Turning Poison Into Medicine
Maybe you have had a bad day. Maybe something from ten years ago is still making you ache and think about it. Or maybe you are in a club and are feeling nervous about playing [...]
Getting Over Stage Fright
You know, a lot of people get stage fright when they first get up on stage; even if they have played a thousand gigs before. You start to want to hide; to put up a [...]
Pick Hand Harmonics 2
Grab your electric guitar and turn on your favorite distortion for leads! A great technique to add to your bag of tricks is playing a note, and then touching the same string twelve frets higher. [...]
Exploring Chords
A great way to explore your chords is to take their shape and move them around. What do I mean by this? Say you finger a D chord. You’ve got covered the 2nd fret of [...]
Pick Hand Harmonics
To create a harmonic with your pick hand, allow part of your thumb to touch the string as you pick it. This is done while holding the pick. As you pick the string, turn your [...]
What Rules?
As guitar players, many people tend to just carry around their lessons and play what they know (they’re setting up walls in their mind by doing that); eventually you have to go beyond all that [...]
Playing to Timing
As a guitarist your intent should be focused on playing with perfect timing. When playing music, timing and rhythm should be foremost in your mind. As you progress, this will come naturally; but it takes [...]
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was one of the most unique players in that he was constantly going way beyond all the boundaries. As Joe Satriani put it, anyone trying to play Jimi is basically haunted by every [...]
Controlling Your Sound
When playing the guitar, there is more going on than just creating what is heard. Around all that you need to be in control of the rest of the strings, silencing any that are not [...]
Playing Like a Child
Remember when you were a child? You played freely, lived in the moment, and did not worry about what was next. It is important to have this freedom of play in your jamming abilities as [...]
Infinite Points
Having the dynamic ability to go beyond the rhythm and melody is going to make you a better soloing guitarist. Don’t just focus on one point; surround the rhythm with infinite points. There are many, [...]
Know Your Guitar
It is important to know every note on the guitar. No matter what fret you hold on what string, your goal should be to be able to know each note without thinking twice. Start by [...]
Learn the Notes on the Fretboard
An exercise for learning the notes on the fretboard: Pick a note to locate (for example E) and set your metronome to 65. Then proceed to locate that note on the 6th string in all [...]
Timing and Rythm
“When you understand timing, then you also understand rhythm. Timing and rhythm-they are one and the same thing, yet they are different. To understand them both as one, you must understand them individually. It is [...]
Open Your Mind While Learning Guitar
Getting to know your musical theory (chords, scales, modes, etc) is important, but keep an open mind to the fact that there are endless things you can do on a guitar. Learn to be at [...]