An essential part of my approach to guitar playing is the incorporation of chordal sounds, melody and harmony that I’ve picked up from listening to jazz and classical music, as well as gospel.

Utilizing elements of these rich musical traditions offers one such a wide range of sounds and emotions that you don’t usually find in blues and provides access to some of the most beautiful sounds and harmonies that can be discovered.

I learned a lot about creating new and unique chordal sounds on the guitar from listening to keyboard players. As is always the case, I let the muse guide me and try to maintain an open mind as to what I can discover harmonically while in the midst of improvisation.

In Figure 1, I begin by sounding my open A string as a pedal tone and then play sliding 3rd intervals, first on the G and B strings then on the D and G strings. I then shift to the bVI (flat six major) chord, F(6/9), followed by a low C/F, making use of my open D and G strings.

The line in bar 3 is based on the A natural minor scale, also known as the A Aeolian mode (A, B, C, D, E, F, G), followed in bar 4 with a shift to the more classical-sounding A harmonic minor scale (A, B, C, D, E, F, G#). Some of the notes of A harmonic minor can be played as a diminished 7 arpeggio superimposed over E7b9 (E, G#, B, D, F), with the notes G#, B, D and F. The figure ends with the chordal resolution of E7b9 to Am7add4.

I should remind you that I play the guitar “upside down”; in other words, I take a guitar strung for a right-handed player and play it left-handed, so the order of the strings is reversed, with the high E string closest to the ceiling, and the low E string closest to the floor). Additionally, I tune down a half step (low to high: Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb).

Playing with the strings ‘flipped over” like this allows for some chord voicings that may feel a little awkward and unnatural with the guitar strung and played in a conventional manner. The Am7add4 that ends Figure 1 is a prime example, because, for me, I can fret my high E and B strings with my thumb, as others sometimes do with their low strings.

Figure 2 offers another example of different ways to move between the tonalities of Am and F. Notice the use of ringing open strings in bars 1-3.

At the end of bar 3, I use natural harmonics (N.H.) on the A, D and G strings as a transition point between Am and Fmaj7. In bar 5, I bring in E7b9 once again as a transition chord to resolve back to Am7sus4.

You can also melodically describe the wider harmony of these chords using only single notes.

In Figure 3, the lines in bars 1 and 2 are based on A natural minor. In bars 3 and 4, I shift to a bluesier sound with fast descending phrases based on A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G), phrased in groups of five and six, wrapping up with a return to Fmaj7sus2.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Power chords are one of the first things we learn as beginner guitarists as these easy-to-fret two note chords are the building blocks of countless classic riffs across rock, punk, pop, and funk.

But don’t let their simplicity fool you, they are more than just a shortcut to learning songs quickly or sounding heavy. They’re a versatile, genre-spanning tool that every guitarist can harness in new and creative ways.

In this lesson, you're not just learning power chords. You're unlocking their full creative potential across five distinct genres, each defined by its string set, pitch range and stylistic context.

From the thunder of doom metal on the lowest string to the clean, rhythmic shimmer of soul and yacht rock on higher strings, you'll learn how power chords change character and function based on where and how you play them.

You'll learn four key fretboard zones (ie string groupings), in open and closed positions, each anchored by a different string (from the low sixth up to the higher third) supplying the root. Plus you'll appreciate the most effective shapes for each zone and how they’re used across genres.

For example, doom and metal genres (think Metallica and Slayer) lean on low-pitched, sixth string rooted power chords to create massive weight and tight, muted aggression. Rock (think Aerosmith and Extreme) typically favors fifth string rooted shapes for driving riffs and rhythmic punch with a characteristic bright tonal snap.

Then over to 80s yacht rock/AOR (eg Richard Marx, Kenny Loggins, Glenn Frey, Huey Lewis and The News) which often utilizes fourth string rooted chords at mid-pitch ranges to create punchy, studio-friendly rhythms with extensions and color tones for rich harmony.

And finally, you'll see how soul and funk stretches the limits, using third string rooted power chords as double-stops or three-note variants for rhythmic hits or melodic punctuation. Think George Benson’s pop interpretation of Wes Montgomery’s octave ideas into more fluid, harmonic comping, or Nile Rodgers’ trademark rhythm style.

You’ll also dive into creative variations, like inverted voicings, sliding 4ths, sus2 extensions, and even the occasional flat 5. These give your power chords more life, color and musicality, even when you’re still only using two or three notes.

Whether you’re tracking heavy riffs, writing pop hooks, or clean soul comping, this is your guide to unlocking the full expressive potential of the humble power chord.

So, what exactly is a power chord?

At its core, a power chord contains just two notes: the root and the fifth. This makes them technically dyads (two notes) rather than full chords (which would require three notes such as a triad).

They are written as “5” after the note name (eg A5, D5) because they only contain the root and fifth.

Since they lack the third, the note that determines whether a chord is major or minor, power chords are harmonically neutral. This means they’re perfect for navigating the fretboard quickly as a beginner, without worrying about playing the correct major and minor chords in each key. But this is just the beginning.

Because they’re tonally simple, they hold up incredibly well under distortion, overdrive, or fuzz, which is why they’re a mainstay in punk, metal, and hard rock. This is because the distance between the root and the fifth is a perfect 5th. After the octave, the perfect 5th is the most harmonically stable interval in western music.

ESSENTIAL POWER CHORD SHAPES

Open position power chords (1:26 in video)

Let’s start with the open power chord positions down at the low frets. Beginning on the sixth string, you have the E5 power chord shape across the sixth, fifth and fourth strings. This shape is common in rock and metal, and offers a dense, bass heavy timbre.

If you mirror the same exact shape across the fifth, fourth and third strings, you get the A5 power chord. This grouping sounds a bit snappier and brighter, making it a mainstay in roots and riff-rock.

Moving on to the fourth, third and second strings, you need to adjust the fingering to compensate for the major 3rd interval found between the third and second strings in standard tuning. The guitar is mainly tuned in 4ths, with this exception. To maintain the root-fifth-octave distance across these three strings, you’ll need to shift your fourth finger up by one semitone/one fret. You should recognize this shape as a fragment of the D major open chord shape from the CAGED system.

Finally, there's the open G power chord across the higher third, second and first strings. Again, you’ll need to adjust the fingering to compensate for the tuning difference across the higher strings.

Moveable power chords (3:38 in video)

Just like full open chords, power chords can be moved around the neck using a barre. For these positions, the first finger takes the place of the “zero” fret (ie behind the nut), to adapt open power chord voicings to closed positions, allowing us to move them around the neck.

The E5 shape can be moved up the fingerboard to give you a new power chord with the root note on each fret: eg A5 at the 5th fret (see the first diagram below). For this shape, use your first finger to fret the root note, and your third and fourth fingers to play the fifth and octave.

For the A5 shape, you can mirror the same position across the fifth, fourth and third string set. On the 5th fret for instance, you’d get a D5 power chord (see the second diagram below).

The D5 shape (using the fourth, third and second strings) has lots of potential for harmonic embellishments. The G5 diagram below is a good one to try out. You may be familiar with this shape if you’re into playing '80s metal, as it appears heavily in songs like Bark At the Moon and Hot For Teacher.

Finally, you have the G5 shape (third, second and first) strings in the closed position. Check out the C5 diagram below. For this position, barre the fourth finger to hit the 5th and octave. This shape is rarely used in its entirety with many guitarists opting to leave out the low root note and play just the top two notes, creating an inversion. We’ll discuss this more in the examples.

MUSIC EXAMPLES

Example 1. Doom Metal Zone - power chords on the lowest strings (4:42 in video)

This is where heavy lives. Power chords rooted on the low sixth and fifth strings are your go-to for metal and hard rock. The tone is thick and punchy, and this position is ideal for palm muting and alternate picking. This example includes sixth/fifth/fourth strings power chords, chromatic movement, a flat 5 (dim5) chord for added tension, and some arpeggiated voicings to break up the wall of sound.

If you lower the fifth in a power chord by one fret, you get the flat 5 (tritone or diminished 5th interval), often used in heavy music. This is still technically a power chord, as it contains two notes (root and diminished fifth). You can use this voicing occasionally for some added tension in your riffing - see bar 3, beat 3&.

This example perfectly illustrates why power chords work so well with high-gain and distorted tones. Overdrive and distortion pedals introduce 'intermodulation distortion' to your guitar sound. It generates and emphasizes harmonic frequencies above the fundamental pitches you are playing.

The more notes you squeeze into the chord, the more unpleasant intermodulation distortion occurs, which is why six-string open chord shapes sound really wonky with a ton of grit. The frequencies emphasized when using power chords agree with each other and eliminate any clashing, making them perfect for high-gain riffs.

Example 2. The Rock Zone – power chords on the fifth, fourth and third strings (6:51 in video)

This zone is the engine room of classic rock, alt rock, and pop-punk. It’s brighter and punchier, with more snap and honk than the doom zone.

This example includes inverted power chords using two strings (fifth below the root) and introduces a sus2/add9 voicing (last two arpeggios at the end of bar 8). These add harmonic color to your sound: think Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Police, Extreme or The Foo Fighters: rhythmic, riff-driven, and dynamic.

Speaking of inverted power chords, you may already be familiar with this fourth and third string double-stop fingering if you’ve learned songs like Smoke On the Water or Layla. This dyad flips the root and fifth low to high voicing to instead sound a perfect fourth.

Many guitarists choose to use this inversion instead of the full root-fifth-octave voicing, especially on these strings, as it shifts your finger position and gives more room to riff through the pentatonic scale.

Example 3. The Yacht Rock Zone - power chords on the fourth, third and second strings (11:04 in video)

Don’t overlook the middle of the neck! Power chords with the root on the fourth string have a very punchy tone, be it using a rock tone (eg Steve Lukather) or edge of breakup tone (eg Bryan Adams). This zone is also perfect for chorus-soaked arpeggios, pop arrangements, and '80s radio rock, but it's equally at home in glam and classic rock.

What makes this example interesting is you will be playing add9 and major 7 chords based off the moveable power chord shapes shown earlier. When you play these clock how rich and sophisticated they sound.

The hard rock application in this zone is covered in songs like Bark At the Moon and Hot For Teacher, while you’ll see the soft-rock application in the music of Bryan Adams, The Eagles and Toto.

The wider stretch opens up your first finger to barre and add the 9th scale degree on the first string, while the fourth is now free to shift down one fret to the major 7th. You can also start grabbing more complex triad inversions from this base position like F minor/A♭(see bar 7 into 8).

All of this makes the fourth/third/second string zone arguably the most adaptable. It sounds great live, in the studio, across many genres and styles, and with different guitar tones from DI'd chiming cleans to 5150 amp fuelled metal.

Example 4. The Funk & Soul Zone - power chords on the third, second and first strings (14:25 in video)

Your final zone is all about feel and groove. This position is the gold standard for funk, R&B, and neo-soul. Inspired by players like Nile Rodgers and George Benson, this example shows how to slide shapes through the pentatonic scale, use chromatic approaches, and comp with syncopation.

Many guitarists favor this position when comping because it sits above a band's lower register instruments such as bass and keys. The overall blend then allows for a wider spread of frequencies in a song's arrangement.

Guitarists in this zone often drop the low root note on the third string and play just an inverted double-stop dyad on the top two strings. This provides a perfect fourth double-stop, used by players from Steve Cropper to Curtis Mayfield and Nile Rodgers to SRV. Certainly, this slinky and easily moveable shape can brighten up any rhythm part or add bombastic bounce to your solo.

In my introductory column last month, I discussed a few different approaches to legato phrasing. The term legato means “smooth and connected,” and on the guitar legato articulations include hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides.

Legendary fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth is widely considered as the greatest legato player of all time, and he was certainly a major influence in the development of my own approach to legato-style phrasing.

Last month, we analyzed a legato phrase that I played on the Testament song So Many Lies, which is in the key of E and based on the E Lydian b7 scale, also unknown as the E Lydian-dominant mode (E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D). I would now like to take the same melodic and fretboard pattern and apply it to a different mode.

Figure 1 presents a fast cascading legato phrase that’s based on the B Dorian mode (B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A), starting in 7th position and then, as the phrase progresses, shifts down to 6th and then 5th positions.

I begin with my index finger on B, 1st string, 7th fret, and then hammer-on to the 10th fret with my pinkie, followed by a double pull-off to the 9th and 7th frets with my ring and index fingers. The pinkie then hammers-on “from nowhere” to the 10th fret on the B string to sound A (the note is not picked).

Similar pull-offs and hammer-ons are then performed on the B string in virtually the same sequence, followed by a move to the G string and a repeat of this melodic “shape,” fretted with the pinkie and middle and index fingers. Beats 3 and 4 continue the crosses to the lower strings, rearticulating the identical melodic pattern while remaining diatonic to (within the scale structure of) B Dorian.

A great way to execute legato phrases like this is to utilize a “three notes per string”’ fingering. As shown in bar 1 of Figure 2, this approach is applied to ascending through the first octave of B Dorian in 7th position. In bar 2, the three-notes-per-string approach is applied to the second octave; the exception is the G string, where only two notes are sounded.

In Figure 3, the same fingerings are illustrated through B Dorian played in a descending manner.

One should practice the scale in as many other positions as possible. Figure 4 illustrates B Dorian as played in a combination of 5th, 6th and 7th positions, once again favoring the three-notes-per-string approach, played ascending and descending.

In Figure 5, I begin by sounding a Bm7 chord first, in order to provide the proper tonal reference for the B Dorian single-note line. When moving the lick to different areas of the fretboard, I suggest playing a Bm7 chord initially, in order to keep that harmonic reference clear.

Keep in mind that B Dorian is the second mode of the A major scale (A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#), also known as the A Ionian mode. The other six related modes that begin on each scale degree of A major are C# Phrygian, D Lydian, E Mixolydian, F# Aeolian and G# Locrian.

Figure 6 demonstrates the same type of fast, cascading legato run from Figure 1 applied to the A major scale in 5th position.

Now that you have a clear picture of the note sequence, or “melodic shape,” as it descends across the fretboard, try applying it to the six other modes in various positions. This is a fantastic way to sharpen your fret-hand legato technique.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

A seven-string isn’t the only option for huge, earth-shaking riffs. In fact, countless players choose to stay with a traditional six-string and use lower tunings to do the heavy lifting.

Drop D tuning (D-A-D-G-B-E) has been very popular with rock, metal and blues bands for decades, Led Zeppelin’s Moby Dick, The Foo Fighters’ Everlong and Killing In The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine are three fantastic examples. However, as good as it is, Drop D is not quite heavy enough for some modern players.

Enter Drop C tuning.

Drop D and Drop C share the same basic foundation: the sixth and fourth strings are the same note an octave apart. What makes Drop C heavier is the first through to fifth strings are tuned down a whole step then the sixth string is detuned by two whole steps. So, Drop C is essentially Drop D, just tuned one whole step lower across all strings. This provides the tuning of (low to high): C-G-C-F-A-D.

Due to the lower tuning, it would be wise to consider having a thicker string gauge: typical choices would be either .011-0.54 or .011-0.56 if you'd like a little less give in the sixth string which provides the low C.

In addition, you (or your local guitar tech) might like to cut the nut’s string slots a little wider and tweak the truss rod so it's fine tuned (sic) to deal with extra string thicknesses.

So what are the benefits with Drop C?

Like Drop D, Drop C tuning is great to play an open position power chord with the lowest three strings: where Drop D provides D5, Drop C produces C5. This instant powerchord can also be applied to fretted movable shapes, enabling multiple (and quick moving) powerchords with just one finger.

There's also fun to be had on the fourth string: raise the fourth string by two whole tones (4 frets worth) from a one finger barre to get a major chord, or a tone and a half (3 frets worth) for a minor chord. This is great as you can still use a high gain tone without sounding muddy.

You can also raise the fourth string by a whole tone (2 frets worth) from the one finger barre, resulting in a movable sus2 chord. Perfect for demonizing Andy Summers or Dave Grohl riffs.

Of course, a tuning doesn’t gain iconic status without prominent players championing it. Bands like Alter Bridge, Periphery, and Killswitch Engage use Drop C tuning to craft expansive, atmospheric chord voicings while delivering thick, hard-hitting riffs.

Others who implement Drop C include Metallica, Nickelback, System of a Down, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom and Bullet For My Valentine.

Whether you're a seasoned musician looking to refresh your creativity or a new player eager to dive into heavier styles, Drop C is a really vibrant place to start. It offers accessibility, inspiration, and a distinctive voice that continues to define the sound of contemporary guitar music. Now to the playing examples!

Example 1 - Power chord study

For this first example you can re-familiarize yourself with the three basic open position power chords, but with the added tonal weight of Drop C tuning. Whilst the voicings of these chords will sound familiar, their tone and sound will be much thicker and darker.

It also shows how you can expand your chordal vocabulary with movable versions of both the A5 and D5 shapes (we will address the movable E shape in the next example).

Example 2 - One finger power chord and repeating octaves

This illustrates how easy it is to play a power chord shape in both the open position and as a movable shape, with the root note located on the sixth string.

Thanks to the Drop C tuning you can play an open C5 power chord by simply playing the bottom three open strings. By fretting these same strings with one finger, you can achieve a movable power chord shape which enables easy and fast riffing.

Another element to consider is how you can play phrases on the sixth string and repeat them an octave higher in the same position on the fourth string. This makes single note riffs very easy to achieve with minimal movement of the fretting hand.

Here you will combine both low string open position power chords and one finger fretted power chords. There is also sixth and fourth string jumping to create interesting riffing.

Example 3 - Alter Bridge style

This looks at how Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge employ Drop C tuning to craft their melodic chord progressions and heavy riffs. Bars 1-4 feature a clean chord arpeggio sequence.

Notice how you can extend sixth string root power chords to achieve both major and minor chords, as well as adding additional color with the 11th or 4th on the fifth string.

Bars 9-17 introduce another Alter Bridge inspired riff demonstrating the heavier side of the band's iconic sound. This section makes use of a two string chord on the fifth and fourth strings, whilst pedalling on the palm muted open sixth string.

Example 4 - Nickelback Style

Not often spoken about, there is a very heavy side to Canadian rockers Nickelback. This is often due to the band's use of Drop C, transforming traditional Drop D riffs into music that is darker and heavier. Bars 1-4 kick off with a single note riff figure, pedalling off the palm muted open C5 power chord.

This riff concludes with a symmetrical descending line that makes use of our repeating octave shape on the fourth and sixth strings. This riff is also embellished with one finger power chords.

Bars 9-17 introduce a second riff that is performed exclusively with one finger power chords. Pay attention to the occasional palm muted open C5 power chord, as well as the thick palm muted “chug” added to the D5 in bar 12.

Example 5 - Metallica style

In 2003, Metallica released an angry sounding album that featured great use of Drop C. This is reflected in the next example.

Bars 1-4 kick off with a repeating sequence based around fast alternate picking, as well as one finger and open power chords. Bars 5-8 see this develop further with a tight reversed gallop figure performed on the sixth string.

Bars 9-16 focus on a single note figure played on the sixth string, embellished with one finger power chords. Bars 17-21 conclude the example with atmospheric chord picking, with a shifting figure utilizing open strings. Take care with this example, as it's quite demanding on the picking hand.

Example 6 - Arch Enemy style

This example looks at the aggressive style of the Swedish death metal band, Arch Enemy and its players Jeff Loomis, Micheal Amott and Fredrik Åkesson. The band is known for their fusion of progressive and death metal styles, producing a very unique sound.

Bars 1-8 kick off with a melodic pedal tone riff performed on the fourth string. This two-bar figure is repeated a total of four times. Bars 9-16 feature a palm-muted 16th note rhythmic chug on the open sixth string, embellished with power chords and major third intervals. Make sure you keep your picking hand relaxed and consistent for this riff.

Bars 17-24 have a strong power metal feel, with shifting two-string chords pedalling off a driving palm muted 8th note rhythm, performed on the open sixth string. The final sinister riff employs the octave at the same fret between the fourth and sixth strings.

Notice the whole tone bend from the 1st fret/sixth string, with the octave performed on the 3rd fret/fourth string. You’ll finish with tight eighth note palm muted chugging on the open C5 power chord. Once again, this example is demanding on the picking hand so take your time with note clarity and rhythmic precision.

Example 7 - Periphery style

Progressive/Djent pioneers Periphery excel at using Drop C to achieve their unique blend of crushing riffs, intricate lines, and atmospheric chords.

The three guitar onslaught of Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb has raised the bar in terms of the guitar's technical and melodic applications in modern metal, with the band being credited for pioneering the Djent sound.

Bars 1-16 feature the first riff, which makes use of the 7/4 time signature (7 beats in a bar with each beat being worth a 1/4 note). This is based around a melodic keyboard-like sequence, performed with a consistent eighth note rhythm that outlines the harmony of the progression.

Bars 17-32 show the second riff, which is based around a 4/4 time signature. This riff introduces a tight 16th note syncopated C5 figure, followed by the extended movable shape of the D5 power chord.

In contrast to the tight metal fused power chord riffs, each riff is answered with an extended melodic phrase that includes wide intervals, position shifts, arpeggios, and dissonance. Extended lines such as the ones in this second riff play a big part in the intricate and progressive nature of Periphery’s music.

Example 8 - Killswitch Engage style

This final example looks at Metalcore pioneers Killswitch Engage, driven by guitar duo Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel. Their sound blends syncopated Drop C riffs with ethereal chord harmony.

Bars 1-8 kick off with a single note metal riff performed on the sixth string. This riff makes use of both hammer-ons and fast alternate picking, as well as shifting power chords. Pay attention to the timing of the riff, and keep your picking hand relaxed and focused.

Bars 9-12 introduce a second riff which, in contrast to the first riff, has a tighter feel and makes use of space. This riff also includes octaves as well as fast trills. Bars 13-20 include a straight eighth note riff based predominantly around power chords.

The arpeggiated C minor is achieved with three fretted strings and open first string (D string). The closing Fsus2-Cm-Dbsus2 section features a first finger stretch backwards on the first string to facilitate the three note repetition.

Eric Johnson is one of those rare artists who has created a unique style from classic elements of blues, jazz and rock.

His playing covers a diverse range of sonic bases, from delicate harmonics and super-clean crystalline chords to edgy rhythms and roaring distorted solo lines. He delivers all these using a vintage or signature model Strat, according to his preference of the moment.

His modest pedalboard features a few carefully chosen pieces, plus the switching for his multi-amp setup – a rig that has hardly changed since his debut solo record, Tones, dating back to 1986.

Although Eric is renowned for his forensic approach to getting the perfect tone, he certainly isn’t one to jump on the latest fads looking for shortcuts and isn’t seduced by the novelty of new gear.

It’s worth noting that Eric has more recently been experimenting with modern digital units, so clearly has an eye on the future when it comes to his rig, but in the meantime recently shipped his whole backline to Europe, to avoid compromising his sound. That’s commitment to the art over profit!

The example solo, though split into four sections, was played as a continuous take. It borrows heavily from Eric’s approach to pentatonics, arpeggios and touches of Texas blues. And while I don’t claim to have duplicated Eric’s tone or style definitively here, this solo is very much inspired by him.

It contains quite a few ideas that can hopefully be of use should you wish to incorporate a bit of the ‘EJ magic’ into your own playing.

This isn’t a fast ‘shred’-type affair, but it does require sustained accuracy and concentration. Very much a case of building up to it, rather than expecting to jump straight in… Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1.

