As you will know, the fret board has 12 frets spanning an octave. These 12 increments make up the chromatic scale. However, sometimes it is more useful to leave out some of these chromatic increments (notes) and play a diatonic scale such as the diatonic major (i.e. do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do etc). (see fig 1 above) The diatonic major scale consists of seven scale degrees which sequentially increase in pitch by either a whole step (WS, up two frets) or a half step (HS, up one fret) over an octave. It is the arrangements of th...

Cool Jazzy Jam Track. This jam follows an A minor, G, F, E progression (see chord chart above) played, with the exception of the E, as bar chords. This is not a new vamp however it of one of my favorites for just jamming along with. Once again it is blues scale and pentatonic heaven. Try E min and A min blurs scales and don't be afraid to experiment with major / minor tonality.

Cool, laid back and very mellow. This is a 12 bar pattern in A minor with some unusual chords (shown above). Again try soloing using A minor, D minor and E minor pentatonic or blues scale. I have included a video that demonstrates the strumming pattern I use in this loop. Hope it helps !

Shown is an example of an E major scale. The video below shows me playing an E major scale in two different positions on the neck, one an octave higher than the other. It is of note that most scales can be played in five positions over an octave. However, this is well beyond the scope of this lesson. Playing both of these scales (shown figuratively above and in both TAB and video formats below) is excellent practice and will help your picking hand learn its way around and coordinate it with the activities of the left hand. Whilst picking these scales, it is ...

As we have already discussed, chord progressions can be thought of in terms of scale degrees and the key signature of the piece you are playing determines the chord progression, since a progression can be played in many different keys. Typically this chord progression provides an accompaniment to a melody (the bit you would typically whistle or sing) and played on a piano. It is easy to think of the left hand playing the bass or accompaniment, and the right hand playing the melody. However, on a guitar both hands are busy playing one or the other unle...

Similar to the E and A shapes chords Ds can also be slid p and down the neck. This technique has been used to great effect by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Band Company (in Fell like making love), Rush (closer to the heart_ and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (who are well worth checking out particularly songs like "Gang Bang" ! Go on I dear you not to laugh !!) In the video below you can see me playing two vamps run in together. The first is very Page-esq and starts with a D at the nut and slides this up to the 7th and 9th positions playing Gs and As respectiv...

There are a thousand tricks and tutorials on this site dealing with the church modes from Azrael's Modes- history and use to the Ace's Modal Theory for Beginners tutorial. There are many more dealing with the application of the modes, setting lighter and darker tonality, giving a mellow or more aggressive feel to a piece of music. So, in light of the above I'm not going to reiterate and explain what they are and how the...

Big Rock Ending Jam that doesn't sound anything like the ending of free-bird !! The video below shows this Vamp being played. It started in A major, moves to a C major an finally to a D with a little embellishment at the end which is also played as a D chord. These chords are shown in the chart above. A and E minor pentatonic and blues scales work really well with this little number. Slam on the crybaby and rock out !! I took this one for a test drive this afternoon and totally enjoyed my self !

This is IMHO a completely crazy sounding arpeggio that sounds like it is verging on being atonal. This means that it is great for transitioning. The video follows the tab below which is also shown in the diagram above. This is a great wan-a-be neoclassical sounding piece, so practice playing it and practice playing three note iterative versions of it (a la the iterative Aeolian scales detailed in this tutorial) them slam on the distortion and let rip !

In the next 4 lessons we are going to learn to play the progression shown in the video below. This is a progression that changes key and uses two different ways of playing both A and G chords. I am not going to detail how to play the chords in this lesson, as that is the subject matter of the following 4 lessons. I have tabbed out the progression shown in the video. This will probably not be useful until you have completed the next 3 lessons. It does provide a goal or objective to work towards. The progression runs: GG xx DD AA D...

This riff is great for practicing the alternative sliding scales detailed earlier in this lesson here. I have played slowly and than at normal speed. The tab is given below. Enjoy!

Common questions asked in the Guitar tricks forum are: "How do I hold a pick ?" and "How do I strum?" I will attempt to answer these questions in the following lesson. How do I hold a pick? For all of those people who chose to use a pick, an example of how I hold a pick is shown in the picture above. The pick is an alternative to picking with your fingers (or even fingernails) and is good for several reasons. 1) It gives a nice sharp pronounced attack (that is the start of the sound wave that is very important in defining th...

Shown are the chords D and E major. They are both triads composed of a root note designating the name of the chord, a note a third above the root note and a note a fifth above the root note. E major As you can see from the tab the E major chord is made up of the notes E (the root note), B (a fifth above E), E (octave), G# (a third above E octave), B (a fifth above E octave) and E (two octaves above the root note). The E major scale, which defines the relationship between the notes in the key of E is discussed in the lesson and the theory...

