A quick video tutorial on how to do basic bends. Several techniques are involved here including up and down bends, muting and using either one or two fingers to do the bends.

This is a tutorial covering some of the basic lead techniques used on the guitar to make your playing sound more musical. Topics covered in this tutorial include: Bends, Slides, Hammer-ons and Pull-offs.

A short video showing how to do slides.

Chord Strumming Techniques In this tutorial, we’ll be covering the basics of chord strumming. First we’ll look at the downstroke and upstroke, followed by alternating strokes. Lastly we’ll look at strumming to different chords and introduce you to some other styles that are very easy to learn. The next lesson in this tutorial will give you an explanation of how to do a basic downstroke.

A lot of guys write me asking about what they can do to speed up their leads or coordinate their right and left hands so they can play scales faster. My usual advice, besides the usual 'practice, practice, practice' speech, is to learn what's known as the '3 note per string' scales. Basically, most beginner scales you learn involve playing combinations of notes that include 3 notes on one string, 2 notes on the next, 3 or the next, then maybe 2 notes again on the next. What this leads to is a slow...

A short video showing how to do hammer-ons.

The Downstroke Use a fast downward sweeping motion, playing every note that makes up the chord that you are fingering. Some chords like E major, require that you play all six strings. Other chords, for example D Major, only require that you play the top four strings. For instance, on the notation tab below, all six strings are played downwards a total of four times. Go to the next lessons in this tutorial for an explanation of how to do an upstroke.

Other Strumming Styles That You Can Try Up until now we've mostly been covering some very basic strumming techniques including the upstroke, the downstroke and alternate strumming. Obviously, if every song was played with just static up and down strokes, music wouldn't be very interesting to listen to. In this video, I'm going to take you through some simple strumming techniques to add a little rhythm and feel to your playing.

A short video showing how to do pull-offs.

Alternate Strokes Alternate strokes are done by playing both upstrokes and down strokes in the direction indicated on the tab. For instance, in the notation tab below, play one downstroke, followed by an upstroke, followed by another downstroke, followed by another upstroke. The second sound file below starts very slowly and then gradually speeds up using A and D chords, to show what it should eventually sound like once you get up to speed.At the end of the sound file, it slows down once more so that you can hear the up and down strokes m...

The Upstroke You play an upstroke using a similar movement to the downstroke. Use a fast upward sweep across all the strings that are required for the chord you are playing. In the notation tab below all six strings are played upwards a total of four times. Go to the next lesson in this tutorial for an explanation of how to do alternate strokes.

These are the easiest harmonics to do; usually one of the first things you learn on the guitar. Just pick as usual, but with your left hand you touch just above the fret and as you pick, let go quickly. The video and MP3 will go through the harmonics on the 5th, 7th and 12th frets. There are others but these are the simplest. Note: Watch the video, start at the first string, 5th fret and the rest is self-explanatory.

... and off we go onto the next scale. This one's called A Dorian and is a minor scale as opposed to the G Ionian major scale we just did. (If ya don't know what that means ya need to go back and learn some basic theory.) Keep in mind that even though this is called "A Dorian", we're still playing the scale to a backing G chord. The same advice applies to this scale as the last one. Do it frontwards, backwards and sideways until you don't even have to think about the notes anymore. The scale should come to you automatically just like when you're typing ...

Strumming to Different Chords The last few lessons have concentrated mostly on strumming on all six strings. Of course, depending on which chord you play, you may or may not be actually playing all six strings. This video shows some of the other chords you'll be using and takes you through the basics of how to strum them properly.

A nice little acoustic soft jam loop to practice scales or leads over. You can find this one in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. The basic chords are shown in the above image and it's played using fingerpicking. Behind the above chords is an acoustic guitar playing basic open chords. The mp3 below is an isolated guitar track showing how to play the chords above. Here is a little more detailed explanation of the fingerpicking. It's basically in two parts. Part One The first part is done mostly u...

