Guitar Tricks Blog

When it comes to creating guitar solos that stand out, building your own pentatonic licks is one of the best ways to sound original while sharpening your technique.

If you’re serious about improving your guitar playing and want to unlock authentic blues guitar tone, understanding classic blues progressions is a must. When most people think of blues guitar, they picture the classic twelve-bar blues progression in the key of A. It’s the king of blues progressions and a foundation for countless songs. 

Deciding to learn electric guitar is an exciting step for any beginner. With its wide range of tones and styles—from crystal-clear cleans to roaring distortion—electric guitar keeps practice fun and motivating.

A solo filled with endless notes and fast scales might be impressive, but often feels static and academic. An emotional solo, on the other hand, connects with the audience, tells a story, and leaves a lasting impression.

Rock guitarists love the pentatonic scale because it’s straightforward and always musical. With just five notes to work with, you don’t have to worry too much about hitting a sour one. That makes it the perfect playground for writing riffs.

Getting into guitar pedals can feel overwhelming, but starting with the basics makes the journey a lot more fun and inspiring. When you’re buying your first guitar pedal, the most important advice is simple: follow your excitement.

Learning guitar doesn’t have to be complicated—sometimes just four chords can unlock hundreds of songs. In this lesson, Barrett Wilson breaks down four essential open chords every beginner guitar player should know: D, G, A, and E minor. These basic guitar chords are the foundation of rhythm guitar and appear in countless hit songs across genres. 

If you’ve ever watched a great guitarist effortlessly find the same note in different places on the guitar neck, it almost looks like magic. But the truth is, it’s not magic at all—it’s fretboard mastery, and it’s something you can learn with the right approach.

If you feel stuck when soloing, try this: pick four notes on the D and G strings and solo with only those. Limiting your choices forces you to focus on phrasing, bends, and rhythm—instead of sprinting through every pentatonic scale pattern you know. It might sound restrictive, but it’s the kind of constraint that unlocks creativity. You’ll be surprised how expressive your solos get when you have less to work with.

Shell voicings are essential 3-note chords made of just the root, third, and seventh (or sixth), perfect for jazz and blues rhythm guitar. They’re super practical and easy to move around the fretboard, especially once you understand where to place your fingers on the low E and A string roots.

What do I really love about music and the guitar? I treated it like a mission statement—writing it out and checking back in regularly. That shift helped me narrow my focus and gave my playing real purpose again.

Country lead guitar playing is more than just flashy licks and twangy tones—it’s about storytelling, groove, and bold expression. Barrett Wilson breaks it down with a relaxed, insightful look into the essential country guitar techniques and mindset needed to bring this style to life.

If you’ve already learned chords like G, C, and D, and you’ve got a few strumming patterns under your belt, it’s time to move into the “imitating” stage. That’s where you take what you’ve learned and start mimicking how real songs are played—groove, feel, and all.

If you're looking to add color, depth, and resonance to your acoustic guitar playing, these five major open chord shapes are a great place to start. Barrett walks us through five stunning open chords that sound especially beautiful on acoustic guitar thanks to their ringing open strings.

If your guitar playing feels stuck in a rut, here are a few simple tips revolving around intervals to help you break out the monotony and take your playing to a more fun and exciting level. By using thirds, fourths, fifths and sixths in your playing, you can open up a whole new perspective on the guitar and start to play new licks.