Power chords are an essential element of the rock genre and sound, and in this blog post, we'll guide you through three fundamental and easy to play, two-note open position power chords: A, D, and E. Once you've mastered these chords, we'll show you how to combine them into a rocking sequence and then find the right tone to really dial in that rock sound. 

Different musical styles can call for distinct picking approaches. Having a repertoire of picking techniques at your disposal enables you to adapt to various musical contexts and achieve your desired sound. Whether it's transitioning between strings quickly, playing single-note tremolos, creating funky sounds, or adjusting your attack for distorted or clean tones, having multiple picking techniques in your toolbox is advantageous.

This week, Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbauer is sharing some strategies for learning fast riffs.

Learning and memorizing a fast riff at a slower speed is a key component to ramping it up to its full potential -- but there's more work to do!

You still have to play the riff fast, so try this technique of adding one note at a time to make things a bit easier to master.

Jam along on guitar with Gary and he'll show you how simple a guitar solo can be, while still being very effective. This lesson is complete with a jam track at the end. Grab your guitar and jump in!

Strumming is one of the very first techniques that any guitarist learns. But as they move on to learn intermediate or advanced techniques, they forget to advance their strumming skills further. Even if they continue using strumming techniques, lack of motivation and experimentation make it impossible to improve upon them.

Want to get better use out of your metronome practice time? Think of it as a game with these tips and tricks from Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbauer!

This week, Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbauer is sharing a super easy open chord fingering trick.

With this open chord trick, you can keep two fingers planted in the same place, allowing you to play an assortment of chords that will all sound great together in a progression. There are so many songs that use this technique, you'll be sure to come across it over and over again in your guitar playing journey!

In this week's lesson, Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbaur will teach you how to play country fingerstyle guitar in under 15 minutes. 

With this simple I-IV-V chord progression in the key of G, paired with a simple finger picking pattern, you'll be able to play along to countless country classics. 

This week, Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbauer is coming to you with some easy strumming patterns that should get you started down the ol' dusty road to country-style guitar playing.

Working on your Nile Rodgers riffs? Trying to get your funk guitar playing dialed-in? In this week's free video lesson, Gary Heimbauer will go over 3 quintessential funk licks on guitar that are super easy for beginners to get the hang of!

If you want to get that fingerstyle sound, this week's video will showcase finger strumming for beginner guitar players. This technique is the perfect starting point for developing the skills (and finger endurance) needed for fingerpicking. Once mastered, you can move on to more intricate fingerstyle techniques. 

One little secret hidden within the Circle of Fifths, is that it shows you all of the major and minor chords in any key. First, let’s look at the key of C, which is at the top of the Circle of Fifths.

Everyone knows about 5ths, octaves and power chords. These are the building blocks of learning how to play guitar. But an easy way to level up your chord knowledge is to add 3rds and 7ths

This week, Guitar Tricks instructor Gary Heimbauer will go over the super easy chords that you absolutely must know in order to play blues guitar.

Tune-in to learn how to master these bluesy 9th chords!