Is it possible to do full bends using an acoustic guitar? This question was posted recently in the forum area. Apparently, the person in question was attempting to do full bends that either had no result at all or ended up with a broken string. While it is definitely possible to do full bends on an acoustic, there are a couple of tricks you can use to make this much more simple. For starters, change over to a Light or Custom Light

Pinch harmonics are kinda tricky to get at first. For the actual harmonic you have to pinch the string as you pluck it, letting your thumb touch the string at the same time as the pick. To get different harmonics you have to search out the sweet spots by moving your right hand up or down the string till you find 'em. The following example is played the same way both times by the left hand but the first is pinched directly over the pickup while the second is pinched above the 24th fret. There are many more sweet spots like this, so experiment and remember where...

A simple Samba type tune for practicing scales to. Probably sounds best when played on a classical guitar. This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the World Music Section called "Samba".

OK, so the notation tab below is totally unnecessary. But just so there's no confusion ... All six bends are done on the same frets (5b7) and the only thing that changes is the positioning of the right hand. To get the pinch harmonic effect, you basically pinch down on the string with your pick and the skin of your thumb at the same time. It's a little tricky to get at first but a lot easier if you find the sweet spots. In this example, I've bent the same note each time. But with the right hand the first pick is done just above the 24th fret, the second pick ...

Here are seven basic jazz positions that you can use anywhere on the fretboard. Shown using both the fifth and sixth strings as the root note. The seven different positions are: Major 7 Minor 7 Dominant 7 Diminished 7 Minor 7 Flat 5 Augmented Dominant 7 Aug 9 The most important are the first three, Major, Minor and Dominant. The basic way to use these different positions is to find the root note on either the fifth or sixth string and then use the chord in that position. The above image shows al...

A quick video illustrating the correct use of vibrato

Most of the technique in this one comes from right hand muting. Pinch the strings as much as possible. To pinch, you basically leave as little pick showing as possible and let the side of your thumb simultaneously touch the string at the same time as the pick. The same way you do pinch harmonics except you aren't looking so much for the harmonic this time. Use your right hand palm to mute the strings. Move it around as necessary to either provide a slight muffled mute or mute the strings entirely a split second after playing a note. Wrap your left hand around the neck...

This example is a simple Touch harmonic that can be done on any string (but it's easiest to do on the third). It's usually usually done on a bend (although it doesn't have to be) and it's sometimes done with lots of overdrive so that it feeds back (but it doesn't always) so some people also call these 'feedback' harmonics. And most rock players use the whammy bar pretty liberally on this type of stuff (but I don't) ... you get the picture. Here, I'm bending up on the 3rd string, 7th fret (7b9), then I'm taking the first finger of my right hand (although it doesn't ...

And up we go ... next scale is B Phrygian minor. Same advice applies as before.

In this tutorial I'll be going through all the techniques involved in two-handed tapping on the guitar. Right from the very basics all the way up to using all the fingers of both hands, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and anything else you can think of. Eventually I'll get around to showing you how to use all these techniques in some actual music and full solos like the one below. Before we get started though, let's go over a few intro basics to get you started on the right track.

This tutorial covers the details of how to play various minor chords. The chords Am through Gm are covered in detail as well as alternative fingerings that can be used. An example of each chord is also used in full a piece of music. Each video includes the chord description and any variations followed by a guitar track recorded live to tape. An MP3 is included with each lesson with the acoustic guitar recorded on 2 tracks and panned extreme left and right to give you an idea of what the guitar might sound like in a finished recording. Also included is a Jam ...

In this tutorial we'll cover all the steps that you need to take in order to change strings on an electric guitar. We'll also cover some basic steps to take before changing them, such as doing some minor cleaning and adjusting.

This tutorial will first guide you through the basics of palm muting, followed by some simple one and two finger chords to help you practice. As you progress further into the tutorial you'll be given increasingly difficult patterns to play with both your left hand and your right hand. The final part of this series of lessons will give you some backup music you can practice to as well as showing ways that this technique can be used in your own recordings.

