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.

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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.

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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.

Starting in 1996, Guitar World was honored to publish a handful of lesson columns authored by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The following column, from our April 1997 issue, has been edited for use online.

A mature musician exercises restraint when the situation calls for it. In other words, what you don’t play is just as important as what you do. It actually takes more discipline to stick to an ostinato (repeating) figure for eight or 16 bars than it does to throw in gratuitous fills that don’t necessarily add to the music.

There are times, however, when playing a high melodic figure is most effective. The key is to know when to walk and when to run, or when to “stomp” and when to “noodle.” I’d like to illustrate this concept by citing a few contrasting examples of bass (and keyboard) parts I’ve played, and explain why I chose to play what I did.

First, let’s look at Trampled Under Foot, from Physical Graffiti. For the main verse figure in G minor, I simply stayed on the low G root note and locked in with Bonzo [John Bonham]’s kick drum. I also took this same “four-on-the-floor” approach with the clavinet part. The lesson here is: don’t mess with a great groove.

A fine example of a tune that epitomizes both approaches – “hard” and “soft” – is The Song Remains the Same, which we looked at briefly in one of my previous columns.

For the D-Dsus4 parts I played a tight, punctuated bass figure together with the drums. But when it came to the “floaty” part (:36-:42), where Jimmy Page quietly strums Dm9 and G13 chords, I played a lofty melodic run high up on the neck using the D Dorian scale.

The slow part of the tune (the half-time verse section) also illustrates these contrasting approaches. After hitting the big kicks (C-C-G) with Page and Bonzo (2:02), I played a descending scalar figure (F# Mixolydian) and then an ascending arpeggio (F) behind Page’s jangly F#7-Fmaj7 changes.

For most of Kashmir (Physical Graffiti), I played rather straightforward and repetitive bass and Mellotron keyboard parts. The only exceptions were the sinuous “Arabian string symphony” Mellotron parts I improvised during the two choruses. If you listen to the recording, you’ll notice how those string melodies move independently of the rhythm of the underlying groove.

In quite a different vein is Ramble On, from Led Zeppelin II. Behind Page’s two-bar chord vamp during the verse sections, I repeated an upper-register bass counter-melody that ended up becoming one of the more memorable parts of the tune.

I took a similar approach in What Is and What Should Never Be (Led Zeppelin II), but with a bit more variation. Playing in this sort of casual, melodic way seemed like the best thing to do at the moment, considering the fact that Jimmy’s part was so simple and subdued (E9-A13 chords).

Notice on the recording how well all the parts mesh during the verse sections, especially the bass and drums, and how everyone comes together in locked-step fashion for the chorus.

The main point here is that when it comes to playing music, there’s a time and a place for everything. Listen carefully to the overall sound of the rhythm section, and make wise, unselfish decisions as to what you should play at any given moment.

Approaching every arrangement in terms of opposites or contrasts between different sections – loud vs. soft, loose vs. tight, floaty vs. busy – will ultimately make your music more interesting.

The old adage is ‘a good song can stand on its own played on acoustic guitar’. But is it really that black and white? A specific chord voicing can make a significant contribution to the feel of a song.

For example, if the Beatles’ The Fool On the Hill started with a regular D major, rather than D6, it would definitely lose something. The common thread linking together all the examples in this lesson is that they are what we might call a ‘deluxe’ alternative to the regular major and minor chords we hear every day, particularly on acoustic guitar.

Another thing they all have in common is the use of open strings, even if that’s just a single string. Acoustic guitar chords always seem to jangle and jump out of the mix better when they feature open strings.

Finding voicings that do this in keys such as F and Bb can be a challenge, so the examples are aimed at some of these less obvious keys. Chords that stray from the mainstream can really make a big difference!

Example 1. Bm(add11)

This B minor omits the usual barre at the 2nd fret, so we get this nice ringing E at the top. If this were a Bm7, we’d call it a Bm11. However, there is no 7th (A), so we refer to this as a Bm(add11). It can go wherever a regular B minor goes if you fancy a change.

Example 2. F#m11

This F#m11 is another that would normally be a barre chord, but instead we’re making use of the open first and second strings to give us an 11th (B) and 7th (E) respectively.

The root note (F#) on the sixth string is optional, but it’s a nice finishing touch. Try using your thumb (Hendrix style) or a spare finger if you’re feeling nimble.

Example 3. C#m7

This C#m7 adopts similar thinking to Example 2, using the open first and second strings to add a jangly extension at the top. In this case we’re adding the 7th (B) on the second string and the minor 3rd (E) on the first. Moving this shape around the fretboard will also give a few more useful ideas.

Example 4. Bb6

This Bb6 isn’t the most jangly of the examples, but it does give us a nice alternative to the regular Bb. As in Example 3, you can move this shape around for some nice variations. You can also get a Bbm6 by shifting from the 3rd to the 2nd fret on the second string.

Example 5. Fsus2/C

F can sometimes sound a bit ‘blocky’ when used together with other open position chords. This version leaves the third string open for a sus2 voicing (over C).

This can be used instead of F major or F minor. You can also leave the first string open to add a major 7th. You could potentially add in the Root (F) at the 1st fret of the sixth string – if your thumb will comply!

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

The foundation of virtually every genre of modern, guitar-driven music is the blues. I’m known as a blues-rock player, and even within the rockier side of my music, I always start and end with the blues.

For example, if I’m playing in the key of F, I will very often rely on melodic single-line figures that originate from my love of and time spent listening to single-note blues guitar improvisation.

Figure 1 illustrates five bars of improvised soloing that are very vocal-like. I begin in the 6th-position “B.B. box,” which positions the index finger on the F root note on the B string’s 6th fret. The surrounding notes – D, G, Ab, Bb, and C – make reference to both the F major pentatonic (F, G, A, C, D) and F minor pentatonic scales (F, Ab, Bb, C, Eb).

Bars 2 and 3 shift up the board to focus more on F minor pentatonic, but at the end of bar 3 into bar 4, I move from F major pentatonic back into F minor pentatonic. Switching between these two scales is a staple of blues guitar that I learned from listening to all of my heroes: B.B. King, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and many others.

With that familiar ground firmly established, it feels like a natural transition to broaden the harmony into other modes. In Figure 2, I add the notes Gb and Db to F minor pentatonic while substituting the major 3rd, A, for the minor 3rd, Ab.

The result is the F Phrygian-dominant mode (F, Gb, A, Bb, C, Db, Eb), which is the fifth mode of the Bb harmonic minor scale (Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, A), made up of the same seven notes. In bar 3, I move back into blues territory with a phrase based on F minor pentatonic.

I’ll begin most solos with lines rooted in the blues, even if it’s not a blues song. I learned that from Eric Clapton; I saw an interview where he said, “I always start with the blues.” You will certainly hear great examples of this in his recordings with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and Cream.

To my mind, it’s not just about the scales; it’s about the phrasing and how tactile you are in your articulation and execution. The thought process is, which notes should sting, which notes should moan, and how can I effectively express emotion.

Figure 3 picks up at the fourth bar of an improvised phrase, kicking off with an F major triad (F, A, C). This is a good example of how a triad can function as a “stepping stone” when moving from one phrase or area of the neck to another.

In bar 5 and into bar 6 of the figure, I lean a bit heavier into the gas pedal with fast phrases inspired by another one of my big influences, Eric Johnson.

I’ve found it very useful to have built a foundation in the blues, which helps me to move into broader musical territory. Next month, we’ll explore this further.

• The Spirit of Rory Live From Cork is out now via J&R Adventures
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

One worthwhile thing every beginner guitarist should learn is that there are two different useful fingerings for an open G chord, as shown in FIGURE 1.

Either can be more advantageous, depending on what chord you play immediately before or after G. The guiding principle is to use the fingers that are closest to where they need to be for the next chord, or the previous one. In other words, it’s all about where you’re coming from and where you’re going.

For example, when switching from G to C, or from C to G, as shown in FIGURE 2, use your ring and middle fingers to fret the bottom two notes of each chord and have them do a small, tandem “bunny hop” to the next higher or lower string.

This “3-2-4” fingering for G, with the ring finger (3) on the low E string, the middle finger (2) on the A string and the pinkie (4) on the high E string, makes for a convenient, efficient transition from G to C and back, with minimal motion of the fingers and wrist. The key is to move economically from chord to chord.

Now, if you’re switching from G to D, or from D to G, it makes more sense to use the “2-1-3” fingering for G, with the middle finger on the low E string, the index finger on the A string and the ring finger on the high E string (see FIGURE 3).

This fingering officially puts your hand in 2nd position and requires less movement when changing from G to D and back, as an open D chord, fretted with the first three fingers, is also in 2nd position.

Oftentimes, you’ll find yourself playing a progression that uses all three chords — G, C and D – in various orders, along with other chords. So, what do you do if you’re playing G - C - D - G? Or G - C - G - D - G? Use whichever G-chord fingering works best at any given moment. Sometimes you’ll end up using both fingerings within the same song, which is totally fine!

The 1st-position 3-2-4 fingering for G is the more commonly used one, as it works best when moving to and from other 1st-position chords, such as Am, Em, E or F.

There’s also this commonly used four-finger open G chord, which is considered a different voicing of G, with a D note on the B string’s 3rd fret instead of the open B note (see FIGURE 4).

This chord shape has been used to great effect in countless songs, such as Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Poison’s Every Rose Has Its Thorn and Wonderwall by Oasis (with a capo at the 2nd fret).

Get to know all three open G chord fingerings well, so that you’ll have the technical facility to rock out on a variety of progressions and songs!

Before we start, let me qualify that the ‘four notes’ part of this lesson’s title refers to four fretted notes (E, F#, A, B), plus whatever string bends I can use to squeeze more out of them!

This is an exercise in getting a lot out of a little, inspired by the likes of Albert and B.B. King and Peter Green. If you’ve never tried this before, it’s really surprising to discover how much we rely on patterns and shapes when we’re playing – and this can potentially be at the expense of thinking melodically or rhythmically.

A slow blues like this example is the ideal way to experiment with such minimalism, not because it’s easy, but because it’s so challenging! We’re really exposed here… One thing that isn’t particularly emphasised here is the use of space. But just as Albert King advised Gary Moore to play “every other lick”, we should consider each phrase and try to put ourselves in the place of the listener.

We encourage you to ask yourself questions such as: am I using enough rhythmic variation? Am I always starting or finishing on the root note? and so on. The idea isn’t to completely disregard the vocabulary and chops you’ve already developed, but rather to, ultimately, put you more in control of them.

The nature of the guitar does make it tempting to rely completely on the patterns and shapes we’ve discovered over the years and not venture outside of them. This can lead to us becoming a little jaded about our own playing. But a four-note blues such as this one is a great way to break out of that cycle.

As you play through the examples here, consider other details such as bends, vibrato and slides. Recording our playing and listening back later with an objective ear is also enlightening. I hope this approach is useful and see you next time!

Example 1

This first example makes use of short staccato notes and contrasting longer held ones. Though all these examples are transcribed as faithfully as possible, there is a little bit of ‘push and pull’ in the timing, which is to be encouraged.

One of the things great players such as Albert King, Jimmy Page and B.B. King have in common is that they don’t always play squarely across the beat. It’s also a good idea to check out the rhythmic phrasing of other instruments, or even vocals, to see if there are any ideas worth stealing.

Example 2

Making use of the note groupings on the fretboard, this second example begins with a few doublestop-type ideas. There is potential to space these out more or play with the rhythms, but that didn’t seem the best use of the space available here.

In the following bar, there’s a tone and a half bend from B up to D, the only way we can get this note without breaking our self-imposed ‘four-note’ rule… The pre-bend to C immediately afterwards follows the same rationale.

Example 3

Another tone-and-a-half bend here – it was really tempting to just play a G at the 12th fret, but that’s not in the spirit of this idea! Also, Albert King and David Gilmour are no strangers to this type of bend, and it does force us to concentrate on the pitching, which can’t be a bad thing.

As mentioned earlier, do experiment with pushing and pulling against the beat. None of this is written in stone.

Example 4

Having held a note over from the end of Example 3, we’re rejoining the action here with this Albert (or perhaps B.B.) King-style lick. Another wide bend up to D leads to a quick shift in hand position.

This allows for changing the fretting hand fingers around, giving the strength to bend the E at the 9th fret of the third string up rhythmically up to F#. This finally lands back on the E to finish.

Hear it here

Albert King – Various

Albert’s solos are a masterclass of economy and wild string bends. This is partly facilitated by his unusual tunings and ‘upside down’ playing orientation, but there’s no reason why we can’t take lessons from this to use in our own playing.

Check out Born Under Bad Sign, the version of Oh Pretty Woman where he duets with Gary Moore, and Laundromat Blues to get a taste of how he creates excitement and dynamics without moving far around the fretboard.

B.B. King – Various

Another player who wasn’t afraid to leave space and didn’t feel compelled to play long complicated runs was B.B. King, who maintained that his objective was to play simply and honestly – in his words, “like never lying”.

Check out his sparse phrasing on The Thrill Is Gone, Don’t Answer The Door and Why I Sing The Blues. It’s also worth pointing out that B.B. felt it was important to improvise and play from the heart, rather than rehearse his licks.

Peter Green – Various

Revered by players as diverse as B.B. King and Gary Moore, Peter brought a finesse to simple lines that reached players and non-players alike.

The tracks most people know are Need Your Love So Bad and Albatross, but it’s worth investigating a little more deeply to find gems like Long Grey Mare, A Fool No More and Apostle.

It’s often said that the primary objective of solo guitar playing should be to benefit the song; Peter certainly seemed to agree with this.

In this lesson, I’d like to share a cool way to add harmonic color to a melody played over a dominant 7 chord, and that is to play a minor 7 arpeggio that’s rooted a 5th higher. To demonstrate, I’ll use Dm7 arpeggios over a G7 chord.

D is the fifth note, or degree, of the G major scale. When playing in the key of G, a D major chord is the V (five) chord, and a D minor chord (Dm) is the Vm (five minor, alternatively indicated by a lowercase v).

Figure 1 shows a 3rd-position G7 barre chord, as well as the individual notes that make up the chord – G, B, D and F. G is the root, B is the major 3rd, D is the 5th and F is the minor, of “flatted,” 7th (m7, or b7).

Figure 2 illustrates a Dm7 arpeggio, built from the notes D, F, A and C. Relative to a D tonal center, D is the root, F is the minor, or “flatted,” 3rd (m3, or b3), A is the 5th and C is the minor, or “flatted,” 7th (m7, or b7). But when you play these four notes over a G chord or G bass note, D is heard as the 5th, F becomes the minor, or “flatted,” 7th, A is the 2nd, or 9th and C is the 4th, or 11th.

Figure 3 begins with a descending riff built from these notes that sounds great over G7. In bar 2, I initially ascend a Dm7 arpeggio and then end the phrase with a descending line that’s based on the G minor pentatonic scale (G, Bb, C, D, F) with the inclusion of the major 3rd, B.

To me, it always sounds pleasing to resolve the Vm7 (or v7) arpeggio to a bluesy line based on the tonic or home key. For example, in Figure 4, the Dm7 arpeggio is moved down to 2nd position and begins on the 5th string, and is followed by a G minor pentatonic line.

A good way to practice incorporating Dm7 arpeggios over a G7 chord is to set up a G7 vamp with a looper. Figure 5 illustrates a simple, funky vamp based on a repeating G7 voicing, with a hammer-on from Bb, the minor 3rd, to B, the major 3rd, each time.

A typical tried and true approach is to play straight blues over this vamp, like the riff in Figure 6, which is based on G minor pentatonic.

Now, let’s kick off the line with a Dm7 arpeggio and then hand off to G minor pentatonic. In Figure 7, I begin with the straight Dm7 arpeggio then end the phrase with a lick based on G minor pentatonic.

Next, we’ll try moving the concept to different areas of the fretboard. In Figure 8, I begin in bars 1 and 2 with a Dm7 arpeggio in 10th position.

