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Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath Opens Up About His Battle with Cancer and the Struggle to Make '13'

Interview: Guitarist Robby Krieger Discusses The Doors' Albums and Working with Jim Morrison

Yngwie Malmsteen Discusses his Roots, His Rep and his Latest Album in this 1986 Guitar World Interview

Rolling Stones: Keith Richards on the Making of 'Exile on Main St.'

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Shred Zeppelin: How to Play Like Jimmy Page

A Clean Sweep: Mastering Sweep Arpeggios with John Petrucci

The Capo Crusader: An Acoustic Arrangement of The Who's "Baba O'Riley"

The Capo Crusader: An Acoustic Arrangement of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine"

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Blues Power: An In-Depth Guide to the Amps and Effect Pedals in Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Arsenal

La Grunge: The Top 10 Blues-Approved Overdrive/Distortion Pedals

Small Wonders: Five Essential 15-Watt Guitar Amps

40 Years After "Smoke On the Water," Fender Custom Shop Introduces Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Strat

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Guitar World Girls: Brittany

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VH1

VH1 Save the Music: How to Use Fingering “Extensions” to Make Open Chords Come to Life

Posted 04/25/2013 at 12:28pm | by Joe Egan

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I like to show my students how to arpeggiate chords on the guitar — pick the notes out one at a time while letting them ring together — and also show them how to create little fingering “extensions” that offer them neat and fairly easy ways to make their chord playing sound more interesting and melodic than simply strumming or arpeggiating the chords.

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VH1 Save the Music: The Importance of Rests, and How to Use Fret-Hand Muting Effectively

Posted 04/17/2013 at 5:12am | by Matt Blake

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In this column, I’d like to share with you a useful lesson that I teach my students, and that is the importance of rests, or silence, in music, and how to achieve it in a meaningful, controlled manner. I do this by teaching them some basic, stock jazz “riffs” that are both fun to play and beneficial for their general technique development.

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VH1 Save the Music: How to Change Chords Smoothly and Explore the World Beyond the Third Fret

Posted 03/27/2013 at 3:09pm | by Rich Giannotti

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My biggest challenge on a daily basis is addressing 30-plus young teenagers at a time and maintaining their attention and focus by keeping them engaged and captivated with the subject matter at hand. In this column, I’d like to share an approach I’ve developed and taken with my students that helps keep them motivated to pay attention, practice and explore the instrument more on their own time.

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VH1 Save the Music: The Art of the Jam — How to Teach Young Children to Improvise

Posted 03/20/2013 at 8:07am | by Mark Hale

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Hello. My name is Mark Hale, and I teach general music and guitar to elementary school students, grades K-4, in Nashville. Having done this for a few years and experimented with various approaches, I have come up with what I believe to be a very effective and fun approach to teaching young, beginner-level students how to tap into the creative part of their brains and improvise melodies. I’d like to share this approach with you.

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VH1 Save the Music: How to Break Away from the Open Position and Discover New Chords Higher Up the Neck

Posted 03/11/2013 at 3:59pm | by David Haiman

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After learning a handful of stock chord shapes in first and second position — what are commonly referred to as “open” chords or “cowboy” chords — it can be liberating for your fretting hand to venture beyond the first three frets, move up the neck and get acquainted with the sweet sounds of chords played in the higher positions.

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VH1 Save the Music: An Effective Strategy for Teaching Young Beginners the Joy of Playing Guitar

Posted 02/25/2013 at 7:14am | by Ted Meyers

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Being assigned the ongoing mission of teaching a new crop of middle school students each year to play guitar on a beginner level in a group setting, I’ve had numerous opportunities to try various approaches to getting the kids to focus on learning to play the instrument without becoming bored or frustrated.

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