The 12 bar blues follows a i, iv, v progression. This is a progression consisting of the root (i), the dominant (v) and sub-dominant (iv) chords in a major diatonic progression. An example is shown in the video below. Having finished the lesson Scales, Chords and Progressions, the idea of a (i), (iv), (v) progression is easy to understand. We also know that in its simplest form a (i), (iv), (v) progression consists of the tonic (i), the sub-dominant (iv) and dominant (v) triads (or chor...

Mean and Dirty 12 Bar Jam. Although this is a more aggressive 12 bar than the vamps used in Little Bear Blues it is still essentially 12 bar in A. Consiquently it follows an A, D E progression. You can hear that at the end of Bar 24 I use an E 7 augmented 9th. This si shown on the Jazzy Blues CHord Chart below and can also be heard in the Jazzy Blues Jam. These progressions are perfect to practive all the techniques you ha...

This lesson centers round using one finger to make an A shapes chord (as shown in this lesson) and then sliding the chord around the neck to get different chords and voicing. An example is shown in the video below and this piece of rockin' 12 bar exemplifies the different sounds new voicing can provide. Look closely at the A chord slid up to the 14th fret to give a "moving forward" feel similar to the sound of a 7th chord. It is almost like the chord wants to resolve (which ...

This is an exercise based on tapping out various arpeggios. In each case you are tapping (I am using the bird flipping finger on my right hand) and puling, puling and hammering (using either my ring or little finger on my left hand). For an explanation of symbols click the (?) button in the information bar. The last set are a bit of a stretch however with practice you'll get there ! ((x4) is not some weird instruction it just means repeat 4 times)

OK so lets put some of these elements together. Here I have introduced a little pentatonic run that should be easy enough to figure out. I have mixed it with the "third string bends" and the "sequential third string bends" covered in a previous lesson in this tutorial. Enjoy!!

Similar to the E shaped bar chord there are two common ways to play an A shaped bar chord and both of these are shown in pictures 5 and 6. One way is to use your second, third and little finger to fret the notes and the other uses the third finger to form a bar across the top 4 strings. In this instance neither of the E strings is played. The corresponding chord charts are shown opposite. One of my favorite positions to play A shaped bar chords is at the 7th fret which plays an E chord. You can play the open E string for a bit of extra OOoommph !

This is just major arpeggios D, A and G. Try soloing over the top of them first with an A m pent or blues scale. ALso try moving form Major to minor.

Previously we learnt that 12 bar blues is built from a (i), (iv) (v). We ended with an examples of a 12 bar progression in A major and during the second 12 bars I started to liven up the progression with some power-chords . A power-chord (a dyad as opposed to triad) is not really a chord in the sense that a triad is a chord (i.e two intervals stacked on top of one another) as it contains only one interval. Power-chords are used a lot in Heavy Metal, typically consisting of a perfect 5th, though other intervals are also used to give a more min...

This is a great fill, it sounds really impressive and is easy to play really quickly without much practice. Sound cool ? OK then the tab below and the video is just what you're after !!! It is just a repetitive pentatonic run and fits right into a regular pentatonic box. Below I am playing it in the A minor pentatonic box on the 5th fret. You can see the bend from the last lesson played slightly differently, rather than picking both the target note and the bend simultaneously, I am picking them one at a time. It is great to use this kind of lick before o...

Similar to the pentatonic scales, the blues scales occupy 5 boxes over an octave. These 5 boxes and there respective blue notes are shown in the diagram above. As with the pentatonic scales, sliding blues scales can be played connecting all 5 of these boxes. The video below demonstrates the "sliding" blues scale and in addition to the figure above has been tabbed out below.

To do this you will need an allen key (or allen wrench) with a diameter of 3mm (0.118 in) and a string winder (the latter is optional!!). The only thing I have to add to the video is to say that you need to remember to take the string right out of the peg-head before popping it out of the bridge if you are going to pull the string free like I do in the video. You may also want to cut the bent end of the string off or even take the top of the locking nut assembly right off as this will help prevent the sting from scratching your finish. For terminology please see pictu...

Altered tuning offers all sorts of interesting harmonic and playing possibilities.

Sick of having to spend money performing routine maintenance? Sick of your intonation being out? This series will help you learns ways to set up your guitar.

This is a series of small lessons for the beginner wanting to pick up some blues. These lessons have been designed to increase the reader's vocabulary of simple, familiar blues and rock licks. Most of them you will have heard and this is how to play them! This will increase your coordination and familiarity with blues licks.

I have seen many posts in the forum asking about recording. This tutorial series will try to answer some of those questions.

This tutorial is a series a Jam tracks I've made. They are available in the Jam Station.

This tutorial will help you learn how to strum. I will cover subjects as simple as how to hold a pick, how to strum and how to apply that technique to different chord progressions.

This tutorial is a series of slide guitar lessons. These are meant to give you some ideas of what can be done using slide guitar technique.

Given that there are only 5 basic chord shapes (C, A, G, E, D), there is only so much you can do down at the nut. This tutorial is meant to introduce you to bar chord shapes and how to use them to create your own voicing.