In bar 3, I move down to 7th/8th position for the arpeggio and then wrap up the line with G minor pentatonic in 3rd position. Bar 5 starts with Dm7 in 2nd position then gradually shifts up to 6th position, before once again resolving the line to G minor pentatonic in 3rd position.

As you can see, starting on a Vm7 arpeggio and then resolving to the tonic with a more conventional blues phrase sounds really cool and satisfying and offers a great way to add harmonic depth to your solo improvisations. Try doing this in different keys.

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

Welcome to the world of Manuel Gardner Fernandes, the guitar virtuoso from German metalcore masters Unprocessed. In this band, Manuel is a stunning representative of the new wave of chops-heavy guitarists (think Tim Henson, Plini and Tosin Abasi) impressing guitar fans around the world with their new music and social media content.

These players combine elements of '80s rock virtuosity (legato, tapping, speed picking) with newer math/prog elements such as slap bass articulations, extended use of legato/selective picking phrasing and application of harmonics. It makes for a heavy and impressive brew of sonic wizardy, be it with crisp clean tones or thick saturated distortion.

While his five chosen techniques here are advanced, especially when performed at fast tempos, Manuel has been considerate enough to demonstrate and explain them clearly. Certainly, a key tip is to start slowly when initially tackling each example yourself.

The first technique is fast strumming. This involves using a lot of dead notes (percussive muted notes). To achieve these, simply lay your fretting hand fingers lightly across the strings without pushing them down on the frets. Manuel demonstrates the strumming directions and we have written these in the tab for reference.

The second technique is hybrid picking (pick and fingers). Manuel likes to use the pick for downstrokes and then adds in the picking hand's second finger (shown as m under the tab) and third finger (shown as a under the tab). This makes playing adjacent strings and wider string skips a lot easier. Using the fingers to pluck the strings also helps the notes to sound percussive, like the sound of a slapped bass. Again, Manuel walks you through the order of picking.

The third technique is tapped harmonics, created by tapping the string directly above the fretwire. This works especially well when tapping 12 frets above the fretting hand's note. So if you are fretting a note on the 1st fret, it's the 13th fret that needs to be tapped.

We recommend starting with just one finger of the tapping hand to get dialed into the technique (the second finger - m - makes most sense so you can still hold the pick conventionally). Then it’ll be possible to add in other fingers of the tapping hand to increase the facility.

Manuel's fourth technique choice is his James Hetfield-inspired downpicking. For the fast flourishes, he advises a snap of the wrist as opposed to using the whole of the strumming arm.

The final technique is inspired by players like Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders. Manuel refers to this as 'selective picking' and involves picking a note and then tapping/hammering-on other notes with the fretting hand. If these techniques are combined with light palm muting, stunning percussive guitar parts can be created.

Many thanks to Manuel for his time and creativity and be sure to check out the latest Unprocessed album, Angel.

Example 1. Percussive strumming

This example uses percussive strumming to create a fast and impressive latin/flamenco-esque performance. The picking pattern for the fastest rhythm is down, down, down, up, down, down.

Manuel strums some great-sounding chord fingerings that make effective use of the open strings. Start slowly and then build up speed, as you emulate the pattern and feel it dialing in.

Example 2a. Hybrid picking riff

This example is inspired by the sound of slap bass players and uses hybrid picking. The pick is used to play the notes on the sixth string with a key part of the sound being the muted notes.

These are produced by laying the fingers of the fretting hand lightly on the string and then picking it. The notes on the fourth string are plucked with the second finger (m), and the harder these are plucked, the more it will sound like a slap bass.

Example 2b. Hybrid picked lick

Here, Manuel elaborates on the benefits of hybrid picking by playing a fast lick that uses natural harmonics.

To produce the harmonics, lightly rest your fretting hand finger directly above the fret (wire) indicated in the tab. As the note is plucked, the fretting hand finger can be lifted to release the harmonic.

Example 2c. Hybrid picked chord

Here is another exciting way to exploit the benefits of hybrid picking. The picking pattern here is three down picks followed by a second finger (m) pluck.

Example 3. Tapped harmonics

This next example is tricky and may take a little experimentation to get right. The harmonics are created by tapping the string directly above the fret. This works especially well when tapping 12 frets above the fretted note.

We have notated the fretting hand positions in the tab (diamond encased fret numbers) and then the tapping positions above the tab (eg TH15 = tap a harmonic at the 15th fret).

For this example, the tapping positions can always be found 12 frets above the fretted hand. We recommend using just one finger of the tapping hand at first to get used to the technique. Add other fingers of the tapping hand when you're more comfortable.

Example 4. Down picking

This next example is inspired by Manuel’s love of James Hetfield's playing. All the notes are down-picked or hammered onto. This makes the example relatively easy to play at slow tempos. As with all the other examples, add the speed in once the technique is perfected at the slow tempo.

Example 5a. Selective picking and hammer-ons

This final technique is inspired by guitarists like Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders. Manuel refers to this as “selective picking”, which involves picking a note and then tapping notes with the fretting hand.

We recommend using a light palm mute for the open B note on the second string. Once you get this dialed in, vibrant percussive guitar parts can be created.

Example 5b. Selective picking with chords

To finish off, Manuel adds in more tapping positions all over the fretboard to create a pleasing chord progression.

Hear it here

Unprocessed - Deadrose

This contextualizes a couple of the techniques covered in this article. The introduction and verse sections feature a part created with fast arpeggios played with the tapping harmonics technique. This is followed by some of that fast snappy strumming. Towards the end the down-picking technique is used to play a percussive, heavy riff.

Unprocessed - Perfume

This is taken from the latest Unprocessed album, Angel. The introduction uses fast chord arpeggios played with the hybrid picking technique featured in Example 2c. The second finger and third fingers of the picking hand can get involved. This makes playing adjacent strings at speed more economical and also provides some variety in the tone.

There comes a time in every guitarist’s life when you realise that no amount of new gear is going to make you a better player. Sure, buying a new pedal or upgrading your guitar can be creatively inspiring, but that will only take you so far if your technique is lacking or you’re not practising the right things.

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Although the 7-string guitar is my go-to instrument for virtually all of the music I write for Spiritbox, there have been instances where I was inspired to expand my range to 8-string guitar.

Even though I’m not all that familiar with the 8-string, I look at it as a cool tool that can enable me to compose riffs that are lower than anything else I’ve ever played.

To that end, I used an 8-string to come up with something powerful, to serve as the opening track to our 2025 album Tsunami Sea, Fata Morgana. We’ve been opening our sets with this song for the last year, and it has proven to be a fantastic way to kick off the show.

The 8-string tuning I use here is standard 7-string tuning down a whole step, and the eighth string is tuned down to a very low B. So, low to high, it’s B, A, D, G, C, F, A, D. In this tuning, I can play a B octave with the open 8th string and the B at the 2nd fret on the 7th string, using what looks like a power chord.

Figure 1 shows the song’s primary riff, which revolves around that low B octave figure sounded along with the tritone, F, sounded at the 3rd fret on the 6th string.

In bars 1-6, I alternate between this Bdim(no3) voicing and a high natural harmonic (N.H.) sounded between the 2nd and 3rd frets on the 7th string, notated as 2.4. In bar 4, I sound natural harmonics in this same position across the top seven strings with a quick upstroke rake.

While lightly resting a single fret-hand finger across these strings at the theoretical 2.4 location, I drag the pick in an upward motion, resulting in an aggressive “scrape” sound.

To me, the articulation of the Bdim(no3) chord needs to create a specific type of bloom wherein all of the notes morph together in an effective way. It needs to sound warm, heavy and disgusting! This is achieved by positioning the pick-hand with a slight amount of palm-muting while striking the strings in just the right place, which is above the bridge pickup.

At the end of bar 6 into bar 7, I play a series of big two-and-a-half-step bends on the 8th string, moving between the 4th and 3rd frets. Figure 2 offers a look at these bends and releases.

Proper intonation of these bends is essential; as shown in Figure 3, the notes we are looking to sound are G#, followed by a half-step bend and release on G one fret lower.

The manner in which you strike the strings when performing these bends and releases is very important, in order to achieve the type of clarity necessary for the phrase to jump out. The way to attain the right sound is by picking very hard. This is also true for the natural harmonics, in order for them to properly cut through the mix.

Overall, focus on your pick-hand attack throughout, and strive for consistency in sound as you move from one pattern to the next.

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

Last month, I delved into the world of fingerpicking in the Piedmont/Mississippi John Hurt/Rev. Gary Davis/Blind Blake style, with a look at the basics of this technique.

As I detailed, it’s built around alternating-bass figures picked with the thumb in a steady eighth-note pattern while rhythmically syncopated melodies are fingerpicked on the higher strings.

A great example of this technique is heard on the Blackberry Smoke song Ain’t Got the Blues, from The Whippoorwill. I’d now like to continue covering this technique and demonstrate an unusual Csus2 tuning that opens up a whole new world of sounds and chordal possibilities.

This tuning was taught to me by my good friend Levi Lowery. He grabbed a guitar and strummed it, and I said, “What the hell tuning is that?” As he explained, it’s a slight variation on an open C tuning, which is Csus2.

As shown in Figure 1, start by tuning your A string down a whole step to G, your D string down a whole step to C and your low E string down two whole steps to C. Leave your G string as is.

Finally, tune your B string up a half step to C and your high E string down a whole step to D. Strumming all six open strings in this tuning yields a Csus2 chord, as shown in Figure 2. Since most of the strings are tuned down, you might want to put medium-gauge strings on your guitar to avoid it sounding like a mousetrap!

When Levi played in this tuning, he said, “You can just use one finger!” He used mostly barre chords on the bottom three strings while leaving the top three open, as demonstrated in Figure 3. He said, “There’s not a bad chord anywhere – everything works!”

I developed a fingerpicking pattern based on this tuning and came up with Azalea, which we recorded for our 2024 album Be Right Here.

As shown in bars 1-3 of Figure 4, I thumbpick alternating eighth notes on the open 6th and 4th strings below a syncopated melody on the higher strings.

In bars 4 and 5, I switch to Eb and F chords, for which I thumb-fret the 6th string and barre my index finger barres across the top three strings. The 4th string, tuned to C, remains open throughout.

Figure 5 illustrates the alternating bass pattern, after which the full fingerpicking pattern from Figure 4 is added.

Figure 6 focuses on the Eb and F chords formed with the thumbed bass notes on the 6th string and index-finger barres across the top three strings. The droning C note on the open 4th string ties the whole pattern together.

You might think you’re “stuck” in this tuning – surrounded by C notes – but there are other great voicings to discover.

Figure 7 shows the song’s bridge, which starts on the V (five) chord, G: these chord shapes are built from pairs of notes played at the same fret on the 4th and 2nd strings along with the open 5th, 3rd and 1st strings. In bar 3, the pattern resolves back to C.

It takes practice for this fingerpicking pattern to become second nature, so take your time with it. Start slowly and gradually increase the tempo until it sounds smooth and even throughout.

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

As a guitarist that plays a lot of blues, I find myself performing many different kinds of shuffles, from slow to medium to fast. One of my all-time favorite blues recordings is Steppin’ Out, as covered by John Mayall on Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. (The original version is by Memphis Slim and features Matt “Guitar” Murphy, of The Blues Brothers fame, on guitar.)

Steppin’ Out is a hard-driving medium-up shuffle in the key of G, and Clapton’s guitar playing on that track is just incredible. He plays with so much fire and creativity, as well as this distinctly youthful British exuberance.

Figure 1 is a two-bar phrase along the lines of the signature lick in Steppin’ Out. It’s played in the key of G and is based on the G minor pentatonic scale (G, Bb, C, D, F), with an abundance of quarter- , half- and whole-step bends on the G string.

I love the way Eric draws from his Freddie King influence, in terms of his melodic phrasing and articulation, as demonstrated in the pickup bar and bar 1 of Figure 2, into the Freddie-style reverse-rake “slurs” at the end of bar 2 into bar 3. Throughout the example, notice all of the subtle, expressive bends on the top three strings.

In bars 8-12, the melody and phrasing is so simple – just swinging eighth notes – but the lines are delivered in a way that is also a nod to the great T-Bone Walker, in the use of hammer-ons from the minor 3rd, Bb, to the major 3rd, B, as well as the inclusion of the 2nd, or 9th, A.

In bar 12 into bar 13, I switch to G major pentatonic (G, A, B, D, E), moving back into G minor pentatonic in bar 16. In bar 17, I play a series of D notes on the B string, all on the eighth-note upbeats, that are bent in increasing increments, ending with a one‑and-a-half-step bend that is shaken. In bars 19 through the end of the example, I move freely between G minor and major pentatonic ideas.

Clapton also loves to go up high on the neck and hit you with aggressive unison bends on the top two strings, a la the phrases that kick off Figure 3. This lick begins with F, at the 18th fret on the B string, bent up a whole step to G while a G note at the 15th fret on high E string is strummed together with the B string, ultimately adding aggressive vibrato to the unison bend.

The remainder of the example is played in the 15th-position G minor pentatonic box and features fast hammer-ons and pull-offs as well as vocal-like, wide and fast vibratos.

When soloing over a shuffle like this, it’s wise to hold back some ideas at first, so that you don’t play everything you know in the first chorus! Take your time, hold and shake some notes and let the solo build in a musically natural way. Follow your stream of consciousness and use dynamics to tell a musical story.

Just about every blues show I attended in the ’80s and ’90s started with an uptempo shuffle like Steppin’ Out, and the Mayall-Clapton version is a great vehicle for learning what blues soloing is all about.

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

Unless you're a complete beginner, Amazon's Prime Day sale isn't really the place to pick up a new guitar or amplifier. It is, however, an excellent opportunity to pick up essential tools for maintaining your instrument. I'm a regularly gigging guitar player, and I do all my own setup work. Playing in a punk band, my guitars get plenty of abuse, which means I often have to tweak them to keep them playing their best.

I’ve been doing this for about twenty years now, and over that time, I’ve accumulated a bunch of essential tools that I keep in a carry case that stays in my gig bag. It comes with me to every show, recording session, and rehearsal to ensure I’m always ready should the need arise to adjust. Since we’re in the midst of the Prime Day guitar deals, it’s a great time for you to get your guitar tool kit up and running.

Setting up your own guitar is a skill I think every guitarist should learn. I spent five years in retail, and I was shocked at how many people came in just to get their guitar strings changed! You know your guitar best, so unless you’ve got a major issue, I think you should set up your own instrument to get it playing exactly how you want.

Here are 8 essential guitar tools I can’t do without, plus a bonus 9th for those who are just getting started with setting up their guitars.

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In crafting the primary riffs for Spiritbox songs, I’ll often combine aggressively strummed, atonal power chords with fast single-note phrases and some hammer-ons and pull-offs. A good example of this approach is heard in Angel Eyes, from our 2023 EP The Fear of Fear.

I play this song on a seven-string guitar in the tuning I use most often, which is drop-A transposed down a minor 3rd, commonly referred to as “drop F#” (low to high: F#, C#, F#, B, E, G#, C#).

Angel Eyes is an unapologetically heavy track that’s pretty simple, in terms of the fret hand. It’s more of a pick-hand exercise, in terms of the rhythmic precision required to give the riffs the right amount of intensity.

Figure 1 shows the verse riff, which combines eighth- and 16th-note rhythms. In bars 1-3, I play palm-muted two-note chords on the bottom two strings, with the 6th string open and the 7th string fretted at the 1st fret. These two notes form a b5 interval (Bb and E), which has an atonal sound.

In bar 4, on beats 3 and 4, I perform a series of hammer-ons and slides on the 7th and 5th strings that roll into bar 5. I follow this with a pair of strummed natural harmonics (N.H.) on the top three strings, located a point a little ways past the 3rd fret, as indicated by 3.2.

I use a moderate amount of palm-muting here, so that the strings aren’t too choked. I like the notes to sustain a bit, which goes hand in hand with how much force I’m using while striking the strings. My suggestion is to pick really hard and dig in with the pick hand.