This first example aims to establish the feel, featuring a Texas blues shuffle-style riff with some pentatonic fills. As there’s a fairly sparse backing here of just bass and drums (echoing the line up of Eric’s live band), it felt important not to rush into a single-note solo immediately.

The feel is fairly loose – though there are some staccato notes, you’ll hear the open fourth and fifth strings ringing occasionally, such as in bars 1 and 3.

Example 2.

The ascending run during the first two bars features some wide intervallic skips based around D-Em-D7-G-Am chord shapes – all superimposed over a D on the bass. I’ve opted to pick these, but Eric will sometimes use a hybrid pick-and-fingers style, as he does on Cliffs Of Dover.

We break out of this into a more melodic D major based run, then some bluesy doublestops and 6ths (F#) as we move back to A in the bass.

Example 3.

Over the C major and D major chords I’ve opted to play a line influenced by Eric’s playing on the track Camel’s Night Out, then changed position with a few slides and legato moves to land at a D major arpeggio, which is played in triplets.

This is one of those moments that can be deceptively difficult to articulate, but running it through slowly (in fact, very slowly is surprisingly helpful) while maintaining a relaxed posture will definitely get you there. More haste, less speed…

Example 4.

Jumping down for that low E helps fill the gap between solo guitar and bass, followed by an E pentatonic/Mixolydian run and an E major arpeggio-based pattern. Framing the chords with arpeggios like this can also help with filling in any harmonic ‘information’ in this trio format, as we saw in Example 3.

The pinched harmonic at the end can be a hit and miss affair. Eric has a pretty good hit rate on these, but it’s important to be realistic – try just behind the neck pickup and you’ll find it somewhere there!

HEAR IT HERE

Eric Johnson – Ah Via Musicom

From Eric’s second solo album, we’re coming in here with the most obvious first choice, Cliffs Of Dover, a track that definitively demonstrates Eric’s blazing lead tone and cascading pentatonic lines.

Also, check out Desert Rose for more of his unique take on pentatonics, plus chord harmony in his solo lines. While you’re there, have a listen to Trademark to hear Eric switching between tones/amp rigs to great effect. Finally, Righteous is a great demonstration of Eric’s approach to a fast Texas blues shuffle.

Eric Johnson – Venus Isle

A lot to check out on this record. Firstly, Eric’s Hendrix-style chord accompaniment and stratospheric solo on the title track. There’s also a lovely extended solo at the end of All About You. Elsewhere, it’s well worth a listen to Camel’s Night Out (apparently played on a Gibson Flying V) and When The Sun Meets The Sky.

You’ll hear some switches in tone – sometimes a switch between amps, sometimes maybe a punch-in during the recording process. Whatever, the results speak for themselves!

Eric Johnson – Live From Austin, TX

It’s always interesting to check out the live versions of tracks for extra insight into the creative process and production/arrangements. Here, it also demonstrates that Eric is every bit as astonishing live as he is in the studio.

We hear him switching between amps, tones and techniques in real-time on tracks such as Trail Of Tears and an extended intro on Cliffs Of Dover. Live versions of Righteous and Zap feature lots of fluid solo playing. It’s worth noting that many of these tracks are available on video, too.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

In putting the music together for my band Blackberry Smoke, I’ll often come up with a primary guitar part – the one that plays the principle riff of the song – along with a complimentary part that sits under it and offers musical and rhythmic support.

A good example of this can be found in Morningside, which we recorded for our 2021 album, You Hear Georgia. I wrote this song with my good friend Nick Perri, who’s a fabulous guitar player you may have heard of from his work with Perry Ferrell, Matt Sorum and many others.

Morningside opens with a heavy single-note riff that’s played in the key of B and with a triplet, or swing, 16ths feel, illustrated in Figure 1. The riff is based on the B minor pentatonic scale (B, D, E, F#, A) and alternately references the I (one) and IV (four) chords, B, and E, bar to bar. The triplet feel gives the riff a nice swing-type groove, especially as it’s played against a slow, half-time feel.

At the verse section, the guitars settle into ringing chords that serve to lay down a solid foundation for the vocals. Figure 2 shows the B root note octaves played as whole notes by the main guitar part, which I slide into.

Figure 3 depicts the complimentary ringing 1st-position chords played by the second guitar part, which is treated with a tremolo-type modulation effect and alternates bars of Bm7add4 and E7/B.

This is followed by a return of the intro riff, which leads into the second verse and a reprise of the ringing parts shown in Figures 2 and 3.

We then go to the chorus, the complimentary guitar parts for which are illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. The primary part (Figure 4) simply rides on major and dominant 7 chords with the progression E - F#7 - G7 - A7. At the end of the phrase, it reverts back to the single-note B minor pentatonic riff.

While the main guitar lays down the foundation of the progression of full chords, I felt that the complimentary guitar part, shown in Figure 5, needed to “dance” with the vocal melody.

This part adds syncopated, hybrid-picked dyads over each chord in the progression. While downpicking the low 6th-string root notes in a steady eighth-note rhythm, I fingerpick moving two-note figures on the D and G strings over each chord.

Notice that the pattern always begins with the B note on the G string’s 4th fret as the highest note, which then descends, offering its own countermelody behind the vocals.

I wanted the solo section that follows to move to an entirely different feel. As shown in Figure 6, a D5 power chord moves down to D5/C#, followed by C#7 then F#m and E. Underneath this part, the complimentary guitar arpeggiates the related but slightly altered progression Dsus2 - A/C# - C#7 - F#m7 - Esus4 with somewhat different voicings.

The modus operandi throughout this song has been for the primary guitar to “sit” in a very clear place while the complimentary guitar moves around it in various ways.

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, a master of layering multiple guitar parts, refers to the process as the “ancient art of weaving,” which is a perfect way to describe how two guitar parts can compliment one another.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

It goes without saying that Jake Kiszka, the six-string slinger behind the roaring attitude inherent to Greta Van Fleet and Mirador, knows a thing or two about tone.

In fact, Kiszka believes he used more toys than ever while recording GVF’s latest offering, Palace for the People.

It’s with that in mind that GW tabbed Kiszka to offer up his top five tone tips. Take it away, Jake…

1. Rely on the amp and less on pedals

There’s a purity between playing and the directness from the heart to the hands to the amp. Anything in between maybe distracts from that. When you’re first learning to play and really, in general – you can sort of expand from there, but there’s a directness to that, too.

2. Start acoustically

My father basically took away my electric guitar when I’d first gotten it, which was quite a bummer. [Laughs] I’d just received it, and he was like, “No, no, no…” So, there’s some sort of disciplinary action that happened. I thank him for that now because it taught me the foundation.

We all want to be Jimi Hendrix or another great guitar hero who played electric guitar, but I would say that starting acoustically, and playing some Bob Dylan or even something rudimentary, is a good foundation for tone.

3. Choose your guitars wisely

There are many different ways of looking at this. There’s the guitarist, the guitar player, the collector – and there’s the dentist. [Laughs] Now, I’m just kidding, but for me, if you’re looking at guitar playing for the sake of the “soul of playing,” and what can be accomplished through playing the instrument, choose your weapons wisely.

For instance, if you have two 12-string guitars and one is a baritone and the other is a straight 12, and then you’ve got one classical guitar and one parlor guitar… you’ve one of each of these things because they’re all tactile.

They all have their own qualities and do something different, but you don’t need two of the same thing. So, in some ways, if you’re specifically looking at guitar playing for that reason, choose your guitars wisely and love them equally.

4. Use combo amps

If you’re playing a solo that requires more nuance and single strings, as opposed to chord structures and that sort of thing, I would suggest combo amps. I actually would suggest combo amps overall, in general. Period. [Laughs] There’s just something great about them.

And for what they’re used for, and for as much as they’ve been used in the past, I think they’ve been forgotten about in our generation. So yeah… crank up that little combo amp and play through that. I think they do a lot. They simplify what you’re hearing, but they also magnify you as a player and add nuance.

5. Pull the mic off your amp

For crying out loud, pull the mic back and embrace the room! Embrace the breathing of it, you know? If you’re going to record in that way, if it’s guerrilla warfare out there, and you’re doing it in your garage or anywhere in your home or whatever space, distance adds depth. Pull the mics off and let the amp breathe.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

While we all talk about minor pentatonic soloing, I'm often asked as a guitar teacher of 20+ years: “How do I get out of the pentatonic rut?” My answer is always the same: you don’t want to get away from the pentatonic scale, but rather take what it offers and supplement that with a few well chosen new notes.

So, what are the new notes? Well, they are your chord tones. These are the notes that make up each of the chords in a blues progression. If you want to navigate 'playing the changes', it’s important that you're able to target these chord tones at the right moment. This is how to make your soloing more melodic as more notes are sympathetic to the chords you're playing over.

If you think about the tonality of the minor pentatonic scale it is, obviously, inherently minor-sounding. However, many blues progressions are major chord-based. Sure you can use a few blues curl bends to fudge it, but that's missing the point – good notes played at the right time can't be substituted by styling it out.

Consider a blues in A that features the chords of A7, D7 and E7 – all of these chords contain major triads. This is where the minor pentatonic can start to grate as some notes will work for some of the chords, sometimes. By knowing when these chords occur in a 12 bar blues and the notes contained in them, the more likely you'll sound melodic and able to 'tell a story'.

So with consideration of great melodic bluesers like B.B. King, Peter Green and SRV, I’ve chosen to break the 12-bar blues down into bite-sized chunks, which makes it much easier to appreciate the structure.

To start off, listen to the backing track below which will provide the context for the following 10 examples. At this point, be especially aware of where the chord changes occur.

Example 1 - Target the roots (2:37 in the video)

The first step to 'playing the changes' in a blues context is to confidently target the root note of each chord. Blues is based on a I-IV-V progression, so in the key of A, it would be A7, D7 and E7 with each chord being major with a b7 added.

In each of these licks, you'll play the root note of the chord on the 1st beat of the bar, sometimes bending into the root from a whole tone below, or hammering onto the root from another scale degree. If you play with flow and good phrasing, things start to sound noticeably more melodic, even at this early stage... exciting!

Example 2 - Playing melodies (5:26 in the video)

Here you have a simple bluesy motif that moves between the I and IV chord. This approach to playing helps you create catchy little hooks that are both singable and memorable, less is more!

Example 3 - Chord tones (first four bars) (6:55 in the video)

You are making a point of targeting chord tones here. In order to do this you first need to understand a little about the types of chords you're playing over. These chords are typically either simple power chords, containing just the root and the fifth (eg A5 with the notes A and E), or full-on dominant 7th chords containing the root, 3rd, 5th and b7 (eg A7 with the notes A-C#-E-G).

With the first lick you’re playing over bars 1-4 of the 12-bar blues, so will be targeting the A7 chord tones (A C# E G) in the 1st bar, D7 chord tones (D F# A C) in the 2nd bar, and in bars 3 and 4 you're back to targeting the A7 chord tones. Notice only the A note is shared between both chords.

Example 4 - Chord tones (next four bars) (8:39 in the video)

Expanding on example 3, you can now target the chord tones for bars 4-8 of our 12-bar blues. So it's D7 for two bars, followed by A7 for two bars. Notice the amount of notes played that are derived from these two chords: you're 'playing the changes' with style!

Example 5 - The Blues scale (10:55 in the video)

If you add the b5 (diminished 5th) to the minor pentatonic you get the six note blues scale (R-b3-4-b5-5-b7). This b5 is referred to as the 'blue note' and can add substantial grit and grease to your phrases. For the A blues scale the notes are A-C-D-Eb-E-G.

Here you're playing over bars 5 to 8 of this 12-bar blues in A which results in D7, D7, A7, A7. Over the D7, start by hammering onto the blue note (Eb) from a D note, immediately return to D then off again to C. This a greasy blues lick, that works as well over A7 as it does here over D7.

Tip: the blue note (here, Eb) is often used best as decoration, rather than a note to dwell on.

The phrase is repeated (good blues licks thrive on repetition), before resolving back to the A7 chord via some tasty chord tone double-stops.

Example 6 - Old skool swinging 6ths (13:37 in the video)

This harkens back to the days of swing and jump blues (think T-Bone Walker or Tiny Grimes) by targeting the sixth degree of the scale. In this case, over the A chord, the sixth degree would be F#.

The opening phrase uses this interval across two octaves, before hitting one of my favorite rockabilly double-stops; the 6th (F#) with a b3 (C) on top. Over the D7 chord in bar 2, you'll target its 6th (B) as a note to bend up to the b7 (C). To end, you'll resolve to the A7 chord for bars 3 and 4, where there's liberal use of the sixth interval.

Example 7 - Bending to the right notes (16:18 in the video)

Here are the final four bars of the 12-bar blues: one bar of the V chord (E7), a bar of the IV chord (D7), then a two bar turnaround split between four chords; A7 for two beats, D7 for two beats, A7 for two beats, and then E7 for two beats.

Similar to earlier examples, you’re targeting chord tones over each chord. However, this time you're adding an extra layer of expression by bending into and out of chord notes. This is the next step for more lyrical and natural phrasing.

Important point; listen to how well you bend up to notes, especially when many are sustained such as in bar 2.

Example 8 - Navigating the turnaround (18:05 in the video)

Here you're playing over the final four bars of the 12-bar blues, making a point to efficiently outline the changes for the turnaround. Minimalism is valuable here, as is repetition and being melodic as opposed to more linear scale-based thinking.

Example 9 - Starting well (20:20 in the video)

It’s important that you can grab the attention of your listener right at the start of your solo. Sometimes the best way to do that is to kick the doors down and enter the room with some swagger! Powerful double-stop bends are great for this as well as having a strong vocal-like vibrato.

Good phrasing is key, as is confidence in your note choices. Your audience will be invested in your story from your first musical statement if you get this right.

Example 10 - Ending well (23:22 in the video)

Finishing well is as important as starting well. You want your solo to wrap up in a natural, cohesive way rather than coming to a sudden stop as if the bungee cord just snapped you back to the starting line. Good lead guitarists do just that: they lead the music so make sure you plan ahead and are aware of how and when to finish.

In this example, you'll finish on a powerful strike of an A9 chord after approaching it from a semitone above. It's a classic move you’ll have heard SRV use on many occasions.

I’d like to address the fact that not all Les Paul Juniors are created equal. Specifically, I’m talking about the three different variants of the guitar model that were offered by Gibson between the years 1954 and 1961.

In past columns, I’ve talked about the value in the creativity that can be inspired by working with just one single pickup; in the case of Les Paul Juniors, the pickup in question is a P90, which is a large single-coil pickup, in the bridge position.

All you’ve got is one volume and one tone control. But, for some players, such as the great Leslie West, this is all that’s needed to express a wide range of musical riffs and solos.

Figure 1 presents a four-bar improvised solo played on a 1956 Junior, one that I bought from my friend Jay Jay French from Twisted Sister. The patterns I’m playing here are based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D), and I begin with the tone on 10 (full treble) with straightforward blues phrases played in 12th position.

On beat 2 of bar 2, I roll the tone knob down to 1, or “zero” (no treble), in order to demonstrate the drastic difference in the sound and feel of the phrases. Setting the tone knob on zero is something Eric Clapton “patented” in the early Cream days, on songs such as I Feel Free.

At bar 4, I roll the tone knob back up to 10 and the end phrase with one of my favorite licks, descending through E minor pentatonic in groups of 32nd-note quintuplets.

One pickup, two knobs – what more do you need? Well, some of us need a front (neck) pickup, too! But don’t get me wrong, as I love Juniors of every type.

Figure 2 offers another example played in the 1956 Junior; it sounds just as good for the opening power chords as it does for the single-note blues licks that follow.

This version of the Junior is a single cutaway and is all mahogany. If one were to put a contoured maple cap on this slab body, the result would be a Les Paul Standard.

In 1958, Gibson decided to change the design to what is known as a “double cut” Junior, which has two cutaways, one on both the treble and bass sides of the body. These guitars were primarily offered in cherry red.

Figure 3 is played on a 1960 double-cut Junior, and again I am favoring licks in the key of E, based on E minor pentatonic. It’s basically the same guitar as the single-cut in that it’s all mahogany with a single P-90 pickup, but, as you will discover, not all P-90s sound the same. Generally speaking, they all sound big and fat with a massive amount of midrange.

In 1961, Gibson decided to switch up the Junior once again and offered a redesigned “SG”-style Junior, featuring a much thinner body with a body contour around the guitar’s top. Because of the loss of mass, SG Juniors tend to sound a bit slinkier and brighter, but they still rock.

If you ever get the opportunity, sit down and compare these three different types of Les Paul Juniors. They are all fantastic guitars, and Gibson offers true-to-vintage reissues of them all.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

We’ve all been there: you sit down with your guitar, pick in hand, only to gravitate towards the same three minor pentatonic licks you mastered years ago. Take it from me, breaking out of a playing rut takes structure, and that can only be achieved with a proper teacher. Now, if you want to seriously level up your chops from home, and without it costing the earth, this time-limited Guitar Tricks Rocktober deal is the best offer online right now. And Guitar Tricks just so happens to be our favorite online guitar lessons platform.

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What really sets Guitar Tricks apart is the sheer depth of tuition. While other platforms cater strictly to day-one beginners, Guitar Tricks holds your hand from the basics – thanks to its Guided Core Learning System – before opening you up to more advanced, genre-specific paths covering genres like blues, country, rock, and acoustic, alongside specific techniques.

The song tutorials are worth the money alone. You aren't just getting approximate chord playthroughs, you get multi-camera 4K breakdowns of classic tracks note-for-note, complete with recommended amp and guitar settings.

At a standard rate of $19.95 per month or $179.99 annually, Guitar Tricks is already competitively priced, but dropping the annual cost down to just $99 for Rocktober makes it an absolute steal. But this offer only runs through to Tuesday October 20th, so you’ll need to act fast if you want to snap it up.

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An important element in my improvisational style and approach is the use of position shifts, which serve to spark the development of new and spontaneous melodic ideas. As the saying goes, “there are a million ways to skin a cat,” and I am always searching for new ways to get from one area of the fretboard to another.

Figure 1 offers an example of some free improvisation in the key of E: though the majority of the lines are based on the E blues scale (E, G, A, Bb, B, D), I begin with the notes B, C# and E, referencing E major pentatonic (E, F#, G#, B, C#), switching immediately to the E blues scale, in 9th/10th position, in bar 1.

On beat 1 of bar 2 I shift down to 7th position then immediately shift down to 5th position. From there I shift down to 2nd position on the upbeat of beat 2. These shifts set up the final move to open position, where I perform some quick finger slides and pull-offs to the open strings and wrap up the phrase.

Also based on the E blues scale, Figure 2 offers another example of how I might move from the treble strings and higher region of the fretboard down to the low strings and 1st position.

Bar 1 sits squarely in 10th position, with slides, bends and hammer-ons used to evoke a vocal-like legato quality. In bar 2, I gradually work my way down to 9th, 7th, 5th and 2nd positions, utilizing quintuplet note groupings to give the lines an unusual and fluid rhythmic feel.

The opposite approach would be to move up the fretboard. In Figure 3, I begin on the bottom three strings in 1st/2nd position, ending bar 1 in 5th position and then shifting up to 7th, 9th and 10th positions in bar 2. Once I reach the high E note, I descend back to the G and D strings in 9th position.

I should point out that none of these position shifts are predetermined; I’m improvising spontaneously here and following where the melodic shapes and ideas will take me in an instinctive, natural way.

The way I developed the ability to move up and down the fretboard like this was to initially practice and memorize all the minor pentatonic and blues scale “box” patterns and positions, moving across all six strings, ascending and descending. Once I’d learned every pattern, I could easily envision each one as I jump from one area of the fretboard to another.

Figure 4 shows the E blues scale played in a descending manner, traversing the neck from 10th to 2nd position.

For any key you’re playing in, it’s very beneficial to visualize all of your root notes on each string as you move up the board. For example, Figure 5 shows the E root note on five different strings. That awareness will facilitate the phrase shown in Figure 6.

It feels very natural for me to start high and end low. Figure 7 is played in this manner, sticking mostly with the higher portions of the fretboard.

Try the “step ladder” approach, move up two positions, then back one, then up two more, then back down, etc. The possibilities for new melodic discoveries are endless.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

A violin bow may be better associated with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or Rosalía’s Lux, than rock music. However, a handful of guitar players dared to challenge the confines of guitar playing and brought the lofty violin bow into the rock circus.

Jimmy Page is undoubtedly the most famous of them all – he stunned audiences at Madison Square Garden in 1973 with his bowed-guitar shenanigans. Eddie Phillips is widely cited as the player who inspired Page plus Adrian Belew, Lee Ranaldo and Sigur Rós’ Jónsi.

The violin was my first instrument before I took “a walk on the wild side” and picked up the electric guitar. Fast-forward to when, teenage angst and all, I decided it would be a good – no, an excellent – idea to use the bow of my first-ever violin on my first-ever Strat. I didn’t even know that Page had done that decades prior on Dazed and Confused.

The shtick stuck. Over the past five years or so, I’ve been experimenting with perfecting the technique in the studio and, more importantly, live with my band ĠENN – making sure that the result is more “ethereal” than “screeching cat.”

Here are a few tips you might find helpful if you’re thinking about trying the technique, but don’t want to get tied up with a bow…

Getting started with a bow

Welcome to the world of rosin: for the uninitiated, it’s essentially a block of hardened tree sap, mixed with other ingredients, that, when applied to a bow, creates the friction needed to produce sound. Naturally, guitar strings are not made for a bow, so they need a lot more friction to respond. You need to apply more rosin to the bow than you would when playing a violin, viola or cello.

But beware! Rosin leaves a lot of dust behind that can gradually ruin your electric guitar strings. So if you want to avoid racking up hundreds of dollars in guitar-string costs, a low-dust rosin like Pickaso’s is the way to go.

Size it up

Another consideration is bow size, which range from 15 inches – known as 1/32 – to 29.5 inches – 4/4 or full size. A 4/4 bow gives you more space for sustained chords, while shorter bows are easier to start with as they give you more control over what you’re doing. I spent the first couple of years using the trusty bow 6-year-old me had used on my beginner 1/4 violin.

Violinists are very picky when it comes to bow weight – some won’t even dare try one that doesn’t weigh approximately 60 grams. Paying a visit to your local music store and try bows out in person. See which one you jive with, and swipe right when you find your perfect match.

Find your angle

Nailing the bow’s angle matters more than pressure. Guitar players tend to instinctively apply more pressure when trying out the technique, but tilting it slightly up or down – depending on the guitar’s design and pickup position – and gliding it across the strings tends to do the trick, and helps avoid the “screeching cat” effect.

Chords not strings

And speaking of screeching cats, since guitar strings and the fretboard aren’t made for bows, it’s way harder to bow individual strings. Chords tend to sound better, so don’t shy away from experimenting with capos, chord shapes, and altered and open tunings – find which ones work and, more importantly, sound best.

If I’m adding a bowed guitar layer to a track, I tend to go for open tunings that work with the song’s key or chord progression. And, for a touch of pure, chaotic noise, go for standard tuning – or your altered tuning of choice – and bow that guitar like there’s no tomorrow.

Not all guitars are equal

Different guitars respond differently to the technique. I’ve tried it on quite a few – my Pawn Shop Mustang, a couple of Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, even a Gibson Marauder.

