Guitar Tricks - Guitar Insider

This week on Insider we talk about the important and often misunderstood topic of MISTAKES. In our practice space some mistakes are necessary for improving, while others must be avoided at all costs. Once you perform for other people - whether it's one person in your living room or on a stage for a room full of people - how you handle the mistakes you make is what makes all the difference. So this week on Insider I'm offering the comprehensive guides to understanding, using, avoiding and handling mistakes in and outside of your practice space!

This week on Insider we go deeper into the world of slide guitar playing - this time on electric. The vocabulary we explored on acoustic last week will translate perfectly to the electric, and we'll also explore how to play classic sounding single note lead lines. Depending on the tone you're using and how "dirty" you like your sound this will require some effective right hand muting, but I'm sure you'll see how little it actually takes to make a big impact with this lead approach.

This week I'm coming to you from Denmark, where I have another great collection of guitars, and I showcase one of my favorites - an old Epiphone Texan from '63. This leads to a comprehensive guide for buying acoustic guitars whether you're looking to buy your very first steel string acoustic or looking for the nice vintage guitar that you can play for the rest of your life. This will cover everything from the important subjective things like confidence and inspiration to technical issues like trussrods, fretwear, saddle issues and more. I'll also share which brands I think offer the best value - for both new and vintage acoustics.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a request from John for some basic slide guitar skills. Slide guitar is one of my absolute favorite sounds, and today I'll show you just how far you can get with even the most basic slide vocabulary on an acoustic guitar.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to several requests for more ear training and tips on how to learn songs by ear. This can be a hard thing to teach, but in this episode I'll use one of my own songs to show what I consider to be the best approach to doing this using a methodical combination of bass notes, singing and good old trial and error.

This week I respond to several different questions that all come down to the concept of TRIPLETS. This may not seem like the most flashy and immediately exciting topic, but triplets are used in all styles of music and it's absolutely crucial to be aware of their power and pitfalls. Dividing everything by 3 instead of the usual even numbers can really trip up both your rhythm and your lead playing, so that's what we'll work on today.

This week on Insider I offer an introduction to a super cool instrument that's almost instantly accessible to guitarists because it's tuned the same as the low 4 strings of the guitar. This is the musically omni-present bass guitar. Because it's tuned the same you can play along with the examples in this lesson on your regular instrument and then decide later if you want to try out a real electric bass. There are many good reasons to be familiar with the bass - for one it makes us better as guitar players to know what the other instruments are doing. It's also a great tool to have for home recording, and finally there are often so many guitar players that you simply get to play more if you have another instrument to use.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a message from Mike who is requesting tips on how to prepare for playing with another guitar player for the very first time. Finding someone else to play music with is one of the greatest things that can happen to us - at any point on our guitar journey. So today we talk through three overall things that you have to master in order to be able to make music with another person, and then after that we'll talk through some of the many different scenarios you might encounter based on what kind of guitar player you are and what the other person does.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a question from Stephen who wants to know how to develop thumb independence, so you can keep a bass line going while playing leads over it. This is often explored in an acoustic Travis Picking context, but today I'll show you how cool and accessible this can be in a blues/rock context. I'll be on electric guitar, but this also works on acoustic.

Ever since the beginning of Guitar Insider, we've talked a lot about practice routines. My general advice is always to avoid getting caught up in a strict to-do-list that you have to work your way through every time you sit down with your guitar. Instead I recommend working on whatever is exciting to you in the moment. That being said, we don't always have something we're excited to work on and in that case it can be nice to have some kind of practice routine to fall back on. So in this episode of Insider I guide you through a framework of a practice routine that can work for players on all levels and styles.

This week on Guitar Insider we explore how to use one of my favorite tools for guitar which is the capo. There are so many useful and creative ways to use this very affordable tool, and I never go anywhere without one.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a question from Mitch about boredom. This leads to an important discussion about the many different ways to approach learning the guitar as well as the pros and cons of each of those. Most of our guitar heroes learned in very different ways than we do today, and in this episode I offer some fun thought experiments that can help you explore those methods as an addition to the more organized Guitar Tricks courses.

This week on Guitar Insider I answer a question from Wilson about that subtle right hand move you see guitar players do when they switch between using a pick and fingers. I show how I do it and how most other players do it, and that leads us to a fun exploration of what's known as "hybrid picking" on acoustic guitar. This is a fun way to bridge the gap between fingerpicking and strumming and it can open up a world of possibilities for your right hand sound!