Figure 2 focuses on the quick hammer-on/slide phrase from bar 4 of Figure 1. I fret the notes on the 7th string with my index finger and the notes on the 5th string with my middle finger. To make the riff “pop,” I palm-mute the 7th string while allowing the notes on the 5th string to ring.

Figure 3 illustrates the chorus riff. In bars 1-4, after initially sounding the open low A note, I play Bb octave shapes on the 7th and 5th strings, followed by Bb octaves on the 6th and 4th strings, sliding up to the 6th fret on the 6th string each time. In bar 4, the phrase ends with a gradual whole-step bend at the 5th fret on the 6th string.

In bars 5-8, I drop the phrase down a half-step, sounding an A octave on the 7th and 5th strings, followed by additional A notes higher up the fretboard, including a fast slide up to the 12th fret of the 7th string.

The first seven bars then repeat, and in bar 9 of the example, I close out the phrase with alternating two-note b5 power chords on the bottom two strings, before restating the first two bars of the verse riff.

There’s a lot of string-skipping here. Strive to jump between the strings with economy of movement. The goal is to make the octaves sound as clear and seamless as possible. Try to keep your pick hand moving quickly and decisively throughout the figure.

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

Pinch harmonics are one of the most exciting and expressive sounds on the guitar. They can be used to add aggressive squeals to riffs and leads (think Billy Gibbons and Zakk Wylde) or produce different pitches off a single note for melodic application (a la Steve Vai and Eric Johnson).

Put simply, playing pinch harmonics involves a combination of the pick and the side of the picking hand thumb making almost simultaneous contact with a string during a down pick. There are many areas along a string that can produce a harmonic in this way, but they're commonly favored above the pickups which suits where the picking hand is naturally positioned when playing.

When starting out, sounding pinch harmonics can seem elusive. This is because you're aiming to combine the 'pick and side of thumb' technique while exploring exactly where the best harmonics are. Initially, you will find the process a hit and miss affair (especially if you're varying open strings and fretted notes) until you chance across a your first few successes.

This is part of the joy (and frustration) of playing them. Some will sound partially (often called semi-pinch harmonics), others will be bold and screaming. With a developing technique and armed with a distorted amp and the bridge pickup selected (a humbucker tends to be more fruitful than a conventional single coil), you will find where the juicy harmonic spots are along a string.

Over time, your ratio of 'squealers versus snifflers' with improve, allowing your guitar to scream at will more consistently.

Pinch Harmonics - getting them to squeal

To achieve a great pinch harmonic, angle the pick so after you pass the string, the side of the thumb can lightly make contact. This is all done as one movement that occurs very quickly. As for velocity, aim for medium to strong force when picking - harmonic screamers are less likely to happen with light contact.

Exiting the string with the pick may take some practice; while you want to make string contact with the thumb, you don’t want it to accidentally mute the string which will create a dead sounding note so watch out for this.

Examples

Example 1 - One open string to sound two pinch harmonic notes

This example shows the fundamental approach to pinch harmonics. The tab shows just a low E note played on the open sixth string but with two pitches in the notation.

Using the pinch harmonics technique, you will sound a low E and then a higher E by moving the pick's position from the neck pickup (shown as 'neck' above the tab) to the middle pickup ('mid' shown above the tab). Spend time experimenting with different positions until you find the sweet spots for clear E note pinch harmonics.

Example 2 - One open string to sound four pinch harmonic notes

Here, you will expand on example 1 by sounding four different notes: two different octaves of the E note as well as G# and B.

First practice locating your exact picking points so the notes all sound clear, then engage with the exercise so you can perform this within a specific rhythmic context.

Master these notes and you'll likely be astounded that you achieve so much without the fretting hand being involved at all!

Example 3 - Riffing with fretted note pinch harmonics

Here's a short riff incorporating the pinch harmonic technique applied to fretted notes. It is primarily based around E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, B, D), pedaling off the open sixth string.

The pinch harmonics in the riff scream out, resulting in a very dynamic and exciting delivery. Be sure to spend time perfecting the picking hand positions where you get the pinch harmonics.

At the end (bar 9) you will shift the position of the pick from the middle pickup to the neck pickup to sound different harmonic pitches on the open sixth string.

Example 4 - Soloing with pinch harmonics

Here's a short melodic solo that includes pinch harmonics to achieve different pitches. Those achieved with pinch harmonics help to underpin the accompanying chord progression and highlight chord tones.

Pay attention to achieving accurate 'squealers', playing a static note whilst moving the position of your picking hand to achieve a new pitch (the directives of 'neck' and 'mid' shown above the tab will help).

Example 5 - Whammy bar aided pinch harmonics

This explores whammy bar movements with pinch harmonics - ideally you'll have a guitar with a whammy bar that floats (ie it can both drop/doop and raise/scoop the strings). This combination is a favorite of Joe Satriani (eg Flying In Blue Dream, Ice 9).

To begin, perform a pinch harmonic on the open third (G) string. You will hold the whammy bar by reaching over with your fretting hand, depressing it just before you strike the pinch harmonic, and then raise it to achieve a high squeal. Use the tab as a guide and treat the pitches as approximate guides.

Example 6 - Pinch harmonics galore!

For your final piece, the earlier examples have been combined to create a short hard rock groove that mixes melodic phrases with pinch harmonics and stylistic squeals. For the latter, consider the pitches as a guide, whereas the melodic examples are more specific with the pitch and picking hand placement.

Bars 1-8 kick off with a Zakk Wylde inspired riff based around Em7, embellished with power chords. During the riff you'll see pinch harmonics performed on the third and sixth strings. This section repeats, with the final bar leading into the solo.

The solo starts at bar 9 with a single note figure that follows the chord progression. These are performed with pinch harmonics, picking at different points above the pickups to highlight chord tones derived from the accompanying chords.

Bars 12-13 feature a screaming string bend followed by a descending blues run. The piece finishes with a Satriani inspired, whammy bar enhanced pinch harmonic squeal. Enjoy!

Three rock legends that use pinch harmonics

Black Label Society - Stillborn

The riffs and solo to Stillborn really come to life with Zakk Wylde's searing squealers. Achieving strong pinch harmonics on lower strings can be demanding but Zakk makes them sound effortless.

To emulate him, use a bridge humbucker with a Marshall amp-styled distorted tone (he favored JCM800s for many years). For his lead tone, add a dash of chorus and stomp on a wah pedal (push toe down for the pinch harmonics - they'll scream even more due to exaggerated brightness).

After The Burial - Behold The Crown

Screaming pinch harmonics, low string pedaling and a deep distorted guitar tone form the riff from this modern metal stomper. Featured as the opening track for After The Burial's Evergreen (2019), Behold The Crown features Trent Hafdahl on guitar duties, showing how a great pinch harmonic technique can be pushed to consistently produce bold squealers!

Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) - La Grange

Texas Bluesman Billy Gibbons is arguably the godfather of pinch harmonics. His unique approach is more about digging into the note to see what squeals will come out, making his solos dynamic and organic.

Surprisingly, Billy doesn’t use a lot of amp gain, and is able to produce pinch harmonics with a clean-ish Marshall amp tone. La Grange includes excellent examples in the second solo: in places he’ll play one note but move his picking hand to different positions over the pickups, altering the pitches of the harmonics.

Most of us guitarists are perpetually chasing ways to raise our game. That is part of the fun, after all. But sometimes what we seek is already freely available, without studying music theory, learning scale/arpeggio shapes or drilling picking exercises.

I’m talking about the rhythm of what we play, which is arguably 50 per cent (if not more) of what makes phrases appealing and memorable.

If we feel we should be working harder, this is when we’re most at risk of overplaying, filling all the gaps and overcomplicating things (take it from someone who’s done it). Sometimes what feels good to play doesn’t translate to what sounds good to the listener, who may not play guitar or be wowed by rippling arpeggios.

If we listen closely to the greats, especially in this genre, you can hear that not only do they leave spaces, but when they do play, there’s a rhythmic signature to their phrasing.

For example, Clapton in Crossroads, Gilmour in Comfortably Numb and Peter Green in Black Magic Woman all have their own take on how they approach rhythms in the phrasing, giving a uniqueness while using the very same pentatonic shapes.

One thing that isn’t demonstrated explicitly here is the spaces in between. That would certainly be easy to transcribe (and read!), but ultimately not particularly helpful, so do bear in mind that even these examples are a concentrated version of what you might want to play in a real-life musical scenario.

The four phrases were played separately, but could be joined up to make a solo if you prefer. That being said, the fourth example is really an alternative take on Example 1, or perhaps a suggestion of how you might continue onwards in a similar style. I hope these examples are useful and enjoyable. See you next time!

Example 1

A quick rake leads into a contrasting held bend, giving a sense of space to start. Bar 2 then features some repeated triplets – feel free to pull back and play these late, you’ll know when you’ve gone too far.

Note the quarter-tone bends in bars 2 and 3. These are very subtle but add so much in terms of attitude. The final phrase crosses bars 3 and 4 – it’s a smooth bend/release leading to a quick flurry, similar in essence to the introductory phrase.

Example 2

Keeping with the triplet theme to start, this example then takes a leaf out of Peter Green’s book, especially in bar 3 where the rhythmic groupings feel as though they’re floating independently of the beat.

They aren’t really in this case, though the last four semiquavers do pull back in tempo noticeably.

This shouldn’t be set in stone, keep experimenting – you can always dial it back if you think you’ve lost the feel. The pre-bend with fast vibrato in bar 3 is another detail worth spending some time on.

Example 3

This rhythmic idea is similar to some of Eric Clapton’s phrasing during his solos in Crossroads. The rhythmic groupings are quite funky and you will want to use down- and upstrokes to aid with this.

Use this idea as a basis for further experimentation, rather than conforming precisely to any rhythm. There are no rules, but you can pick up some hints from watching the video. Also, watch for details such as quarter-tone bends, staccato/short notes and vibrato.

Example 4

An alternative opening phrase, or a suggestion for how things might continue, this example draws on David Gilmour’s phrasing from the solos in Comfortably Numb, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2) and Have A Cigar.

As with Example 3, it’s questionable how useful it would be to duplicate this exactly. This is more of a ‘feel’ thing, based around choppy/staccato or muted up- and downstrokes.

We finish with a classic pentatonic lick, the last note of which (D) holds, adding a slow quarter-tone bend after crossing into bar 4.

Hear it here

Eric Clapton – Crossroads

One of the details which makes Eric’s playing so appealing is his use of rhythm. Check out the solos in Crossroads and you can hear him experimenting – and really pulling against the beat at times. He can also be heard (in a more restrained manner) on the Bluesbreakers (‘Beano’) album a few years earlier.

More recently, he revisited this approach in Bad Love. Like anything, the rhythm is just a part of the picture, so often isn’t as blatant as some of the examples.

Albert Collins – Truckin' With Albert Collins

The Iceman himself, Albert used an unusual F minor tuning (low to high: F C F Ab C F) often with a capo at the 5th to 7th fret, which contributed to his sound, but that need not concern us too much here. All the same, check out Frosty from the 1969 album Truckin’ With Albert Collins.

On that same album, see if you can sit comfortably with the lilt between the guitar and brass on Tremble! Finally, have a listen to his playing alongside Gary Moore on his cover of Too Tired.

Peter Green – The Pious Bird of Good Omen

Peter’s manipulation of rhythms is perhaps the most subtle of the players cited here, but his rhythmic groupings on Black Magic Woman, Supernatural and Need Your Love So Bad demonstrate a free flowing ‘push and pull’ against the beat, with some unexpected pentatonic flurries that sound easier to play than they actually are.

All are great demonstrations of the use of space, plus you can hear the intention behind each and every note.

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

Throughout his playing with Ozzy Osbourne and his own band Badlands, Jake E. Lee created stunning riffs and solos that combined melodic blues-rock licks with fast shredding. But there is one technique that really made him stand out: his fretting hand versatility, which included using his thumb to achieve otherwise impossible stretches with fingers alone.

Using the thumb to play low notes was popularized in the late 1960s by Jimi Hendrix and a decade later by jazzer Pat Metheny, to name two guitar icons. But incorporating the thumb over the fretboard in conjunction with the fretting hand fingers for high strings is a much rarer technique. Using large note intervals and making difficult stretches possible are just two of the applications for this barrier-pushing technique.

The following four examples are inspired by Jake E. Lee’s playing with Ozzy during the mid ’80s. They can be used to increase your fretting hand stretching and stamina, as well as introducing the “thumb over the neck” fretting technique. All are in the key of E minor and make use of the E natural minor scale (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D) with some occasional chromatic passing tones.

These examples should be approached slowly and for short periods at a time. Angle the guitar neck upwards, and place the thumb in line with the second finger. For ideal posture, maintain relaxed and level shoulders to attain these stretches and avoid injury.

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.

The Four Jake E. Lee Examples

Example 1: six-note legato sequence

This starts with a classic six-note legato sequence popular with '80s and '90s shredders. It is phrased in triplets at three notes per click and introduces increasingly larger stretches to avoid a predictable scalar sound and provide a work out for all four fretting hand fingers.

If you are new to this technique, break the exercise down into four separate exercises based on what's played for each bar. After you've built some precision and stamina, aim to double your speed with six notes per click instead of three.

Example 2: two note extended pentatonics

Your second example uses a two note extended pentatonic approach, with stretches that decrease in size and have a distinct feeling of moving inward and relaxing, while also exercising all four fingers.

Pay attention to the notes on the second (B) string as they'e all picked as well as any notes that are played in multiple positions. Also watch where your fretting hand thumb sits on the back of the neck: keep it in line with your second finger for good hand posture.

Example 3: Using the thumb to fret higher strings

Here you are introduced to fretting with the thumb over the neck. Each bar uses a finer rhythmic subdivision so you can become comfortable with the technique. Aim to use the fleshy area adjacent to the outer side of your thumb.

If you've never used this technique before, be mindful that this will be uncomfortable at first as you get used to the posture and develop new thumb calluses. That said, you should notice how easy it is to play stretches over 7 frets (or more!) using this technique. Once you're comfortable with this, experiment with your own ideas.

Example 4: all three techniques used together

To finish, here's a short solo study that utilizes each of the three previous exercises. Choose a combination of techniques and approaches that suits you the best.

Jake E. Lee in action!

Jake's thumb on the fretboard technique

This shows Jake playing the solo for Ozzy's Suicide Solution. Using his thumb on a lower fret, he varies which fingers are used on the higher frets.

Jake uses his thumb here for chordal playing with a clean tone. This demonstrates how versatile (and freeing) thumb fretting can be.

When we talk about phrasing on blues guitar, this can often translate to rhythm. It’s possible to play a great solo without many notes if the rhythm is interesting.

Obviously, the same goes for rhythm parts – so the example piece concentrates on this area but using a hybrid ‘rhythm/lead’ approach favoured by John Mayer, SRV, Nile Rodgers and Jimi Hendrix, among others. Blurring the boundaries between the traditional distinctions of rhythm and lead guitar also serves a trio format well, and, as you’ll hear, the backing track consists of only bass and drums.

While we can be minimal at times, there is a responsibility (some might say freedom!) to fill the harmonic and/or rhythmic gaps. Not all blues is ‘funky’ per se, but there is a lot to be gained from understanding displaced/off-kilter rhythms, and this is what the example piece is designed to help you with.

A good starting point is to think of each beat in the bar as divided into four semiquavers. Initially, mute all of the strings then play alternating ‘down-up-down-up’ strokes, four per beat of the bar/16 to the whole bar. You’ll sometimes hear this described as a ‘1-e-and-a’ pattern.

Accent the first downstroke on each beat of the bar, then try moving the emphasis around, maybe to the ‘e’ or ‘a’ on the upstrokes. This is the basis of the approach used in the example piece, though you’ll notice I’m not playing every single semiquaver beat, even though my picking hand often goes through the motions.

Another thing to bear in mind is to keep it relaxed and don’t hit the strings too hard. This is an easy trap to fall into when playing tight staccato rhythms. Finally, remember you can mute with both picking and/or fretting hands to control ringing strings. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

Almost every bar is 'locked down' with a double hit on an A5 power chord and a more rhythmic answering phrase in the subsequent three beats.

