I get requests from time for more examples of turnarounds so I thought I would put together another turnaround lesson to give you 3 new ones that can be transposed to any key. Also, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out the first guitar lesson on turnarounds that I did a few years ago. I have also included 3 jam tracks (each one in a different key) so that you can practice playing them in different positions on the neck. If the interest is there, I can make more turnaround … [Read more...]
How To Practice Guitar and Take Your Playing To The Next Level – EP033
In this lesson, I'll walk through the 3 phases of learning to play the guitar, but spend most of the time talking about phase 3. Phase 3 is where most of us get stuck, we learn all of the mechanics of playing and know how to play chords and even some scales, but are left with the "Now What?" question. This video talks through some techniques that you can use to answer that question and provides you with some tips on how you can continue learning and taking your guitar playing to the next … [Read more...]
Rhythm Guitar Techniques – In the Key of G – EP019
In this lesson series, I'll show you several rhythm guitar techniques that I've learned and used over the years to make your rhythm playing a little more interesting. A lot of people assume that rhythm has to consist of a lot of heavy strumming, but that's not the case at all. I think a really good rhythm player knows how to create complimentary sounds to what the band is doing, and some times that means either playing very minimal, or not playing at all. Hopefully you'll be able to … [Read more...]
Rhythm Guitar Lesson – chord variations – LEG003
I continue to get lots of requests for more rhythm guitar lessons. This lesson demonstrates some different voiceings that you can use in the key of E or the key of A. These are very simple to play and something that an absolute beginner should be able to do. There is no tab with this lesson as I thought it was simple enough that it didn't require it. Let me know if that's not the case and I'll create it. … [Read more...]
The Double Stop: A Blues Rhythm / Lead Guitar Lesson – LEG008
So what the heck is a double stop anyway? It’s really just a fancy way of saying, “2 strings at once” – not really sure what the “stop” part has to do with anything (if someone knows feel free to leave a comment). So in addition to double stops there are also triple and quadruple stops as well – but the double stop is the most common on guitar. When I think of playing double stop guitar solos on the guitar, I almost automatically think of Chuck Berry. He had a great way of playing really … [Read more...]
The Turnaround – LEG009
This is a fairly simple lesson that demonstrates 3 different types of blues turnarounds. If you're wondering what the heck a turnaround is, it's what musicians refer to when they're playing a few licks to get from the end of one verse to the beginning of the next. So in 12 bar blues for example, the turn around is the little riff that you play to get you from the 12th bar, back to the first bar. You'll recognize it in the video right away because it's such a familiar / even predictable sound. … [Read more...]
Create Your Own Fingerstyle Compositions On The Guitar – LEG010
Ok OGLWithme, I thought your suggestion on a video of this nature was a good one - so I put one together. I realized though as I was editing this that it's next to impossible to cover everything that needs to be covered with the 10 minute constraints that you have with YouTube, but I tried to cover the basics to give you an idea of at least my thought process for how to approach something like this. The important thing to remember is that 1) determine which key you're going to do it in, 2) … [Read more...]
Blues / Rock Rhythm Guitar Lesson (Key of A) – LEG018
In this lesson I show you how to play a standard driving blues/ rock rhythm on an electric guitar (I'm going to focus on interesting guitar rhythms for the next few lessons). I played this with an electric guitar with overdrive, however, that isn't required to play a rhythm like this - you could use clean channel on electric or even acoustic and still be able to play this rhythm. The key to getting the fat "chunky" sound is to use palm muting with your right hand (which I'll demonstrate in the … [Read more...]
Play an Easy Guitar Solo with Just 2 Notes – LEG020
In this lesson we continue our look at the major and minor pentatonic scales, however this lesson focuses on a very important intersection of those two scales. This "crossroads" that happens on the neck of the guitar is one of the most important spots on the neck to understand because it allows for lots of combinations of solos. In this lesson I don't show you note for note how to play any of these solos, but instead try to demonstrate how easy it is to create your own solos using this … [Read more...]
Chet Atkins Fingerstyle Lesson: Very Basic – LEG031
So you may be asking, what’s the big deal about Chet Atkins? When I first started becoming obsessed with learning the guitar I kept reading article after article about Chet Atkins and how he pioneered this or influenced that.. and to be honest, when I heard my first Chet Atkins album (my dad’s), I wasn’t immediately blown away. I thought it sounded clean and simple and… well, nice. It wasn’t until I analyzed what was actually going that I began to realize what a genius he was. Born June 20, … [Read more...]