Learning to use simple chords and by moving a few fingers, coming up with brand new chords.

The lead from this lesson was actually used at the beginning of a song called "Bye" on PhaseIV Chronicles by Schmange.

Octave tapping is basically duplicating with your right hand, exactly what you're doing with your left hand except one octave (12 frets) higher. Start by tapping on any note with your right hand and pull off to that exact note 12 frets lower, then continue on doing any rock scales or leads you want.

This is a basic tapping exercise that can be done on 2 adjacent strings.

Bending is a basic technique used in many styles of music. This tutorial will show you practical application of bends in Rock music.

Open tuning is when you tune all the strings so that they make a simple major or minor chord. The most popular open tuning is open G (which is also the most popular tuning for 5 string banjo). This tutorial will show you how to tune your guitar to an open G tuning and how to make different chords.

By simply moving beyond some of the basic major chords, to other shapes that aren't really much more difficult to play, simple songs can take on an added dimension by adding atmosphere and tension. They can also be used to add more excitement to an ordinary song by 'playing around' the chord to give it some interesting variety. All that's really required is to "replace" the third note of a major chord shape (or in other words, replace the thrid note of a triad). With a Suspended 4th chord, you are essentially adding a note to a triad. With a Suspended 2nd chord, you ar...

This is a tutorial covering sixteen different chords that sound especially good when played on an acoustic guitar. By themselves, they may sound a little unusual but if used with other chords in a song, you can create tension and atmosphere in your playing.

This tutorial will show you how to play a one fingered barre chord. I will also show you ways to use those chords to make to best out of them.

The next step for beginner guitar players after learning the basic open major and minor chords, is to move on to sevenths. There are sometimes several ways in which to finger a seventh chord, including barring chords. The one constant thing with seventh chords is to be sure that each string sounds clearly. Otherwise, you may miss the seventh completely.

This is a tutorial covering some of the basic lead techniques used on the guitar to make your playing sound more musical. Topics covered in this tutorial include: Bends, Slides, Hammer-ons and Pull-offs.

This tutorial will show you how to play the open chord for A B C D E F and G. Each chord will be covered in it's own lesson.

This tutorial will teach you the basics of strumming. I will show downstrokes, upstrokes and how to alternate between both of them.

In this tutorial I will explain what a barre chord is and demonstrate some of the different shapes. We will cover both E and A major and minor barre chord shapes.

This tutorial covers all the basic major chords. Most of these are usually called the "open chord" shapes because of the use of open strings.

This tutorial is a series covering different harmonics techniques. I'll cover natural to pinched to tapped harmonics ... and more.

This tutorial will show you how 7 different scales can be used to create solos over a backing track. All scales are explained separately in a 3 notes per strings arrangement. You also have a backing track available to you to practice what you will learn.

In this tutorial, I will explain palm muting and show you how to use it with a few riffs.

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This is the fourth part of my tutorial on tapping techniques. In this one we will add slides, bends and hammer-ons to our tapping techniques.

This is the third part of my tutorial on tapping techniques. This part will cover pinky exercises, octave tapping, pentatonic alternates, string skipping and lots of riffs for you to practice.

This is the second part of my tutorial on tapping techniques. This part will cover two strings tapping and multi-finger techniques.

Two handed tapping....youstart on fret 15 & tap using your index finger then pull, pull, slide...repeat. When you get down to the 5th fret, switch to the G string by tapping with your middle finger, Then tap your way back up while pulling with your left. Keep in mind that this technique requires a lot of practice so if you're new to tapping, you might want to tackle something a little easier. I've posted a 50 page tutorial showing the basics all the way up to 8 finger tapping at these links: Http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?...

You begin this one by plucking and then bending a note up wards on the G string (using either a pick, your tapping finger or even your thumbnail) at the 7th fret. Bend down again, pull-off and tap-on ... almost simultaneosly with the previous tap-on, tap with y our right hand on the 12th fret. Bend this string up, pull-off and begin the process again. The left hand repeats the same sequence wile your right hand moves up the frets.