This can often be a repeated phrase, but it’s more useful to show you a range of options in this context. Though the muted hits are notated as faithfully as possible, this is not an exact science, so allow yourself a little flexibility, rather than attempting to duplicate anything precisely.

Example 2

Moving to the IV chord (D), this second phrase plays around with the initial chord hits using a dotted rhythm. This is a bit of a liberty as the bass and drums stay with two straight quavers, but I think we'll get away with it...

Concentrate on the drums to aim your accents/pauses as precisely as possible, and note that not every 1-e-and-a’ space is filled, even if your picking hand does go through the motions to keep the timing.

Example 3

The C and D chords use a similar pattern in this final example. Note the tied/held chords going across the rhythm – slow the whole thing down if that helps make sense of what’s happening on the various subdivisions of the beat.

Like Example 1 (and 2), the muted hits should be played without over-thinking which strings you’re hitting – just make sure everything is muted and it won’t matter too much. For the last bar, it was fun to change to the bridge pickup and go for a rockier feel. This is optional!

Hear it here

John Mayer Trio – Try!

Recorded live, this album is a particularly great example of what a trio can sound like – and it was a major inspiration for the example piece, especially Who Did You Think I Was. Also on this album, check out I Got A Woman and Wait Until Tomorrow.

Bonus mention goes to Another Kind Of Green for combining Little Wing-type chordwork with a funky shuffle feel. There are a good many ideas waiting to be used here – it’s an ample source of inspiration!

Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys

Though he loved to overdub complementary rhythmic parts in the studio, Jimi was adept at making it work live, too. Check out out Freedom from The Cry Of Love for an example of his studio savvy, then compare with Who Knows from Band Of Gypsys to hear it live in a trio format.

Also, listen to Message To Love from the same album, with funky and unison riffing. This really makes the distinction between rhythm and lead guitar seem obsolete.

Nile Rodgers – Various

We’re going unapologetically funk for the last suggestion here – and Nile Rodgers is still the definitive example of a funk rhythm player. Check out his work with Chic: Le Freak, Good Times and I Want Your Love.

Alternatively, try Sister Sledge with Thinking Of You, We Are Family or Lost In Music. Elsewhere, why not check out I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross, or Get Lucky by Daft Punk. All these parts are based on the ‘1-e-and-a’ rhythm described earlier.

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A great way to break away from the typical blues soloing sound of pentatonic scales is to incorporate dominant 7 arpeggios into your improvised lines. As the name implies, a dominant 7 arpeggio is sounded by playing the notes of a dominant 7 chord, such as G7, C7 or D7, individually and in succession.

Let’s use the key of G as our point of reference: in Figure 1, a G7 chord is shown in 3rd position, followed by a G minor pentatonic scale (G, Bb, C, D, F) played in the same position.

What I often like to do, in order to create more interesting solo lines, is combine the notes of the minor pentatonic scale with those of a dominant 7 arpeggio, which, as you’ll notice, share three notes – the root, 5th and minor, of “flat” 7th.

Figure 2 illustrates a G7 arpeggio, built from the notes G, B, D and F. The first three notes give us a G major triad, and F is the minor, or “flatted,” 7th, which provides the dominant 7 sound. Figure 3 shows the same notes played in a descending manner on the lower strings.

Articulation devices like finger slides and string bends offer great ways to incorporate the dominant 7 pitches into phrases.

For example, Figure 4 begins with a series of slides into the notes G, B, D and F, all from a half step below, after which I finish the phrase with more typical blues lines based on the G blues scale (G, Bb, C, Db, D, F).

A great way to practice improvising with dominant 7 arpeggios is to loop a rhythm part then solo over it. Figure 5 shows a simple shuffle-based rhythm part that sits on a G7 chord.

Figure 6 sounds the notes of a G7 arpeggio played over the loop, first ascending then descending.

To some people, this is more of a “jazzy” sound; the reason for this is, as is often the case in jazz, the chord tones are emphasized when playing arpeggios. The inclusion of B, the major 3rd, in addition to F, the minor, or “flatted,” 7th, builds a strong connection to the harmony of the G7 chord.

Figure 7 offers a longer example of how to combine phrases built from the G minor pentatonic and G blues scales with G7 arpeggio shapes. Bars 1 and 2 emphasize the G blues scale, followed in bars 3 and 4 with emphasis on the major 3rd, B, which brings in the dominant 7 arpeggio sound.

In bars 5-8, I move back and forth between straight G minor pentatonic and blues scale phrases and the inclusion of the major 3rd, B, in order to bring the arpeggio sound back to the forefront. Throughout the remainder of the example, I move freely between the two approaches, striving for musicality in the way the different elements work together.

As you work with this dualistic approach, think of it as an ongoing hand-off between scales and arpeggios. Use your ears to discern the differences in the musical effects created and to inform your note choices.

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As discussed last time, open/alternative tunings are a great way to expand our chordal horizons without getting our fingers in a twist. However, we also mentioned that there are quite a few expansive voicings available without having to retune.

There’s no doubt that open/alternative tunings facilitate some unique sounds, but in a world where artists such as Davey Graham (who introduced us to the DADGAD tuning in the 1960s) plus Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards have all given their unique spin on multiple angles of this idea, perhaps exploring regular tuning is equally interesting!

The five examples are selected on a fairly random basis, but they could work together to create an interesting piece or accompaniment. It’s also worth mentioning that each example has the potential to yield some interesting variations, by shifting a note within each shape, or simply moving to a different position on the fretboard. The constant, if anything, is the inclusion of open strings.

Example 1. G#m9

This G#m9 is a little reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s jazzier moments (check out the 1980 Shadows And Light album), but no strings were retuned to create it! It’s important to mute the fifth string, but this can be a movable shape if you’re discerning. One useful idea is to shift it down a fret for a nice G9 chord.

Example 2. E5add9add#11

This E5add9add#11 (yes, that really is the simplest way to describe it!) is a handful at first. It’s the result of changing around the bass notes from Example 1 to give an E5 on the fifth and sixth strings. Keeping the same notes on top gives the add9 (F# on the fourth and first strings) and #11 (A# on the third string).

Example 3. C#m9

Here’s a real stretch – until you find the optimum hand position. Try shifting your fretting hand thumb down to the centre of the back of the neck. This C#m9 is surprisingly useful as a movable chord, functioning similarly to an open tuning in that the open first and second strings function as a drone.

Example 4. Esus2sus4

There are shades of Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On in this Esus2sus4, one of the only examples of a ‘double’ sus voicing we’ve ever come across.

Remember, these complex-sounding names are just music theory struggling to explain what is actually a very simple chord to play. Once again, treat this as a movable shape for some nice results.

Example 5. A7

This A7 is one of many similar shapes that can be moved up and down the fourth and second strings. The wonderful Gordon Giltrap used shapes like this (albeit in open A tuning) in his signature composition Heartsong. Be sure to mute the sixth string; it isn’t a horrible clash exactly, but it does mess with the resonance overall.

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I consider fingerpicking to be essential to my playing, as it’s a technique I have utilized in a variety of ways for many years. When recording, I often use my 1945 Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar. If you’re familiar with this instrument, you know how wonderful it is to play and how great it sounds.

Figure 1 illustrates a very basic fingerpicked pattern: while holding an E chord, my pick-hand thumb basically alternates between the 6th and 4th strings while the index, middle and ring fingers pick the higher strings.

The open low E bass note alternates with the higher notes in an eight-note rhythm. Note that the thumb often catches the next higher string, as demonstrated here.

Years ago, a friend of my dad’s came over and played some beautiful fingerpicking on a Martin D-28 acoustic, and I was blown away. He said, “That’s Mississippi John Hurt.” So I thought, well, I need to listen to more of that!

When I got hipped to this music, I discovered that the patterns were rooted in alternating bass notes sounded by the thumb while melodic patterns were fingerpicked on the higher strings in a syncopated rhythm.

Figure 2 offers an example of this style: bars 1 and 2 establish an eighth-note thumbpicking pattern, and in bars 3 and 4 a fingerpicked melody is introduced on the top three strings. As shown in Figure 3, the thumb always keeps the rhythm of the bassline going, in this case in the key of G.

It will take dedicated practice to get the coordination together to execute the low-string/high-string syncopations properly, so start out slowly and focus on how the two parts work together.

The Blackberry Smoke song Ain’t Got the Blues, from our 2012 album,
The Whippoorwill, is built from this style of fingerpicking. As shown in Figure 4, bar 1 establishes an alternating bass pattern on the tonic G chord, and in bar 2 I introduce a melody played on the G and B strings.

In bar 4, I move to C, the IV (four) chord, and the melody is transposed up a 4th and played on the top two strings. In bars 7 and 8, the pattern is played over the V (five) chord, D, and in bars 9 and 10 I return to the tonic, G.

Another good example of this style of fingerpicking is a section I play in our song Holding All the Roses, which is in drop-D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). Figure 5 illustrates the similar manner in which this is played.

I asked my dad’s friend where guitarists like Mississippi John Hurt got the idea to play in this way, and he said. “I think they’re trying to imitate the sound of a player piano on a riverboat.”

I think that’s a good theory, because the type of fingerpicking you hear from the great “Piedmont”-style players, like Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell and Reverend Gary Davis, does work in the same way as stride piano, with consistently alternating bass notes driving the rhythm and joined by syncopated melodies in a higher octave.

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Brett Garsed is one of the guitar world's most revered triple threats. His virtuosity with legato, hybrid picking (he picks with his fourth finger, too) and slide is nothing short of masterful. His reputation goes all the way back to the '80s when his growing reputation resulted in him playing on John Farnham's 1986 album, Whispering Jack.

Handling all guitar duties on the biggest-selling album by an Australian in Australia's history, Brett's guitar chops were well used. None more so than the solo at the end of the album's huge hit single, You're the Voice.

How huge?

On last check, the numbers were 259M plays on Spotify and 35M views on YouTube.

You’re the Voice is a rousing anthem written by British songwriters Chris Thompson, Andy Qunta and Maggie Ryder that incorporates rock and Celtic influences, plus an actual bagpipe solo. Asked to provide an outro guitar solo, Brett incorporated bagpipe-style phrasing, chord tone driven melodies and a blazing string skipped arpeggio.

Up until now, this stunning solo has gone unnoticed due to being so quiet in the mix. To remedy the situation, Brett agreed to deep dive what he played for Guitar World.

“What you hear on the album is the first take, the only take we did,” Brett explains. “It’s a little haphazard in structure, but that’s the spontaneity of the moment. The fast section in the middle is an old faithful lick I used to simulate sweep picking arpeggios, but I did it with string skipping.”

Brett provides further insights into his solo: “I was, and still am, a completely ear-driven player, and I was trying to follow the chord progression F - Eb - Bb/D. Everything I’m playing is trying to follow those chords.

“You’ll hear a sliding ascending line in the solo featuring my old black Strat with a 21-fret neck. I bent up to the high F from the 21st fret and broke the first string! Since the Strat bridge couldn’t be pulled up it stayed in tune, so I played the rest of the solo with one less string!”

F major arpeggio - the fundamental shape

This outlines the basic string skipping F Major arpeggio (F A C) that Brett utilised for part of his solo on You're The Voice. Using the fourth (D), third (G) and first (high E) strings, it's a shape favoured by various players (including Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt) to replicate the sound of one note per string sweep picked arpeggios.

A useful approach to familiarize yourself with the shape is to play the first note on each string first before adding the higher notes on the third and first strings.

Brett utilizes hybrid picking as shown under the tab (m = second finger pluck), along with hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Example 1 - F major arpeggio phrasing (4:35 in the video)

This is what Brett demonstrates in the video, improvising around the F major arpeggio in a similar way to what he played during his You're the Voice solo. Hybrid picking makes crossing from the third string to the first string efficient and smooth. Pay close attention to the way the different rhythmic subdivisions and legato phrasing give this example a feeling of acceleration and excitement.

Brett Garsed in action

John Farnham - You're The Voice

At 3:45 Brett's guitar solo begins. Masked by the big production and wall of euphoric vocals, he builds his phrases with masterful melodic moves with that stunning F major arpeggio happening at 4:09. The huge C# to F bend (21st fret to a virtual 25th fret!) which broke his first string occurs at 4:24.

In his GW video, Brett demonstrates this bend (without breaking a string!) using his fourth finger with other fingers behind to strengthen it. To make this even more daunting to play, Brett uses 0.011 gauge strings in standard tuning. Gulp.

Brett Garsed - Breathe

Breathe featured on Brett's Big Sky album from 2002. Throughout the performance, Brett demonstrates masterful melodic phrasing, tasty string bends, bluesy licks and impressive speed bursts.

Brett Garsed - Slam Bam

Here's Brett in an funk fusion workout, written for him by Jason Sidwell as part of a soloing series in Guitar Techniques from 2016. Brett twists, darts and blasts through this funk groover with an array of slippery legato and hybrid picked moves using bluesy licks, altered scales and tension/release note choices. Slamming indeed!

A topic that’s near and dear to guitar players everywhere is pickups – what to use, what we love about them, and how to set them up for optimal performance. For our discussion, I’ll be using two examples of what is essentially the same guitar — a 1958 goldtop Gibson Les Paul Standard with PAF humbucking pickups and a 1956 goldtop Les Paul Standard with P-90 pickups.

Let’s first talk about setting up the pickups. I like the pickup height to be close to the strings, especially the bridge pickup. This results in the most output and brightness, which is the kind of attack I like to hear.

Pickup height is adjusted by using a screwdriver to turn the mounting screws clockwise or counterclockwise. With humbuckers, I like the front, or neck, pickup to be “wooly” – fat-sounding and with some distortion – but clear.

Be careful, however, not to raise it too close to the strings, as the magnets can start to interfere with the strings’ vibrations and cause notes to sound out of tune.

Figure 1 is an E minor pentatonic-based phrase played with the neck humbucker. When I switch to the bridge pickup, as I do in Figure 2, I like the output to be balanced with that of the neck pickup, so that the only thing changing is an increase in the amount of high end, which serves as a sort of solo boost.

In Figure 3, bars 1-5, I have both pickups on, which produces a nice blend between the fatness of the neck pickup and the “cut” of the bridge pickup. This example is played in the key of A, with lines based on the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G), with the inclusion of the major 3rd, C#, alluding to an A7 chord. In bar 5, I switch to the bridge pickup only.

With some P-90-equipped guitars, the neck pickup is too close to the strings and the bridge pickup is too far away. If you were to leave it that way, the instrument will never sound sonically balanced, so follow the same height adjustment guidance given for humbuckers.

P-90s are single-coil pickups, so their overall sound is more sparkly and clear than that of humbuckers, especially with a clean tone. But when overdriven, they will deliver a fat sound that’s killer. Being single-coil pickups, however, they can be prone to noise and hum, so you have to try and address that.

Figure 4 is played with the neck P-90, featuring lines based on the C# minor pentatonic scale (C#, E, F#, G,# B).

In Figure 5, I switch to the bridge pickup, and move from B7 to E7 with lines based on E minor pentatonic.

Both humbuckers and P-90s have their ideal applications, and for many players, including me, the variations in sound, feel and texture are indispensable.

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For about 11 months, I had no guitar and no amp. To non-musicians, that might sound inconvenient. To me, it felt like having part of my nervous system removed.

The situation was born out of some unfortunate personal circumstances – due to a death in my then-partner’s family, I sold my Ibanez JPM Petrucci signature and a full amp rig for way less than they were worth to buy plane tickets. Then I found my other JPM had disappeared in my absence.

Living without my guitar made one thing abundantly clear to me: music isn’t just something I do – it’s how I make sense of the world. So when the chain breaks, the loss doesn’t land like a normal career setback. It’s your livelihood and your life.

This mix of professional and personal identity is something most musicians experience. I’ve long had back issues and used to joke with one of my bands that if it ever got so bad I couldn’t walk, they’d have to strap me into a bed like Hannibal Lecter and wheel me onstage. But the intent was real: when music is who you are, you’ll endure almost anything to keep playing.