This week on Guitar Insider we're exploring a topic that no one asked for, but that I genuinely believe is the single largest amount of musical joy and freedom I can offer -- for the least amount of effort and expense. This is the extremely accessible instrument called the harmonica and the harness we use to play it while we play guitar. Once you know the secret it's so easy and endlessly fun!

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a question from Bill who asks for some tips on strumming without a pick. This is a really fun topic to explore, because once you ditch the pick it opens up the door to the Wild West of right hand work. Everybody does it differently, and in this episode of Guitar Insider I offer you all the tools to find your own unique right hand approach.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a question from Farshid who is asking for guidance on how to avoid losing your place in the 12-bar form -- or any other chord progression -- while soloing. This is an extremely important skill that most people don't realize they're missing until they try to learn a lick that's tied to a certain spot in the chord progression, like a turnaround lick for example, or when you go to play with other musicians and you realize you have to know when to begin and end your solo.

This week on Guitar Insider I answer a question from Joe about how to navigate the difference between sitting down and standing up while practicing and playing. We'll talk about how these decisions affect your playing ability and your confidence while performing, and I offer my best tips. This leads to a discussion of the very important and frequently requested topic of posture as well as dealing with practice-induced pain and avoiding injuries.

This week on Insider I answer a question from Mitch about not looking at the fretboard while you practice. First we talk about the overall merits of that advice and then we explore some fun and useful ways to actually practice without looking at the fretboard, which can be greatly beneficial if you're up for it. Finally I'll show you the exercise that I use and you'll watch me crash and burn my way through it.

This week on Guitar Insider, we explore a very simple and powerful concept that's all too easy to miss when you're in the student headspace and wanting to do everything the "correct" way. Most of the guitar players we all like to listen to didn't do things the correct way, and you can get a lot of cool sounds out of not playing all the chords and keeping your parts static underneath changing chords.

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to two questions about the rhythm and counting workout we did a few weeks ago. There are infinite tutorials on what notes to play out there, but almost no one talks about the all-important rhythmic decisions we have to make whenever you we play a solo. So this week we explore the power of counting and verbalizing rhythms in a lead context, and practice the super important skill of choosing your primary subdivision for any new backing track or song you want to solo over. Getting good at these rhythmic concepts can really enable you to punch musically way above your weight class!

This week on Guitar Insider, I try to address the underlying question behind so many of the messages I get, which is essentially “Am I doing this wrong?”. I usually offer a variety of reassuring answers, but today I address this scary question by explaining four things that most people are doing wrong. This is based on my own experience learning guitar as well as all the lessons I’ve taught over the years. This does not mean you’ve wasted any time or created problems for yourself - they’re just common pitfalls to be aware of as you move forward on your guitar journey.

This whole time on Guitar Insider, I've been encouraging everybody to learn triads all over the neck - in response to questions about pentatonic scale patterns all over the neck, chord theory and riffs and rhythm parts. Today I hope to add some fuel to that fire by showing one of the most iconic triad movements that's been used in a thousand songs. This riff can be used to great effect whether you know any other triads or not - but I'm also going to demonstrate how a little bit of triad knowledge can enable you to turn this simple little movement into a lifetime of cool vocabulary where only your creativity is the limit!
Backing track available here

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to multiple questions I've received over the years about what to play when you pick up a guitar in a music store. First we cover some practical tips like making sure you're in tune before starting to play and how to get comfortable with the instrument before making any loud sounds. Then we talk about my best tip, which is to play something with a groove to it and finally I offer a flashy lick that you can use to raise some eyebrows.

This week on Guitar Insider, I show how I build a backing track in my studio, and this is a fun peek into the wonderful world of home recording and production. Within the context of a very simple backing track, we explore the incredible world of MIDI, simple drum programming, basic bass guitar and even some very guitarist-friendly piano playing. No matter what level you've reached on your music journey, recording at home is accessible, productive and highly rewarding.

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to a question from George, who asks for some more productive ways to use the jam tracks that we have in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. We all know how fun it can be to just get lost soloing over a track that loops indefinitely, but you've probably also experienced how it can eventually get boring and lack focus when you just solo mindlessly over the same track for a long time. So in this episode I offer some of my best ways to use the jam tracks to actively work new licks into your playing, work on your soloing composition and target specific skills. This way it's both fun and productive to jam out with the backing tracks!