Each guitar requires some trial and error in terms of which pickup produces the best sound. I’ve found that those equipped with humbuckers tend to produce the clearest sound. That said, with some tweaks, single coils can produce quite an airy and eerie tone, which I’m quite partial to.

Reverb is your friend

Considering its inherent airy, avant-garde quality, a bowed guitar sounds best when it’s drenched in reverb and delay. Then you can throw in a healthy dose of overdrive and distortion and a volume pedal for an added cinematic effect.

My secret (now not-so-secret) ingredient, however, is the DigiTech Whammy, or any other octaver/harmonizer pedal – it really brings out the expansive orchestral potential of the technique. Who needs a string quartet when you’ve Whammy-d up your bowed guitar?

Keep an open mind

As Page explains in the book Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page, “Whatever squeaks I made sort of intrigued me.” This is the point. Follow your ear, experiment with your gear – grab all your long-forgotten delays, reverbs, and the wackiest of pedals and try things out.

• ĠENN’s latest single, Jaguar Sun, features the bowed guitar technique and is out now.

Whether as a solo instrument or the centrepiece of a band, the acoustic guitar continues to be one of the world’s most popular instruments, in just about any style you could name.

This example piece is played unaccompanied (Blackbird-style foot taps are optional, of course), so you’re responsible for holding the whole thing together. If you take a look at the transcription, you’ll see this isn’t a hugely complex exercise, but keeping the alternating bass clear and regular is crucial, so tapping your foot (audibly or not) is a good idea.

I chose to use a pick-and-fingers approach, as this got more definition out of the all-mahogany Martin I used for the recording, while keeping the sweet treble response. Depending on your guitar and/or preferences, you could also try a thumbpick or simply fingerstyle.

Breaking the example piece down into its component chords, we have versions of D7, D5, F6/9 and G5 in the first section. F6/9 is a chord that will likely raise questions. This version of F uses the open third and fourth strings, so we have a G (9th) and a D (6th) respectively. As with all unusual chords, there are multiple angles from which this could be described theoretically.

The simplest seems to be F6/9, rather than F6sus2, which is also correct – though neither of these names addresses the fact that the 3rd (A) is omitted! Also of note is the Em9 in the next section, which takes an influence more from the English-style folk of John Renbourn or Bert Jansch than American bluegrass, but it’s a nice chord.

As with any new piece, it’s best to take things slowly and patiently while the muscle-memory/conditioned reflex develops.

First, note that this is in drop D tuning, meaning that the low E is lowered by a tone. The overall feel of this piece owes a little something to 4 + 20 by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Sometimes the bass alternates between octaves, usually wherever we’re playing any kind of D chord.

This changes to root and 5th for virtually everything else. One notable exception (which escaped our notice until transcribing this…) is bar 7, where the low D swaps to beats 2 and 3 of the bar.

This must have helped with playing the doublestops above! It can be helpful to separate the bass notes and chords/doublestops at first, then build up to some of the more complex moments such as in bar 14.

This is the only other time we break the rhythmic pattern of the bass. Lastly, be sure to slow down in the last two bars for a grand finish.

Hear it here

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu

4 + 20 is the best style-match for the example piece, with its alternating bass fingerstyle pattern, even though this was played in an open tuning (similar to open D). You’ll hear the same alternating bass pattern (albeit strummed) in Teach Your Children, which is completely driven by the acoustic guitar.

Elsewhere, the acoustic’s presence is very evident in the title track. As an extra bonus, try to imagine waltz-style Country Girl without the strummed acoustic!

John Renbourn – The Best of John Renbourn

This collection of tunes allows us to hear not only the inestimable John Renbourn but also his collaborations with Bert Jansch and the group they went on to form, Pentangle. Be sure to check out Can’t Keep From Crying, Lord Franklin and – with the disclaimer that it may be intimidating on the first listen – I Know My Babe.

If this collection should make you curious about what else Mr Renbourn was capable of, then we urge you to check out Faro’s Rag from 1976’s The Hermit as well.

Alison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplane

If you like great acoustic, bluegrass and blues playing, we’re confident you’ll love this album. Check out the title track, followed by Lay My Burden Down; this flatpicking style could be played hybrid or with fingers only, but the accuracy and attack from the pick is hard to beat.

Another version of the alternating bass style drives album closer, My Opening Farewell. Also, listen out for some exemplary slide/resonator playing from the great Jerry Douglas.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

My friend James had been gassing for a ’50s-style single-cutaway Les Paul Junior and got a pretty good deal at Gibson’s Garage for a sunburst VTB model. To be fair, the VTB version is more ‘in the spirit of’ than an accurate vintage reissue. Gibson’s VSB VOS Junior ticks that box very nicely, but it costs around £2,000 more than the VBT.

Rather than break the bank, James bought the cheaper version and asked me to get it closer to vintage spec. This project isn’t going to demand any advanced luthier skills and there’ll be no refinishing or finish relicing. Instead, I’ll mostly be swapping and upgrading parts to give the guitar a ‘closet classic’ look and, hopefully, a more vintage tone.

Strip Down

Since so many parts were being changed, I began by completely stripping the guitar. With no pickup, controls and tuners onboard, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to put the husk in my freezer to see if I could force the lacquer to check. In all honesty, I did so more in hope than expectation and, sure enough, nothing happened.

Gibson claims to use nitrocellulose lacquer and, having stripped it for relic refinishes, I can confirm it is very combustible and it produces a camphor smell when you scrape or sand it. I’m happy to take Gibson at its word, but the nitrocellulose it uses below the Murphy Lab level contains a lot of plasticiser to prevent checking and it does that job very effectively.

An inverted air duster might have worked, but James’s brief was to leave the finish intact if the freezer failed.

Pots, Cap & Pickup

With the pickup disconnected and the controls removed, I grabbed the chance to measure the potentiometers. You can verify pot values by taking a resistance reading across the outer solder tags with the pot turned fully open. Both potentiometers read slightly over 500k, but I’m always bewildered by 50s-style Gibsons – such as this guitar – that aren’t wired 1950s style.

During the 1950s and early 60s, Gibson wired tone controls to the centre tag of volume controls, rather than the input tag. It may seem like a minor detail, but it generally results in a more pronounced darkening of the tone when volume controls are turned down.

James had sourced a paper-in-oil ‘Bumblebee’ replica capacitor, so I installed that 1950s style and removed the factory Orange Drop capacitor and brown jumper wire between the volume and tone pots in the process. If you find that your Gibson or Gibson-style guitar gets a little dark when you turn down the volume, take a look at the controls to see how they’re wired.

Changing to 50s wiring is one of the simplest mods you can do, and if you own a soldering iron, it won’t cost you a bean. Hardcore Junior fans may also wish to try out a 250k potentiometer for the tone control because they often featured in 1950s Juniors and apparently soften the treble response.

The stock P-90 was wax-potted and gauss readings also exceeded those I took from a couple of mid-50s P-90s. This suggested that the factory installed magnets are more likely to be Alnico V than mid-50s-spec Alnico II or III. Although swapping the magnets would have been simple enough, James wanted non-potted coils so he sourced a boutique pickup that was closer to vintage specs and also reliced.

Plastic Parts

In another departure from vintage specs, Gibson equips the Junior VBT with black control knobs, not gold. Similarly, the truss rod cover is a black/white laminated item, rather than one-ply black, and overall the plastics look a bit too shiny. James sourced some gold knobs and a butyrate P-90 cover and asked me to perform some light relicing on the parts.

Sourcing a one-ply truss rod cover wasn’t straightforward. My go-to suppliers didn’t stock them and those I found online were eye-wateringly expensive. Sometimes, however, it pays to cast the net a bit wider and I eventually found one for less than £7 on Amazon UK.

Using a scraper blade, I softened the edges of the pickguard, control cover and truss rod cover and knocked back the glossiness using 0000-grade steel wool. At this point, the plastic will often look a bit too muted and so I usually give it a light polish with Meguiar’s Scratch X to bring it back to a dull sheen.

Gold top-hat knobs are actually made from clear plastic and painted on the underside with gold lacquer. I used a scraper blade to shave off the gold around the edges and applied metallic green enamel mixed with a darker green to simulate verdigris.

I then used a cotton bud to apply StewMac’s amber and medium brown tints mixed with diluted acetone onto the outer surface and set the pots aside to dry.

Tuner Swap

Although the factory-fitted tuners worked perfectly and looked fairly good, the plan was to replace them with vintage-correct three-on-a-plate Kluson replicas and 10mm conversion bushings. This is where I ran into a slight problem because the bushing holes were not drilled in a straight line.

This was deliberate on Gibson’s part because if you look at vintage Gibsons with three-on-a-plate and individual tuners, the A and B strings are often in contact with the E string posts. Locating the A and B string bushings closer to the centre of the headstock solves the problem, but it makes fitting three-on-a-plate tuner sets a bit more complicated.

Placing masking tape strips between the outer bushing holes made it easy to see how far off the centre line the A and B string bushing holes actually were.

I only needed to make an adjustment of about 1.5mm, and I used a round rasp to modify the shape of the bushing hole. I did need to ream the outer bushing holes fractionally wider to get conversion bushings to go in, but I was just shaving off excess lacquer, rather than wood.

Doing so enabled me to position the tuners accurately so I could test fit the A and B string bushings. It was simply a case of filing, testing and then filing some more until the centre bushings pressed down into their modified holes.

The plates covered all the original screw holes and a couple of them even lined up, but fresh holes had to be made for the other replacement tuner screws, so this isn’t a modification that can be reversed without leaving telltale evidence.

Brazzing The ’Board

Another feature that distinguishes this Junior from its VOS counterpart is a far paler rosewood fretboard.

Although I didn’t have a VOS on hand to compare, I would imagine the feel of the ’boards must differ, too, because James’s Junior had the roughest fretboard I’ve ever seen on a brand-new guitar.

I can only compare its texture to dried out snakeskin leather, and there seemed to be a real prospect of getting splinters.

Sanding between frets is tricky, but scraping is fairly quick and easy. For this job, I used single-sided razor blades, which are sold online as glass scrapers. Quality can vary, but I’ve had good luck with Personna-branded blades. After scraping, I used 0000-grade steel wool to clean away the rosewood shavings and make the ’board even smoother.

To darken the fretboard, I used Angelus Dark Brown leather dye. I applied it with a cotton bud, taking care not to allow the dye to run over the ’board edges.

The dye is spirit based so it doesn’t raise the grain like water-based stains, and once it’s dried it doesn’t rub off. I’d recommend wearing latex gloves to apply it because if it gets on your fingers, it won’t wash off in a hurry. The dye also gave the marker dots a more vintage appearance. After it had dried, I followed up with some fretboard oil.

Junior School Report

So, has all this work actually improved the guitar? Visually, at least, it’s now closer to what James wanted, but any judgement would be entirely subjective. The replacement tuners work very smoothly and tuning is stable with maybe a tad less neck heaviness.

As for the tone and playability, the guitar was pretty great from the get-go, with perfectly levelled frets and nut slots that couldn’t be faulted. Then again, a lightweight mahogany body with a set neck, wraptail bridge and a P-90 is about as close to a slam dunk as it’s possible to get in guitar making.

All James’s guitar needed was a quarter turn of the truss rod nut to reduce neck relief. The replacement pickup is more microphonic than Gibson’s and has the sweeter treble and quackier midrange you probably want from a pickup wound to vintage specs with lower gauss magnets. The 50s wiring has also made the volume control more usable.

James had already fitted a lightweight aluminium Faber wraptail bridge as well as installing a full set of reliced screws before bringing the guitar to me. Whether you approve of aged parts or not, the guitar’s specs have ended up far closer to Gibson’s VOS model for considerably less outlay.

That said, the VOS version is built with hot hide glue, rather than (presumably) aliphatic resin glue, and disassembling James’s guitar to rectify that would have been both impractical and insane. All things considered, this has been a worthwhile project and well within the scope of most guitar tinkerers.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Hello, and welcome to my new Guitar World column. It’s great to be doing this again, after more than 30 years. Over the course of the next several months, I look forward to sharing and illustrating some of the many various concepts and techniques for both soloing and rhythm playing that are at the core of my multi-faceted approach to music and guitar playing.

Let’s begin with a look at legato phrasing. The term legato means “smooth and connected,” and for guitar players, this generally refers to an abundant use of hammer-ons and pull-offs, with minimal use of the pick, in terms of the way notes are articulated.

The focus of this lesson is a lick that I first played back in the early ’90s and have since used in a variety of contexts. I played it in the Testament song So Many Lies, from our 1992 album, The Ritual. At the time, I was discovering and studying the playing of legendary jazz-fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth, who was without doubt one of the greatest legato-style players ever.

Along with the legato phasing, the lick is based on the fourth mode of the B melodic minor scale (B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A#), which starts on E (the scale’s fourth degree) and is known as E Lydian-b7, or E Lydian-dominant.

Figure 1 illustrates this fast one-bar lick, which is played in a steady succession of 32nd notes played across all six strings. I begin on E (1st string, 12th fret) and hammer-on to G# at the 16th fret then pull-off to F# and back to E.

I then move one string lower and sound the first note, D (2nd string, 15th fret) by hammering my pinkie down onto the string “from nowhere.” the pick is not used to sound this note or any of those that follow, all of which are articulated with either hammer-ons or pull-offs. I fret all the notes on the top two strings with my 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers.

The sequence then migrates over to all of the remaining strings, staying within the framework of E Lydian-dominant. Notice that, when playing the notes on the G and D strings, I switch my fret-hand fingering to 1, 2 and 4, moving back to 1, 3 and 4 on the A string and then to 1, 2 and 4 when I get to the low E string.

Let’s look at the scale itself one octave at a time: Figure 2 illustrates E Lydian-b7, played in the lower octave, moving between the low E and D strings. Figures 3 and 4 offer two ways to finger the scale in the next higher octave.

The best way to get this lick under your fingers is to break it into smaller pieces: Figures 5 and 6 focus on the first part, played on the top three strings.

Figures 7 and 8 show how it lays on the bottom three strings.

Now that you have an understanding of the lick and how it’s executed, let’s move to a different key and part of the fretboard.

Figure 9 shows this same lick played in 7th position and transposed to B Lydian-b7 (B, C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A), which is the fourth mode of F# melodic minor (F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E#).

As you will find, this lick offers a great way to get a handle on legato phrasing, as well as the intriguing sound of Lydian-dominant.

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For guitar players, an element that is essential to recording as well as writing a song is choosing the right guitar for the job. I love a lot of different guitars – all guitars, really! – but especially Gibson guitars fitted with P-90 “soapbar” pickups.

For those unfamiliar, a P-90 is a large single-coil pickup that was standard issue on Gibson electric guitars prior to 1957, when the double-coil humbucker pickup replaced the P-90 on most of their instruments. I love the sound of P-90s! They’re loud and clear and have more top-end than a humbucking pickup.

When choosing a specific guitar for its tonal qualities, for me it will often happen when I’m writing the song. The riff itself will “decide” whether it needs to be played with a single coil pickup, a humbucker or something else entirely. There are Blackberry Smoke songs played on Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars. So it’s all over the map!

When I sat down to write Workin’ for a Workin’ Man, recorded for our 2016 album, Like an Arrow, the guitar that brought the song to life was a 1953 Gibson Les Paul Standard, fitted with P-90s and a Bibsby vibrato tailpiece. The “honk” of the bridge-position P-90, with its accentuated midrange, was perfect for a hard-driving riff like this.

Figure 1 illustrates the song’s primary riff, which for me felt so “at home” on a P-90 guitar set on the bridge pickup. I begin with an A5 power chord and then play two-note voicings on the D and G strings against the open A string, making brief reference to G/A and D/A. Bar 2 incorporates the A minor blues scale (A, C, D, Eb, E, G). In bar 3, the two-note voicings move over to the A and D strings.

Figure 2 shows the song’s pre-chorus, which is built around two-note 6th intervals, fretted on the A and G strings, which are played against an open low E pedal tone. In bar 1, I begin in 9th position and then slide down to 6th position. In bar 2, I begin in 9th position and slide up to 11th position. Be sure to allow your open low E string to ring out while playing the two-note 6ths on the other strings.

About midway through the song, we hit a breakdown section that features the riff shown in Figure 3, which is primarily a single-note riff based on the A blues scale. Here, I utilize double-stops along with D5 and C5 power chords.

At the guitar solo section, shown in Figure 4, I switch from the bridge to the neck pickup. Bars 1-2 are based on the E major pentatonic scale (E, F#, G#, B, C#). Bar 3, played over a G chord, is based on G major pentatonic (G, A, B, D, E), and bar 4, which is played over an A chord, is based on A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G).

After this, it’s back to the bridge pickup for a recap of the main riff for the final verse. To me, this song is a prime example of how the right guitar, in this case a 1953 Les Paul Standard, serves every aspect of the song perfectly.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

By now you’ll have seen endless clips of the Angine De Poitrine live set recorded by KEXP, which went viral after in February. You might even have read my exclusive interview with guitarist/bassist Khn – the very first conversation dissecting the enigmatic musician’s background and his approach to tone and effects.

Given their meteoric rise over 2026, cementing their name as the music industry’s biggest and most unexpected success story, it would be all too easy to dismiss their microtonal math rock as a fad masked by quirky imagery – boosted their claim of being 333-year-old time travelers inspired by a solemn choir of proboscis monkeys from Borneo.

Cosmic primates and temporal displacement aside, microtonal music has been around a lot longer than most people think. And just like anything that becomes hugely popular in a matter of months – to the point where it feels like it’s inescapably everywhere – there can often be a handful of misconceptions.

It’s an out-of-tune guitar

“The most common one is that a microtonal guitar is an out-of-tune guitar,” says Dr. Tolgahan Çoğulu, a professor at Istanbul Technical University and Turkish Music State Conservatory. “However, if people knew about the harmonic series and just intonation, they might instead see the standard guitar as an out-of-tune instrument.

“For example, major thirds are clearly high or ‘out of tune’ on standard guitars and pianos, when compared with just intonation. I discussed this in my 2017 video Major Third Problem Of All Guitars In The World.”

Çoğulu notes how a microtone is often incorrectly labeled a quartertone. “A semitone is divided into 100 equal units, and Alexander John Ellis named each of the pieces a cent in the 19th century,” he says. “But a natural major third is approximately 14 cents lower than the equal-tempered major third”.

Then there’s the idea that microtonal guitars are notoriously difficult to play – something which the founder of the world’s first microtonal guitar department, opened in 2014 at Istanbul Technical University, fundamentally disagrees with.

It’s a new concept

To some, microtonal might feel like a relatively new thing, but its roots stretch surprisingly far back into history. Çoğulu points to the research of Harry Partch in his book Genesis Of A Music, which traced the lineage back to ancient China around 2600 BCE, when the musician Ling Lun cut a series of bamboo pipes of different lengths and generated a sequence of pitches through successive perfect fifths.

He also underlines how Pythagoras Of Samos used a monochord to generate perfect fifths in ancient Greece in the 5th century BCE.

Experimentation with the music system stretched into the middle ages, with theorists such as Aristoxenus, Ptolemy, Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina investigating different systems of tuning and intervals. It was a phenomenon happening around the world. inspiring elements of Indian raga music, Persian dastgah, Arabic makam, Turkish makam and Balinese Gamelan.

These are all styles that Çoğulu says “developed their own pitch systems and melodic practices outside 12-tone equal temperament [TET] over centuries.” So when did all of this cross over into the world of guitar playing?

It’s only just being applied to guitar

In his History Of Microtonal Guitar video, Çoğulu refers to the 1829 arrival of Perronet Thompson’s Enharmonic guitar in London as the official place of birth. “This was followed by the first movable-fret guitar, developed in Paris by luthier René Lacôte around 1845,” he continues, emphasizing that further arrivals came in the 20th century largely thanks to composers who were writing music based on 24 tones per octave.

The Turkish professor names Alois Haba’s Suite No.2 For Quarter-Tone Guitar composed in 1947 – a piece he’s performed himself – as “a particularly interesting and important work in the microtonal guitar repertoire.”

Which brings us to the big question on everyone’s lips. Why exactly is microtonal music having its moment in the sun in 2026? “It’s exciting to see a major revival thanks, in part, to bands such as King Gizzard and Angine de Poitrine,” says Çoğulu. He feels it’s also because a lot of people seem to be getting bored of tradition and “becoming more open to exploring new pitches in rock music.”

The phenomenon is particularly tangible in America and Europe, places that have long been dominated by the 12-TET system, heard time and time again.

There are only a few artists playing microtonal music

“Turkish people grew up listening to Anatolian rock from the 1960s and 1970s, so we’re familiar with some of the sounds heard on King Gizzard’s Flying Microtonal Banana,” the professor says.

“What’s remarkable is that King Gizzard has brought this kind of sound to the attention of a much wider international audience. As for Angine De Poitrine, their combination of math rock and 24-tone equal temperament is particularly refreshing – it demonstrates how microtonality can be integrated into new contemporary musical languages.”

If you’re looking to sink your teeth into more microtonal music, Çoğulu has homework for you, and it’s quite the list: Partch Ensemble, Mercury Tree, Brendan Byrnes, Sevish, Gabriel Marin, Maddie Ashman, Stephen Weigel, Catherine Lamb, Stephen Altoft, Julian Woods, Dave Fiuczynsky, Philip Gerschlauer, Dsilton, Matthew Sheeran, Anna-Maria Hefele, Rami Olsen, Levi McClain, Subraag Singh, Daragh Black Hynes, Matt Pollock, John Gzowski, Sina Shirazi, Radu Varga, Alper Yakın, Hakan Görener and Decolonize Your Mind Society.

As for the future, he believes these more curious and otherworldly sounds will only become more and more integrated into the musical tapestry that stretches across every corner of the globe.

“For a long time, the main problem was not a lack of ideas – it was a lack of instruments, repertoire, performers and education,” he argues. “Today, all four are developing simultaneously.”

As guitar players, we need to take a flexible approach to how we voice our chords. Not to suggest that there’s anything wrong with open-position ‘cowboy’ chords, but we have the practical consideration of six strings and five fingers, as opposed to the 88 keys and 10 fingers available to a keyboard player…

Of course, preference does come into this at some stage. It’s just that this tends to be secondary in the face of finding a suitable chord voicing for a given song.

That’s where this article comes in. The below examples are all based around a C chord, but they show how we can juggle the voicing to have different notes on the top – or bottom, as none of these examples take the conventional approach of having the root down there.

This has a sound of its own, as well as opening up the higher strings for embellishments, whether that be chord extensions or licks, in the way Jimi did. More details below!

Example 1. C/E

This C/E chord has the 3rd (E) on the bottom and the C major triad (G-C-E) on the fourth, third and second strings respectively. But if you look at the chord box, you’ll see that there’s a G added at the 8th fret of the second string. Feel free to hammer on/pull off like Curtis Mayfield, or try hammering on some of the other strings.

Example 2. C9/E

This C9/E is perfect for Stormy Monday-style blues playing, though in that song the bass does play the root underneath – sometimes it’s about reaching the higher notes/extensions, rather than shifting the root for its own sake. This can be used anywhere there is a dominant 7th voicing for some added finesse.

Example 3. C/G

Shifting back to the regular C major triad, here is a C/G chord. In this case, the G (5th) at the bottom seems to have a profound effect, giving the chord quite a grandiose sound. Be sure to mute the fifth string.

Eric Clapton used to play the 5th on the bottom of his powerchords with Cream, knowing that Jack Bruce would underpin it with the root on the bass.