At the same time, it’s become harder to make a living purely as a touring and recording artist. There’s a running joke in touring circles that modern musicians are really just travelling T-shirt salespeople. We all know the economic structure has shifted, yet the way we think about the role hasn't really caught up.

When music is your identity, these structural changes feel personal. Streaming killed your album income? That feels like the world saying your art doesn’t matter. Can’t afford to tour without a day job? That feels like a failure.

But it isn’t. The musicians I know who are still standing aren’t the ones who went the hardest. They’re the ones who built a foundation for themselves so they could keep going.

My guitar-less period ended when a mate at a guitar shop let me walk out with a guitar without asking for a cent. He didn’t even know where I lived. He just trusted me.

The first gig back was in front of about 2,000 people. My rig was a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone into an old Peavey solid-state bass head. The sound engineer said, “You can’t polish a turd.” I didn’t care. Just having strings under my fingers again felt like life returning.

Ultimately, I got lucky, but not everyone does. Here are some things I wish I’d known earlier…

Know your real number

Work out what it actually costs you to play – rehearsals, travel, gear maintenance, lost shifts. Not roughly. Sit down and add it up, without rounding the figures or planning only for best-case scenarios.

Once you can see the real figure, you can plan for it and make informed decisions, instead of absorbing expenses until something snaps. If you need a job to cover that number, that's not defeat – that’s a foundation.

Build your identity wider, not smaller

When music is who you are, every setback gets emotionally amplified. A cancelled show feels like a cancelled life. Being left off an album or pushed out of a band can feel like a verdict on your existence, rather than a rough season.

Learning to hold on to your identity as a person and musician and separate that from the external validation is something most of us never get taught. However, even the most devoted player will hit a season where the gigs dry up, or they face a physical setback.

If music is the only thing holding you together, that season will feel like the end. If it’s the center of a life that has other supports around it, you’ll ride it out – and you’ll come back stronger.

Plan for the quiet seasons before they arrive

Tours end. Bands break up. Bodies say no. If you’ve built your entire life around gigging and nothing else, those gaps can feel like freefall. Having something ready – whether that’s teaching, session work, writing, a trade, or anything that keeps the lights on and your head straight – means the quiet patches become opportunities for recharging, not crisis points.

Don’t wait to protect what’s most important

Your relationships matter. Isolation distorts everything, and the people at home are carrying weight you don't always see. Your health matters, because if your body goes down, the music goes with it. Your finances matter, because constant panic about money will poison the thing you love faster than anything else.

The important thing to note is that you don’t need to be in crisis before you’re allowed to step back, set a boundary, or ask for help. Early is better than broken.

Learn the difference between devotion and self-erasure

Musicians are wired to push through. We treat rest like weakness and stubbornness like virtue. But there’s a difference between devotion and self-erasure.

Psychologists will tell you that this coping mechanism (of placing your personal needs lower and lower down the list) actually leads to greater disconnection with your true self. That’s not good for you as a person, and it’s certainly not going to help you as an artist…

It’s the same job

The strange comfort in all of this is that if music really is part of who you are, it doesn't vanish just because a band ends or life knocks you sideways. That’s what I came back to after those months without a guitar. I hadn’t lost music – I’d lost my access point to it for a while. The second the strings were back under my fingers, it was all still there.

Getting a job so you can eat and pay rent is not giving up. Taking a break from touring isn’t quitting. Setting boundaries isn’t weakness. It’s how you make sure you’re still playing in ten years, not just surviving next month.

If the music really lives in you, then looking after yourself isn’t separate from looking after the songs. It’s the same job.

Have you been affected by the issues raised in this article? Support for musicians is available from the following bodies...

• Help Musicians (UK): 0808 802 8008
• Support Act (Australia): 1800 959 500
• MusiCares (US): 1-800-687-4227

Alternate tunings can be a gateway to creative ideas and new textures, but they often require re-orienting yourself with the fretboard. Nashville tuning, however, requires no such effort, as you can replicate anything you play in standard tuning.

There is one caveat: you have to restring the guitar in order to get this tuning. In practice, it’s not hard at all – you start with a 12-string set and use the higher octave sixth, fifth, fourth and third strings in place of your standard gauge strings. The first and second strings remain the same.

Get these strings in place and you’ll be greeted by a phenomenal sound – part 12-string, part high-strung guitar. The real magic comes in the relationship between the high octave strings and the standard gauge first and second strings. Even just strumming simple CAGED chords yields a unique timbre and this sound can add brightness and definition, particularly if a song is missing some high end sparkle and vitality.

A secret weapon of the country world (hence the Nashville monicker), you’ve heard this tuning many times, even if it’s not immediately apparent – everyone from Keith Richards (Wild Horses) and David Gilmour (Comfortably Numb) to Taylor Swift (Love Story features it in the band mix) has employed it.

There are various reasons for using Nashville tuning, as you’ll discover in this lesson. Sometimes it’s a subtle layering tool, sitting back in a track or doubling a regular tuned guitar, whilst at other times it’s more upfront, adding brightness and energy to a track.

One of the great things about Nashville tuning is that it makes any guitar sound great. You don’t need an expensive instrument – a cheap, smaller-bodied guitar will come alive when strung in Nashville tuning.

Check out David Gilmour's Nashville-tuned guitar below and then delve into the following examples to see how it can inspire your own music-making.

Example 1: Simple chords made chimey, Nashville style

The open position is the obvious starting point for any new tuning and you’ll immediately hear how simple CAGED shape chords are given new life with the Nashville sheen and jangle. Indeed, many studio players are just overlaying chords like these onto a rhythm track when using Nashville tuning.

Example 2: Nashville strumming

This simple strummed two chord pattern demonstrates how useful Nashville tuning can be when creating simple rhythm parts. Give the chords some added color with added 9ths or 11ths and you’ll basically hear the sound of modern country pop.

Use common tones (notes shared between the chords) for added glue. The first audio example is at 75bpm (beats per minute), the second at 112bpm.

Example 3: Nashville picking

Picked parts sound fantastic in Nashville tuning and can be useful when you want to bring the Nashville part to the fore. What’s more you can double these parts on a standard tuned guitar to get a faux 12-string effect. Indeed, doing this can even be easier than playing an actual 12-string guitar!

Example 4: Nashville doubling

Doubling simple strummed open chords is another great way to use Nashville tuning. On its own an acoustic guitar could sound overly full or even muddy when playing chords like these but introduce a Nashville guitar and pan both instruments and the sound will both thicken and brighten up.

Example 5: Nashville to the foreground

You can create more complex parts in Nashville tuning, and this Pat Metheny-inspired example shows how evocative the tuning can be when played on its own. Adding a capo introduces an even brighter, richer tonality. This could also be used in a track for more dramatic effect when you want the part to leap out.

Example 6: Exploring all the benefits of Nashville tuning

This puts the previous examples into practice on a modern country pop-inspired track. Before playing this, have a listen to the full track and the backing track with the Nashville guitar removed so you can really appreciate what the high-strung guitar is bringing to the track.

As you’ll hear, it can work as both a blending tool with the other instruments or as a more prominent voice when arpeggiating higher up the neck. Listen to the full track first, then play along with the backing track using your Nashville tuned guitar. Enjoy!

Players who use Nashville tuning

Pat Metheny - Sueño Con Mexico

This is a great track for hearing Nashville tuning up front and center instead of as a layering tool. Metheny’s rich, picked arpeggios immediately get to the heart of the magic of this tuning. This tuning excels with rapid picked parts as there’s no low-end mud build up to worry about.

Taylor Swift - Love Story

Swift’s modern pop classic showcases Nashville tuning in its more common format as a layering tool. In this track, it’s more subtle, adding a top-end sheen with simple chords but it’s the kind of thing you’ll miss if it’s removed. You’ll hear a similar effect on Lady A’s Bartender…and pretty much most modern country pop!

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses

The combination of a 12-string and a Nashville-tuned acoustic give this track its super-rich sound. Keith Richards is a big fan of Nashville tuning though it’s possible that Mick Taylor was playing the Nashville guitar on this track. Listen to this one and the guitars are the very definition of ‘sheen’.

A key element in many of the riffs I write is rhythmic string bending. A good example of this can be found in the main riff to Holy Roller, which I recorded with Spiritbox for our 2021 album, Eternal Blue.

As was the case last month with Jaded, I perform this song on a seven-string guitar tuned to drop-F# (low to high: F#, C#, F#, B, E, G#, C#), which is drop-A tuning transposed down a minor 3rd, or one and one half steps, so everything sounds a minor 3rd lower.

Figure 1 illustrates the main riff to Holy Roller, which I play during the intro and outro. The first six bars are performed entirely on the 7th string and feature repeating pull-down bends and releases.

I begin in bar 1 with two unbent eighth notes at the 12th and 9th frets, followed in beats 2 and 3 by two quick ¾-step bends and releases at the 13th fret, phrased in a 16th-note rhythm. The bar ends with a return to the unbent notes.

Syncopation (emphasizing the upbeats, or “weak” parts of the beat) comes into play in bar 2, where, on beat 3, I bend the 9th-fret note up a half step and hold the bend into beat 4. The final note in bar 2 is tied (held over) to the beat 1 of bar 3, which creates more syncopation, then bent up a half step. Bars 3 and 4 mostly replicate bars 1 and 2, but bar 4 ends with a pair of palm-muted eighth notes on an open A5 chord.

Bars 5 and 6 essentially restate bars 1 and 2, after which I play a big F#sus2 barre chord across all seven strings, which I shift up and down the neck in a syncopated dotted-eighth rhythm, holding each chord for one and one half beats, which, when done in succession like this, creates a jarring effect.

The riff ends with another pair of palm-muted open A5 chords, followed by high natural harmonics (N.H.) chords on the top three strings, strummed as 16th notes with alternate (down-up) strumming.

To sound the harmonics, lightly rest your fret-hand pinkie across the top three strings at the “3.2” location indicated, which is a little ways past the 3rd fret.

As is the case with many of the riffs I write, without the added bends, this riff would sound a little stale and boring. When performing the 13th-fret bends here, strive to consistently raise the pitch 3/4 of a step, which is midway between a half step (equal to one fret) and a whole step (equal to two frets).

Figure 2 shows the song’s breakdown verse riff, which is built from a two-note F/A chord played on the bottom two strings and strummed in a syncopated rhythm with palm-muting (P.M.). I use all downstrokes here, except for the pairs of 16th notes, which are strummed down-up.

The syncopation is created by accentuating certain eighth-note upbeats (the “and” counts) and holding the chord into the following downbeat. To properly feel and internalize the phrasing, play through the figure while tapping your foot squarely on each beat. Start out slowly then gradually ramp up the tempo to that of the recording.

In bar 8, I play “3.2” natural harmonics again, this time across the top six strings. I strum the harmonics with upstrokes on each eighth-note upbeat. The key to getting the desired sharp pick attack here is to get a little bit of the flesh of your thumb into the strum. Doing so will also help bring out the harmonics.

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

One of the wonderful things about the acoustic guitar is its ability to be completely self-sufficient. More than that, in the right hands it can even give the illusion of two or more guitars playing together. Nobody knew this better than players such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy and, of course, Robert Johnson.

The demo piece isn’t modeled on any particular one of these, but it borrows from that country/folk-blues style that inspired a surprising amount of the ’60s Blues Invasion and rock bands of the ’70s.

As a general rule, the picking-hand thumb plays the bass part and establishes the rhythm, with the remaining fingers adding chords and/or melody on top.

However, if you watch Big Bill Broonzy’s picking hand, he’ll play simultaneous notes in a triad like a classical player, use his index finger in a flicking motion across the strings, and occasionally strum across a chord with his thumb. There are also times when he’ll accent a downwards strum in an almost flamenco style.

It’s hard to say how systematic or methodical he was about his technique – it was most likely developed by instinct over time – but it is very effective. That’s not to say we can’t pick up tips and tricks by watching or listening carefully, though.

For this reason, the picking-hand technique is left to you in the example piece, but there is a logic to assigning the bass notes to your thumb.

Going on from there, treat this as a starting point for your own experiments. Key considerations are to establish a strong rhythm before getting too fancy with licks, and keep it simple when accompanying a vocal. See you next time!

We start with a classic descending chord line, using syncopation between the bass line and top triads. It’s also nice to give those triads a little vibrato if you can. This leads to an abrupt stop on the A7, followed by the piano-style lick that will lead us to the IV chord (D7). You might need to work up some stamina in your fretting hand for those hammer-on and pull-off licks.

However many arguments exist for the superior tone of heavy acoustic guitar strings and a high action, this stuff works better with a lighter touch – there’s a happy medium to be had with action height and string gauge.

Bars 4 to 8 spend most of the time sticking to rhythmic patterns, though there are a couple of flourishes. Note that open strings are often used to facilitate more seamless position changes, such as the one down to A, where there are a few quick-fire changes – almost a chord melody approach here.

Bars 8 to 12 borrow more classic moves, but there is a bit of a shift in the syncopation at times, maybe more than you might typically hear, but this piece tries to cover much ground in a short time.

The final descending chords take some inspiration from Jimmy Page’s ending to Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. The swung feel stops and we slow down for that last rake across A major.

Hear it here

Big Bill Broonzy – The Bill Broonzy Story

A strongly rhythmic player, Big Bill was very adept at creating the illusion of bass/rhythm, choppy chords and ringing top notes. Seek out his performances of Hey Hey, Worried Man Blues and This Train.

There is some really clear footage of his playing available online, which is great for analysing his technique and learning his approach. It sounds (and looks) as though he was able to coax a lot of volume out of the guitar with quite a relaxed technique.

Lightnin’ Hopkins – Lightnin’ And The Blues

Though he used a thumb-pick, Hopkins used thumb and fingers to create simultaneous rhythm and melody like Big Bill Broonzy. Hearing him play Baby Please Don’t Go, Have You Ever Loved A Woman and Ain’t It Crazy, it’s easy to imagine a young Van Morrison, Jimmy Page and others getting hooked on this style and wanting to emulate it.

However, there is a suggestion of power in the solo acoustic guitar, which arguably doesn’t need a loud rock ’n’ roll band to back it up.

Robert Johnson – The Complete Recordings

Regarded by many, including Eric Clapton, as the definitive solo blues guitarist, quite a mythology has developed around Robert Johnson. Having a listen to Sweet Home Chicago, Me And The Devil Blues or Devil Got My Woman should explain why.

The recordings are slightly ‘grainy’, but the power of his playing and deftness of touch come through loud and clear. Perhaps more than anyone’s, Johnson’s music inspired the generations that were to follow.

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

Sometimes open-position chords are just the job for filling out an accompaniment or providing the sole backing for a singer.

However, what if there could be a few extra touches to elevate your accompaniment, without sounding like you’d swallowed a jazz chordbook for breakfast?

To demonstrate some possibilities, we’ve taken the commonly heard C-G-Am-F (or I-V-VI-IV) progression and given it a twist. Think The Pretenders, Tom Petty or Sam Fender.

As we’re playing in open position, the open strings add a nice jangle, which we’re looking to maximise. Another feature is the G at the 3rd fret of the first string. This remains constant through all of the examples, giving a nice ‘shine’ in whatever order you play these chords.

A hint of overdrive can really help smooth out any unwanted spiky transients, while emphasising the sparkle and adding a bit of texture to push you forward in the mix. For the full Pretenders experience, add a bit of chorus, too!

Example 1. C

A regular C chord, but adding G on the first string really emphasises the upper part of the chord, particularly effective for asserting the guitar’s place in a band mix.

As well as making this a more ‘jangly’ chord, the G on top carries over to the other examples, offering a sense of continuity.

Example 2. G

This is the first of two possibilities for the G (V) chord. There’s a reason why this is played with two fingers, omitting the fifth string, but you’ll need to look at Example 3 to see what that reason is… In the meantime, this is one of the best open chords on the fretboard.

Example 3. C/G

This C/G could also be called G6sus4 – both names are technically correct. It’s meant to be added as a momentary embellishment, rather than a replacement for Example 2.