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to a question from Nagharaj, who asks if it's okay to use a Cadd9 shape instead of the regular C shape - because it feels easier. This is a variation on a very common and important question I get often, so in this episode we'll dive into the concept of "shortcuts". We'll explore this topic within the context of chords, and I'll show you even more cool "shortcut chords" and talk about how and when to use them. This philosophy applies to anything from open chords to advanced lead techniques: use the shortcut as much as you can and make sure to explore the long way as well.

This week on Guitar Insider, I bring you along to a really cool studio session in a legendary studio here in Los Angeles. I show you how the full band is set up to record together, what guitars I bring and how my studio rig is built up. Finally I return to my own studio to show you a fantastic guitar I just got back and talk a bit more about the advantages of smaller studio setups like my own.

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to one of the most common questions I get, which is: 'How do you know when you're ready to move on to the next lesson?' There are many answers to this question, and in this episode we explore some of the most helpful ones within the context of some simple open chord strumming. Of course all of this applies to more advanced concepts like lead playing as well, and you'll be able to modify these techniques to suit your particular needs.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a request from Amir for some tips on counting and understanding the rhythm behind parts you learn. Most of us ignore this element for a while before we realize how important it is. This usually happens when we try to play by ourselves or with someone else and we realize that we’ve been relying on someone else’s rhythm rather than developing our own. Working on this can feel like moving backwards, but instead try to think of it like strengthening your musical foundation! You don’t have to pause everything else you're learning, but no matter where you are on your guitar journey you should start right now to pay attention to your counting and foot tapping. Developing a powerful rhythmic drive is one of the best things you can do for your playing!

This week on Guitar Insider, I introduce and demonstrate our brand new feature, where you can create your own customized practice reminders. This is super useful for our busy lives to avoid getting distracted and missing our window to practice! I'm also showing some other cool features that you find in the Toolbox section of the website.

This week on Guitar Insider we explore the simultaneously bluesy and sweet sound of the Mixolydian scale. This is simply a regular major scale, but where the 7th scale degree has been lowered by a half step. Even within the easy one octave pattern we use today you can instantly feel the power of the Mixolydian sound under your fingertips.

This week on Guitar Insider I continue on my quest to demystify the often misunderstood and overcomplicated concept of modes. Modes are just alternative scales that can be used to evoke certain emotions - just like the minor, major and blues scale all convey certain moods. Today we explore how a single half-step change within the basic major scale can open up a dreamy and powerful sound known as Lydian.

This week on Guitar Insider I respond to a multitude of questions about one of the most misunderstood topics in music, which is MODES. Modes are taught and understood in such confusing ways, but if you come at this from a player's perspective they're just variations on the basic minor and major scales. Variations that most often come down to altering one single note within the pattern! These are variations that you sometimes have to use because of certain chord progressions, but most often they're sonic variations you can use when you feel like it. This week we'll explore the mode called DORIAN, which is so common that most players don't even think of it as a mode!

This time of year we can all be tempted to wish for an expensive new guitar or a fancy amp, but there isn’t always a lot of headroom in the holiday budget. So this week on Guitar Insider, I offer a list of ideas for very inexpensive items that you can buy to boost your guitar playing and creativity. These range from 0-40 bucks and can make a big difference for your inspiration.

I just released an album with ten of my favorite old Christmas hymns arranged for solo electric guitar, and this week on Guitar Insider, I share the harmonized scale that I use as a basis for most of these arrangements. This harmonized scale will work for countless classic songs, and it's also very easy to come up with your own ideas using these notes. I find it incredibly gratifying to play instrumental arrangements of songs like this, and I hope this lesson will help you get started or give you a boost if you're already well on your way with this topic.

This week on Guitar Insider, I answer a question from Laura about recording yourself. As Laura points out, this can be incredibly intimidating, but the reason it's intimidating is also the reason it is so powerful. A recording of any quality will tell you how you really sound, and if you routinely record yourself and listen back it will speed up your progress like almost nothing else. In this episode I offer some tips on the technicalities of recording yourself as well as how to deal with the fact that it is intimidating and brutal to hear your playing back so unfiltered.

This week I find myself in the rare situation where I haven't touched a guitar in ten days. This is something almost everyone experiences at some point on the guitar journey, and depending on how we handle it, this situation can either be entirely insignificant or cause a ton of frustration that only slows down our progress. So today I'll talk about some helpful ways to deal with this and show you how I reconnect with the instrument after this longer break.