Example 4. C/Bb

Taking the same triad and putting the dominant 7th (Bb) on the bottom gives a very different effect from a regular C major chord.

This works particularly well resolving to an Am7 (see Example 5), or an F/A chord. Classical types would likely call this a ‘third inversion’, but it’s more helpful for us guitarists to look at this as a C/Bb.

Example 5. Am7

So good we’ve named it twice: this can be viewed as a C/A chord, but it makes more sense to call it an Am7. The C major triad is identical to Am7 in this context, with the A on the bottom. So I guess there are some root notes in here after all!

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

One of the most individual guitarists of the 1980s, Johnny Marr is a master of rhythm guitar.

One of the hallmarks of his style in the Smiths is his extensive use of open strings. You can tell he spent time working on his chord voicings and developing exciting vocabulary that often combines rhythm and lead approaches.

There are two main approaches to Marr’s use of open strings which are covered in the following examples. Sometimes the open strings are applied to common major and minor chord shapes. In this case, the open strings are adding extensions of 6ths, 9ths or 11ths on top of Marr’s modified chord shapes.

As you’ll see, he frequently re-shapes a barre chord – instead of barring across all six strings he’ll re-finger the chord and then use an open string or two. It’s a simple way of obtaining jangly chords that have a lot of personality. Check out Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now to hear how this works in action.

At other times Marr will use two-finger chords with open strings, fleshing things out to create a big and colorful sound. This approach is particularly effective on uptempo tracks where he can move around the neck rapidly, using deft crosspicking to create lively rhythm parts.

The open strings remain consistent whilst the two-finger chord shapes move against them, creating sounds that are full of color while remaining consistent. There’s much to learn from Johnny, so let’s get started!

Match My Sound: play-along enhancements

For this lesson, we've partnered with MatchMySound to offer the ability to record yourself and see how close you are. MatchMySound is a great tool to help track your progress.

Click on the word 'options' (lower left, below the tab/notation) to select from 'demo audio track' (just guitar), 'backing track' (just the backing), 'full audio' (backing and real guitar audio) and 'metronome' (just a click to play along to).

Below that, select 'options' for how you can record your performance.

At the upper right, the magnifying glass images let you alter the playback speed for learning and pushing your playing onwards.

Follow the cursor to keep up with the tab/notation accurately on screen.

Lastly, to view the music better by filling your desktop/tablet/phone screen, click on the square brackets at the top right.

Johnny Marr open string examples

Example 1a - Modified barre chords (0:59 in the video)

Here’s an example of Marr’s modified barre chords. The open strings serve two purposes here; on the A and C chords the open first (E) string is already a chord tone but doubling this with an open string creates a bigger ‘jangly’ sound.

On the G and D chords, the open first string is adding more color: E is the 6th on the G chord and the 9th on the D.

Example 1b - Condensed chords (1:20 in the video)

Here, chords are condensed onto just two strings, with open strings ringing around them.

This is a great way to move around this chord progression quickly – simple open chord shapes or barres would make this more difficult, and the open strings add a consistency and jangle that other chords can’t provide. This is also a great example of Marr’s deft picking hand technique.

Example 1c - Using triads (2:02 in the video)

This example is based on Em, D and C triads played against open strings. The resulting chords are Em, D6add11/F#, and Cmaj7.

Example 2 - Top four strings (4:00 in the video)

In this example, we see how Marr often focuses on the top four strings for chords. He can move these shapes around, change notes in them quickly, and release fingers to add open strings.

Essentially it’s all triads with open strings and extensions adding more color Using this stripped back approach, you can create a busy sounding rhythm part that won’t stifle the rhythm section and low end. You can also hear his funk influence in the picking hand's 16th note strumming patterns.

Example 3 - Capo at 4th fret (7:18 in the video)

Marr does play larger chords over five or six strings, but using open strings in these chords does open up the sound of the chord. If the results sound too muddy, he’ll use a capo, typically at the 2nd or 4th fret. In this example, the capo is at the 4th fret and it serves to brighten up the sound considerably.

Instead of sitting on one chord, he will often utilize different voicings or those with color. His parts often feel like they are moving around, even though there may be only one underlying chord in the harmony. To get this sounding right use the capo, preferably use a brightish sounding guitar (Tele, Jaguar, Jazzmaster) and a clean amp tone.

Example 4 - Full track example (9:29 in the video)

Here's a fuller example that demonstrates how Marr's approach works over bass and drums. You're after a jangly sound that uses modified triads moving up and down the neck, staying away from the bassline. Open strings are used as much as possible.

Johnny Marr in action

The Smiths - This Charming Man

Syncopated and uptempo picking are prominent here as well as enriching open strings, making the chords more unique than full barre shapes would provide.

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Major 7ths, chiming strums, intricate cross picking and open strings feature clearly in this live performance.

A simple, effective way to discover new sounds on the guitar is to use a capo along with 1st-position open chords, commonly referred to as “cowboy” chords.

A great example of this approach can be heard in the title track to my 2012 album, Driving Towards the Daylight, which I co-wrote with the great Danny Kortchmar. Danny is renowned for his work with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley, Ringo Starr and many others.

In truth, this was a song that I had forgotten all about. Around 15 years ago, I had a Korg multitrack machine that I was going to get rid of, but before I did, I decided to go through it to hear what had been recorded on it. I saw the title and thought, “What is that?” and when I heard it I remembered it was a song Danny and I started but never finished. I decided to finish it, and it became the title track of my next record.

The song is played in the key of F minor, because that is the best key for my voice. But I opted to use a capo at the 1st fret and play the song as if it were in E minor. The capo allows me to play 1st-position “cowboy” chords throughout the song, along with many open-string embellishments that 1st-position chord shapes facilitate.

Stylistically, the song has a country/Americana feel. Personally, I like all kinds of music, and this song affords me the opportunity to visit that musical terrain.

Figure 1 illustrates the first four bars of the intro/verse section of the tune, wherein I play a single-note melody that connects the chord progression of Em-G-D-C. For each chord, I allow all the strings to ring together.

When it comes to soloing, there’s an old adage that you can’t do a lot of string-bending if you’re using a capo. The truth is that you can, as long as you have a good capo.

It needs to be affixed to the guitar tightly, so that when you bend and release a string, it will go back to the proper unbent position.

Figure 2 presents a nine-bar solo that moves loosely between Em and C; you can imagine a G and D chord played in bars 2 and 3, as well. This improvised solo is based primarily on the E hexatonic minor scale (E, F#, G, A, B, D) with brief use of C, C# and D#.

When using a capo, it can get a little disorienting when playing more than five frets away from it because all the fret numbers are relative to the capo. In this case, a note tabbed or visualized to be at the 9th fret is actually at the 10th.

Because we’re thinking in E minor here, I wouldn’t play country-type licks such as that shown in Figure 3, because these phrases are more suited to the key of E major.

Figure 4 is a better example of sitting firmly within the key of Em by sticking with E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, B, D) or hexatonic.

Driving Towards the Daylight is inherently a rock song with country elements, akin to the music of the Eagles, Jackson Browne and the music that came out of Laurel Canyon in the late ’60s.

And in this application, the capo helps to achieve some chordal sounds that would otherwise be unavailable.

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When I was a kid, my dad played acoustic guitar and sang around the house, and he played everything from bluegrass to old folk and gospel songs. I was fascinated watching one man do that. It was just a guy and his guitar doing a troubadour kind of thing.

This really informed my initial understanding that music could be just a person and a guitar. He could hold my attention for as long as he wanted to! He could do it with just the combination of rhythm, musicality, melody and lyrics. He liked to sing a song to me called The Wreck of the Old 97, which was about a train crash. It had adventure, speed, death, and there’s a woman involved too. Everything that you need in one song!

As I got older, I realized that what I really wanted to do, other than to play the guitar, was to create songs: to get an acoustic guitar and do exactly what my dad did. I ended up falling in love with the music of Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle – so many masters of this craft. These are all guys that could put a guitar on their back, drive from town to town and stand on the sidewalk and entertain you.

This can be said for Barbeque Bob – Robert Hicks – Curly Weaver, Buddy Moss and Blind Willie McTell, who played in front of a barbeque place in Atlanta called Pig n’ Chick. The list goes on and on.

Fast-forward to me writing my own songs and having writing sessions with others. It was awkward at first, but one day I met Travis Meadows, and within two days we wrote two songs, Pretty Little Lie and One Horse Town, which has gone on to be a big song for my band, Blackberry Smoke.

Figure 1 illustrates the verse section of Pretty Little Lie. While strumming in a steady eighth-note rhythm, the progression is a stream of nice minor-to-major chordal resolutions, one that I was able to weave a story around with some very direct lyrics.

I realized I could take that kind of feeling, with just an acoustic guitar and my voice, and play and sing that to anybody for the rest of my life. And then you have the enjoyable option to take it to four other musicians, turn it up to 10, hit the drums really hard and put background and harmony vocals on it, to make it a big production. But when you boil it all down, it goes back to one guitar and one voice.

Figure 2 shows the chorus section, which combines different minor-to-major resolutions with lyrics that move the story forward.

The very next day, we were back in a minor mood, and, as shown in Figure 3, the intro features a single-note line and then moves from Am to C. Travis and I are both from very small southeastern towns, and this is how One Horse Town was born.

For the verse, what better place to go than another minor chord! So, as illustrated in Figure 4, the verse starts on Dm and then weaves its way through to F/C, C then G. This is a perfect example of a lyrical idea carrying and inspiring the day.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to strumming chords and singing a melody. It’s a beautiful thing to create songs and make other people happy, just like my dad did.

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In this month's column, I’d like to demonstrate a really cool technique that I learned from the great Larry Carlton that’s commonly referred to as the “super arpeggio.” It’s based on stacking major and minor triads on top of a chord, yielding much longer arpeggios that move through different triadic forms and sounds.

Let’s start with a Cmaj7 chord, as shown in Figure 1. The most natural triad to play over this chord is C major, which consists of the notes C, E and G.

The “super arpeggio” concept is based on forming successive triads off the second note of each triad. As shown in Figure 2, we start with a C triad and then play a triad based on the second note, E; this yields an E minor triad formed by the notes E, G and B. We then form a triad from G, the second note of Em, which yields a G major triad with the notes G, B and D.

In Figure 3, I play over a static vamp on a Cmaj7 chord by outlining the C major, E minor and G major triads.

In Figure 4, I use this approach to play a solo-type line, moving from C major to E minor to G major in steady 16th notes before resolving the line with a lick based on the C major pentatonic scale (C, D, E, G, A).

Figure 5 offers an example of “bookending” the three triadic shapes with lines based on C major pentatonic at the beginning and end of the improvised melody.

It’s useful to be aware of what intervals each triad includes: a C major triad consists of the C root note, the major 3rd, E and the 5th, G. Relative to C, the E minor triad gives us the major 3rd, E, the 5th, G, and the major 7th, B. Superimposing a G major triad over a C root gives us the 5th, G, major 7th, B, and the 9th, D. All together that gives us a Cmaj9 arpeggio (C, E, G, B, D).

These triads can and should be played everywhere on the fretboard. In Figure 6, the three triadic forms are moved down to 2nd/3rd position.

A great place to go from here is to apply this concept to a minor chord. The relative minor of C major is A minor, so many of the same notes will appear but within the triadic forms built from A minor.

If I were to play a static Am vamp, I can play lines based on the triadic forms of Am (A, C, E), C (C, E, G), and Em (E, G, B).

In Figure 7, I move through all three of these triadic forms with an improvised line played in a rhythm of 16th notes and 16th-note triplets. Notice that I end the phrase with a lick based on A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G). You’ll find that combining the progression of triads with minor pentatonic lines will sound very musical and also offer many different options for improvisation.

This will be the last installment of Blues Expansions for now, so I hope you have enjoyed these columns and that the concepts presented have been useful to you in your soloing endeavors. Thanks for reading, and please check out more of my lessons at Corey Congilio.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

The only thing more embarrassing than playing a ropey rendition of Free Bird at a party is stopping halfway through because your fingers are on fire. Look, every seasoned guitarist knows the pain of those early years, and the pain is enough to make the vast majority of new recruits give up, but if you push through, your fingertips will harden, and you’ll be rewarded with smooth, pain-free playing.

I know it’s hard to imagine, but even the greats started with sore fingers. From Jimi to Angus, Slash and Vai, they too suffered with delicate digits that hurt after every lick. If you play a stringed instrument, you need calluses. They allow you to crank out barre chords, execute searing bends, and hammer-ons without wincing. Calluses are the secret ingredient to those marathon jam sessions, and the reason your guitar hero can blaze through a three-hour set without looking like they’re being tortured onstage.

So, if you’ve ever wondered how to transform those soft, baby-like digits into hardened fretboard warriors, you’re in the right place. Today I’m going to break down how to develop your fingertips and debunk some common myths, all with some help from a few famous faces.

How to really build calluses

The secret to building calluses isn’t really a secret at all – you need to play. Like, every day. Seriously. Even if it’s just 10 minutes of Smoke on the Water or a questionable attempt at Enter Sandman, just play your guitar.

Consistency is key here. Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix. Yes, your fingers will hate you at first, but they’ll thank you in the long run. With calluses, it’s use them or lose them. So you need to be constantly building them up. I know if I don’t play for a while, my calluses soften and even peel off – a sentiment that guitar legend Steve Cropper echoed when he spoke to our sister publication, Guitar Player, a few years ago.

“After all these years of playing guitar, you could probably shove an ice pick in mine, and I wouldn't even feel it. When I come off the road, though, and it's too long between shows, my calluses will just peel off until I start playing again,” says Cropper.

So with that in mind, set a daily routine. Start with 10-15 minutes, focusing on chord changes, scales, and a riff or two. Gradually increase your practice time as your fingers toughen up.

To make this easier, I suggest keeping a guitar handy and easily accessible. You’re more likely to pick it up if it’s within reach. Of course, don’t just stick to the easy stuff, either. Challenge yourself when you can. Try those tricky barre chords, string bends, and wide vibrato, they'll toughen your tips faster than endless strums of the same three open chords.

Now, It’s also a great exercise to rotate between electric guitar and acoustic guitar if you can. Acoustic strings are tougher, but your calluses will thank you for the extra work – and it’s a bonus when you switch back to electric and feel like a superhero.

In this case, practice makes permanent. So if you want gig-ready fingers, you’ll need to play as much as possible. Sorry, I know you wanted a quick fix, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.

If it’s any consolation, even touring greats like Steve Morse need to keep their calluses in check, as he told Guitar World back in 2021, “Left-hand strength is something I concentrate more on before a tour. The vibrato, bending, and building up calluses is very important. Most players find that their fretting fingers are sore after the first or second gig.”

Forget the myths you hear online

Trust me, I’ve heard them all by now, and frankly, some of the advice I see on the internet is just plain bizarre. Some folks say you should dip your fingers in pickle juice, some advise the gross act of urinating on them, and some say you should rub them with sandpaper. Please don’t. The only thing you’ll earn is a trip to the ER, and other musicians avoiding the new player who smells of pee and pickles. Stick to playing. Your body knows what it’s doing.

As virtual guitar sensation and member of MGK’s touring lineup, Sophie Lloyd tells us you can forget the gadgets too. "I bought one of those Gripmaster hand exercisers when I was a kid... I don't think it made any difference to my playing! There's no replacement for picking up a guitar, feeling those strings under your fingers and building your calluses."

So with that in mind, let’s debunk some other urban guitar legends while we’re at it. Super glue is the most common solution I hear, and it doesn’t help that iconic players like Buddy Guy are out there keeping the myth alive.

Speaking to Guitar World about BB King back in the day, he said, “Later on, guys like Hendrix and Stevie Ray were using the really thick heavy-wire strings, which would cut the tip of your finger if you bent them in the BB King style. BB King used to put glue on the tips of his fingers to protect the skin and keep them from bleeding."

It very well may be true, but in the modern age, with advancements in string technology and a better understanding of health in general, it really isn’t necessary and, more importantly, gluing your digits won’t make you play or sound like BB King or Stevie Ray Vaughan, so what’s the point?

And the same goes for burning your fingertips with a lighter. Yes, seriously, some players issue this bonkers piece of advice. Unless you’re auditioning to replace Knoxville in a Jackass reboot, please resist the urge to set yourself alight. Third-degree burns won’t make you develop calluses any quicker, you’ll just hurt yourself and potentially ruin your guitar career before it’s even started.

As you can see, even the best players have tried, and ultimately regretted, at least one of these myths. If you want real results, there’s only one answer – keep playing!

Things that can really help

Okay, I’ve discussed what not to do, but there are some small gear changes that can really make a difference, starting with string gauge...

Lighter strings are easier on new fingers. You don’t need to be a hero. Save the 13-gauge electric guitar strings for your SRV blues phase. If you’re starting out, .09s or .010s are more than heavy enough on your beginner electric guitar.

Similarly, if you have a beginner acoustic guitar, dropping down to .11s could make pressing the strings down a little easier. Even shred master Paul Gilbert switches out his strings depending on how his fingers are feeling. "My gauges are changing all the time, because it really depends on the state of my calluses,” he told Guitar World back in 2019.

And even Stevie Ray Vaughan dropped from his heavy .13s to something more manageable, as he discussed with Guitar Player in February of 1990, "At the points where I play a lot, my calluses were getting ripped off to where it stuck a hole in the finger. Right now, I'm using a little bit lighter strings, just until I get my calluses back."

Next is the action. Higher action means you need more pressure to press the strings down. If your strings are half an inch from the fretboard, it's time to get your guitar set up and that action lowered. A good setup is worth its weight in gold, and please don’t be afraid to ask your local guitar tech for help.

Genesis axeman Steve Hackett started on his father's old guitar, and he still has nightmares about how heavy the action was. Speaking to Guitarist magazine, he said, "Nylon guitar was something I was introduced to by a friend. 'Wow, this is too easy,' I thought, compared with the brutal action on [my dad’s guitar]. The wounds never healed from my dad's guitar. He said, 'You'll get calluses…' but it never happened, I just had fingers that were bleeding."

So in a nutshell, get your guitar set up well by a professional, and experiment with lighter strings if you need to. It won’t give you rock-hard fingers overnight, but a well-set-up guitar with nice-feeling strings can make callus-building less miserable.

Final thoughts

In the end, building guitar calluses is a rite of passage every guitarist must endure. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s no shortcut, no secret formula, and certainly no substitute for time spent with your instrument. Trust me, the pain and frustration of those early days are temporary, but the rewards are long-lasting.

Remember, even famous guitar heroes once struggled with sore fingers. Embrace the process for what it is. Keep your guitar within arm’s reach, commit to regular practice, and be patient with yourself as your fingertips gradually become more resilient.

Sure, make small adjustments to your gear if necessary, but keep your focus on enjoying playing and celebrate the incremental improvements. Stick with it, and soon you’ll look back on these early struggles with pride, knowing you built those calluses one note at a time, just how it’s supposed to be done.

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Hello everybody, and welcome to my new column for Guitar World. In this series of lessons I will demonstrate the techniques and approaches that are essential to my playing style. I hope that the material we cover will be beneficial to you in your own musical endeavors.

I’d like to begin by talking about the importance of the blues and blues-influenced music, such as gospel, soul and R&B, in my approach to music and the guitar. I come from a family of musical brothers, and blues and gospel played a big part in our lives and provided a strong foundation for me as a musician.

Like all aspiring blues guitarists, my brothers and I listened to B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, and all of the blues guitar greats. I learned as much as I could from all of them, as well as gospel music, in trying to develop a sound and approach of my own.

Figure 1 illustrates a solo played over medium-slow shuffle in the key of B. I begin in bars 1-5 with simple melodic phrases based on B major pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#) that are supported by chordal accents, such as B9 in bars 1 and 3, and E7 in bars 2 and 5.

To me, these single-note phrases are very vocal-like; maintaining a “vocal” mindset helps me to stay focused on speaking in a musical way in the lines that I play.

I must mention that I choose to play the guitar “upside down.” I take a guitar strung for a right-handed player and flip it over and play it left-handed, in the same manner as Albert King, Otis Rush and a variety of other players, including my late brother Emmanuel Gales, aka Little Jimmy King.

Playing this way completely changes the riffs, phrases and chords that are available to you. One of the big differences is that, to bend one of the treble strings, I need to pull it downward, as opposed to pushing it up as most players do.

Additionally, with the guitar strung and played this way, it’s easy for me to finger some unusual chord voicings that would be unnatural for “normal” players; a good example is the F7#11 chord in bar 4, wherein the high B note, the #11 (or b5), is fretted by wrapping my thumb around the top of the neck at the 7th fret.

Figure 2 illustrates a few more examples of my pull-down string bends, with many of the accented notes in the phrases treated with a wide, fast vibrato, a la Albert and B.B. King. If playing the guitar in the conventional way, you would, of course, need to push the strings upward to perform these bends and vibratos.

As I move through the I-IV-V (one-four-five) blues chord progression – B7-E7-F#7 in the key of B – I like to reference each chord with the chord tones. Over B7, I’ll accentuate B, D#, F# and A. Over E, I’ll touch upon E, G#, B and D. And over F#7, I’ll emphasize F#, A#, C# and E, resolving back to the I chord, B7 when necessary.

Having a firm grasp and understanding of the blues lays an essential groundwork for all guitar players, regardless of the specific style of music they choose to explore and perform.

Just about every style of music has had an influence on me as a player, but blues is definitely at the core of my playing style.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

You can find suspended (sus) chords in guitar music of all genres. They’re lush, ambiguous, and harmonically enticing. Used by many top players, they build movement, mystery, and color into rhythm parts, arpeggio passages and lead lines.

However, despite their pleasant sound and countless uses, sus chords often escape the understanding of guitarists. If you’ve seen sus chords show up in songs you’ve learned but aren't sure where they come from or how to use them together, this article is for you.

So, what is a sus chord? In simple terms, a suspended chord replaces the tonality defining third of a major or minor chord with either the second (sus2) or the fourth (sus4) scale degree.

For example, a regular C major chord includes the notes C – E – G. Replace the E with a D and you get Csus2 (C - D - G). Replace it with an F, and you’ve got Csus4 (C - F - G). The result is an unresolved consonant chord.

This is a unique quality. Most unresolved harmony is dissonant, using notes from outside the musical key or unstable intervals like the tritone or altered 2nd. Sus chords are in a class of their own. When the typical third is gone, the harmonic character of the chord floats in suspense. That’s where the name comes from: a note is “suspended” before typically resolving back to its home base.

In classical music, one voice would often hold a note over into the next chord for smoother voice leading, creating tension until it resolved to the third. For example, when moving from a G to a C chord, one singer might hang onto the G chord's D note while the rest of the chorus transitions to the notes in the C chord.

The singer holding the D note is suspending the resolution from G to C, creating a brief Csus2 chord in the process. It may seem a small thing but it greatly enriches the music.

In modern playing and songwriting, sus chords aren’t always resolved. In fact, many artists have built entire progressions from sus chords without ever involving the third. This creates an emotional tone that's open to interpretation – perfect for pop, new wave, ambient, and alt rock.

Two great sus2 loaded songs are The Police's Message In The Bottle and Edie Brickell and New Bohemians' What I Am. The use of the sus2 chords in each song does create a notion of a home key (C# minor and B minor, respectively) but not from any one single chord.

This article explores nine essential sus chord applications: open chords, barre shapes, sus2 and sus4 contexts, and even 7sus combinations. Each example is accompanied by slow and at-tempo playthroughs, tab, and backing tracks so you can absorb and apply the sound of suspended harmony in your own music.