To hear this voicing in the wild, check out the intros to the Eagles’ Take It Easy or Bowie’s John, I’m Only Dancing.

Example 4. Am7

This Am7 continues the same jangly theme. It’s a great substitute for a regular Am chord, or can combine well if there’s another guitar playing Am.

Check out James Honeyman-Scott’s distinctive playing on The Pretenders’ Talk of the Town to hear this in action, complete with just the right amount of overdrive and chorus.

Example 5. Fsus2

This Fsus2 further continues the jangly theme, with the G on the first string, plus another from the open third string.

The F (Root) on the sixth string is optional. If you can get your fretting-hand thumb to oblige, great! Otherwise, it can still sound pretty full using the C on the fifth string as the lowest note.

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

Hello, and welcome to my new column for Guitar World! Over the course of these lessons, I will be sharing many of the techniques and approaches I use for creating effective melodies and rhythm guitar parts for both recording sessions and live performances.

I’d like to kick things off with a look at some of the ways in which I incorporate the technique of hybrid picking into my playing. As you may know, hybrid picking combines flatpicking with fingerpicking and can be used to create and perform otherwise impossible sounds and techniques.

Hybrid picking is a big part of country guitar playing, and I’ve studied a lot of country players, but I’m primarily a blues-rock/Americana player, along with R&B and jazz. I’ve developed an approach to hybrid picking that I think you will be able to apply fairly quickly to what you’re already comfortable with.

A good place to start is with chords, as demonstrated in Figure 1. For each chord – Dm, A and C – the low root note is flatpicked with a downstroke while the higher three notes are picked upward with the bare middle and ring fingers and pinkie.

This produces a piano-like simultaneous note attack and a different sound than a strum, which is an arpeggiation, no matter how quickly you perform it.

For single-note playing, a great way to practice hybrid picking is to play a simple A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G) and alternate between the pick and a finger repeatedly.

In Figure 2, all of the notes that fall on the downbeats are flatpicked and all the notes on the upbeats are picked with the middle finger. My goal here is to achieve a smooth, uniform note attack, so that there’s almost no difference between the sound of the flatpicked and fingerpicked notes.

In Figure 3, I demonstrate how I can get some speed with hybrid picking. Alternating between the pick and a finger in this way can be at least as fast as straight flatpicking, if not faster, and also easier to do.

My incorporation of hybrid picking started when I was about 15 years old. I’d been emulating Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan with licks like Figure 4, using only a pick. I then switched to using fingerpicking on the top two strings, with my middle and ring fingers, respectively, as shown in Figure 5.

I find hybrid picking especially useful for faster tempos, such as the country/rock-type riff shown in Figure 6. As I play the solo line in Figure 7, I articulate the notes on the lower strings with the pick and the notes on the higher strings with my available fingers.

Hybrid picking also works very well with double-stops (two-note chords), especially if I want the sound to be very pinpoint and accurate.

In Figure 8, I fingerpick the double-stops on the B and G strings and flatpick the single notes on the D string. In Figure 9, I move more freely between flatpicking and fingerpicking, which I think yields an expressive sound.

This is a great way to get started with hybrid picking; move from scales into more inventive lines, and you will discover many great sounds that this technique will facilitate.

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

Most of us were taught how to dial in a good guitar tone long before anyone showed us how to survive the life around it. We learn how to fix cables, swap tubes, and restring in the dark. We spend hours obsessing over which overdrive is “more transparent.” But we spend almost no time on how to get through it all without wrecking our relationships, our bank accounts, or heads.

The gap between how seriously we take our role and how casually we treat our physical and mental health is where burnout lives.

Musicians’ burnout doesn’t usually appear as a single big breakdown. It’s a slow drift from “I can't believe I get to do this” to “I don’t know who I am without this – but I’m miserable.”

Dr. Ash King, mental health and wellbeing lead at Support Act in Australia, hears it every day on the phone. She says: “The biggest pressures are chronic overwork, financial instability, and identity strain. Long stretches of high-intensity work with very little recovery time.

“Sleep disruption. Alcohol heavy environments. Unpredictable income. Relationship breakdowns at home. Add to that the emotional labor of being ‘on’ every night, and the nervous system never fully powers down.”

Liam Hennessy, head of service delivery at Music Minds Matter in the UK, sees similar patterns. “Burnout often shows up in a few familiar ways,” he says. “Exhaustion from relentless touring or gigging, anxiety around income and career sustainability, and the emotional strain of tying your identity so closely to your creative work.

“When your passion is also your livelihood, setbacks can feel deeply personal.”

Burnout is best viewed as a series of pressures that are layered and interconnected, rather than a single issue or breaking point. “Financial vulnerability, health and mental health rarely exist in isolation,” says Theresa Wolters, executive director of MusiCares in the US. “What may begin as financial stress or physical fatigue can evolve into anxiety, depression, isolation, or burnout.”

Data from MusiCares’ Wellness in Music survey shows that more than 11 percent of music professionals reported suicidal thoughts in the past year – more than double the rate in the general US population. After years of anecdotal evidence, this sort of research is finally bringing to light the severity of the issues.

But what actually helps working players to combat burnout?

Make your relationships part of the plan

A friend of mine has spent years touring in heavy music. Every time he flies interstate for shows, his partner assumes he’s cheating. It doesn’t matter how many times he explains he’s onstage, loading out or crashed in a terrible bed – the suspicion is always there.

I try to be on the other side. On one run of shows with my band, the motel booking was wrong – again – and we had two beds for three people. My partner at the time was also a musician, and she trusted me. But I sent her a video anyway: one guitarist snoring, one drummer with coffee, me on a kid-sized pull-out bed. No groupies, no drama; just three tired idiots in bad lighting.

Hennessy emphasises the importance of this kind of connection: “Taking time to check in with people you trust and sharing honestly about how you’re doing can help prevent feelings of isolation.”

Burnout isn't just about you – it’s about the people around you quietly giving up because they feel permanently pushed to the edges. They’ve effectively been an unpaid support act for your life.

Setting expectations before things get busy makes a difference. Telling your partner, “These next four weeks are heavy; here’s when I’m around, here’s when I’m not, here’s how we'll stay in touch,” beats leaving them guessing.

A 10-minute call at the same time after each show is better than three days of silence followed by a flood of texts. And don’t just send stage shots – send the empty rooms, the bad coffee, the six-hour drive.

Face the money conversations early

Money stress quietly drives more burnout than bad stages ever will. The Wellness in Music survey shows that 35-40 percent of US music professionals attribute their anxiety and depression to financial concerns.

I’ve seen it play out in many ways. I’ve had friends who missed family funerals because they couldn’t afford to skip a paid gig. I've been in bands where resentment over money has driven members to quit. I’ve watched players sell gear they love – and need – to cover rent between tours.

The math never really adds up unless you’re in that tiny top tier of professional musicians. Pretending otherwise just makes things worse.

Knowing your real cost per gig – fuel, food, accommodation, parking, lost income from other work – changes how you negotiate. Once you see those numbers laid out, it’s harder to say yes to things that are hurting your finances.

Talking numbers inside the band matters too. Hidden financial resentment destroys more bands than bad solos ever will. A low-paid gig doesn't mean you’re a low-value musician. Sometimes you say yes for strategy; sometimes for fun; sometimes you say no. The key is to choose knowingly.

Treat sleep and recovery as part of the show

You can’t completely control sleep on the road, but you can stop treating it as optional. Taking 20 to 30 minutes after a show with no socials, no emails, and no arguments helps. Stretch, shower, use headphones, do breath work – anything that tells your nervous system the gig is over.

Rotating who drives, who packs, and who handles the money and merch also matters. One person being the hero every night is a fast track to resentment and burnout.

Dr. King’s advice is simple: schedule recovery as deliberately as you schedule shows. “Small routines like a daily walk or 10 minutes of quiet before soundcheck matter,” she says. “Talk early. Check in with someone before you’re overwhelmed – a bandmate, manager, or counsellor. Silence escalates stress.”

The comedown after a big run can hit harder than the run itself. King recommends planning that landing: think about what the week after a tour will look like: who you’ll see, how you’ll rest. The nervous system needs the landing strip as much as it needs the runway.

Hennessy agrees. “A big one is making time for proper rest, wherever possible,” he says. “Touring schedules can be relentless, but sleep and recovery are very important if you want to stay physically and mentally well over the long term.”

MusiCares’ Wolters says we should see the process as preventive care. “Sleep, nutrition, hydration, movement, and rest are not luxuries – they’re essential to sustaining creative and professional performance,” Wolters says. “Small, consistent habits make a difference.”

Have a plan for when it all becomes too much

Burnout sneaks up, but it does give early warnings – dreading gigs you used to love, numbness, snapping at people, drinking more just to get through. King reveals the two myths that come up regularly when someone finally reaches out.

“The biggest myth is ‘everyone else is coping,’” she says. “People compare their insides to other people’s stage personas, and decide they’re the weak link. Another common one is, ‘I don’t have it bad enough yet.’ Support is not only for crisis – early support prevents crisis.”

Wolters deals with similar barriers: “One of the biggest is stigma – the idea that asking for help is a sign of weakness, failure, or unprofessionalism,” she says. “We also frequently hear, ‘Other people probably need this more than I do.’ The truth is: if you’re struggling, you deserve help. No one has to wait until they're in crisis to reach out.”

There’s also a strong culture of toughness in parts of the industry. Pushing through is often rewarded; but earning your stripes as a professional should not mean getting ill. You don't have to wait until everything explodes before you're allowed to ask for help. Having one trusted person in your circle that you can text “I’m not okay” without a long explanation matters.

Remember you’re not gear

Your guitar doesn’t get offended if you swap pickups or change strings, but your body and mind aren’t that simple. They’re impacted by every all-nighter, every bad load-in, every “it’s fine; I’ll cope.”

Sometimes permission to step back is what you need most. Taking a break, changing how you tour, or saying no to a run that will break you is not failure. It’s maintenance.

King puts it simply: “You are not a machine. Treat your body and mind as part of the tour infrastructure. Protect them the way you would protect your gear. The show is important – so are you.”

The music industry isn’t going to fix this for us any time soon. But we can start fixing it ourselves by rejecting the idea that suffering is proof of commitment, by supporting each other and by sharing the help that’s available.

Tune your rig, keep your chops up, chase the songs that light you up – and build a life around it that you can actually survive.

Help is at hand

Help Musicians (UK), Support Act (Australia), and MusiCares (US) exist specifically because this life is hard – and you’re not weak for using them.

Support Act's Wellbeing Helpline offers 12 free counselling sessions per year – confidential support designed specifically for people working in music and the arts.

MusiCares provides confidential financial assistance, recovery support, and preventive care.

The UK-based Music Minds Matter’s 24/7 helpline is for people working in music who need a listening ear from someone who understands the unique pressures of the industry. Music Minds Matter has also developed a simple checklist that encourages people to ask themselves how they’re really doing.

Help Musicians is conducting what aims to be the largest-ever survey into mental health across the UK music industry, inviting people from every part of the ecosystem to share their experiences. If you're working in UK music you can contribute.

Help Musicians (UK): 0808 802 8008
Support Act (Australia): 1800 959 500
MusiCares (US): 1-800-687-4227

• What’s helped you survive touring without burning out? Share your strategies in the comments below.

When I was about 12, my friend’s dad was hipping me to all kinds of incredible music.

He gave me the 1974 Gram Parsons album Grievous Angel, which includes Ooh Las Vegas, a song that features some really cool pedal steel guitar licks that can be replicated with a Parsons/White B-Bender-equipped Fender Telecaster, which I talked about last time. In this column, I’d like to share what I learned from all this.

The track kicks off with a lick played in the key of E, along the lines of Figure 1. Here, I begin with a slide up to B on my G string’s 4th fret, followed by a C#-to-D hammer-on the B string then the open high E string.

I hybrid-pick this lick, flatpicking the G string and fingerpicking the notes on the top two strings, and allow the notes to ring together as much as possible.

There’s another part of the song, also performed with hybrid picking, along the lines of Figure 2. Here, the open low E string repeatedly alternates against E-to-D pull-offs on the D string, followed by a double pull-off at the end of bar 2, C#-B-A.

What I didn’t know at the time was that that particular lick was not played on a conventional guitar, but rather on a pedal steel, by Al Perkins. I had assumed it was played by James Burton on his Telecaster.

The tone of the pedal steel on this track is so clear, clean and bright and sounded to me like a Tele! Figure 3 is played in the style of this solo, kicking off in bar 1 with a quick ascending lick based on the E major pentatonic scale (E, F#, G#, B, C#) and followed in bars 2-4 with a phrase based on oblique bends.

An oblique bend is performed by combining bent and unbent strings. Here, the G string is bent up a whole step while notes on the top two strings remain stationary. Essential to playing this lick is the use of hybrid picking, as the notes on the top two strings repeatedly alternate with the bent G string.

What makes the lick challenging to execute is the note on the high E string is at the 10th fret, while the note on the B string is at the 12th fret.

At first, I thought, “Is the guitar in open G tuning?” But I soon discovered that it wasn’t a standard guitar at all – it was the pedal steel. And this was the beginning of my journey of trying to replicate pedal steel licks on Telecasters.

At the end of the tune, James comes in with a funky chordal lick based on an E7 voicing, not unlike Figure 4.

When I got a hold of a B-Bender guitar, I started to write songs with it, such as Pretty Little Lie [from The Whippoorwill].

Figure 5 replicates the opening B-Bender lick on standard guitar; many of the slide and hammer-on articulations here were actually sounded by pulling down on the B-Bender. Our song Lonesome for a Living features both B-Bender guitar and pedal steel.

If you want to hear some great B-Bender playing by Clarence White, check out the Byrds’ Live at the Fillmore – February 1969 and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

White’s guitar now belongs to the great Marty Stuart, who has taken the art of B-Bender playing even further. And for a B-Bender masterclass, listen to Albert Lee’s playing on Dave Edmunds’ Sweet Little Lisa.

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

Most of us can jam on a classic riff or shred through a solo without thinking twice, but ask us to write our own song, and things start to get more than a little uncomfortable. The truth is, songwriting is a skill, and like anything on guitar, it gets better with the right kind of practice. That’s exactly what Songwriting For Guitar is built around.

​You might know Mike Meiers from his online guitar lessons here at Guitar World. But there's a lot more to him than that. He's an Emmy Award-winning composer with TV and film placements on major networks, a co-writer and producer who's worked with artists across the industry – and this weekend, he's hosting a free two-day live event to help you write better songs.

​Mike's helped countless guitarists break through the exact same wall you might be hitting right now. So if you’ve got a pile of unfinished songs sitting on your laptop, riff ideas that go nowhere, or your writing feels stuck in a rut, he knows what's blocking you, and he knows how to fix it.

​It’s happening April 11–12, and it’s completely free. Of course, the event is live, so you’ll want to show up in real time, but if you register before it kicks off, you’ll also get access to the replays.

Head to songwritingforguitar.com to grab your spot.

Every guitarist has their own unique approach to playing. From the way we strum to how we set up our instrument, the guitar is an inherently subjective experience, driven by feel and personality.

That means, sometimes, you can stumble across a surprising tip that can drastically alter the way you play – and, for me, that happened more than 10 years ago, when a British blues guitar hero completely changed my relationship with the humble guitar pick.

Conventional wisdom dictates that the pointy end of a pick is what you use to pluck the strings. The broader top is where you hold it. And this makes sense. The wider part offers greater surface area for the thumb and forefinger to hold securely. The tapered end has a smaller point for reduced contact and thus a more pronounced and precise ‘pluck’.

Up until the age of 16, this is how I held a guitar pick. I didn’t know any different, and every teacher I’d had at that point had encouraged me to do just that.

However, that changed when I attended a guitar masterclass in Bristol, England, hosted by Matt Schofield. After a few hours, I’d learned plenty of licks, and took onboard some sage advice for hitting chord tones in your solos (younger me was obsessed with the blues), but the biggest thing I took away from the event had nothing to do with my left hand. It was all about my right.