This song is also listed under the name "Muted Chording" that I posted earlier & more recently as "FabGirl". The same notation tab is below but the sound file has been getting updated so I decided to repost it. Here's the HiFi version so far: HiFi Version And a "guitar only" version is below. The trick here is to play smoothly and evenly. Meld each chord into the next by changing positions as fast as possible and rock the palm of yo...

Following along in the same vein as the "Anatomy of a Multitrack" tutorial series, this one is yet another mutlitrack utilizing various loops, synths and guitars to come up with a "theme" soundtrack. Recording info: I started with several loops; put them on about 10 tracks and shuffled them around until something made sense. Added a bass synth using Absynth and backed it up with a second bass on Pro-52. Did a voice over and "grungelized" it to make it sound weird; then added ...

This one has a fairly easy guitar part. Most of the work went into coming up with the drum and synth parts and the guitar was added mostly to fill in the blanks and add some "chunk". The guitar part is done using palm muting: laying your right hand palm across the strings to mute them as you play. Other than playing the notes, you need to add a rhythmic feel to your playing: chunking up and down, adding counterpoint, etc. The guitar is done in 3 parts on 6 tracks. The bass guitar is also left in the recording below. Left and right chunking is Tab Section #1....

Three simple chords for this one. The above image shows the chords for the acoustic guitar. Below are the chords for the electric. Recording Info: Did a HD search for loops at 100 BPM (Beats Per Minute). Pieced several loops together along with a drum machine snare/kick and some live playing. Copied and pasted several versions of the drum beat to make up a 3 minute song consisting of verse/chorus parts. Did the bass on guitar synth through the Absynth plug-in. Doubled that up with a second patch using the same MIDI file.

Some simple chords again to illustrate how easy it is to lay down a stereo recording with minimal equipment. From here it's easy to add some vocals or a guitar lead to fill out the song. There are 3 guitar parts (all in drop D tuning). 1) Acoustic guitar playing open chords (above) 2) Electric guitar playing open chords (above) 3) Electric guitar plucking some barre chords (below) Musical Equipment Gibson L6S Guitar Roland GR700 Guitar Synth Sony SM58 Mic Roland PC-200 MIDI controller keybo...

Recording info: I think I had the movie Matrix Reloaded in mind when doing this. The main overdrive guitar part that repeats throughout the song is done on 4 stereo tracks. One track at a time, then bounced down to a single stereo track and put through Amplitube to give it some Marshall overdrive and reverb. Then it was used as a loop and cut and pasted throughout the rest of the song. They're just simple barre chords, so there's no point in going into detail about how they're played. It's just beginner stuff (i.e.: A, Bb, G and back to A again). ...

I guess I was still kinda in "alien-future" mode so I went back to doing the sci-fi soundtrack stuff again. As usual, I started with absolutely no idea how the tune was gonna turn out, relying on groovy inspiration to let the tune build itself up. As usual too, I used the guitar synth to do practically all the MIDI tracks. Recording Info: I started this one with a nifty piece of software called ReBirth (image below). Basically it's a combination of TB-303, TR808 and TR-909 bassline and analogue drum machines. Both synths play a basic Moog type of bass soun...

Ok, no tab for this one 'cause it's based on simple major chords (E, C, D, B). I'm mainly doing this one to illustrate the use of VST plugins when using digital recording software. This is also one of the main reasons why I prefer using computer based software rather than portable units. Besides the fact that you can cut and paste tracks quickly at will, you can take bare tracks and apply any sound you want. In this case at about the 1:26 mark, I added acoustic guitar in the left and right channels, overdrive guitar and an overdrive lead. When I recorded the ...