Whether you’re into jangly rhythms or ambient layering, sus chords are your path to adding sophistication without complication.

Open position sus4 chords (Esus4, Asus4, Dsus4)

Let’s get started with the bread-and-butter sus4 shapes. Below are the common open sus4 chords in the open position: Esus4, Asus4, Dsus4, Csus4, and Gsus4.

They’re very popular and immediately recognizable. You might actually already know a few of these. The open Dsus4 (third chord along) is a particular go-to: check out classic tracks like Free Fallin’, Hide Your Love Away and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Barre shape sus4 chords (Gsus4, Csus4)

Sus chords can also be played as barre chords all over the fretboard. Typically, you can use the E and A shapes from the CAGED system: the sus4 shape with the root on the fifth string is a favorite of players like Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards.

However, the sus4 shape with the root on the low sixth string can be impractical. It uses all your fretting hand fingers so doesn’t allow for fast resolution to a major or minor and doesn't allow for melodic embellishments.

Instead, it's common to use the thumb to fret the sixth string and avoid the fifth string: Pete Townshend did this on the strummed intro for The Who's Pinball Wizard. Or, avoid both the bottom two strings and simply play the chord with the root on the fourth string, D. This provides a clean sus4 chord shape that can easily resolve back to the major triad.

Example 1. Sus4 chords in a musical context (5:36 in the video)

Here, you can combine sus4 chords into an exciting progression. This demonstrates how suspensions can build tension and delay resolution, making a simple progression feel emotionally dynamic.

First, you'll play Gsus4 to G with the root on the fourth string. The second bar outlines a Csus4 chord with a legato embellishment, before shifting down by a whole step for a Bbsus4 chord in a bar of 2/4. This chord is borrowed from another key, but the transition flows well, thanks to the suspension, as the melody descends chromatically from E, to Eb, to D.

Finally, a classic Dsus4 to D move followed by resolution to the tonic chord G. The final chord plays Gsus4 for a half beat before resolving the G chord using a quick pull-off, bringing the progression home and demonstrating another cool way we can use suspensions in passing.

Open position sus2 chords (Esus2, Asus2, Csus2, Dsus2)

Next, here are some open sus2 shapes. These chords have a shimmering, open quality, due to the distance between the 2nd and 5th intervals. These voicings are rampant throughout every decade of pop music, from songs like the Beatles’ Ticket to Ride and Every Breath You Take by the Police.

Again, you're covering the chords in the CAGED system, with the F thrown in as well. The open third string allows for a hybrid open/closed position Fsus2 chord beginning on the 3rd fret.

Barre shape sus2 chords (Csus2, Fsus2)

Barre sus2 chords are a bit trickier but incredibly useful. These include a five-string barre for the A shape chords. You’ll need to properly barre with the first finger across five strings, which can be a bit tough starting out. If you need some pointers, check out my 10 Guitar Tips article, which covers useful barre chord hacks.

Example 2 – Sus2 chords in a musical context (8:37 in the video)

Now you can explore a longer example with sus2 chords. What differences do you hear in the tonality of the sus4 progression versus the sus2 progression? This example includes the first sus to minor third resolution, as the F# in the Esus2 chord resolves to the minor third (G) in bar 3.

Sus2 chords can sound better resolving to minor chords than sus4 chords, which typically sound best resolving to the major third.

You’ll also notice the final two chords, Csus2 and Gsus2 never resolve to their respective thirds. This demonstrates the parallel suspension concept we discussed earlier, where the suspension is carried from chord to chord without ever resolving to a clear major or minor tonality.

Adding 7ths to sus chords

Finally, you can add a b7 flavour to both sus chord varieties to unlock new tonal colors. As the b7 is harmonically versatile (it's used in both dom7 and m7 chords) it pairs beautifully with the equally ambiguous suspended tones of the 2nd or 4th.

Just like sus2 and sus4 triads resolving to a major/minor triad built on the same root note, 7sus chords (eg G7sus4) can resolve to the standard dominant 7th chord built on the same root note.

You can turn any of the sus chords you’ve worked on here into 7sus chords: below are seven chords to start you off.

Example 3 – Putting it all together (11:32 in the video)

This final piece is a combination of everything you’ve covered; sus2, sus4, and 7sus chords, all in a nine-bar mini piece that is designed for practicing transitions and chord changes in a musical way.

You start with funky strumming, using dead notes and sus4 chords on A and G, and then transition to a Beatles-esque 7sus picking section. Notice how some of the notes in the arpeggio carry into the first beat of the next bar. This is a cool trick the Beatles often used during the Revolver era to add to their psychedelic sound.

Bar 6 demonstrates how you can pivot around sus2 and sus4 voicings at the same time, enclosing the major third of the D7 chord by dancing around it with both suspensions.

Start adding these chords into your practice routine, songwriting, and riffing. Consistency will help integrate them into your vocabulary and enrich your tonal palette for the long haul. Enjoy!

Australian acoustic guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel has issued a public service announcement by demonstrating what he believes is the best way to put on a capo in order to eliminate tuning woes.

“I try to make people aware of things that are important on stage,” he says in an in-depth chat with Guitar World, during which he warns players of the tuning issues that can come with capos.

“I think tuning is the most important thing. You’ve got to be in tune. Every time you put the capo on wrong, you are going to pull the guitar out of tune.”

For Emmanuel, who incorporates lots of percussive techniques into his wide-ranging and ever-expansive sound, correct capo technique is paramount to his performances.

After all, for some of his arrangements, he equips and removes his capo mid-song. His inventive reimagining of George Harrison’s Beatles hit Here Comes the Sun is an example of that.

However, because capos apply extra pressure on the strings when depressed, it's all-too-easy for them to pull your guitar out of tune.

So, what is the correct way of doing it, and how does Emmanuel avoid such issues? For his GW demonstration, Emmanuel uses a Kyber-style capo with top-mounted levers. This, he says, helps with the mid-song changes.

“The capo has a spring in it, so it's going to push down on the strings a little bit,” he prefaces. “The best way you can get as accurate as possible is, put the guitar on an angle [slightly flatter against your knee].

“You look down at the fret where you want to put it, squeeze it, drop it on, and you'll feel it sit kind of flat. Now, take your right hand and with your palm just push down on the strings.”

Pushing down on the strings helps ensure all strings are being put under even pressure by the capo.

Check the video above at the 01:01:00 mark to see the technique in action.

While ‘no 5’ isn’t an official theoretical term, there are a couple of reasons why we might choose to omit the 5th interval of a chord.

The first is that on the guitar we can often run out of fingers and/or strings to make up a complex chord voicing.

Leaving out the 3rd takes away the harmonic information needed to differentiate between a major or minor chord – which is common in blues and rock but not so much in jazz.

Omitting the root isn’t a problem if there’s a bass to cover for us, but in a solo guitar arrangement this may not work so well.

Taking out the 5th from a chord allows us to retain both the root and the major/minor 3rd, plus also provides the potential to add in an extension, such as the 7th or 9th.

But the 5th isn’t always omitted from chords out of necessity; sometimes it’s removed to make the sonic space to hear the other notes in the chord.

The root and 5th played together is called a powerchord for a reason! Have a go at the chords below and see how ‘no 5’ affects the feel and sound.

Example 1. Dmaj7

This voicing of Dmaj7 has a very different feel from more conventional voicings that include the 5th (A). The 3rd (F#) and maj7th (C#) are allowed to breathe more, not so anchored by the ‘powerchord’ overtones of the root and 5th played together. As this shape uses no open strings, it’s also movable.

Example 2. Dm7

By shifting everything but the root down a semitone, we get this Dm7. It seems much darker and more jazzy sounding without the 5th.

Note, we have a double of the minor 3rd (F) on the second string. By lowering this a semitone to E, we can create a lovely Dm9 chord.

Example 3. Cmaj7

This Cmaj7, like all the other examples, features no open strings. This gives it a much warmer sound than the open string voicings we might want to use on acoustic guitar.

We skip straight from the root (C) to the major 3rd (E) then the maj7th (B) going across the strings. Note there is another E on the third string.

Example 4. Cm7

Using the same principle as Example 2 – dropping everything but the root by a semitone – we get this Cm7 chord.

It’s a notably different flavour from the regular ‘chordbook’ Cm7, conjuring images of a dimly lit jazz club, rather than the more rock ’n’ roll feel of the former.

Example 5. Bbmaj9

Moving beyond major and minor 7ths, this Bbmaj9 hints at the further extensions that are available if we relieve our fretting hand fingers of the responsibility of playing the 5th – which, in this case, would be F. Again, there are no open strings and this voicing is movable to any position.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

The world of online guitar lessons is fast becoming a highly competitive one, with a slew of virtual teachers all vying for your hard-earned cash. However, there is one that stands out from the crowd, Guitar Tricks. Often hailed as the original pioneer of online lessons, they started way back in 1998 and sure know a thing or two about teaching guitar. For a very limited time, Guitar Tricks is offering an annual membership for only $99!

We truly live in an age of information, and there really has never been a better time to learn an instrument, especially with so much great content online for free. That said, it can be challenging to separate the great from the mediocre, with so much out there. That’s where Guitar Tricks comes in.

This historic learning platform has used its years in the field to hone its craft and develop a teaching system that really does deliver results. Available for absolute beginners looking to take their first steps into the wide world of guitar or experienced players looking to up their game, Guitar Tricks has over 11,000 videos in its database, as well as 900+ songs for you to sink your teeth into.

Featured tracks include rock n roll royalty, such as AC/DC, The Beatles, ZZ Top, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Eric Clapton, to name a few. So no matter what type of guitarist you want to be, you’re sure to find lessons tailored to your playing style.

If you fancy taking advantage of this epic deal and taking your guitar playing to the next level, don’t hang about, as this promotion ends September 11.

Want to know more about Guitar Tricks? Well, read our full Guitar Tricks review to find out exactly what we thought of this online learning platform.

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One thing that has always appealed to me about blues guitar soloing is that it can express emotions much in the same way as the human voice.

A key factor in making the most of what the instrument has to offer is articulation. It’s all about the many variables in the pick attack, as well as fret-hand technique.

But another option is to “hide” the pick and incorporate a fingerpicking approach. I do this by tucking the pick into the flexed knuckle joint of my index finger and then pick the strings primarily with my thumb and middle finger.

To demonstrate, Figure 1 is a fingerpicked phrase based on the F minor pentatonic scale (F, Ab, Bb, C, Eb). I use my thumb to pick the lower strings and my middle finger to pick the higher strings. There is a “pop” to the notes and a breadth of tonal variations that can only be achieved with fingerpicking.

One of the greatest purveyors of fingerpicked blues soloing is Albert King, and you’ll find yourself in A.K. Land pretty fast when taking this approach. In Figure 2, I begin by thumbpicking the G string then use my middle finger to pick the B string, leading into a big, two-step “overbend” and release, from Ab to C to Ab.

On beat 4, I bend and release the Bb note on the 1st string’s 6th fret with my index finger (practice those index-finger bends!) and then slide the finger down to the 4th fret.

In bar 3, I make reference to the V (five) chord, C, via the C major pentatonic scale (C, D, E, G, A), with some chromatic passing tones added. In bar 4 I reference the IV (four) chord, Bb, by playing a few notes from Bb major pentatonic (Bb, C, D, F, G), before wrapping up with a return to the I (one) chord, F with lines based on F minor pentatonic.

By fingerpicking a note, you can greatly vary its volume, tone and character, more so than when using a pick. In Figure 3, I stick to picking only with my thumb on the low strings to demonstrate just how much warmth this way of playing can produce.

Herein lies the beauty of the blues: each simple melodic line can be phrased and articulated in so many different ways, which is dictated by how you feel. And this is greatly impacted by how you perceive the audience to feel.

When performing live, there’s a rapport between you and the audience. You know it’s right when you hear cheers, and you know something’s not right when everyone heads for the bar.

A good example of how I build from a blues approach to branch off into other sounds can be heard on The Ballad of John Henry. As shown in Figure 4, there’s an E minor pentatonic lick (E, G, A, B, D) that alternates with G5 and A5 power chords.

When soloing over it, I can start with the blues element by fingerpicking, as I do in bars 1-2 of Figure 5, then shift to using the pick (bars 3-4) and incorporating the more exotic sound of the E Phrygian-dominant mode (E, F, G#, A, B, C, D) before returning to straight blues. You can start with rock and end with B.B. King! Or vice versa.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Angus Young is undeniably a fiery guitarist. He fuses the larger than life rock ’n’ roll swagger of Chuck Berry and the fiery blues licks of Buddy Guy into a high voltage lead guitar style, a perfect counterpoint to the rhythm playing of his late brother, Malcolm. Decade after decade, the Young brothers excited fans everywhere with their iconic songs and riffs that often came to a climax with Angus’ legendary lead breaks.

Angus’ bends, vibrato and phrasing are instantly recognizable and often imitated, but it's his stunning use of open strings that you'll cover here. In particular, his use of open strings in conjunction with fretted notes has created many memorable riffs and burning solos, the wide intervallic gaps helping to build excitement and tension.

Below are three exercises inspired by Angus’ use of open strings in his guitar solos. These exercises are designed to help you build core techniques around open string soloing, as well as providing a starting point for your own creative ideas. The following examples are all in the key of E minor, and make use of the E blues scale (E-G-A-Bb-B-D) with some occasional chromatic passing tones.

These examples should all be approached slowly and for short periods at a time, allowing you to build your technique with confidence and clarity.

MatchMySound: play-along enhancements

For this lesson, we've partnered with MatchMySound to offer the ability to record yourself and see how close you are. MatchMySound is a great tool to help track your progress.

Click on the word 'options' (lower left, below the tab/notation) to select from 'demo audio track' (just guitar), 'backing track' (just the backing), 'full audio' (backing and real guitar audio) and 'metronome' (just a click to play along to).

Below that, select 'options' for how you can record your performance.

At the upper right, the magnifying glass images let you alter the playback speed for learning and pushing your playing onwards.

Follow the cursor to keep up with the tab/notation accurately on screen.

Lastly, to view the music better by filling your desktop/tablet/phone screen, click on the square brackets at the top right.

Example 1: Open third string with fast pull-offs

Here's a fast pull-off phrase on the open third string played in triplets (groups of three). A trademark Angus technique is to use a repetitive fretting hand sequence that gradually ascends the neck, moving from a controlled sound to utter rock ’n’ roll chaos. Focus on accenting the first note in each group of three to keep the timing tight.

Example 2: Open string riffing

Angus’ use of open strings wasn’t just for his lead breaks and solos; they formed the backbone of his most iconic riffs and intros as well. Here you'll be alternating fretted notes with open strings, enabling fast playing with big intervallic jumps.

While the note groupings are in three (one high fretted note then two open strings, at least at the start) the overall rhythm is based on 16ths (four notes per click). This makes high notes pop out in varying places during constantly fast soloing. Aside from Angus, other players that do this include Michael Schenker, Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.

Example 3: Open strings, slurring and the minor pentatonic

Incorporating open strings and fretting hand slurs that use pentatonic based notes can be used to build excitement and unpredictability in a solo. Use this as a starting point to experiment with your own ideas: take a familiar rock or blues phrase and insert an extra open string, hammer-on or pull-off to spice it up.

Example 4: Putting it all together

Here's a mini solo to finish with, utilizing each of the previous open string examples that you’ve worked on so far. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice a little accuracy for extra rock’n’roll attitude intensity as you progress. Angus has always given his all and so should you!

Angus Young in action!

AC/DC - Thunderstruck

This is arguably the greatest example of Angus's use of open strings in a popular AC/DC rocking classic. The intro certainly confirms this – they decided the best approach to filming was not to focus on the audience but instead, plenty of close ups of Angus's blazing fretting hand on the open second string (no picking, too). Masterful and majestic, let there be rock indeed!

In this column I’d like to talk about the oft-used drop-D tuning, wherein the guitar’s low E string is tuned down a whole step to D (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). Drop-D tuning creates the opportunity for all kinds of otherwise inaccessible riffs and chords, plus it’s a great and easy way to expand the instrument’s low range into new subsonic territory.

I play the song Trigger Finger, from 2025’s Breakthrough, in drop-D. What I find most useful about the tuning is that it simply presents more options to me as a guitarist. For example, as shown in Figure 1, I can play the song’s main riff in 8th-10th position in standard tuning, but as you’ll notice, I sneak in the open low D root note in bar 3 on the upbeat of beat 2.

Another option is to tune all six strings down a whole step, to D standard (low to high: D, G, C, F, A, D). But only dropping the 6th string down a whole step gives you the best of both worlds – you’ve got your low D note while the other five strings are tuned normally.

Figure 2 illustrates the main riff as I play it on the track. Performed mostly in 3rd position, it’s based on the D blues scale (D, F, G, Ab, A, C) with the inclusion of the major 3rd, F#. Notice how I utilize the open low D note, bouncing off it for rhythm and sonic emphasis in a few spots.

One of my favorite purveyors of drop-D riffing is the late, great Chris Whitley, whose playing I love, especially on his 1998 album Dirt Floor. My band and I opened up for Chris in 2000, at a place called the Patio in Indianapolis. I’d heard of him but didn’t know his music or his playing. In all honesty, his solo performance blew us off the stage! He was a brilliant player, and I recommend you check out Dirt Floor, as well as his many other albums.

Chris used drop-D to play some fantastic octave figures, fretted on the 6th and 4th strings. In drop-D tuning, each note of the octave is located at the same fret.

Figures 3 and 4 present Whitley-esque passages. In Figure 3, the phrase moves up and down the fretboard in the aforementioned octave shapes.

In Figure 4, I combine these octave-based phrases with shifting power chord licks in bars 4, 8 and 9. In bars 8 and 9, I barre my index finger across all of the strings at the 7th fret while playing a single-note melodic line on the 5th and 4th strings.

This is along the lines of Whitley’s approach to using drop-D tuning. As you play the figure, you’ll notice how unusual the rhythmic patterns are. Chris would play in this type of “choppy” style, and he blew me away when I saw him perform. His standard guitars of choice were both a National steel acoustic and an electric Les Paul Junior in “TV” yellow.

If you really want to get adventurous, try dropping both your low and high E strings down to D, what’s called double drop-D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, D). This will get you into some CSN&Y territory, as both Neil Young and Stephen Stills have explored this tuning to great effect, as has Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin’s Going to California.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Canadian rock fusion virtuoso Nick Johnston sure has had a colorful career. Spanning 20+ years, he has released six stunning rock fusion based instrumental albums, enjoyed numerous collaborations with everyone from Guthrie Govan to Polyphia and worked with Schecter for his signature S-style guitars.

Now as a member of Mastodon and an integral part of their new album, Marrow Deep, Nick has created an exclusive lesson on five of his favorite playing approaches.

Heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen, Nick's style is a blend of legato, hybrid and sweep picking plus tapping. His vocabulary blends post-SRV blues licks and Malmsteen-like intensity with a compositional sophistication influenced by film composers such as Bernard Hermann (Citizen Kane, Psycho, Taxi Driver).

All this adds up to a versatile technique that provides numerous options for his large intervals and chromatic passing notes.

In his video, Nick plays all the examples free time without a backing. For context, we have included the chord type that these licks would ideally fit over.

In terms of vocabulary, Nick often uses the minor pentatonic scale as a foundation and then adds chromatic notes to create color and sophistication. With his style of intricate lead guitar, the devil is in the detail. So we have written in all the picking directions, and would encourage you to use the slow-motion feature available on YouTube for detailed study.

Nick performs all of the examples on his signature Schecter guitar, and uses a saturated lead overdrive with a bit of reverb and delay.

Example 1a - Hybrid picking and string crossing (version 1) (0:31 in the video)

Nick starts out with an impressive-sounding line that fits in with an A minor tonality. He combines accurate picking and use of the picking hand's second finger (shown as m below the tab) to deal with the string jumps. The basic rule is the second finger pluck can be used after a down pick, in place of an up pick.

Example 1b - Hybrid picking and string crossing (version 2) (1:24 in the video)

Here Nick demonstrates how the approach from Example 1a can be moved and adapted to work in different keys. Here you'll move up to the key of E minor. The line sounds more sophisticated due to the inclusion of choice chromatic notes (Bb and D#). The hammer-on and pull-off technique helps with speedy articulation and a fluid delivery.

Example 1c - Hybrid picking and string crossing (version 3) (1:27 in the video)

For this third variation, Nick lets rip in the key of B minor. This line has the same road map and fingering as the previous two examples. However, Nick adds in an extra B minor 7 arpeggio flourish to end with a colorful chromatic note (E# or F note). This is the b5 interval often used by guitarists in the context of the six note B blues scale (B-D-E-E#/F-F#-A). This creates a run of three chromatic notes that can be played quickly with hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Example 2a - Fast legato chromatics (version 1) (2:04 in the video)

This is a good workout for your hammer-on and pull-off technique. The phrase starts with a down pick followed by two hammer-ons. The second finger (m) then plucks the D note on the first string.

This is followed by a six-note sequence of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Finally, there is a fast down and up pick. It may be worth experimenting here by replacing this up pick with a second finger pluck.

Example 2b - Fast legato chromatics (version 2) (2:11 in the video)

Nick demonstrates how the previous example can be used in a different key. To fit in with the key of G major, the fingering pattern needs to be adapted from before. To get more mileage out of this idea, it would be a fun exercise for you to migrate it to other major and minor keys.

Example 2c - Fast legato chromatics (extended) (2:14 in the video)

Here you'll move back to the key of A minor and see how the pattern can be extended. There is a large A minor 7 arpeggio to negotiate at the end. This fits nicely under the fingers, and includes fretting hand tapping notes on the 17th and 19th frets on the first string.

The final part of the arpeggio is completed with fretting hand hammer-ons/taps (a favorite approach with Richie Kotzen to descend an arpeggio).

Example 3a - Bluesy phrasing (version 1) (3:03 in the video)

Time for some blues as this draws inspiration from Nick’s SRV influences. Here there is a great sounding string bend that plays in many of his lines. First, the note on the 10th fret of the third string is played (beat 1&e), then the note below (9th fret) which is then immediately bent up a semitone to a virtual 10th fret. This is reminiscent of Eric Johnson, ball parking his koto-like technique.

For a strong SRV nod, check out the 8th-9th-8th fret slide on the first string - the C-Db-C looks odd on paper within the Cm7 context but actually enriches the greasy blues sound here. To end, the notes on the first and second strings are played with fingers, the tone and extra pop helps to create an authentic bluesy bite.

Example 3b - Bluesy phrasing (version 2) (3:51 in the video)

Here's a further demonstration of the string bending from a semitone below you looked at in the previous example. Nick refers to this as an “outside to inside” sound.

With this example, you have three opportunities to bend into 10th fret notes on the fourth, third and first strings. Very slinky, very greasy!

Example 4 - Picking and intervallic variations (4:48 in the video)

This demonstrates how effective a pattern can be. The phrase starts out by linking the chord tones of A minor with chromatic notes such as G#, Eb and Bb. The legato technique is very effective for this.

For the descending portion, the A minor pentatonic is phrased in a groups of four pattern. Guitarists like Eric Johnson and Joe Bonamassa are fond of using this approach.

Example 5 - Percussive phrasing (6:41 in the video)

This final example has a bit of everything Nick has demonstrated including chromatic notes, legato, hybrid picking and the semitone approach bending.

