard of broadcasting and sage of our age, would have said that eventually. But no matter. It’s always a source of considerable satisfaction and no little relief to produce musical performances that meet an acceptable minimum standard commensurate with prompt payment. However, it’s also equally important to find the time and energy to do your own thing. I mean, that’s why we chose our instrument in the first place, right? Delightful as it may be to stun the client with one’s virtuoso banjo stylings on McDongle’s Spicy Rabbit Pellets, man lives not by cat food commercials alone. Nor do cats, in all fairness.…

GETTY IMAGES ➊ G Mixolydian blues jam For this simple G Mixolydian two-chord vamp, the obvious choice of scale is of course G Mixolydian mode (G-A-B-C-D-E-F), but you can also get bluesy with it and employ some tasty G Minor Pentatonic action (G-B b -C-D-F), adding the b 5 (D b ) for even greater bluesy effect. ➋ Country style blues waltz (A) Here’s a cool 12-bar blues progression with a little country flavour. It’s in three-quarter time so three beats to each bar, rather than the more common four. Mix A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-D-E-G) with A Major Pentatonic (A-B-C#- E-F#) for some classic blues moods. ➌ Slow Chicago blues shuffle (D) The end-of-the-cycle-turnaround here is D-D7/C-G/B-Gm/ B b -D/A-A7. Classic Chicago style. I recommend using both D Minor Pentatonic…

Most guitarists have fantasised about being like their heroes; taking centre stage before a crowd of thousands and launching into a fret-melting solo, thereby cementing themselves forever into the hearts of generations of guitar players. Well, if this is you (it certainly is me), working on your technique is essential if we are to develop the speed and fluidity necessary to play similar types of flashy lines. Now we all know that good guitar playing isn’t measured simply by how many notes can be crammed into a second (although some would seem to think it is); and what makes a great solo can be largely subjective, creating many a healthy argument among us guitarists. However, I think most would agree that a great combination of musicality and technical skill is…

Some of the following licks are decidedly unconventional and there is much to explain so, without further ado, let’s just dive straight in and have a look at Lick 7. The core of this lick is a simple repeating three-note pattern that can be executed using the following steps: 1) Tap the third string at the 12th fret; 2) Pull-off to the 7th fret and immediately bend the string up one tone (preferably by bending downwards towards the floor – in this particular instance, I find that bending in this way facilitates a little extra speed); 3) Simultaneously release the bend and hammer on at the 9th fret. This is essentially a fancier version of the Jan Hammer-esque idea, which we first encountered last month. The new developments here are…

Pop and rock music is often characterised by diatonic chord progressions, with melodies that are appealing. So when I’m on a session where I have to improvise or prepare a solo, I consider the relevant diatonic and pentatonic scales with specific focus on creating melodic impact. I think this is very important, to solo melodically while highlighting the chords. This is very common when studying and playing jazz but just as useful whatever genre you play in. It’s also the approach I took for Jason Sidwell’s rock fusion piece, Route 666. One aspect of melodic playing that I have practiced a lot is the study of triads (three note chords), both closed (notes close together) and large (such as open voicings where the notes are more spread out). I think…

Pearl Jam are spoken about in the same breath, and are as respected as other grunge heavyweights, Nirvana and Soundgarden. Formed in Seattle, Washington, the birthplace of grunge, the band’s long-term line up has comprised singer Eddie Vedder, guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, with Jeff Ament on bass and drummer Matt Cameron. Pearl Jam began their career in 1990, and in 1991 scored a huge hit with their debut album Ten which, along with Nirvana’s Nevermind, is regarded as one of the defining records of the era. Even though they have shied away from doing interviews and from even making many music videos, the band has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide. “PEARL JAM’S DEBUT ALBUM TEN, ALONG WITH NIRVANA’S NEVERMIND, IS REGARDED AS ONE OF THE DEFINING…