During that workshop, Schofield shared how – and why – he held a guitar pick on its side. Contrary to popular practice, Schofield rotated the pick 90 degrees anti-clockwise, so the pointy end was directed towards his palm. This meant he was striking the string with the flatter shoulder of the pick.

The thinking, at least as I understand it, goes something like this: the increased contact between the string and pick offers a softer picking tone, as opposed to the sharp point delivering a more pronounced and ‘stabby’ attack.

It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, and after trying it for the first time I’ve never looked back. In fact, using the sharp end of a pick now feels weirdly alien to me. I am 10 times the player when I hold a guitar pick the ‘wrong’ way.

I’ve not scientifically tested it, but from my own anecdotal evidence, the pick transients are so much softer when using the shoulder of a plectrum. As a player who likes to try and be as dynamic as possible, this softer attack felt far more natural and usable. There was a larger range of expression to play with.

"I struggled to play with the pointy end," Schofield once said in an online lesson video. "This just felt right to me from the beginning and I preferred the sound of it. It instinctively sounded better – fuller and richer."

I’ve since come to learn this isn’t a completely new philosophy. Pat Metheny is a famous champion of the shoulder picking, as was Stevie Ray Vaughan. Robben Ford uses this trick, too. Modern-day session greats Tom Bukovac and Guthrie Trapp both swear by it. That’s no coincidence.

There’s something that links all these players together: they are all immensely dynamic, known for their feel and phrasing. They can go from softer-than-softer solos to pummeling lead lines and chord strumming in the blink of an eye. I think a large part of that comes from the way they all hold the pick.

For me, the shoulder of the pick serves as something of an additional de facto gain stage, or at the very least a tool for tempering my tone. If I angle the pick against the string, I can almost brush against it for a more textural, tangible feel with nice overtones, whereas when I square it off to the string, I get greater presence and precision.

That, right there, already opens up a world of playing possibilities even before you start throwing amps, effects, and other tone-shaping tools in the signal chain. It made me realize that guitar picking isn’t literally just ‘picking the string’. It’s another concept that can be leveraged for feel and sound.

This method also allows me to ‘step away’ from the string faster, thus letting me play a bit quicker and move around at pace. Bukovac concurs – “I definitely think you can play faster with the shoulder,” he once told Rick Beato.

Again, I’m not a ‘speed’ kinda player, but it’s a nice happy bonus. The true value of the shoulder method, for me, lies in the fact I feel closer to my strings – physically and mentally – and helps me get closer to that intangible sense of touch and feel that so many players (myself included) so often strive for.

After all, that blissful simplicity of the human touch is something that’s conveyed through the guitar rather uniquely, and an aspect that the greats of the instrument have all mastered. In the end, to become more dynamic, I didn’t need a new guitar or pedal, nor did I have to relearn certain techniques. I just had to flip my guitar pick 90 degrees.

Few blues guitarists are as fiery on the fretboard as Philip Sayce. Having worked with many great artists (from Jeff Healey to Jimmy Barnes) and been influenced by more (SRV, Hendrix, the three Kings all spring to mind), Philip has recorded 11 outstanding albums as a bandleader and stuns wherever he plays.

To coincide with his upcoming live album, Scorched Earth: Volume 2 Live in LA / London, Philip took time out with GW to cover the five vital components that make up his signature style.

Throughout, Philip is in Eb tuning (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb) for the video performance – like standard tuning (E A D G B E) but detuned by one semitone. This provides a fat Stratocaster single coil tone and reduces the string tension – an approach favoured by many greats including Jimi Hendrix and SRV.

In the video, the licks are played in free time with no backing track or metronome click. We have used a 4/4 time signature with all the rhythms 'rounded up' so it's easier to learn from. If you're keen to duplicate Philip's micro rhythmic nuances after referencing the tab, consult the video.

The five core elements are based around various tonalities including C# and B. He skilfully combines the major and minor pentatonic scales with color tones added. Throughout, you'll see how he combines these with fretting hand slurs, bends and vibrato with hybrid picking that blends pick attack with snappy finger picking.

Philip tours the UK from May 19th to June 3rd. For more on his album and tour visit www.philpsayce.com

Example 1. Warm-up stretching (0:46 in the video)

While Philip is in Eb tuning for all examples, we're presenting in standard E tuning as E major or E minor is easier to read than Eb major or Eb minor. The tab is exactly as Philip plays on the fretboard so detuned or in standard, the examples should prove very beneficial to work from.

If you are a pro athlete you always stretch, and guitar playing is no different. Here, Philip demonstrates his favorite warm-up stretching. This comes in the form of a five-string chord that is played over an open sixth string pedal note. The chord is first played high up the neck and then as the fingering is moved down the neck the stretch increases.

We recommend pointing the headstock up in the air so the neck is at 45 degrees – this will help promote good posture.

Example 2. Singing vibrato (2:00 in the video)

Here, Philip demonstrates how he uses a singing finger vibrato to grab the ear of the listener. The finger vibrato can be added to a string bend or to a normally fretted note. Adding finger vibrato whilst bending can be tough initially (ie speed of bend, when to apply vibrato), so we recommend developing your finger vibrato technique on a normally fretted note first. The action of rubbing the string against the fretwire aids sustain - explore how hard you press down and the results of different finger pressures.

Example 3. Enhanced singing vibrato (3:09 in the video)

Here Philip demonstrates an Eric Clapton style singing finger vibrato. For this one the whole of the fretting hand grip can be removed from the neck, so the only point touching the neck is the finger on the fretted note.

This allows for a free flowing, vocal style vibrato. The only issue with this technique is it can be difficult to maintain control and consistency during the early stages.

Example 4. Galloping rhythmic lead (4:06 in the video)

This one is inspired by guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is a combination of rhythm and lead. Philip uses a great sounding fingering for C#7#9 with an octave in the bass. The thumb of the fretting hand can be used to fret the sixth string.

The galloping rhythm is the key here and we’d recommend building this up slowly so you can build stamina and be accurate at higher tempos.

Example 5a. Burning blues lead (pick only) (4:38 in the video)

These two examples are closely linked. Philip plays the first fully picked example to provide an example of how the phrase sounds with all picking.

Example 5b. Burning blues lead (pick and fingers) (4:51 in the video)

The second version uses hybrid picking (pick and fingers together), so Philip uses the the picking hand's second finger (shown as 'm' under the tab) to pluck various notes, especially for string crossing moments. This provides some tonal light and shade and helps the notes to pop out. We have notated sections of picking (shown under the tab) so you can duplicate what Philip plays.

Philip Sayce in action

Philip Sayce - Morning Star

Taken from Philip's new live album, Morning Star features his trademark tone, burning bends and singing vibrato. As for the solo at 2:43 - phew, what a scorcher!

Philip Sayce - Morning Star and Spanish Castle Magic

This two song mashup showcases his stunning guitar chops that blend Jeff Healey, Hendrix, SRV and Freddie King influences to create his own arresting style. Tone, taste and fire in equal measure!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new Guitar World instructional column. In this series of lessons, I will be sharing and demonstrating some of my approaches to playing seven-string guitar and the various ways I use the instrument to craft the riffs that I write for my band, Spiritbox.

I’d like to kick things off with a look at some of the technical and musical elements I employ in our song Jaded, which we recorded for our 2023 EP, The Fear of Fear.

Essential to playing Jaded correctly is the tuning I use, which is drop-F# (low to high): F#, C#, F#, B, E, G#, C#. This is drop-A tuning (A, E, A, D, G, B, E), down one and one half steps, or a minor 3rd.

When transposing a tuning like this, some players prefer to think of the notes “normally,” meaning as if their guitar were in drop-A, with the understanding that everything sounds in a lower key.

Others acknowledge the absolute, concert-key pitches. I myself just visualize the shapes on the fretboard and play by ear without thinking about the note names.

As shown in Figure 1, I perform the intro riff that begins at 0:22 on my guitar’s bottom four strings, using mostly downstrokes – the only exceptions being the pairs of 16th notes, which I pick down-up.

As you can see, there’s a lot of string-skipping between the 7th string and either the 5th or 4th string. Doing so requires both precision and stamina with the pick hand, and it will take time to build up the accuracy that the riff demands.

I begin high up on the neck, at the 15th fret, and proceed to jump back and forth between high and low notes, with some very wide intervals, which I think creates an interesting, angular melodic contour that “pops” nicely.

Notice that I briefly apply palm-muting (P.M.) to the 16th notes on the open 7th-string, which makes them sound tight and percussive. Also notice, in bars 1, 3, 5 and 7, the long finger slides on the 5th string, from the 8th fret to the 14th, which is another important articulation element of the riff.

So, in addition to all the string-skips, there are a lot of quick position shifts, especially with the octave jumps in bar 9, which make the riff challenging to perform cleanly and consistently.

Figure 2 illustrates the song’s pre-chorus riff (0:59), which is very similar to the intro. There are slight differences between the first ending (bars 7 and 8) and the second ending (bars 9 and 10). Both times, I play strummed octaves on the 7th and 5th strings, again with some sliding and shifting, but notice that I change the order of the notes in the final bar, adding a slight twist to cap off the riff.

When playing both figures, strive for accuracy and economy of movement with the pick hand while also delivering the desired intense, aggressive feel. As with anything, practice it slowly at first, to establish the muscle, visual and auditory memory, then gradually increase the tempo to match that of the recording.

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Paul Gilbert is a rare example of a musician who has pushed the envelope of his instrument while also achieving commercial success.

He's a virtuoso guitarist who is respected worldwide for his work with shred metal pioneers Racer X. He's a bona fide rockstar who has topped the charts and filled arenas with Mr. Big, as well as maintaining a prolific and varied solo career. His latest album, WROC (which stands for Washington's Rules of Civility), could be his most outlandish offering to date.

Before all this though, Paul was a student and a tutor at LA's G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology, later Musicians Institute) who stunned and informed '80s students with his speed and precision. He was the Yoda of rock for countless Jedi Padawans.

We asked him to look back at his trademark G.I.T. era licks, taking them from technique-building exercises to effective musical phrases. So grab your guitar and amp for this fun deep dive into the heady days of '80s shred licks to boost your chops and musicality!

Example 1a: A Dorian lick (0:21 in the video)

This example features the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G) and is played using legato (fretting hand hammer-ons and pull-offs) and outside picking (up-pick the first string, downpick the second string – the pick to string contact is outside the strings).

The sequence stays the same on the second string while the note on the first (high E) string moves up and down the scale. For the highest note (C on the 8th fret, first string), you will fret with the fourth finger and then roll it across so it frets the G note (8th fret, second string).

The first string notes are played with an upstroke, while the lone picked note on the second string is played with a downstroke. Paul suggests digging in hard to the picked notes to draw out pinched harmonics. This lick also works great with every note picked using strict up-down alternate picking.

Example 1b: A Dorian Lick, version 2 (6:35 in the video)

The same phrasing and picking articulation from exercise 1a can be extended to other note groupings from the A Dorian mode. Moving the sequence up a minor third introduces larger stretches that Paul frets with the first, third and fourth fingers again.

Experiment with the second finger in place of the third finger if this is uncomfortable, but be sure to pay attention to the wrist and elbow positioning.

As Paul points out in the video, the whole arm and hand play an important role in accessing speed and dexterity, a commonly overlooked part of good guitar technique.

Example 1c: Chromatic lick (7:50 in the video)

To demonstrate that this concept can work with any scale or set of notes, we have a chromatic version of the original exercise. Consider expanding this by starting on the third or fourth strings and introduce string skips.

Example 2a: E minor pentatonic lick (8:33 in the video)

This begins with an ascending E minor pentatonic (E G A B D) sequence favored by Jimmy Page and Ace Frehley who were big influences on Paul. It moves into classic Gilbert territory by adding the second degree of the minor scale, and a repeating pull-off motif on the top two strings.

The wrist roll from the first exercise is again employed. The liberal use of pull-offs makes the picking less of a concern, but players who want to replicate Paul’s approach (he often uses outside picking to cross strings) will want to play close attention to the pick strokes indicated below the tab.

Example 2b: E minor blues lick (14:45 in the video)

Here's a great minor blues companion to exercise 2a that features rolls, bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Mr. Big recordings and Paul's more recent solo albums feature plenty of ideas like this, and players such as Nuno Bettencourt, Zakk Wylde and John Sykes use similar concepts.

Take your time and work in small sections before piecing it all together – a common approach to shred guitar creativity.

Example 2c: E minor blues lick, version 2 (15:00 in the video)

This variation of Paul's previous minor blues lick breaks up the phrasing with strategic rest strokes and staccato picking. All three exercises here demonstrate the power of rearranging familiar pentatonic box shape with select notes from the minor, Dorian and blues scales. Lots of fresh options and lots of fun!

Example 3a: The Hip A7 scale: A Mixolydian+b3+b5 (16:48 in the video)

Paul’s creative approach to playing over dominant chords often features a hybrid Mixolydian, Dorian and Blues scale he simply calls 'The Hip A7 Scale'. It's A Mixolydian (A B C# D E F# G) plus b3 (C note) and b5 (Eb note).

The example below simply lays the notes out on the fretboard - learn this first then you'll appreciate the next example on a deeper theoretical level. This fully rounded approach to tuition was a key element of G.I.T – expand student's theory and technique for wider musical expression.

Example 3: The Hip A7 lick (15:31 in the video)

Paul's Hip A7 lick is a perfect example of venturing beyond rigid scale shapes and embracing the bluesy foundations of rock guitar, where conviction and style reign supreme.

Building on the ingredients from exercise 3a, this sequence sounds sophisticated by contrasting chord tones from A7 (the notes are A C# E G) with extensions and alterations like the minor third (#9 - C), flattened fifth (#11 - Eb) and sixth (13th - F#).

Adding these notes to a dominant 7th chord's notes (or even the minor or major pentatonics) is a great way to morph rock and blues licks into jazz and fusion lines.

Paul Gilbert discusses his fretting hand technique

How did your fretting hand’s third and fourth fingers get strong and independent of each other?

My first two years on guitar were all self-taught. For some reason, I only used my middle finger. When I finally started taking lessons, my teacher suggested an exercise to get my other fingers moving. The exercise was one-finger-per-fret, across all six strings, starting on the 1st fret. I had big hands as an 11-year-old, so I could handle playing F, F#, G, G# with all four fingers on the sixth string. That became a habit.

So when I learned an A minor scale with A, B, C on the first string, I used my first finger, third finger, and pinky (fourth finger). It worked right away, so I never considered an alternative. I must admit that few of my '70s guitar heroes use this fingering, and I certainly wouldn't have them change anything. In most cases, I don't think there is a particular advantage. It's more a personal quirk. But once in a while that fingering will offer something unique, plus I'm just used to it.

How did you develop strength and stamina for big stretches?

I used to play [Van Halen's] Spanish Fly over and over again when I was a teenager. That was my daily warm-up. I also practiced trills between all my fingers. A trill between the third finger and fourth finger takes some doing! And I would even practice these on a bass, to build more stamina. I was 18 years old. Now if I need stamina, I just use 7s!

How did you develop your fourth finger vibrato?

I do pinky vibrato all the time, with help from the other fingers! And it's actually the wrist (a much larger and powerful body part) that's driving the whole thing. I wouldn't dare send the energy of my wrist into my pinky by itself. I'd get an injury, fast! So the pinky is just getting the note, and the other fingers are providing more skin and stability.

What is good rock vibrato?

Let's take a look at bad vibrato first, as we can learn from it. The most common bad vibrato is when the vibrato starts fast... then freezes. To fix it, just flip the order around. Start with no vibrato. Then gradually speed it up. Then you need to have a stylish transition out of it. That can be a slide, a pitch scratch, an intentional stop, or a muted sweep into the next chord. Use anything to get out of the vibrato before it freezes!

In terms of technique, frozen notes typically come from the wrist being in a classical position under the neck. Look up some photos of the vibrato masters of the '70s. Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, and Leslie West all have their thumbs hanging over the top of the neck. This is an indication of where the wrist is. The wrist drives the vibrato. The wrist is powerful! Frozen notes disappear!