In addition to adding extra facility, the hybrid picking technique is ideal for adding extra tone, bite and snap to the notes. If the string is popped with the picking hand's second finger, a percussive attack is added.

Hear Mastodon!

Mastodon - Snakes For Dinner

The first video track from Mastodon's new album features Nick as well as an appearance from the band's longtime friend, Josh Homme.

When people discuss slide guitar, they often presume the guitar will be open-tuned to a chord. This is fair enough as it’s a time-honoured method that allows a lot of flexibility.

However, unless you’re going to play the whole gig in an open tuning, it might feel a bit excessive to keep retuning or to carry an extra guitar for a couple of songs. If you’re just looking to play solos, or even just getting into slide, it isn’t necessary to go to such lengths.

Bear in mind that in standard tuning the second, third and fourth strings give us a G major triad, with a 4th interval available by playing the first and second strings together, and a 5th available on the fourth and fifth strings, so there are more than a few authentic-sounding licks available.

If we add in the convenience of the pentatonic shapes also being available on the fretboard as usual, then I think we have a pretty compelling case for staying with standard tuning – at least for now.

We’d be in pretty good company. Muddy Waters, Ariel Posen and Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr all favour standard tuning for slide playing.

However, we need not limit ourselves here – there are lots of Duane Allman, Lowell George and even George Harrison licks you can emulate once you’ve developed enough technique.

On that subject, a light touch with a medium/lightweight slide should work with the average action and string gauge. You can experiment with wearing the slide on the second, third or fourth finger of your fretting hand.

We’d suggest trying the first finger, too, but this is best used to mute behind the slide and control unwanted ringing. Be prepared to put some practice time in, but you will be rewarded! Hope you enjoy and see you next time.

Example 1

Using the 4th interval available on the first and second strings, this first example stays very much ‘in the box’ between the 1st and 3rd frets until the end of the phrase.

Note there isn’t automatically vibrato on every sustained note, plus there are a few staccato notes, facilitated mainly by muting with the picking hand. You’ll also see there’s what we would normally call a quarter-tone bend. This is executed by moving the slide slightly sharp instead.

Example 2

Shifting up the fretboard slightly, this example kicks in with a sustained dominant 7th (F), before making use of the triads available when playing the second, third and fourth strings together.

We move through a Bb, then a C triad, with a cheeky sus4 in the shape of that F, before holding a sustained D, which slides slowly upwards in anticipation of the next phrase. Keep an eye on details such as staccato and ‘let ring’ instructions.

Example 3

Starting with some doublestopped 4ths on the third and fourth strings played together, this example stays exclusively between the 10th and 13th frets.

Look out for details such as vibrato (or not!), staccato hits, a G major triad linking bars 1 and 2, plus a quarter-tone ‘bend’ near the end of the phrase.

This one is a little trickier, especially where it moves to Bb, but it demonstrates the available vocabulary in this zone of the fretboard, plus being aware of the backing chords.

Example 4

Hear it here

Little Feat – The Last Record Album

Lowell George mainly used an open A tuning, but this gave a major triad on the fourth, third and second strings just like regular tuning. It’s perfectly possible to steal a few ideas from here without having to retune.

Check out Romance Dance and you’ll hear that you don’t need to be all over the fretboard, just adding some touches and sustained notes here and there to make your presence felt. Elsewhere, check out Long Distance Love and Mercenary Territory.

Ariel Posen – Bannatyne

The slide player of 2026 would be well advised to check out this guitarist’s work. There are some great ideas to be taken from Future Present Tense, Dead To Me (with its cool vibrato/detune effect) and Shed Your Skin.

This is something to aspire to, rather than expect to emulate straight away, but with the right attitude and some vintage-style fuzz effects, you may be surprised how quickly you can get into the ballpark. Give it a go.

George Harrison – All Things Must Pass

Known for his nimble and melodic playing generally, it’s no surprise that George was just as meticulous with a slide. Check out My Sweet Lord (with its lovely multi-tracked acoustics), Isn’t It a Pity and I Dig Love, which sees him cut loose with some deft phrasing.

The message from George’s playing is to add to the song without feeling the need to display technique for technique’s sake. As the old saying goes, if you don’t have the songs, you don’t have anything!

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

The late queen of country Dolly Parton’s career was astonishing when you put it into numbers: over 3,000 songs penned including mega-smash I Will Always Love You, made doubly famous by Whitney Houston in the film The Bodyguard. 

A true crossover artist, Dolly took country into the mainstream charts with hits Jolene and 9 To 5, which many a function guitarist will have had to master.

Dolly’s glittering, rhinestone-laden onstage image belied her humble beginnings. She was born in Tennessee and raised in a one-room shack, but music proved to be an early way out of poverty. By age 10, she was performing on local radio and, staggeringly, by 13 she was appearing on the legendary Grand Ole Opry stage.

After leaving school, the obvious move was to Nashville where she became a professional songwriter, penning hits for other artists and raising her profile with weekly appearances on country star Porter Wagoner’s TV show. 

She gained her first big hits duetting with Wagoner before going solo and earning success with 1973’s chart-topper Jolene, and I Will Always Love You which hit the top spot in 1974 (again in 1984) and her first Grammy in 1979. 

As with many artists in the country and pop worlds, the parts you hear on record are typically played by studio musicians. However, watch footage of Dolly live and she plays guitar, banjo and dulcimer.

While her guitar playing usually served the role of simple accompaniment – largely due to her long fingernails, which shaped her entire six-string style – she would often play short, bluegrass-inspired solos the like of which I’ve included here. It’s a great example of melodic, scale-based country playing and is a good way into the genre if you are new to it.

Dolly’s playing is driven by the Maybelle Carter-style ‘thumb and flick’ approach and the Hank Williams/Johnny Cash alternating bassline style. You can play this with a pick but if you opt for the Carter style then the picking-hand thumb plucks a bass note followed by the first finger flicking down to sound the corresponding chord. Aim to strike the strings with the nail on the finger for a more percussive characteristic. 

While there are few demands on the fretting hand here, as Dolly mostly played simple open-position chords, you may find the picking-hand thumb needs some work so as to ensure you strike the correct bass notes.

For the first-finger flick, make sure you have sufficient power to strike the strings but not so much that they overshadow the bass notes. It’s a balancing act between thumb and finger to get this sounding right. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 3, Bass 7, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

Dolly often performed with her custom Taylor GS Mini and Martin 5-18 Terz – she is a fan of small-scale three-quarter acoustic guitars. Typically within this style, though, you’ll want to use a larger-bodied instrument, although of course this isn’t vital. I recorded this lesson with a Martin Custom Expert 1937 D28 and a Soyuz 017 fet microphone. 

Playing notes

[Bars 1-16] Classic country strumming is very easy on the surface, but there are elements that make it a challenge. 

Timekeeping is the obvious one, but you also have to be really accurate with the alternating bass notes otherwise things start to sound uneven, and if you catch the wrong string you will really hear it! 

All of this becomes even more real when you perform this stuff with a bassist as they will typically be playing the same basslines as you, albeit in a lower register. 

[Bars 17-32] Dolly had a great and practical approach to soloing that just works – she generally builds licks around chord shapes, in this case triads. Using this method means you can’t really go wrong as you are always hitting chord tones (root, 3rd, 5th, etc). 

Add the typical country/bluegrass rhythmic phrasing of mostly quavers and crotchets along with some legato (hammer-ons and slides in this case) and you have the perfect melodic country solo.

An essential rhythm playing technique every guitarist should learn is what I call eighth-note “pendulum” strumming. It involves keeping your pick hand constantly moving down and up across the strings in a steady, unbroken eighth-note rhythm – “1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and” – with downstrokes on the downbeats and upstrokes on the upbeats (the “and” counts).

The movement is comparable to that of a pendulum on a grandfather clock that swings back and forth, the only difference being the horizontal orientation of your arm, as opposed to the vertical hang of a pendulum.

The technique takes a bit of practice to master, but once you get the hang of it, it makes your strumming feel natural, flowing and automatic, to the point where you don’t even need to think about it and can just feel the eighth-note groove. As always, it helps to tap your foot on each downbeat as you play.

Note, however, that this down-up-down-up eighth-note strumming technique isn’t universally applicable to every style of music and at every tempo.

In some styles, such as punk rock and metal, most songs call for the eighth-note rhythms to be strummed with consecutive downstrokes, oftentimes in conjunction with palm muting (P.M.), to create an urgent, “pumping” effect, which is totally cool.

But in many other genres, such as pop, rock, folk, country and R&B, you want to create a more laid-back strum feel, and that’s where eighth-note pendulum strumming works best.

To demonstrate the differences between all-downstrokes strumming (aka “downpicking”) versus down-up strumming, FIGURES 1 & 2 show the same repeating G-to-C chord change strummed two different ways but with the same eighth-note rhythms. (Note the use of the “all-purpose passing chord”.) Notice the difference in the sound and feel of the rhythms.

Sometimes you don’t want to just play a continuous stream of eighth notes and prefer to mix up the rhythms with various combinations of quarter notes and eighth notes, or decide to strum a chord on an eighth-note upbeat and hold it into the next beat, what’s known as a tie. This is where eighth-note pendulum strumming is especially useful and effective.

The key is to keep the pick hand in perpetual motion, without stopping, even while you’re letting a chord ring for longer than an eighth note.

FIGURE 3 shows our G-to-C chord change again, this time with some quarter notes and tied eighth notes used, to break up the “busy-ness” of the continuous eighth-note rhythms.

Notice that, for the quarter notes, you have two consecutive downstrokes and, for the ties, two consecutive upstrokes. Unless you’re performing Pete Townshend-style “windmills,” you’re going to automatically do a silent, “phantom” upstroke between two downstrokes and, likewise, a phantom downstroke between two upstrokes.

The key is to allow your pick hand to silently pass over the strings during these moments where you’re letting the previous strum ring and to not freeze up and “stop, start, stop, start.”

To the observer, it looks like you’re strumming continuous eighth notes, even though you’re playing various combinations of eighth and quarter-note rhythms and using ties.

Again, as always, I recommend counting “1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and” as you play and tapping your foot only on the downbeats, like a human metronome. This will help ingrain the coordination of your technique.

Also keep in mind that, in some songs, there may be parts where you’ll want to momentarily switch from pendulum strumming to all downstrokes, say, for a buildup leading into a chorus.

A good example that comes to mind is the Foo Fighters song Big Me, where guitarist Dave Grohl uses eighth-note pendulum strumming for most of the song but briefly switches to pumping downstrokes in a few spots.

Last time, I talked about how coming up with a great, catchy lick or riff can inspire an entire song. Great riffs have the power to do that, and the best ones do it instantly.

From the Beatles’ I Feel Fine, to the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women, to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama, these are all songs that pull the listener in immediately.

A great guitar solo can do the same thing, offering the listener an unexpected journey to a new place before steering the music back to familiar territory. Many players refer to this as the “song within a song” approach to crafting an effective, memorable solo.

The song we covered last month was Let It Burn, from our 2017 album, Like An Arrow. This song is built from a rock-and-roll-meets-country feel, and the solo needed to stay in that wheelhouse while elevating the music to another level.

Right before the solo, we play a bridge/breakdown lick that serves as a hook of its own. As shown in Figure 1, I arpeggiate the notes of an open G chord into a C chord, followed by a reference to Bb. In bar 4, I incorporate 6th intervals into the phrase. The guitar solo is then played over that lick and similarly blends the sounds of rock and roll and country.

I like to envision my guitar solo as being another voice that’s singing a new melody. To my ears, a melody is a great place to start, as opposed to just a flurry of notes. The solo needs to “sing,” so I thought, “What would I sing over that breakdown lick?” Figure 2 shows the solo.

In bars 1-4, I play a singable melody based on the G minor pentatonic scale (G, Bb, C, D, F), starting with two-note double-stops played 3rds apart. At the end of bar 4 into bar 5, the solo is based on G major pentatonic (G, A, B, D, E), and in bar 6 I play a couple of 6th intervals. The solo then wraps up with a return to G minor pentatonic.

The solo is concise so that it gets out of the way and brings us back to the big chorus, shown in Figure 3 with the ringing C, F/C, G5 chords.

Those initial 3rd intervals work really well over the feel of the breakdown lick underneath. Following the return to the chorus, we reprise the song’s intro lick in order to wrap up the song, with all its elements pulled together in an effective way.

When we play Let It Burn live, I like to stretch out the intro by soloing in this style. Sometimes I stretch it out so much that our bass player will yell, “Hey, start the song!”

Figure 4 offers an example of the types of licks that live in that world where the lines between country music and rock and roll become blurry. In this example, I begin with hybrid-picked double-stops that shift to straight country/blues in bar 3.

There really are countless ways to craft a solo by drawing upon one’s various stylistic influences, so never be afraid to push the envelope in your quest for a captivating and expressive feel and sound.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

When I first learned the Mixolydian mode, I found it elusive to incorporate into my improvised solos.

For those unfamiliar with Mixolydian, it is one of the seven modes of the major scale. Each mode is derived from the same sequence of half steps and whole steps that make up the major scale’s structure, but starting on a different note, which serves as the root of that unique mode.

For example, the C major scale comprises the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The formula for the major scale is based on the intervallic distances between these notes. As there is a whole step between C and D and another whole step between D and E, the formula for the scale begins “whole,” “whole,” often indicated as “W W.”

If we reckon all the intervals of the major scale, the resulting formula is W W H W W W H, with H signifying a half step. The harmony inherent in the scale/mode is derived from the first, third and fifth notes (1-3-5). So, in C major these notes are C, E and G, which form a C major triad.

The C major scale is also known as the C Ionian mode. If one were to start on the second scale degree, D, and think of that as the root note, or tonic, the note sequence would be D, E, F, G, A, B, C. This is known as the D Dorian mode. Continuing this process, D Dorian is followed by E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian and B Locrian.

Figure 1 shows the G Mixolydian mode: G, A, B, C, D, E, F. The harmonic color, or flavor, conveyed by it is G7. For myself, I did not find it appealing to just play the notes of G Mixolydian over a G7 chord; it was not a sound I found to be compelling.

I was aware of all of the modes and thought that, since G is the fifth degree of the C major scale, maybe I can superimpose all or some of the triad arpeggios built from C major over a G7 chord in order to find another approach to using G Mixolydian.

Figure 2 illustrates the seven triad arpeggios that live within the C major scale, followed by a bluesy lick built around a G major triad (G, B, D). These are also the triad arpeggios of G Mixolydian.

A great way to explore using this approach is to jam over a G7 vamp and alternate between playing familiar blues licks in G and short phrases that outline these triadic forms.

Figure 3 presents a stock G blues lick. In Figure 4, I improvise over a G7 vamp, purposefully moving through the related triad arpeggios, starting on bar 1 with Dm and C, then descending to Bdim, Am, G and F. I then wrap up the phrase with a G7 blues lick.

Figure 5 offers a more ambitious example of this approach, again alternating between bluesy G7-flavored licks and the related G Mixolydian triadic forms, with a little chromaticism added in for a more interesting sound.

This approach offers a great way to unlock new sounds based on G Mixolydian while also opening up your fretboard vision and knowledge.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

This lesson is about something that many players already do intuitively without even thinking about it or realizing they’re doing it, and that is using what I call the “all-purpose passing chord,” which is simply strumming one or more open strings when switching from one fretted chord shape to another.

For example, in the laid-back intro and verses to Soundgarden’s Blow Up the Outside World, when changing from an open E chord to C every two beats, guitarists Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil would momentarily lift their fretting fingers off the strings during the last 16th note of the beat that precedes the next chord and strum the open top four strings with an upstroke.

FIGURE 1 shows a similar move, with strumming prompts included.

Notice how, by briefly letting go of the strings during those upstroke strums, you’re buying your fretting fingers valuable time to move to the next chord shape in an easy way, and doing so while keeping the rhythm flowing.

Of course, you could just omit the 16th-note upstroke strum entirely and simply strum another eighth note with a downstroke then switch to the next chord. But using the all-purpose passing chord offers you a convenient way to fill out the rhythmic feel and convey a more detailed 16th-note groove with an occasional pair of down-up 16th-note strums.

It also allows you to let go of the chord a little sooner than you would if holding it for an eighth-note duration.

When playing open “cowboy” chords in the guitar-friendly keys of C, G or D, or their relative minor keys of A minor, E minor or B minor, the open-string notes – E, A, D, G, B, E – all live within the parent C, G or D major scales and musically “agree” with each of these keys.

So briefly playing the open strings between chords in these keys sounds totally natural. It also adds a mild feeling of tension and release to the proceedings. Mind you, strumming all six open strings or the lower ones draws more attention to the open notes than does only strumming the top three or four strings, which is why many players typically only strum the higher open strings between chords. That also has to do with the act of strumming an upstroke, versus a downstroke.

FIGURE 2 offers another example of this useful technique, with a progression of four open chords that brings to mind the chorus to Alive by Pearl Jam. Again, notice how we simply let go of the strings on the last 16th note of the beat immediately before each chord change while keeping a flowing groove that mixes eighth- and 16th-note rhythms.

While the all-purpose passing chord is usually strummed with an upstroke, it can also be used with a downstroke, say, if you’re playing a punk or metal song that has you strumming all downstrokes for an urgent feel and “pumping” effect. In this case, the downpicking technique would dictate that you hit the bottom two or three open strings instead of the higher ones.

The all-purpose passing chord can also work well with barre chords in these same keys. Bear in mind, though, that, if you’re playing in another key, the open-string notes may fall outside its related scale and end up clashing and sounding odd or sour.

For example, in the Green Day song American Idiot, guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong plays the series of barre chords Ab5 - Db5 - Gb5 - Db5 - Ab5 and briefly strums his open low E and A strings between the first three chords.

Then, after returning to Ab5 at the end of the progression, the guitarist intentionally whacks his open G, B and high E strings with a downstroke, so as to add a brief splash of ugliness to the proceedings. The open B and E notes are obviously alien to the key of Ab, but they contribute to the riff’s and song’s expression of angst.

A classic example of this same kind of artistic ugliness can be found in the iconic two-bar intro and chorus chord riff to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Here, guitarist Kurt Cobain is playing in the key of F minor, strumming the repeating chord progression F5 - Bb - Ab5 - Db.

Between Bb and Ab5, he deliberately lifts his fingers off the fretboard and strums his open bottom five strings with a downstroke. He later does the same thing between Db and F5. As with the previously cited example, these fleeting dissonances add a feeling of angst and rebelliousness to the chord riff.

One more thing to bear in mind when using the all-purpose passing chord is the tempo of the song you’re playing. The slower the tempo, the more noticeable these passing chords will be. Something that sounds acceptable and cool when played at a brisk tempo could sound strange and bizarre when played slower.

So, keeping all this in mind, feel free to employ the very useful all-purpose passing chord as you see and hear fit to do.

There are several benefits to be taken from this solo, even if I do say so myself, depending on how you might choose to approach it. First, the selection of ideas is particularly useful to call upon in a trio situation where there is limited harmonic support available from a simple groove-based backing like this.

Second, there are useful pentatonic/blues scale ideas, transferable to any key and not limited to the trio format. And, not least, third, there is a kind of SRV vibe, so that’s always nice!

In a broader sense, this solo is also an exercise in rhythm. Often the phrases coincide with the drums, but, as you’ll hear, the first example plays swung eighth notes, which deliberately contrast against the accents of the kick drum and bass guitar. Elsewhere, I’m somewhat mindful of where there should be a space, to let a drum fill breathe or simply to take a moment to decide where to go next.

One of the steepest learning curves we can embark on is to record ourselves improvising in a scenario like this, then listen back and evaluate the results. To get the full benefit, it’s important that we make an ‘honest’ recording – don’t overthink or compose anything at first.

Listening back can be tough, but this is information nobody else can give you. It’s also true that there can be some nice surprises, often resulting from the moments when we feel we slipped and didn’t play something the way we intended to in that moment.

Coming back to an earlier point, many players are also surprised to hear how much they’re filling the space, especially in a slower/half-time context such as this. All that said, do use these ideas as extra vocabulary, but aim to improvise as freely as you can. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

We start this opening phrase with a series of swung eighth notes, deliberately contrasting against the accents from the bass guitar and kick drum. I’m drawing on pentatonic patterns here up to and including the second bar (not counting the pickup bar). In bar 3, we change to some rhythmic.

Example 2

We're starting with quite a long pickup bar here but moving swiftly on to break the flow a little. This allows some of the bass guitar and kick drum accents to ‘poke through’ during the gap, giving the feeling of interplay between the elements – and avoiding possible listener fatigue from a constant barrage of notes...

The overall feel is derived more from triplets (both quaver and semiquaver) than swung quavers. The last E will be reused at the beginning of Example 3. We thought this phrase sounded better with it in isolation and didn’t want to cut it from the next phrase!

Example 3

Starting with that duplicate E, this final example has one of the longest pickup bars we’ve seen, but it all makes sense once you land on beat 1 of bar 1!

This starts with some sustained blues bends, before mixing up some triplets, swung quavers and doublestops in bar 2. We revert to a more rhythmically simple pattern in bar 3 before digging in to some heavy accents on an E7#9 chord.

This coincides somewhat with the drum accents, but the most important consideration is to dig in with confidence. A good drummer will probably follow…

Hear it here

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Texas Flood

This album is packed with exemplary playing in a trio format. What’s more, it was recorded live from the studio floor.

There is something to be learned from every track, but perhaps the most relevant to the approach highlighted in the example solo are Pride and Joy, Texas Flood and I’m Cryin’.

Though always technically proficient, Stevie manages to create excitement without sounding like a rock player. His rhythms also sound super-confident.

Robin Trower – Robin Trower Live

Another example of a trio-based record, here Robin fills a lot of space without coming across as unaware of the other instruments or the vocals.

His soloing can oftentimes be frenetic, but there are many areas where he’ll happily hold a note and let the bass and drums carry things.

Check out Too Rolling Stoned (with its somewhat conspicuous edit!), and for the ultimate laid-back live feel make sure to have a listen to Daydream. The live version Day Of The Eagle is also one to track down.

Philip Sayce – The Wolves Are Coming

This is a very ‘in your face’ production, but the arrangements are carefully constructed to allow all the instruments to have their place in the mix. Have a listen to Oh! That Bitches Brew, Your Love and The Moon Is Full.

Honourable mention also goes to Intuition for its more laid-back feel, dynamics and bluesy soloing. Though this is very much a studio production complete with rhythm guitar and keyboards, it’s not too hard to imagine this arranged for the trio format.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

With sonic explorers Angine de Poitrine starting their sold-out US tour this week, the guitar world’s most viral two-piece will no doubt have everyone talking about their mind-bending microtonal guitar tones once again. Alongside King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, they're reshaping the idea of what modern guitar players can do thanks to the use of microtones.

As well as getting into the gear, I’m going to take you through everything you need to know about microtonal music. In this article, we'll take a journey through the history of music itself, dabble in some mathematics, and come out at the other end with a much better understanding of why microtonal guitar sounds so weird to the Western ear.

By the time you get to the end, you'll have learned some music theory and, if I've done my job correctly, expanded that Western mindset way beyond the constraints of the frets on your electric guitar.

Standard tuning

Let’s start with standard tuning on a guitar. Western music is built on something called the 12-tone equal temperament system (12-TET). On the guitar, you can find this by playing every note in sequence from the open string to the 12th fret on the low E. That’s every note in the 12-TET system, and pretty much every major pop, rock, blues, funk, or heavy metal song was built on those 12 notes.