This tutorial is an exercise to build strength, speed and precision and is great for playing against a metronome. Start at about 120 bpm playing a note every beat and gradually speed up. When you finally reach top speed on the metronome, go back to a slower setting you are comfortable with and play 2 or 3 or even 4 notes to every metronome beat. Remember start slow and be precise and don't touch that dial until you are playing it perfectly.

This tutorial is a series of lessons explaining different techniques needed to play lead guitar. We will cover techniques such as vibrato, bending, slides but also how to work within boxes to perform solos.

This tutorial will give you four exercises that go through all seven modes sequentially. I hope that doing this series of exercises will help you understand not only how the modes are derived but also how they sound and fit together.

This tutorial will explain to you what is a 12 bar blues progression and how you can modify your basic progression into a more interesting variation.

In this tutorial I will explain the theory behind scales and chords. What they are and how they are constructed.

This tutorial will explain all the different aspects of building a home project studio. It will cover the hardware so you can have a better understanding of the equipment used.

This is one of the first songs I recorded and like "Cool waters" is an example used in a couple of other lessons. Again the mix is a bit rough and needs some work however, well you gat the idea. It is 12 bar in E and rocks and rolls along !!

As we have previously mentioned in an earlier lesson, triad chords consist of three tones and the interval between these tones defines the chord. A major triad chord consists of a root note, a note a third above the root note and another note a fifth interval above the root. Normally the root note will be the lowest in pitch which helps define which chord is being played. Occasionally either the third or the fifth scale degree will be played an octave lower and in addition to the original. This makes the low third (or the fifth) actually lower than the root no...

Similar to the previous lesson I am using a sliding scale to move from playing chords at the nut to a blues scale at the 5th fret (A minor) Here I have used the full Sliding scale. Of note is the second example which doesn\'t resolve to the tonic but ends on the note E which as we know from earlier lessons is the dominant tone in the scale of A. This gives the run some interesting tonal properties. It also means that this run could be used in the key of E, though it would probably sound more cognizant starting the run three half steps below the G where it star...

This is a combination of the last two lessons plus a little extra something that I have thrown in for good measure. By now you have an idea of the sort of licks I string together as embellishments whilst playing faster up beat 12 bar and the next step is to move from A to D and we will do thin in the next lesson. However, lets not get ahead of our selves and get this set of licks off cold before moving on. As ever I have tabbed out the pieces shown in the video.

This is just major arpeggios D, A and G. Try soloing over the top of them first with an A m pent or blues scale. ALso try moving form Major to minor.

This is a track I have been working on i.e. it is a work in progress. The reason it is up here is that I'm using it as an example of inverted chords for another lesson. As you can probably here the guitar parts in the reprieve are complex. There are four guitars: one with just distortion playing the up stroke, one with lots of chorus playing the rhythm, another guitar double-tracked under the chorus guitar, and an acoustic picked over the top During the reprieve, the first chord played by the chorus guitar is an "E" played up at the 7...

Slide work can be found by players such as Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Jeff Beck, ZZ Top (i.e. Tres Hombres and Fandango) and The Rolling Stones (i.e. Exile on Main Street). Steve Vai also demonstrates, to great effect, how much a slide can sound like a human voice by combining a slide with a locking tremolo (whammy) and wah pedal (i.e. Yankee Rose on Dave Lee Roth’s album Eat ‘em and Smile). Newer bands like Grady also demonstrate great slide playing using standard tuning. The song “Three Legged Race” from the album “Cup of Cold Poison”...

This is a lesson that uses major and minor 7th chords. I think these are very unusual sounding jazzy chords and that they can be used together to great effect. The major seventh chord is constructed by adding the 7th note of a major scale to a major triad giving rise to a chord constructed from the 1st - 3rd - 5th and 7th scale degrees (triads are discussed in this lesson). A generic major 7th chord is shown above in yellow. The minor 7th chord is constructed from a minor triad w...

This is an exercise based on tapping out various arpeggios. In each case you are tapping (I am using the bird flipping finger on my right hand) and puling, puling and hammering (using either my ring or little finger on my left hand). For an explanation of symbols click the (?) button in the information bar. The last set are a bit of a stretch however with practice you'll get there ! ((x4) is not some weird instruction it just means repeat 4 times)

This is a common lick I use as a rhythm for 12 bar. It is pretty lively and you can see it in full swing in my lesson addressing Sliding A shapes in the Bar chords and Voicing tutorial.

Similar to the last lesson this is another repeating lick I use as a rhythm piece whilst playing slide 12 bar. Again don\'t be afraid to slap on a bit of distortion and blast away at to speed. The lick is shown in the video and has been tabbed out.

This is the bare bones of some 12 bar in A for people to practice there blues playing with. Me and a student (Brett, you know who you are) have been working on this I we thought it would be a nice idea to put it up on the web. It is just A, D and E. You can try applying some of the stuff you have learned from the various blues tutorials here at GT. Happy Playing