Andy Aledort

Andy Aledort

Guitar World Associate Editor Andy Aledort is recognized worldwide for his vast contributions to guitar instruction, via his many best-selling instructional DVDs, transcription books and online lessons. Andy is a regular contributor to Guitar World and Truefire, and has toured with Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers, as well as participating in several Jimi Hendrix Tribute Tours.

Articles by: Andy Aledort

John Mayall playing guitar onstage at Greenwich Village's Bottom Line nightclub, New York on January 23, 1979

“Peter Green is tasked with filling the shoes of Clapton, the man referred to as God”: Tracking the phenomenal guitar lineage of John Mayall in 12 essential releases

By Andy Aledort published

We trace the evolution of the six-string linchpin behind the British blues rock boom of the 1960s

John Mayall performs onstage at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California in 1969

“It never dawned on me that I could make a living playing music. For many years, it was just a hobby, a way I could express myself”: John Mayall changed blues music forever – and introduced the world to some of its greatest guitar players

By Andy Aledort published

“The Godfather of British Blues” left us in July at age 90. We look back at his many achievements, triumphs and essential releases

Andy Aledort holding his Fender Strat against a yellow background

The guitar greats describe a good solo as a “song within a song” – here’s how to make it happen and craft a solo that makes a statement

By Andy Aledort published

In his final In Deep column, the great Andy Aledort teaches us how lead guitar can maintain a compelling conversation over changing chords

Stevie Ray Vaughan live onstage with his number one Fender Stratocaster

“We had to come up with the songs pretty quickly – Stevie wasn’t a fluent songwriter”: Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton on the making of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Couldn’t Stand the Weather

By Alan Paul published

In 1984, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble needed new tunes and needed them bad, and necessity became the mother of invention as they put together a bona fide blues classic

Andy Aledort and Dickey Betts perform live in 2008

“I was standing in line at the bank when Dickey called: ‘Hey, listen – my guitar player just quit and the tour starts in a week. Do you want to do it?’” How I went from guitar journalist to Dickey Betts’ right-hand man

By Andy Aledort published

Guitar World’s Andy Aledort played over 250 shows around the globe with his hero. He traces his history with the late Allman Brothers Band icon, and shares his personal experience of working with the complex, generous guitar legend who once gave him one of Duane Allman’s slides

Allman Brothers Band

“I liked to go to this old abandoned graveyard by the river to write songs. The gravestone next to where I was sitting said, ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, so that became the song’s title”: The 25 greatest Allman Brothers Band songs

By Alan Paul published

From Dickey Betts’ iconic instrumentals to the tracks that made ABB one of rock’s most revered jam groups, here are the best Allman Brothers Band cuts from across their catalog – and the stories behind them

Shuggie Otis plays a reversed Stratocaster onstage in 2015

All your favorite guitarists know how to lock into a groove with their leads – and learning to solo deep in the pocket will elevate your style immensely

By Andy Aledort published

In this video and tab lesson, inspired by the Shuggie Otis classic Me and My Woman, we're thinking rhythmically while we're soloing, which is an essential skill for any player

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Tommy Shannon

“That take was live from beginning to end, 7 minutes of pure guitar energy without a single miscue”: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s producer and bassist recall being in the room when SRV tackled his game-changing cover of Voodoo Child

By Matt Parker published

SRV’s other massive Hendrix cover proved a pivot point in his playing career – helping the Texas bluesman to find his way through his fraught second album sessions

GWM573 Andy Aledort lesson

One of the greatest things about the guitar is its capacity to emulate the nuances and expressiveness of the human voice – improve your phrasing now with this lesson in how make your playing more vocal

By Andy Aledort published

By making clever use of string bends, finger slides and vibrato, you can make your guitar sing

Melanie Faye, Jimi Hendrix, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram

How Jimi Hendrix’s groundbreaking techniques are still influencing the modern rock, blues and R&B styles of today’s players

By Andy Aledort published

This tab and video lesson details how Hendrix inspired the likes of Melanie Faye, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Marcus Machado, Ayla Tesler-Mabé, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Ayron Jones