This isn’t all the notes that exist in music, though. It’s just what Western music evolved to become thanks to the adoption of the 12-TET system – more on which in the history section.

There are many more notes in between the 12 core tones we use in Western music. It’s like colors: you have your reds, blues, and yellows, but there are countless shades in between that you can use to paint a picture.

To keep things simple when we get into the math of this, it’s easier to look at the notes as cents rather than as a frequency (Hz). If you’ve used a guitar tuner, you’ll have come across cents before. They’re a measure of pitch, broken down into little sections. There are 100 cents per fret on a guitar, with 1,200 for a full octave, and 50 for the quarter tones currently being utilized by King Gizzard and Angine de Poitrine.

The notes between the notes

In nature, sound isn’t split up into sections; it’s just one continuous note that rises. Technically speaking, there are infinite notes available to us. The problem is we can’t hear all of them. A trained ear can distinguish roughly 240 distinct pitch changes within a full octave; that’s an accuracy of about 5 cents. This varies depending on where you are in the frequency range, as the human ear is more accurate in the midrange and less so in the low and high-end.

With microtonal music, you’re playing those notes in between the 12 we’re used to. Bands like Angine de Poitrine and King Gizzard use guitars with extra frets to access these smaller intervals, called quarter tones, giving them additional sounds you can’t easily play on a normal electric guitar. Where a normal guitar neck has 12 frets per octave, a microtonal one can have 24.

Here's a demonstration of this using cents. Imagine your open guitar string is 0 cents. The 3rd fret would be 300, and the 4th 400. That quarter tone in between? That’s 350 cents. It sits exactly between major and minor, and to a Western ear, it sounds like an unresolved note because we’re so used to hearing music in the 12-TET system. For a Middle Eastern or Indian musician, these in-between notes have been a core part of their music for thousands of years.

The history: how the West lost the in-between notes

Microtonal music isn’t the exception to the rule we think it is. For most of history, microtonal music was just music. When humans first began to sing, blow into tubes of bone, or pluck animal gut-derived strings, there was no system of notes to abide by. Sound was already in the world; we just created ways to imitate it.

Here’s one scholar’s reconstruction of one of the oldest known melodies in human history. It comes from a Babylonian text of a musical system based on tuning in fifths:

Before we get to microtonal music specifically, it’s important to understand more about how Western music developed into the 12-TET system we use today. This is pretty math-heavy stuff, so make sure you’ve got your thinking cap on.

The Pythagorean Comma

Legend has it that Pythagoras first discovered the mathematics of musical tuning by stretching a piece of string along a block of wood, somewhere around the year 500BCE. His device, now called a monochord, had a movable bridge, and by using this, he realized you could divide that string into intervals that sounded pleasing to the human ear.

To give you a real-world example of this, just pick up your guitar. If you take any string and divide the length exactly in half, you get an octave. This is the 12th fret on your guitar. Similarly, if you divide the string into thirds, the first third of your string will be the 7th fret of your guitar. Known as the perfect fifth, this note comes from the remaining two-thirds of the string that vibrates. You’ll note these are natural acoustic sweet spots where harmonics ring out nicely.

Using Pythagorean tuning, the idea was that if you stacked 12 perfect fifths on top of one another, you would be on the same note you started on, just 7 octaves higher. Fast forward to the Renaissance and Baroque period, however, and we run into a big issue with tuning in perfect fifths.

The keyboard had been invented, and composers were making music on organs and harpsichords with multi-part harmonies and complex chords. When they tried to tune them using pure fifths, they sounded completely out of tune after a certain point.

Here’s the problem:

• Moving up 7 octaves: An octave is 1,200 cents, so you add 1,200 seven times in a row. That gives you 8,400 cents.
• Moving up 12 perfect fifths: A Pythagorean perfect fifth is 701.955 cents, so you add that twelve times in a row. That gives you 8,423.46 cents.

That’s a difference of just under 24 cents, nearly a quarter of a fret, which, as we discussed earlier, is a difference pretty much anyone can hear. Because we’re adding a set of even numbers against a set of odd numbers, there’s no way their paths would ever cross in order for them to align perfectly.

This gives us what is now known as the Pythagorean Comma. If you tune an instrument in mathematically perfect fifths using the string length, you will eventually overshoot the octave and sound out of tune. It also affects the tunings of other intervals, like thirds. Don't worry, though; humans will solve this problem in a few thousand years.

Two solutions, one problem

As music evolved throughout the years and became more complex, musicians started to encounter this issue with tuning in 5ths. There were a few solutions to this.

India & the 22 shrutis

Ancient Indian music mapped the octave out into 22 ‘Shrutis’ somewhere around 200BCE and 200CE. This comes from the Natya Shastra, a treatise on the performing arts which was highly influential in the evolution of Indian music.

Keeping it to stringed instruments, a great example of this approach is the Veena, a relative of the sitar. Unlike the fretted instruments of the West, the frets on a Veena weren’t glued into the neck; they were tied on or attached by wax. This meant players could move them to wherever they needed to suit the microtones and scales of the piece they were playing.

Indian classical music is also notable for another feature of microtonality: string bending. Western stringed instruments used gut strings, and these bent so easily they were unpredictable. They could stretch out of tune, and the low action of instruments of the time also contributed to the difficulty with accurate string bending.

The frets on a Veena were curved and made from metal, allowing players to bend the strings into those spaces in between the notes. They also were well above the neck wood, like you’d find on a scalloped guitar neck. This allowed players of the time to bend up to five semitones from a single fret.

Here’s a great example of bending a 'meend' on a sitar:

The Arab world and the Maqam

In the Middle East, musicians took a different approach entirely. The Maqam came about gradually, evolving from the Islamic Golden Age, when scholars began translating Greek texts of Pythagoras. Less a scale and more a set of rules to follow, the Maqam tells the musician which notes to emphasize and how to phrase a sequence, but it’s more based on improvisation than rigid rules.

Safi al-Din al-Urmawi, an Iranian musician, encountered the same problem that Western musicians did with the Pythagorean Comma. Middle Eastern musicians went along a different path, though, choosing to keep stacking perfect fifths, ending up with a 17-tone system. To play these microsteps, they relied on instruments like the oud, which allowed players to hit all the correct notes required in a 17-tone system.

Al-Urmawi’s system meant that a whole step wasn’t two notes as we have with the 12-TET system. Instead, a step was broken down into three unequal micro-steps. To envision this on your guitar neck, imagine you’ve got 17 frets, but they’re all spaced out differently. Some would be closer together, and others further apart.

These frets would equate roughly to 90 cents, 90 cents, and 24 cents on a modern guitar neck. This concept still exists today in the Baglama (or Saz), a traditional Turkish instrument, which, as we’ll find out, is one of the major influences in microtonal guitar music of the modern age.

The oud goes to Europe

There’s one other important subject we need to touch on in order to fully understand microtonal music, and that’s the oud. The first ouds were around in the 8th century and were fretless instruments, which were needed to play the Maqams of the time using the 17-tone system. This allowed players to hit those microtones and execute vibrato and slides that mimicked the sound of the human voice.

The oud was introduced to Europe during the Moorish occupation of Spain beginning in 711CE. Europeans loved the instrument, but as mentioned earlier in the article, they wanted polyphony. If you’ve ever tried to play a chord on a fretless instrument, you’ll know it’s incredibly difficult to keep the whole thing in tune.

To get around this, they took thick pieces of gut string and tied them around the neck of the oud to create frets. This allowed them to play chords, but took away the microtonal capabilities of the oud. They also took the Arabic name ‘al-’ud’, which became the Spanish ‘laud’, French ‘leut’, and is how we ended up with the English ‘lute’.

The lute was popular for a time, but Western musicians didn’t love the deep body, which made it difficult to play standing, as well as preventing hard strumming. So instrument makers began flattening the body and pinching the waist, creating a shape that was much more recognizably close to today’s acoustic guitars.

This gave us the vihuela and the Baroque guitar. Over time, tied-on gut frets were replaced with metal ones, and strings that were grouped in courses became the six single strings we know today.

The 12-TET system

The 12-tone equal temperament system (12-TET) is the answer to the Pythagorean Comma we mentioned earlier, and is still used in modern guitar playing today. To get around the issue of perfect fifths not matching equally with octaves, Western musicians realized they needed to divide the octave into 12 perfectly equal steps.

The idea works like this. We take all 1,200 cents of our octave and divide it into exactly 12 equal steps. Every fret on your guitar is exactly 100 cents from its neighbour all the way up the neck. Of course, the distances between the frets shrink as you move up, but if you get your digital calipers out, you’ll notice that the distance between the nut and 1st fret is exactly halved by the time you get to the 12th and 13th frets.

With this system, our perfect fifth, the 7th fret, lands at exactly 700 cents. Pythagoras’ perfect fifth was 701.955 cents. It’s very difficult to hear a 2-cent difference, so to our ears they sound pretty much the same. The major difference comes from when we move further up. Twelve lots of 700 cents is exactly 8,400 cents, so our 7 octaves and 12 perfect fifths now land in the same place.

Two solutions combine

Heading back to the Middle East, musicians began to realize that the 17-tone system was difficult to teach and incompatible with Western music notation, which had become the global standard. Thus, Arabic music was standardized into 24 equal quarter tones in the 19th century. This was just for notation; the actual notes of maqams still vary by region and player, but the 24-TET system is a Western approximation of the Middle Eastern system that allows the two to interact.

Back in mid-19th century Europe, Antonio de Torres Jurado completely changed the game by redesigning the Baroque guitar. He increased the body size, added bracing to the inside, and introduced the 650mm (25.6”) scale length. The 12-TET system became a permanent feature of the guitar as we know it today, and classical guitars still have this same scale length.

Once the 20th century arrived, composers began to try and break the rules again. Julian Carrillo had microtonal guitars and harps built specially for his Sonido 13 microtonal music theory. Alois Hába wrote microtonal music in Czechia, commissioning a quarter-tone piano to be built. Harry Partch built a 43-tone intonation system and a whole orchestra of instruments in order to play it.

Electronic music then made it cheap for anyone to start using microtones. Wendy Carlos designed her own non-octave scales, famously used on ‘Beauty in the Beast’ in 1986. In Turkey, classical guitarist Tolgahan Cogulu invented the adjustable microtonal guitar with frets that slide in channels so it can be set up for maqams, 24-TET, or any other kind of microtonal tuning.

Microtonal music today

Somewhere around 2014, Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard bought a Turkish Baglama, which shared the lineage with the instruments al-Urmawi would have used back in the 1200s.

Enamoured by its sound, he got his luthier friend to combine the electric guitar with the baglama, resulting in the instrument we now know as the Flying Microtonal Banana. The rest of the band bought cheap guitars and retrofitted them with extra frets, resulting in multiple albums written and recorded in the 24-TET system.

Angine de Poitrine have taken this idea to a new plane. A double-necked microtonal guitar and a Boss looper pedal, alongside a look only a mother could love, have taken microtonal music almost into the mainstream.

Interestingly, we’ve essentially come full circle. Microtonal music was the norm in ancient times; it was categorized and systematized via mathematics, and now musicians are breaking down the walls again.

Is it a rallying cry for real music against the incoming onslaught of AI slop? Or a rebellion against music tuned and gridded to within an inch of its life? Maybe it’s just the natural progression that stems from an abundance and easy access to information for all, and our natural inclination as guitar players to experiment.

Whatever it is, hopefully this newfound popularity encourages more guitar players to experiment with sounds less popular in the Western hemisphere.

How to play microtonal music

Bending

Something that should already be within most guitar players' repertoire. We don’t think of it as microtonal, but the blues note, or quarter-tone bend, has defined electric guitar for a long time, and it’s a microtonal note. If you need assistance with this, do it with your guitar tuner engaged, and aim for the space halfway between one note and the next.

Slide

Using a guitar slide essentially turns your guitar into a fretless instrument. Every pitch on the string is suddenly available, giving you the same freedom that fretless oud players have. Try landing on these positions between the frets rather than sliding through them to add some maqam-style flavour to your licks.

Detune a single string

Some clever folks on the internet have realized you can play some of Angine de Poitrine’s music on a regular guitar by detuning a couple of strings by a quarter tone. Example video below:

Pitch-shifting pedals

Any pitch shifter that gives you a treadle for continuous movement can be used to create microtones. Not every pitch shifter or octave pedal lets you do this, but those like the Digitech Whammy, or the EHX Pitch Fork and Boss PS-6 paired with an expression pedal, can help you unlock those in-between sounds.

Microtonal guitars & necks

Due to the Angine hype, you can now preorder microtonal guitars on the Eastman Guitars website. They also have necks you can stick on a guitar you already own, and even a double-necked instrument similar to what everyone’s favorite Quebecer duo uses.

Most good luthiers will also be able to turn any regular guitar into a microtonal one by adding new frets in between the existing ones. This is how King Gizzard got hold of multiple microtonal instruments, and it is a great way to repurpose an old guitar you're not using anymore.

You can also purchase custom microtonal necks on Etsy from JLJInstruments.

Top microtonal guitar tracks

Totally new to microtonal music? Here are some top tracks and interesting videos to get you started.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Angine de Poitrine

Julian Carrillo

Harry Partch

Jon Catler

Brendan Byrnes

Tolgahan Çoğulu

Today’s Quick Tip is for intermediate and “pro” guitarists who are always looking for more cool ways to embellish basic chord shapes and spice up their rhythm playing.

Instead of always playing a low F chord as a standard 1st-position barre chord across all six strings, consider not barring it and instead using the 6th-string thumb fretting technique to form the shape illustrated in FIGURE 1.

Doing this offers you two benefits:

1) It’s often more convenient and comfortable to not have to rotate your wrist to form the full F barre chord shape when playing a progression of mostly open chords.

2) As shown in the example, this non-barre fingering allows you to easily toggle between F and Fsus2, which is a beautiful and very musical way to embellish an F chord, in the same way many players do with C and Csus2 (see FIGURE 2).

Countless guitarists have used this technique and the F-Fsus2 embellishment to decorate and add melodic interest to their chord playing.

A well-known example can be heard in the intro and verses to Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, where guitarist John Frusciante creates a melodic chord riff by first using his open B string to play Asus2 to Am, then uses his open G string with the thumb-fretted F grip to play Fsus2 to F.

Another noteworthy example can be found in the intro and verses to Fleetwood’s Mac’s Go Your Own Way, where guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, using a capo at the 5th fret, plays the Csus2 to C then Fsus2 to F, using the shapes illustrated in FIGURE 2.

As I demonstrate in the video, by using the thumb-fretted, non-barre F grip, you can embellish the F chord with pull-offs and hammer-ons to and from the open G string to A at the 2nd fret to create elegant-sounding, James Taylor-like sus2 decorations to your chordal accompaniments, in the same way many players will often do with D and Dsus2 or with A and Asus2.

Note that, by not barring the 1st string in the thumb-fretted F or Fsus2 grip, you can add an open high E note to it to sound a beautiful, full-sounding Fmaj7 voicing, or Fmaj7sus2, as demonstrated in FIGURE 3. Or you could barre only the B and high E strings with your index finger to get a full F chord, with the same six notes as the conventional barre chord.

Keep in mind that sometimes the chord you are to play in a given song is simply F and not Fmaj7. So be mindful not to gratuitously add that “color” tone where it’s not needed or wanted.

As guitar players, we rely on shapes and patterns – consciously or not. This includes both scales and chords. Some chord shapes are described as ‘movable’, meaning they can be relocated to anywhere on the fretboard with predictable results.

Conversely, others – usually shapes including open strings – are not described in this way, implying that they only work in one position.

Regular readers will know that we frequently test this imaginary boundary by taking such shapes and moving them to different positions, often with surprising and pleasing results.

In this case, rather than starting in a conventional position then moving the shape, we’ve gone straight to a non-standard position – hence the term ‘recycled’.

The shape looks familiar, but the sound is not. Sometimes this can result in a complex-sounding name, but if we’re inspired by the sound this is just a detail. Coincidentally, three of these are add2 chords, so clearly this isn’t always the case.

Example 1. Fmaj7add6/A

By moving an Amaj7 up a fret/semitone, we get this jazzy Fmaj7add6/A chord. The name can be distracting – and there are other ways this could be approached, perhaps A with an augmented 5th and a sus4?

But what’s important is the sound: Jimmy Page appears to have thought so when he used this chord in Ten Years Gone.

Example 2. Fadd2

By recycling a C major shape and moving it to the 8th position, we get this Fadd2 courtesy of the G on the open third string.

If we were to allow the high E/first string to sound, this could add a maj7, too, but we’ve opted to keep things a little more concise for this example.

Example 3. Fadd2

Another take on Example 2, this is also an Fadd2 but with an extra high C (the 5th) added on the first string. We’ve sacrificed the sixth string for this, but we get a chord with extra detail in the high end.

Steve Howe moves this shape around to great effect during the ‘Würm’ section of Starship Trooper by Yes.

Example 4. Cadd2

This recycled G shape gives us this Cadd2 when moved to the 8th position. This chord has found its way into the songs of Supergrass, The Pretenders and Rush.

For clarity on the name, an add2 means that the 3rd of the chord (in this case E) is present. In sus2 chords, the 3rd is replaced by the sus note.

Example 5. E7

Taking a B7 chord and shifting it to the 7th position gives us this jangly E7. While we can’t think of an obvious example of this one in use, there will be a song out there somewhere…

The open second string (B) fits in here perfectly, giving us the 5th of the chord.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Kim Thayil and Jimmy Page know that imperfection can be an important aspect of guitar playing with emotion. They understand that something technically incorrect can be something different when executed correctly. Learning the basics and practicing technique is essential, but once you know the rules, you have the power to twist and bend them in your own unique way.

The idea of making a mistake on purpose can be applicable to all aspects of your playing – vibrato, timing, even the notes you play. Amongst the guitarists who execute this are Alex Lifeson, Jimmy Page, John Frusciante, Jimi Hendrix and Kim Thayil.

For a specific example, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden is known for bending to notes outside the key he is soloing in. Although this is harmonically incorrect, it did help shape his sound and the overall grunge movement during the early 1990s.

Another time period to demonstrate this is the early blues sound of the late 1800s-1920s. This is where history began to see an alternative guitar style develop. Bending notes, loose time and sliding inbetween pitches were some of the first signs that guitar players were developing their own musical vocabulary.

Fast forward to the birth of rock music in the early 1960s–1970s. Its purpose seemed focused on feelings of exhilaration. Feedback, aggressive string bends and unpredictable improvisation would become the new standard among rock guitarists.

The story of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is an amazing ode to what embracing imperfection can result in. During a work accident, the Black Sabbath guitarist cut off the tips of his fingers, forcing him to alter his approach to the guitar. His solutions to his injury – very thin strings, drop tunings, and simple riffs – would double as the foundation of heavy metal.

History has proven that when a guitarist leans into imperfection, the result can be nothing short of revolutionary. Through this article, you will learn alternative techniques and philosophies that will hopefully inspire your own unique approach to guitar – and who knows what that could lead to…

Example 1. Imperfect vibrato (3:05 in the video)

Imperfect vibrato refers to an alternative vibrato style that was popularized by BB King and then developed later by guitarists like Kim Thayil. The approach produces a tight, fast vibrato that can sound a little frenzied, blending vertical and horizontal finger movement, sometimes without the thumb on the back of the neck.

To customize this vibrato, consider how to marry the vertical and horizontal motions. For example, you could use horizontal (along the string) motion before pulling the string downward at the end of the note, creating a sharp, inbetween note (think either side of a 1/4 tone bend).

Since many listeners can detect a stylised note/unique note during melodic phrasing, this subtle sharpness can prove expressive without being too jarring.

Example 2. Hitting the wrong note with pizzazz! (5:48 in the video)

Playing wrong notes when soloing is often to be avoided but it can have merit. Importantly, they can be turned into a moment of interest, rather than a glaring mistake that makes you embarrassed. There's truth in the saying 'you’re only a half step away from the right note' meaning you can use these brief 'wrong' moments to provide anticipation before resolving to a note within the key you’re playing in.

A guitarist who executes this wonderfully is Kim Thayil. When soloing, he bends to notes outside of the key, plays incorrect passing notes, and even performs small licks in entirely different keys.

But (at least to my ears), it all sounds amazing due to his ability to resolve each phrase with confidence and build motifs throughout his solos. In this example, you are going to practice these three approaches to hitting the wrong note with pizzazz.

Example 3. Quickly Resolved Chaos (7:40 in the video)

For this example, you are going to hit all of the open strings then resolve with a bend. Your goal should be to make the open strings sound as chaotic as possible, creating a stark contrast to the single-note bend.

This technique was often used during Jimi Hendrix's live performances (and later by Gary Moore), putting audiences in a trance due to how unique it sounded. It's the equivalent of a vocalist gulping in air (the noise) before blasting out a strong sustained note (the resolution).

A tip to guarantee you maximize this approach is a strongly distorted guitar tone – the louder and messier, the better.

Example 4. 1-3-5 will keep you alive (10:22 in the video)

To be wrong well, it's important to know what correct is. When soloing, you can play wrong notes that don't sit well against a chord (or chords) as long as you resolve to strong notes that are from the key you're playing in. This way, the imperfections will sound calculated.

The correct notes can most easily be played using the root, third, or fifth note of the chord (or probably the key) you’re playing in.

Welcome to the notion of “1-3-5 will keep you alive.”

These three notes are the foundations to every chord so will always be safe to play. For example, if you're playing over a C major chord, the notes C (the 1 or the root), the E (the 3rd) and the G (the 5th) are the required notes to hone in on.

Below shows one way to ascend the fretboard while playing the 1-3-5 of a G chord. These notes being G (root), B (3rd) and D (5th). If you spend time knowing the fretboard then beauty can be aligned to your playing's developing anarchy.

Enjoy making your mistakes on purpose!

Prior to embarking on an unplugged tour, Cardinal Black guitarist Chris Buck decided he needed a really good acoustic guitar. He chose a lovely used Atkin OM37, but there was one slight hitch: it needed a pickup system. After doing some research, Chris decided on LR Baggs HiFi Duet and asked me to fit it for him.

Although some of the procedures are specific to LR Baggs, much of the work required applies to acoustic pickup systems in general. The HiFi Duet comprises two pickups and a small electret microphone, all of which attach to the bridge plate. There’s also a control unit with an internal preamp and an output socket that doubles as a strap button.

Holey Moley

The scariest procedure in most acoustic pickup system installations is making and/or widening holes in the body.

The first hole I’m referring to is the one that often needs to be drilled through one end of the saddle slot to install an under-saddle piezo pickup. Thankfully, there’s no need to do so with this system, but some under-saddle pickups require an angled hole and care must be taken not to drill through the X-brace.

Most pickup systems have the output socket mounted through the tailblock and that usually means widening the strap button hole to around 12.5mm or ½ inch. Loading a ½-inch bit into your drill and just going at it is dangerous because the bit will most likely bounce around before it gets a grip and chip the finish.

Granted, the Atkin is reliced and that takes some pressure off, but I’m sure all but the most ardent anti-relicers can agree there’s a difference between tasteful ageing and damage.

To avoid the latter, my advice is to use a step cutter because they’re easy to get hold of, inexpensive and ideal for the job. I bought my first set from the ‘middle of Lidl’ several years ago and they’re still going strong.