Hawkwind formed in London in 1969 and the band is still touring 50 years on. Over this time they have released 31 studio albums plus numerous live records, compilations, EPs and singles. Hawkwind was formed by guitarist, vocalist and keyboards player Dave Brock who is the only original member of the band still remaining. Although a veritable revolving door of musicians over the years, there have been relatively few guitarists to accompany Brock as an additional six-stringer, with the exception of the excellent Huw Lloyd-Langton who appeared on 12 of the band’s albums. Huw Lloyd-Langton sadly passed away in 2012 but left behind a legacy of licks through his time with the band, and also through his solo output and work as a session musician for others. His work as…

CLAYTON CALL / GETTY IMAGES Minor II-V-I progressions feature in jazz standards such as Blue Bossa, Stella By Starlight or Night And Day. This month we will look at a few different approaches to navigate this three-chord cadence, ranging from simple arpeggios, to Pentatonic as well as more advanced scales. We will stay in the key of A Minor throughout so in this lesson the three chords will be Bm7 b 5-E7-Am7. Before we tackle playing through the three chords, let’s first look at each chord in isolation. The II chord is a m7 b 5 and has the intervals 1- b 3-5- b 7; this chord is also known as ‘half diminished’. You can see this as a Locrian mode chord (1- b 2- b 3-4- b 5- b…

Album of the Month SONS OF APOLLO LIVE WITH THE PLOVDIV PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY InsideOutMusic A live rock album with an orchestra? Oh yes! Recorded in a Roman amphitheatre, this supergroup (Bumblefoot, Billy Sheehan, Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian and Jeff Scott Soto) go all out on this three-CD release featuring their own music, covers and some jaw-dropping solo spots. Opener, God Of The Sun is a great kick-off; blazing and brutal, it embodies modern prog metal with shifting time signatures and crushing guitar lines. It’s admirable how these four heavy-duty virtuosi serve the songs while being able to floor the gas come solo time. It’s not all all out blazing; they cover a broad range of songs too, from The Pink Panther Theme to Gates Of Babylon, Dairy Of A Madman…

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…

GETTY IMAGES GT: Thirty-one years have passed since the release of It Bite’s second studio album. Why do a tour to celebrate it now? FD: I’ve been touring for years. I normally play three electric shows per year in January and this is just another one of them. I think the marketing is more forceful, that’s why you may think its new. GT: You talk of doing the whole album note for note. That level of reproduction is a considerable challenge for everyone. FD: When you have the original members it’s very easy because they know exactly what to play and how to play it. But with a new band you spend most of the time shaping the approach. It Bites always had a weird approach to songs. They sound…

GUILD INTRODUCES THE STUART cutaway archtop guitar, fully bound (including f-holes and scratchplate) with an ebony bridge and fretboard and pearl block abalone wedge inlays. The instrument comes loaded with a pair of humbucking pickups, volume and tone controls for each and a three-way selector switch. The fittings are gold-plated and the distinctive harp-style tailpiece was made by Muller in Germany. The X-500 sports a sunburst finish while the X-550 is natural blonde. A QUARTER OF BRITISH HOUSEHOLDS now own a television set with many buying one to watch the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. A full colour film of the day is also shown in cinemas all over the UK and national street parties are organised to celebrate the event. New TV watchers enjoy The Quatermass…

Where does the thumb go? Most blues, rock and other Pentatonic-based guitarists have traditionally wrapped their thumb over the top of the neck in order to gain purchase for string bends and finger vibrato. On the other hand, speed metal, fusion and jazz players tend to play more‘classically’, with the thumb in the middle of the back of the neck. This is often due to playing three-notes-per string licks where a greater fretboard stretch is required. Most of the phrases in this article are of the former variety, but you may find yourself having to reposition your thumb from time to time, for those stretchier licks. It will probably happen naturally, but it’s good to be aware of the different approaches.…