Man playing electric guitar

How to create melodies that connect relative major and minor chords

By Andy Aledort published

Pull solo ideas from both sides of the happy/sad spectrum of tonality

Neil Young

How to solo over relative major and minor chords

By Andy Aledort published

It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, used by everyone from the Beatles to Neil Young and Pink Floyd, but playing around the major and minor tonalities can produce melodies that stick in the mind forever

David Lindley

Remembering David Lindley: A tribute to one of the greatest slide players and multi-instrumentalists of all time

By Andy Aledort published

Sideman and session player to Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and more, David Lindley leaves behind a formidable musical legacy

Johnny Winter live onstage in the 1980 Dr Pepper Central Park Music Festival, New York.

How to get more from oblique bends, a staple of blues-rock guitar playing

By Andy Aledort published

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter all used this technique to great effect – here's how you can make the most of it in your solos

Close up of fingers on guitar fretboard

How to combine one and two-string melodies with drones for more melodically inventive approaches

By Andy Aledort published

This lesson will help take your soloing outside of muscle memory and learned playing habits

Muddy Waters at Cahn Auditorium in Evanston, Illinois, March 3, 1979.

How to make the most of open strings in blues guitar solos

By Andy Aledort published

Learn the pentatonic solo approaches epitomized by Muddy Waters and adopted by every blues player since

GWM559 Jimmie Vaughan TX blues

Jimmie Vaughan names his 12 favorite Texas blues guitarists

By Andy Aledort published

“This is a serious list,” says Vaughan, and that is no word of a lie...

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan producer Richard Mullen: “When he played Voodoo Child live, he brought a life force to the song that no-one else could possibly do”

By Andy Aledort, Alan Paul published

The late Richard Mullen was there as SRV became one of the greatest blues guitarists the world has ever seen. In this classic interview from 2003, he offers his perspective on a one-off talent

(from left) Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, pictured onstage

"It was a wild scene up there": The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell recount the explosive, and chaotic, Woodstock set that changed the world

By Andy Aledort published

In this classic GW interview, Hendrix's late-period rhythm section reveal the highs and lows of one of rock's most immortal performances, and what it was really like to collaborate with the ultimate guitar hero

Muddy Waters

How to incorporate open-string drones into an improvised blues solo

By Andy Aledort published

Taking inspiration from Muddy Waters' Rollin' Stone, this lesson will teach you how to make your one guitar sound fuller

Stevie Ray Vaughan performs onstage in 1989

Stevie Ray Vaughan's 10 greatest guitar moments

By Damian Fanelli published

Dig deep into SRV's six-string artistry with our compilation of his finest performances

Muddy Waters onstage in England for the recording of BBC Television show Jazz at the Maltings

Learn the slippery soloing style of Muddy Waters

By Andy Aledort published

This improvisation on the Muddy Waters classic, Rollin’ Stone takes electric blues back to the source and plants an almighty hook in an E minor pentatonic lick

Best of the '80s: Warren DeMartini, Steve Stevens, Lita Ford and more on their favorite things from the decade of excess

Warren DeMartini, Steve Stevens, Lita Ford and an all-star panel share their guitar highlights of the ‘80s

By GuitarWorld Staff last updated

Some of the biggest names in guitar look back on the era of big solos and even bigger hair to share their favorite riffs, shredders and, yes, haircuts of the decade

Johnny Winter peforms at the DTE Energy Center on August 30, 2012 in Clarkston, Michigan

"I love playing the blues, now more than I ever have before": Johnny Winter reveals how he paid tribute to his favorite blues greats on Roots in 2011 GW interview

By Andy Aledort published

In this classic chat, the late guitar legend touches on the songs that led him to the blues, his experience working with Muddy Waters and his indestructible Music Man 4x12 amp

Dickey Betts and Duane Allman

How to solo over a two-chord vamp in the style of the Allman Brothers

By Andy Aledort published

Inspired by the Allman Brothers classic Dreams, this lesson teaches you how to tell a story through lead guitar