The existing strap-button hole will help to guide the step cutter and the hole should get incrementally wider while retaining a crisp edge.

Once the step cutter has opened up the outer part of the hole to the required diameter, I swap over to a regular drill bit of the same diameter to continue through the tail block. If you can get your arm inside, try pressing a scrap chunk of wood up against the tailblock to minimise tear out and don’t forget to vacuum out any debris.

LR Baggs suggests fitting the output socket assembly after installing the pickups and before the microphone. Given all the messing around inside the body needed to install the socket, I decided to fit it first, rather than risk knocking the pickups off the bridge plate.

The entire socket assembly is threaded and a cover screws onto the inside end to protect the solder joints. A nut fixes it in place, and both can be adjusted to match the depth of any tail block so that about a millimetre of the wider threaded section protrudes outside the body.

It may take a few attempts to get it just right, but you can make things simpler by placing a long screwdriver or a piece of dowel through the hole that’s thin enough to enter the socket.

You can use this to guide the socket assembly through the tailblock hole and slip over the first washer with the wider aperture followed by the second one, which goes over the narrower threaded section.

The small nut goes on next and, once it’s finger tight, you can push an Allen wrench through the holes in the narrow threaded section to prevent the assembly from turning as you fully tighten the nut. Lastly, the outer collar/strap button is screwed on to cover the small nut and washers.

Fixing The Bug

LR Baggs specifies a minimum ¾-inch of bridge plate in front of the bridge pins for mounting the sensors. I used my phone camera to look inside the Atkin’s body and found there was just enough space to mount the pickups. After ensuring the surface was smooth and free from glue, I gave it a wipe down with isopropyl alcohol as instructed.

Speaking of instructions, none are included with the product, but you can scan a printed QR code and follow the link to a video demo explaining the installation procedure. Like other LR Baggs pickup systems, the HiFi Duet comes with a jig for aligning and installing the pickups.

This comprises a clear Perspex plate and two pairs of rods. Each pair of rods has a different diameter and you should choose the pair that is closest in diameter to your guitar’s pin holes. The rods mount onto the plate and can be adjusted to align with the outer pin holes before you tighten them up.

The short end of the rods are placed through the outer pin holes, and the pickup positions should be aligned with the saddle with the leadout wires running between the top E and B pins and the low E and A pins. They are then temporarily fixed to the Perspex plate using small sticky pads that are stuck over the LR Baggs logo.

If you’re feeling confident, you can peel off the adhesive pad coverings and go ahead with the installation. I chose to perform a dry run before exposing the adhesive to assess the difficulty of getting the rods to go through the pin holes. It turned out to be fairly easy and I just went ahead with the installation.

After pressing the pickups firmly against the bridge plate, the alignment jig can be pulled clear leaving the pickups in situ.

Power Stations

It’s suggested that this is a good juncture to test that everything is working before installing the microphone. In order to do that, the pickups must be connected to the control unit and the battery pouch must be installed so the system can be powered up.

To make battery changes easier, the pouch is secured by Velcro so it can be taken in and out. The conventional location is up against the neck block, but you should ensure that the pouch doesn’t obstruct truss rod access. For this guitar, I decided to put the pouch in sideways, rather than upright.

The control unit has a moulded notch to clear any braces placed in the vicinity of the soundhole. If the braces are unusually thick, it may prevent the control unit from attaching firmly, so you need to find out if it will fit and identify the best position. I had no problems finding a workable location and I used low-tack masking tape for a visual reference.

After connecting the battery, pickup and output wires, I peeled off the adhesive pad coverings and stuck the control unit under the soundboard. I put the strings back on the guitar, tested it through an amplifier and everything worked as it should with an even string-to-string balance and a strong output level. The strings were then removed once again to install the microphone.

Final Hook Up

Installing the microphone is done by feel, rather than jig. It’s positioned between the two pickups, and the leadout wire passes between the D and G bridge pins. When positioning it, try to leave sufficient space for the ball-ends of the strings. The microphone cable must also be connected to the control unit by feel, but again it’s not tricky at all.

The final part of the installation involves tidying up all the cables that are loose inside the body. Pliable metal hooks with adhesive pads are provided and LR Baggs is very generous with both the hooks and spare adhesive pads.

In fact, if you store all the spares in the box, you’ll be able to transplant the entire pickup system to another guitar if you ever decide to. I have also seen identical metal hooks at B&Q if you need more.

I prefer to partially pre-bend the hooks prior to installation because it makes it easier to gauge when the wires are in position. After all, this is yet another part of the installation that is done by feel. I placed the first hook just behind the bridge plate and used it to secure the pickup and microphone wires.

Although some fix the hooks to the soundboard itself, I prefer to keep that to a minimum. Instead, I attach the remaining hooks to the side just under the kerfing, with the second hook placed as far inside the body as I could reach to retain the output wire.

The third hook was positioned on the bridge side of the waist to grab the pickup, microphone and output wires, with a fourth on the other side of the waist. The object of the exercise is to ensure that there are no loose cables inside the body that can rattle about and create unwanted noises.

Plug & Play

When testing the sensors without the microphone installed, I had noticed that I was still getting signal when the mixer control was fully set to ‘Mic’.

That’s because the mixer also acts like a crossover to attenuate the pickup’s highs while retaining some of the low-frequency content to beef up the tone in microphone mode.

The mic level control provides additional tone shaping and, overall, the system delivers a dynamic and natural acoustic tone that’s pleasingly devoid of piezo quack.

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An often overlooked aspect of playing guitar that many beginners aren’t aware of is the importance of silencing the open low E string when moving from an open Em chord to an open D chord, or from E to D.

In most cases, you do not want to have that ringing open low E note “lingering” into the D chord because it will sound dissonant, muddy and sloppy, as the note does not musically “agree” with those that make up the D chord (D, F#, A), especially in that low register.

Check out FIGURE 1, which has us changing from Em to D a couple of times. If you look at the fretboard frame for the D chord above the tablature, you’ll see that the low E and A strings each have an “X” above them. That signifies that those two strings are not to be included in that chord voicing.

A hollow circle, on the other hand, indicates that the string is to be played open, and a black circle indicates where a string is to be fretted, such as at the 2nd or 3rd fret, with the fret-hand finger indicated below.

So, the open D chord is officially only on the top four strings, with the open D string being its low root note. However, inadvertently sounding the open A string, or allowing it to linger from a previous chord, such as Am, doesn’t sound bad at all, as A happens to be a chord tone of D major – its 5th – and the open low A note can add warmth and “fatness” to the chord voicing, which is sometimes desirable. But not the low E note. That just sounds like doo-doo under a D chord, with all six strings ringing.

When you pick an open string, it will continue to ring for a while unless you actively stop it from vibrating. This can easily be accomplished by lightly touching it, a technique known as muting, or dampening. One way to do this is to lightly touch the low E string with the tip of your fret-hand thumb, briefly hooking it around the top side of the neck at the 2nd fret as you form the D chord shape with your fingers.

Alternatively, you could mute the low E string with the palm of your pick hand, a technique known as palm muting (indicated in guitar music by the abbreviation P.M.)

While palm muting “after the fact” like this achieves the objective of muting the string, it could in some cases disrupt the flow of your strumming. So I recommend using the fret-hand-thumb muting method first and foremost, to help ensure a smooth, flowing change from Em to D, or E to D.

Another commonly committed error beginners typically make is they inadvertently strum their open low E string when playing an open C chord, which in the vast majority of cases should only include the top five strings, as opposed to the rarely used C/E (“C over E”) chord illustrated in FIGURE 2. Again, note the “X” over the chord frame for C and the “O” over the frame for C/E.

An effective way to prevent your low E string from sounding or vibrating sympathetically when playing an open C chord is to lightly touch it with the “paw” of your fret-hand ring finger (3) as it frets the C root note on the A string’s 3rd fret.

Doing this will ensure that the chord sounds pleasing and proper and allow you to strum a little more loosely, casually or aggressively, without having to worry about accidentally grazing the low E string with the pick because, even if you do, the string will remain silent.

One of the great benefits of playing 7- and 8-string guitars in various tunings is that they continually inspire me to discover cool and unusual chords and voicings. A great example of this is the song Keep Sweet, which I recorded with Spiritbox for 2025’s Tsunami Sea.

For this track, I play a 7-string guitar tuned to drop-A, transposed down a whole step, what’s often referred to as “drop-G” tuning (low to high: G, D, G, C, F, A, D). This is not a tuning I use often, but it turned out to be perfect here.

Figure 1 illustrates the song’s initial, primary riff. This part is not played very fast and is fairly easy to navigate. The tonal center for the song is B minor (concert key of A minor, due to the whole-step-down tuning transposition), and I begin with an unusual B5b6 chord voicing on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings, which requires a finger stretch between the 9th and 5th frets (allow your wrist to rotate as needed).

As shown in Figure 2, The G note sounded on the 4th string serves as the b6 (flatted 6th) above the foundational B5 chord and lends a dissonant and somewhat atonal quality to the chord.

I then shift to a bassline-like riff on the 7th string that includes a whole-step bend from B to C# at the end of bars 1, 3 and 5. At the ends of bars 2 and 4, I play D5 power chords that set up the return to the top of the phrase. After playing bars 1-4, bars 1 and 2 repeat and are then followed by the second ending (bar 5), which culminates with natural harmonics (N.H.) sounded at the 5th fret of the 5th string.

The key to playing this song well is to have clear separation between the dissonant B5b6 chords and the consonant D5 power chords. Additionally, when playing the B octave notes at the 2nd fret on the 7th and 5th strings, you want to keep them separated.

The trickiest part of playing this riff is transitioning smoothly between the D5 chord and the B5b6. This is highlighted in Figure 3. Strive to keep the transitions clean so that each chord will sound sharply defined.

Figure 4 shows the riff I play during the first verse. In bars 1-6, I shift between referencing the chords D5, A5 and B5, starting with full power chord strums and then following with arpeggiated chords and two-note voicings.

In bars 7-9, I outline Bm and A chords with arpeggios and, on beat 3 of bar 10, make brief reference to Asus4, followed by a 5th-fret natural harmonic on the 5th string, ending the phrase with an open low A note.

I like to present “themes” as I structure the guitar parts for a song. In this case, the initial theme is based on the contrast between B5b6 and D5, and the second theme is the balance between B5 and A5. Another theme is the reiterations of the whole-step bends on the 7th string, which serve to tie the riffs together.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

In this column, I’d like to talk about guitar playing as it relates to songwriting. And as every guitarist knows, it’s all about the riff!

All great riffs have that instant allure that immediately captures the listener’s ear and attention. This is true in every style of guitar-based music. Songs like (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Purple Haze and Walk This Way are all great examples of the power of the almighty riff.

I wrote a song called Let It Burn for our 2017 album, Like an Arrow, that is built from a simple, catchy riff based on an open G chord. It all started, as is often the case, during a soundcheck. I was playing a Fender Telecaster or Esquire, and I said to our late drummer, Brit Turner, “Hey man, play the ‘train’ beat!”

I began playing Figure 1, which became the main riff in Let It Burn. With my fret-hand in a 3rd-position G chord shape, I begin by repeating the low G root note in a syncopated, punctuated rhythm, followed by oblique bends and releases on the G and B strings.

In these bends, the note on the G string is bent while the note on the B string remains stationary. These bends are followed by single-note riffs based on the G major pentatonic scale (G, A, B, D, E).

We jammed on that for about five minutes, setting up the “runka-runka” feel of typical Chuck Berry-style rock and roll. I then went home and put the verse section together by singing over the G5 - G6 rhythm part. As shown in Figure 2, I moved from the rock and roll figure to a ringing C/G chord, and then back to the runka-runka part.

This is how I began to put the lyrics and melody together, and a song evolved from the initial riff idea. This prompted me to map out the first half of the verse section, shown in Figure 3.

The alternating G and C/G chords in bars 1-5 led me to the D5 - C5 - D5 in bars 6-9. At that point, I felt that it’d be great to bring in some kind of harmonic twist. When it comes to mixing rock and roll with the unexpected, in my opinion, the three of the greatest bands are Rockpile, NRBQ and, of course, the Beatles.

I thought, “What would they do?,” and came up with the musical curve ball shown in Figure 4. Starting on the relative minor chord, Em, I arpeggiate the chord and then chromatically drop (descend) from the E root note to D#, D and C#, resulting in the progression Em - D#aug - G/D - A9/C#.

The verse section then wraps up with a return to rock and roll in Figure 5.

All of this set up the chorus, and I now had my story; the protagonist in the song’s lyrics had had enough of this town and wanted to see it in his rearview mirror, and, preferably, on fire, so the vocal line is, “Let it burn!”

Figure 6 illustrates the end of the chorus section, which balances the rock and roll approach of the D5 - D6 chord movement with a heavier Bb - F figure in bar 2, which then brings us back to the intro.

Now that all the elements were there, I had to put on my arranger/producer hat and give the song some order and structure and sharpen the picture so that it would work as effectively as possible. And herein lies the balance between initial inspiration and a completed, fully realized song.

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A great way to devise a creative and unusual rhythm part is to superimpose a variety of triads over a static one-chord vamp. As you may know, a triad is a three-note entity that, in its most universal function, represents a specific type of chord.

The most common types of triads are major – built from a root, major 3rd and 5th – and minor – built from a root, minor 3rd and 5th.

When playing over a one-chord vamp, that chord represents a key center from which many different triads can be built.

Let’s begin with a simple, funky rhythmic vamp built on an A7 chord, as shown in Figure 1. This is a repeating one-bar pattern that starts with hammer-ons on the A and G strings, followed by syncopated accents on the top four strings.

You could just play different voicings and inversions of A7 over this groove all day long and it’ll sound great.

But the way to get the most out of this approach is to recognize A7 as a chord derived from the A Mixolydian mode (A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G), which is the fifth mode of the D major scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#).

This means you can use all of the scale’s triads – D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C#dim – to discover new rhythm patterns to play over A7 that are even more colorful and interesting.

Figure 2 illustrates the triads Em (E, G, B) and F#m (F#, A, C#) played on the top three strings alongside the A7 chord voicing. If you know your triads on the neck, you can devise some really cool rhythmic ideas.

For example, Figure 3 demonstrates Em and F#m triads played on the D, G and B strings before moving over to the top three strings.

Figure 4 offers an example of utilizing the F#m and Em triads over the funky A7 rhythm part.

Notice that the triads are strummed in syncopated 16th-note rhythms and shift smoothly from one to another via finger slides. Figure 5 switches things up by ending with a dyad/single-note type of riff.

In Figure 6, I branch out from minor triads by including some triadic inversions: on beat 2 of bar 1, I bring in a 1st-inversion G triad (G, B, D), sounded with B, the 3rd, as the lowest note. On beat 3, I include a 2nd-inversion D major triad (D, F#, A), with A, the 5th, on the bottom.

​As you can see, these options provide more sounds than does simply riding on voicings of A7. There are Em and F#m triad shapes to be found all over the fretboard and on different string groups, so be sure to explore every area of the neck to discover where these triad shapes reside.

As long as we return to our key center of A7, we have some cool options to explore. In Figure 7, I incorporate some chromatic movement between G and A triads to bring in another variation.

Look to map out all of the voicings of the aforementioned triads that live within the D major scale and try to find inventive ways to move between them when playing over a static A7 vamp.

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Among all the great blues guitarists, Buddy Guy holds the crown as the most expressive when it comes to playing solos with rhythmic variety. In particular, he’s got an uncanny knack of drifting away from the band’s time, particularly in a slow blues, where there’s more space to play with. Clipped notes, sustained vibrato notes, quick-fire note bursts, accelerating repetitive licks and moments of silence: these and more have become his beloved rhythmic trademarks for blues soloing.

One of my favorite eras of Buddy’s is the mid-to-late ’60s, and this encompasses albums such as I Left My Blues in San Francisco (1967), and A Man and the Blues (1968), as well as his incredible work with Junior Wells. There’s something special about this period, where his playing was cleaner, and yet more raw-sounding. He was considerably ahead of his time.

And don't forget his renowned tone: neck and middle pickups on a Strat (legend has it that he originally taped his three-way selector to get the sound). I’ve gone for this pickup position in all the examples, with some mild breakup on the amp. He has also used neck and (especially) bridge positions, so feel free to experiment.

All of the examples are in C# major. This is perhaps an unusual key for guitar players but one that Buddy has enjoyed playing in over the years. The benefit of this key is when you’re using minor pentatonic shapes 1 and 2, you're in the middle of the fretboard, so bending and vibrato is easier. But it’s rhythm that we’re really going to dig into, so let’s get into it!

Match My Sound: play-along enhancements

For this lesson, we've partnered with MatchMySound to offer the ability to record yourself and see how close you are. MatchMySound is a great tool to help track your progress.

Click on the word 'options' (lower left, below the tab/notation) to select from 'demo audio track' (just guitar), 'backing track' (just the backing), 'full audio' (backing and real guitar audio) and 'metronome' (just a click to play along to).

Below that, select 'options' for how you can record your performance.

At the upper right, the magnifying glass images let you alter the playback speed for learning and pushing your playing onwards.

Follow the cursor to keep up with the tab/notation accurately on screen.

Lastly, to view the music better by filling your desktop/tablet/phone screen, click on the square brackets at the top right.

Buddy Guy rhythmic examples

Example 1a - On the grid time feel

Before you explore playing around with time or playing ‘off grid’, it's important to be able to play on the grid, showing you can synchronise with the band. In a 12/8 blues groove, most players gravitate to underlying groups of three (played on the hi-hat on the backing).

In this example, this is evident but also there are fast pull-offs that come from a smaller 12-note grid. Even though you’re playing with different rhythmic groups here, notice that almost every line begins on one of the strong beats.

Example 1b - Shifting the rhythm

Buddy Guy is about vibe and spontaneity rather than precision. This extends to some of his string bending as well as his timing. Here you're shifting some of the lines to either side of the strong beats as this will make your phrasing sound less predictable. Experiment with the speed and placement of the faster pull-offs.

With repeating licks like this, it’s worth making it sound more conversational and expressive, as opposed to being completely uniform.

Example 2a - On the grid time feel

One of Buddy’s trademark ideas is using pedal note bluesy double-stops. He does this with thumb and first finger (or you could use hybrid picking as I’ve done in the video), which means you can easily achieve wide intervals that jump strings.

On this first ‘on the grid’ version, view the whole phrase as a classic blues call and response line.

Example 2b - Off the grid time feel

Here you're letting go of the grid. The ‘dragged’ sound should feel a little lazy in the picking hand as this will give you a behind the beat feel. The second half of this line includes a ‘4 over 3’ grouping that’s common in slow 12/8 blues.

Don't overthink this, as aiming for precision can often ruin the effect. Just as with harmony, you can create considerable tension with rhythms like this, with a feel good release when you hit the final note.

Example 3a - On the grid time feel

Buddy loves to milk simple blues phrases over time (and often over an entire 12-bar solo). Here you’ll start off with a typical pentatonic lick that’s grouped as six notes per beat.

As before, the bends can be loose in terms of tuning (anything from a ¼ note to a ½ note bend will sound good). The first finger bend is a Buddy Guy trademark but it can be tricky: explore bending towards your face rather than towards the floor, as it can feel easier to do.

Example 3b - Elastic/bungee time feel

The notation can be a little bit daunting here but all you’re going for is a “start slow and soft, then gradually get faster and louder” vibe. As with the previous example, the release of tension will be at some future point – ideally when the chord changes.

Again, it’s not about precision. You can put the brakes on if you feel yourself going too fast, but if you end the line too early or late it doesn’t really matter. For added expression, try picking close to the bridge for a spikier sound and vary the dynamics from whisper quiet to loud.

Example 4 - Putting it all together

In this longer 12-bar solo all of the previous ideas are put together so you can see the examples are interchangeable over different parts of the progression. There are also some extra Buddy-isms, including the ‘catch bends’ in bar 2.

Normally, the fretting fingers push a lower string out of the way during a bend up, but here you can allow the fingers to be slightly flatter to push onto the second string. It’s got a glorious out of tune sound that’s worth getting into your playing (you can also hear where the great SRV got this from).

This line resolves in bar 3 with the second finger bending down from F# to E# for a sus4 to major 3rd sound that Buddy was fond of using. You're also being more explicit with the harmonic change to the V chord (G#7) during the turnaround by playing notes from G# minor blues, rather than C# (this is another trick that SRV loved to use).

Buddy Guy in action

Damn Right, I've Got The Blues

Here are two live performances by Buddy Guy of one of his most famous songs, Damn Right, I've Got the Blues. The first is from 1994 and he's in full showman mode, bursting with enthusiasm and sporting a rich neck pickup overdriven amp tone. His searing string bends, on-grid/off-grid rhythmic phrasing and shredding speed bursts are nothing short of stunning.

The second performance is from 2019 and while he's slightly less animated here, his soloing displays gorgeous string bends and expressive vibrato. His rhythmic phrasing is masterful as he weaves around the band's feel with sustained notes and dragging lead licks.

A big challenge for anyone starting out playing the guitar is training their fret-hand fingers to memorize the proper placement on the strings to form various chord shapes, so that the notes ring clearly when strummed.

I’ve seen many beginner students struggle to form open chords cleanly and accurately and switch from one chord to another in a timely manner, meaning in a prescribed rhythm, such as every two or four beats, at a steady tempo.

A simple, effective exercise to address this technical issue is to practice switching back and forth between any two chords at a relaxed (fairly slow) tempo, holding each chord for a few beats or just a single beat. Ideally, this should be done along with a metronome or while tapping your foot in steady quarter-note beats.

For example, practice moving back and forth between open G and C chords repeatedly (see FIGURE 1). Start out with easy whole-note rhythms, holding each chord for four beats while counting “1, 2, 3, 4.” This gives you a good amount of time to mentally get ready for the next chord.

Do this a few times then “double-up” the rhythm to half notes, for which you’ll hold each chord for only two beats before changing to the next chord. This is more challenging, as you now have half as much time to mentally prepare for the next chord change.

Do this at least a couple of times, then double-up the rhythm again, to quarter notes, now changing chords on every beat, which, again, is twice as challenging. Doing this will help ingrain the movement into your brain and fingers.

A couple of things to keep in mind when performing this chord changing exercise:

1) Try to hold the chord for its full prescribed duration before moving to the next chord. I’ve seen beginner students strum a chord that’s supposed to be held for four beats (a whole note) but “let go” of the shape too early, on beat 4 or beat 3, in order to give their fingers more time to get ready to form the next chord shape “on time.”

This is a bad habit. You should strive to not cheat a rhythmic value out of its full duration. Try to hold the chord as long as possible, letting go of the shape “at the last second,” which is sometime during beat 4, such as on the eighth-note upbeat (on “4 and”).

2) When changing from one chord to another, make a point of setting your fretting fingers down onto the strings together, at the same time, not one at a time, which is another bad habit I’ve seen beginners fall into; doing that ultimately ends up slowing you down mentally and physically.

The fingers need to learn to move together as a team and “stick the landing” in tandem. This is the only way you’ll be able to keep up with the tempo. Try applying this exercise to any chords you’ve recently learned. Doing so will help to quickly establish the neurological connections between your brain, fingers, ears and eyes.

Here’s another example. Toggle back and forth between Em and Am (see FIGURE 2). Or do the same thing with Em and D, Em and C, G and B7, or any other newly acquainted chords that you want to quickly get to know, in terms of muscle, visual and auditory memory.