This week on Guitar Insider, I answer a question from Brian about how to get your pinky to join the team and cooperate with your other fingers. We all know how difficult this can be, and seeing many great guitar players play world class music without using their pinky at all doesn't exactly make us want to drop everything and work on it. So today I offer some ways to gently work your pinky into the mix without having to sacrifice anything or start over -- because the fact remains that while you can absolutely play great guitar without your pinky, you can do even more with it.

This week on Guitar Insider, we explore how to use a capo to move our position blues vocabulary up the neck in order to be able to use it in different keys. This gives us an entirely different sound that we get when we play our regular fretted blues scale, and some guitar players have made a whole career out of this awesome and very accessible trick.

This week on Guitar Insider we dive into the one effect I could never live without, which is reverb. Back in the day there was only one reverb knob on an amp, where you could either get more or less. Now with the rise of modeling amps, pedals and plugins there are a million parameters to tweak and many different types of reverb, which can easily be overwhelming. So, I'll go through three of the most common types of reverb and the most useful parameters to work with in order to dial in a great reverb on any piece of gear you may have.

This week on GTI I write out and explain a harmony cheat sheet that can be used to write and/or understand chord progressions in the key of C. This is centered around our I, IV and V-chords and then we add in relative minors and secondary dominants offering a harmonic smorgasbord that's worthy of countless songs that have already been written and have yet to be.

This week I finally respond to years of questions about my VKV guitar that I use in almost all the acoustic lessons on Guitar Tricks. This is a really interesting story that includes a beautiful old Martin D-28, a talented guitar builder in a small Eastern European town and a 20-year-old Anders on a road trip to get his dream guitar. I also show my mobile recording setup that I bring with me, when I travel for songwriting.

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to a request for 'some blues licks' by exploring some really cool open position blues vocabulary -- which is particularly fun when you play all by yourself. First, I'll show you the basic concept and then we'll explore a couple of licks. Finally I hope you'll continue to explore this great sound on your own.

This week on Guitar Insider, I’m responding to countless requests for advice on dealing with unwanted string noise. Some of these issues are easy to fix, some require focused practice and others we’re forced to live with.

This week on Guitar Insider I share some tips I wish someone would've shown me many years ago. I was originally told to leave the knobs on my guitar all the way up and forget about them. That is in fact what I do most of the time, but there are so many practical and inspiring, creative ways to use the tone and volume knobs on your electric guitar that you should be aware of -- on any stage of your guitar journey.

This week on Guitar Insider, I respond to a request for more barre chord tips -- particularly for the A major and A minor shaped barre chords. My tips include stripping down the voicings so you don't actually have to barre, adding open strings, different fingerings, practice tips, and much more. Barre chords are tough, but they're worth the hassle, and in the meantime I'll also offer you a great sounding 'cheat' that I use myself all the time.

This week on Guitar Insider, I start a new series called 'Cheat Like a Pro', where I show some of all the tricks that are used in and out of the studio to sound a little (or sometimes a lot) better than what we can perform in real time. These techniques are fair game for anyone and can be fun and useful to explore on any level of the journey. In this episode I break down the technique called 'Comping' which refers to picking and combining the best parts of multiple performances, and we'll explore this within the context of a guitar solo.

Here's this week's episode of GTI, where I offer some helpful ways to work on your barre-chords. Barre-chords can feel like a barrier for most of us, when we're first starting out, and it's important to remember that you can keep working on your barre-chords while you're exploring a million other things. Barre-chords are important and useful, but they're difficult and hard on the fingers, so it's important to take lots of breaks and use a gentle approach like the one I show in this episode of Guitar Insider.

This week I try to answer as many direct questions as I can in one episode. We'll talk about how I approach buying guitars, how to dial in new gear and how to best build speed and accuracy. We'll also explore an example of a 'mode', talk about how to get feedback on your playing, how to request songs and much more. Remember that if I didn't get to your question, you're welcome to ask me over in my forum, and I'll give you a direct answer. Some of these topics are worthy of much more exploration, so as always let me know what you'd like to hear more about and we'll dig deeper.

This week I'm showing how to get a million cool chord licks out of the triads we explored on the top 3 strings. Rest assured that you can still pick up some of these tricks even if you haven't gotten to all the triads yet. It's rarely all or nothing when it comes to guitar, and triads are no exception. Triads are the number 1 way that I navigate the neck when I solo, and the basis for 99% of my rhythm guitar parts.