This song was mostly composed on guitarsynth. The guitar part was done using an overdrive guitar patch and the notation tab for it is below. This one is fairly simple to play but you have to keep it smooth and towards the end of each held note, apply a fair degree of vibrato to extend the note (if you start losing sustain). Once again, this is material suitable for something like a TV/film soundtrack or similar. The music is kept simple enough that it wouldn't overly interfere with whatever visuals would be going on on the screen. It also leaves open possibilitie...

This particular one is composed in E and will let you play along using anything from a regular old pentatonic rock scale, to the 3 note per string scales found elsewhere on my instructor pages. Below is the notation tab for the background bass part. To get the most benefit out of something like this, try composing in several different styles. Start off with a hard drive rock sound. Then do one as a jazz solo. Try coming up with a main melody that works in counterpoint with the background. On the other end of the scale (pun intended), try just working on scal...

This is an alternate way of playing a D Major chord instead of barring all the strings at the 7th fret. Place the first finger on the second fret, 3rd string. Place the second finger on the third fret, 2nd string. Place the fourth finger on the fourth fret, 1st string. The fourth string is played open. The 5th and 6th strings are not played (or muted).

In this first step, we'll cover how to actually tune your guitar to an Open G The easiest way to do open G tuning is to: 1) Tune the 6th string (bottom E) down by two semitones (one whole step), to a D.
 2) Tune the 5th string (A) down by two semitones (one whole step), to a G.
 3) Leave the 4th (D), 3rd (G) and 2nd (B) strings alone.
 4) Tune the 1st string (top E) down by two semitones to a D (one whole step). Once you have this type of tuning, you can easily play barre chords by placing your finger across any of the top 5 strings. You...

The idea behind this lesson is to take some simple chords: (simple to play... not necessarily simple to pronounce) Asus2 A minor A7sus Fmaj7b5 Fmaj7 E7 A add 9

Quite a few people have written in, asking if there are any easy ways to switch between chords that involve the F Major chord. The F Major chord is probably one of the more difficult chords for beginners to learn. In fact it can be so hard to play that some players are convinced that it isn't even possible. This particular trick involves taking several techniques that I've covered in past lessons. In particular Basic Major Chords...

Is it possible to do full bends using an acoustic guitar? This question was posted recently in the forum area. Apparently, the person in question was attempting to do full bends that either had no result at all or ended up with a broken string. While it is definitely possible to do full bends on an acoustic, there are a couple of tricks you can use to make this much more simple. For starters, change over to a Light or Custom Light

This is a basic 'disco' type of backbeat using the Jam player for practicing scales or leads in those keys. A good place to start is to transpose the '3 Notes Per String' scales found here: Tutorial: 3 Note Per String Scales

This is a piece of music that is looped in the Jam section for you to practice to. The tune is written in the key of D, so just about any pentatonic (or rock type) scale should fit most of it. Also try giving the "3 Note Per String" scales a try shown here: Tutorial: 3 Note Per String Scales For those of you with a little more ambition, I'll be adding the score and tab charts soon so you can follow along. Also, with that in mind I've uploaded both the full s...

This is a little riff I use sometimes. Mostly when I'm playing something in A, but you can transpose it just about anywhere. The video explains it best.

This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the Rock Section and named "Villain". It can can be used for practicing minor scales over. The chord progression is Dm, Fm, Am. The MP3 file below is the same as the one in the Jam Station except it's mixed a little differently.

This little ditty can be used to either practice scales or practice using Add 9 chords. This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the Rock Section and named "One Two Three" and contains a voice over saying the words "one, two, three" to help you beginners to keep in beat. The MP3 below is the same file with the voiceover taken out.

A simple little funk jam that can be used to practice scales and riffs over. This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the Funk Section and named "Funk Jam".

A boppy old country type tune called "Boingy" to practice runs and riffs over. The chords above are what are used in the song. This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the Country Section and named "Country Jam".

Here's a simple jazz type tune with bass and drums. It can be used to practice scales or runs over. This tune is available as a loop in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. It's in the Jazz Section and named "Jazz Jam".