This month we are delighted to welcome Italian fusion wizard, Rocco Zifarelli to take on various Jason Sidwell penned backing tracks over the next six issues. Rocco has been film composer legend Ennio Morricone’s guitarist for over 20 years and is a fabulously talented player. We start with a slick sounding, fast-paced offering entitled Route 666. The tempo is a brisk 155bpm so it’s worth having a fretboard roadmap established prior to setting sail on such a freeform, improvised solo. As Rocco explains, the track starts out in the key of G Minor. The standard approach is usually to employ G Minor Pentatonic blues and rock vocabulary. However, the backing track is more harmonically advanced than just that one key and requires various other scales and concepts to be used…

We’ve visited his works before, but this issue we are tackling a wonderful piece by a seminal figure of classical guitar, the Spanish composer and perhaps first virtuoso of the instrument Fernando Sor (1778-1839). Sor was a successful performer, respected teacher and prodigious composer (his work includes two operas, nine ballets, three symphonies). However it is with the development of the classical guitar where Sor’s enduring influence lies. His large body of guitar pieces, studies, lessons and exercises, have forged generations of classical guitarists from student to master, and are as useful (and used) today as in his lifetime. Here, I’ve taken the fifth of his six Little Pieces (Opus 5 no. 5), known as Andante Largo (‘at a slow/broad walking pace’), after the tempo indication on the score. It…

EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 ERIC CLAPTON CD TRACK 26 Pick the A5-C change with confidence, and the Pentatonic melody strongly, being careful of string noise. Moderate amp gain and bridge humbucker is ideal. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 METALLICA CD TRACK 27 Cleanly lift the first finger on and off the 2nd fret. Approach the rest of the lick with careful picking of open strings - try it to a metronome to test your timing. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 ANDY TIMMONS CD TRACK 28 Voice a‘G shape’E major chord, and upstroke confidently to the open string. Use your third and first fingers to outline the melody. INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 4 STEVIE SALAS CD TRACK 29 This groovy rock-funk lick quickly descends B Minor Pentatonic scale. Be mindful of the quaver rests,…

ANDREW LEPLEY / GETTY IMAGES Building on last month’s study of 4ths, where we looked at the harmonic possibilities, we turn our attention to the soloing potential of this simple but hugely effective device. As we’ve seen, 4ths are a powerful cornerstone of harmony, if you continue around this pattern from a fixed root in an unbroken cycle of 12, you’ll both return to exactly where you started and you’ll have visited every note in the process, following a sequence that has huge transpositional value. From a single-note perspective, 4ths can be considered as a gateway to chromaticism, with their distinctively angular and modern sound. The six examples that follow outline a specific musical application for 4ths. We’ll explore diatonic and non-diatonic options here, along with the benefits of moving…

OLLY CURTIS Our recent lessons have been devoted to various Pentatonic scales stemming from the root of Mixolydian. As all Pentatonics are five-note scales it’s a question of leaving two notes out of the seven-note Mixolydian each time. So, if you leave the 4th and 6th notes of Mixolydian (1-2-3-4-5-6- b 7), you get Dominant Pentatonic (1-2-3-5- b 7), whereas, leave out 2nd and 6th and you get Indian Pentatonic(1-3-4, 5- b 7). This lesson is the first in a series where we look at how the root of various Pentatonic scales can stem from other notes of Mixolydian rather than the root. Let’s start with the 2nd. First, if we leave out the 3rd and b 7th of A Mixolydian, we get a Bm Pentatonic: A Mixolydian: A B…

Missed one of our recent fabulous issues? Get one now while stocks last. NOVEMBER GT301 STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN Four full style studies: uptempo stomper, riffy rocker, instrumental ballad, slow blues. Learn in full or steal a bagload of licks! Guthrie Govan string-bending (video); a full-on lesson with the master! Rock legend Marty Friedman solos over an exclusive new track (video). And tons more! OCTOBER GT300 50 LICKS OF THE LEGENDS! To celebrate Issue 300 we bring you five licks from the top guitarists in 10 different styles: 50 Licks Of The Legends! There’s a whole new lickbag for you here! Plus: learn two great Clapton ‘Beano’ style solos, and check out Bridget’s stunning take on The Entertainer! SEPTEMBER GT299 PLAY ACOUSTIC Stuart Ryan has four brilliant new pieces in Rock,…