Nobody told me any of that when I was a kid. I just wanted to look and sound like Jimmy Page. And the low-slung guitar helped, as it banished classical hand position. For rock vibrato, the low-slung guitar gets the wrist in just the right place. I wear my guitar up a bit higher these days, but my vibrato technique was honed with a long guitar strap and '70s heroes in my ears.

What is a common fretting hand problem you could help everyone solve?

So much of my style is dependent on a "wrist up" rock wrist position. Besides the power and control of wrist-driven vibrato, it also makes it easier to do finger rolls from string to string on the same fret. It makes noise-control easier, as it gets you in position to mute adjacent strings to the one you're playing. And I believe the rock wrist position gives extra strength and speed to hammer-ons and pull-offs as well.

The only time I make an exception is on barre chords, or big stretches on the lower strings. For those, I just tilt the neck up a bit to get my wrist in temporary classical position until the phrase is done, and then I'm back to rock wrist. For all of this, the most important part of your hand is... your ears!

Paul Gilbert's new album, WROC, is out now.

More Paul Gilbert!

Racer X - Street Lethal

While Mr Big launched Paul to bona fide rock god status, the title track of the debut Racer X album established him as a shred superhero. Blistering three-notes-per-string sequences, intense vibrato and surgical diad riffing make Street Lethal stand out!

Paul Gilbert - Go Not Thither

Paul channels the pentatonic swagger of Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Montrose with this uptempo groove from his latest album WROC. The solo seamlessly blends Mixolydian, Dorian and blues scale phrases with a syrupy tone and vibrato which highlights the influence of Robin Trower.

One of the standout tracks from my new album, B.B. King: Blues Summit 100, is a cover of the iconic tune When Love Comes to Town, which is a song King had recorded with U2 in 1988, an unlikely pairing that worked out phenomenally well and became very popular when it was released the following year.

Bono had written the song specifically with B.B. in mind, and they recorded it together at Sun Studios in Memphis. B.B. would subsequently perform the song live with U2 nearly 50 times.

There are many really cool guitar parts in this song, not only from B.B. but also from the Edge, who played a solo, which was delightfully surprising, as it is very unusual to hear him play in this type of blues context.

The Edge’s solo has his signature ethereal sound, so in approximating it, we plugged in a TC Electronic 2290, an AMS reverb – using anything we could find from that era at Sunset Sound in L.A. – and the results are sonically appropriate.

Using that sound, I played a solo in his style, along the lines of Figure 1. The solo is based on simple combinations of quarter and eighth notes, incorporating the open low and high E strings and the open B string, as well as a strummed E5 chord, with all notes allowed to ring into each other.

When it’s B.B.’s turn to solo, he gets right to classic B.B.-style phrasing, like Figure 2. Played in the “B.B. box,” the fret-hand is rooted in 5th position, starting with a big vibrato on an E root note and followed by succinct phrases that draw notes from both E major pentatonic (E, F#, G#, B, C#) and E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, B, D).

Figures 3 and 4 are based on the same approach, this time moving from the tonic chord, E, to the IV (four) chord, A, without changing positions. All of these improvised melodies are played in the same 5th-position box.

The original track offers a great lesson in the power of simplicity in the parts of both guitarists. The Edge played in his style and B.B. played in his, and the two work so well together.

When we set about to record our version of the song, we invited Slash, Miles Kennedy and Shemekia Copeland to contribute their talents, and they all did a fantastic job, putting their own stamp on this classic song.

There are many approaches Slash could have taken for his solo, and I thought it was cool that he did his own thing, utilizing his signature “rock” approach along the lines of Figure 5.

In this example, the first three bars are based on E minor pentatonic in 12th position, shifting in bar 4 up to 15th position then back to 12th position heading into bar 5. Moving into bar 6, the lines shift up to 17th position then back down to 5th position at the end of the bar.

The beauty of soloing over this song’s progression is you can stick with E-scale riffs the entire time, moving simply between the I and IV chords, as the tune never goes to the V (five) chord, B. I encourage you to make it your own, which is the approach Slash took quite effectively here.

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Last month, I discussed some of the advantages of playing in a power trio, such as the open harmonic canvas that it affords me as a guitar player. Threw Me to the Wolves is a song of mine that presents many opportunities to explore and exploit the creative freedom that the three-piece ensemble allows.

With the song’s solo section, my mindset is that we’re at the start of a musical journey, and it’s my mission to “tell a story” that will take the audience from one place to another. In this lesson, I’d like to share how I go about doing that.

Let’s first look at the solo section’s chord progression. As shown in Figure 1, we’re in the key of A minor, and the progression begins with the bVI (flat six) chord, F(sus2), which moves to the bVII (flat seven) chord, G5, then resolves to the tonic, or root, chord, Am. Each chord lasts for two beats, so the first bar is Fsus2 to G5, and the second bar is Am to G5. This two-bar pattern then repeats throughout the solo.

For the F and G chords, no 3rd is played, which gives me more melodic freedom when soloing. This sense of “open harmony” allows me to hold long, sustaining notes over all three chords, and then travel through the progression with melodic freedom, in my quest for memorable, singable solos.

Figure 2 illustrates how I get into the solo. Taking an Eric Clapton/Albert King-inspired approach, I begin with a whole-step bend from D, the 4th, up to E, the 5th, which I hold and shake, after which I slowly move back down to the A root note via the notes D and C, as well as the 2nd, B. The overall scale I rely on here is A minor hextatonic (A, B, C, D, E, G), which is A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G) with the note B, the 2nd, or 9th, added.

Another thing I love to do here is reference the chord progression with double-stops, specifically 6th intervals, or 6ths. Figure 3 has me sliding into a C-A double-stop over Fsus2, a D-B double-stop over G5 and an E-C double-stop over Am.

Figure 4 demonstrates a neat little trick I picked up from Joe Bonamassa: when playing a 6th or 10th interval as a double-stop, instead of fretting the higher note normally, play it one fret lower then bend it up a half step and add some vibrato, to make it really sing.

Another cool way to elaborate on 6ths is to create a “pedal tone”-type melody. In Figure 5, I begin with straight 6ths over Fsus2 and G5 then use the lower note as a rearticulated pedal tone against a melodic line played on higher strings.

I also like to reference each chord with simple triad arpeggios. In Figure 6, I play F, G and Am triads on the top three strings while adding vibrato in an Otis Rush-type manner.

Figure 7 and 8 illustrate a tremolo strumming technique I picked up from Stevie Ray Vaughan: Figure 7 shows Am, Bm, Csus2 and Dsus2 triads played on the top three strings. In Figure 8, I create a tremolo effect by lightly strumming the strings with the tip of my pick-hand index finger as quickly as possible.

This is the last installment of Hardwired for now. I hope you’ve been able to incorporate some of my ideas into your own playing and hope to see you at a show soon!

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In a world where we’re so often encouraged to expand our vocabulary, learn more scales, play over complex changes and improve our technique, this example solo takes the contrary approach of exploring simple bluesy ideas over a single chord.

It does venture a little outside of the regular pentatonic shapes towards the end (check out Example 3), but this is the exception, rather than the rule. In this section we’re looking for interesting melodic lines instead of deliberately referring to specific chord tones, but – deliberately or not – this is what’s going on during the last four bars…

One of the advantages of staying with a one-chord ‘drone’ backing such as this is that we can experiment with different melodic ideas without having to consider the constantly ‘shifting sands’ of changing chords.

This concentration on the melodic possibilities in a narrower context can be gradually expanded from a single chord to some straightforward changes at first, then gradually building in complexity as you become more conversant with the various possibilities.

Let’s talk a little more about the example solo. It was played in a single pass but is divided up here into three four-bar sections. The first two of these stay within the accepted parameters of blues playing (albeit with a little more distortion than a ‘classic’ blues).

After establishing a riff in Example 1, Example 2 plays around with the shape 1 A minor pentatonic box. None of this requires a huge vocabulary or theoretical knowledge; it’s much more about melody and rhythm. While it’s always good to expand our horizons, most classic solos aren’t derived from esoteric scales and arpeggios!

That said, Example 3 does deliberately (and repeatedly) refer to the 6th (F#), culminating in a fiddly Am6 arpeggio idea. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

This introductory phrase establishes a riff based around an A chord, though it progresses towards a more pentatonic ‘lead guitar’ approach by the time we reach bar 4. In terms of pentatonic positions, you could say this is based predominantly around shape 5 until bar 4, when we shift up to shape 1.

I’m using fingerstyle to play this, but any version of hybrid or even flatpicking can be made to work. Try them all and see what you prefer.

Example 2

Having established that bluesy groove, we’re now ‘lifting off’ with some solo playing. We stay pretty constantly with the shape 1 A minor pentatonic we shifted to at the end of Example 1.

This phrase isn’t looking to push any boundaries harmonically – it’s about building intensity via that repeated string-bending lick, then breaking it up with some rhythmic doublestops. Maybe a good way of viewing this is to think of Jeff Beck shifting to Billy Gibbons!

Example 3

Here’s where we change from a more pentatonic-based approach to experimenting with ‘outside’ ideas – not in the hard bebop sense but non-pentatonic and arpeggio-based shapes based around Am6.

This translates as including lots of F# (the 6th), along with the other notes from A minor (A-C-E). Looking closely, you’ll also spot a good chunk of the shape 3 A minor pentatonic in there, too.

Once again, it’s your choice whether to use fingerstyle, pick or hybrid picking. Arguably, once you add enough gain, the tone difference is minimal, but how you attack the notes will influence your phrasing.

Hear it here

Jeff Beck – Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop

The title track of 1989’s Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop was definitely an inspiration for the riff in Example 1 of this issue’s piece, though Stand On It is also in there, too. Staying with that same album, Two Rivers explores some unusual non-pentatonic ideas.

Elsewhere, check out Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers from 75’s Blow By Blow as this contains a mixture of melodic exploration and more recognisably pentatonic themes. A little of this creeps into Example 2 with its repeated string-bend lick.

ZZ Top – Eliminator

Billy Gibbons manages to take blues ideas and incorporate them into a non-traditional context without losing their essence. His riffs and solos on the tracks Legs and Sharp Dressed Man from 1983’s Eliminator illustrate this particularly well, as all the other instruments sound very programmed and ‘1980s’.

The same is true of Rough Boy from Afterburner (1985): the two solos in this track really show Billy stretching out and soloing in a way he doesn’t allow himself on the other two examples.

Oz Noy – Who Gives A Funk

Though he definitely comes from the more technical end of the spectrum, Oz Noy has an understanding of what makes the blues the blues, in the same way that Robben Ford does. In fact, you can check them out playing together on his version of Ice Man from 2016’s Who Gives A Funk album.

Elsewhere, check out Come Dance With Me from Twisted Blues Vol 2, released in 2014, or his incredible soloing on Sit Tight from the Ha! album, from earlier in his career in 2005.

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A staple of many great country and country rock songs – and, in the hands of Jimmy Page and Albert Lee, rock songs – is the sound of the B-Bender.

For those unfamiliar, a B-Bender is a string-pulling device built into a guitar, most often a Fender Telecaster, that allows the player to raise the pitch of the B string by simply pulling down on the guitar strap. This enables one to emulate the pitch-bending sound of a pedal steel guitar, which works in a similar way, with pedals used to raise the pitches of individual strings or groups of strings.

The B-Bender was originally known as the “Parsons/White Pull-String,” because it was the brainchild of guitarist Clarence White and drummer Gene Parsons of the Byrds and Nashville West.

Legend has it that, while recording, Clarence said, “Hey, I need another finger to play this chord! Gene, come over here and push down on my B string behind the nut to raise the pitch.” Gene reportedly said, “You know, I can build a device that will do that for you.” And thus the Parsons/White B-Bender was born.

Part of the guitar’s body is hollowed out for a pulley system: a rod is attached to the strap button above the neck, and when this rod is pulled downward (by pulling on the strap), the pulley system raises the pitch of the B string inside the bridge up to one whole step.

As a young guitarist, I was completely under the spell of all of the fantastic B-Bender players, including White, Marty Stuart, Lee and Page, who used a B-Bender guitar brilliantly on the 1979 Led Zeppelin album In Through the Out Door.

Like most players, I was forced to learn how to attain the B-Bender sounds on a standard guitar long before I attained one equipped with a B-Bender.

As shown in Figure 1, while holding down the notes B and F# at the 7th fret on the top two strings, I can bend the F# up to G#. This technique, where one note rises while another remains stationary, is known as an oblique bend.

We have a Blackberry Smoke song called Sleeping Dogs, in which I play B-Bender-type licks on a standard guitar. As shown in Figure 2, there’s a turnaround in the song that goes D5 - E (or E7) - G7 - D.

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the licks I play over these chords, for which I bend my G string downward to raise an E note up to F#.

Years ago I’d go see Rick Richards from the Georgia Satellites, who played a Les Paul Junior through a dimed Hiwatt amp. He was the king of Chuck Berry-style licks, like the one shown in Figure 5, and he’d play beautiful licks like Figures 6 and 7 that emulated the B-Bender sound by bending his G string while holding two-note forms on the top two strings.

In Figure 8, I begin by bending into an E major triad (E, G#, B) and then play a lick based on E major pentatonic (E, F#, G#, B, C#) combined with the E blues scale (E, G, A, Bb, B, D).

In Figure 9, the oblique bend technique is applied to the top two strings with the bends on the B and G strings.

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Recently, we’ve been exploring extended chords, and while we did touch on some altered chords, this is a fuller explanation with tips on how to avoid some common pitfalls with the naming conventions.

That being said, it’s important to remember that the names are only an attempt to describe/itemise the different sounds available to us. Altered chords aren’t necessarily extended, but this can be the area that spawns the most intimidating names, some of which we’ll attempt to demystify here.

Let’s start by defining exactly what ‘altered’ means in this context, which is: moving a note within a chord out of the ‘parent’ scale. For example, a C augmented (usually written as ‘aug’) triad contains C-E-G# (Root-3rd-#5).

The 5th has been raised (augmented) by a semitone, giving us a G#, which is not found in the C major scale – and is great for adding tension. It really is as simple as that, even though some of the names can seem a little daunting at first glance (see Example 5).

Example 1. Caug5

You’ll see the similarity to a regular C major chord, but that #5 (G#) on the third string takes it somewhere else – perhaps it can resolve to an F major, or maybe raise that G# another semitone to A at the 2nd fret, giving us C6? Altered chords are all about the context.

Example 2. C7(b5)

Having raised the 5th in Example 1, we’re lowering it in this C7(b5). It’s also a 7th chord, which adds a more jazzy feel. Take care to mute the fifth string and you can move this chord to any key. This would resolve well to C7 by raising that b5 on the second string a semitone.

Example 3. C7(b9)

The same overall principles apply when looking to alter extended chords. This C7(b9) is a classic jazz chord, with the b9 (Db) appearing at the 2nd fret of the second string. Raise it a semitone to the 3rd fret and you’ll find a D, giving us a nice resolution to a C9 chord.

Example 4. C9(#11)

If we build further on the ideas in Example 3, we might make this dramatic C9 (#11) chord. The #11 itself (F#) is found at the 2nd fret of the first string. They’re both F#/Gb, so why a #11 rather than a b5? Because we also have the 7th and the 9th here, making this an extended chord.

Example 5. C7(#5#9)

The classic Hendrix chord gets an extra note here, the #5 (G#) above the more often heard #9 (D). You can add this by simply flattening your fourth finger across the first and second strings. This sets up a nice resolve to F13, but why not experiment and see what else sounds good to you?

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One of the coolest and most badass-sounding things a guitarist can do is double a long, complex bassline an octave higher. This was my approach for the song Dean Town, which I recorded with Vulfpeck for our 2016 album, The Beautiful Game.

The tune was inspired by legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius’ Teen Town, which he recorded with Weather Report on the 1975 album Heavy Weather.

Like Teen Town, the bassline in Dean Town is a through-composed melody, which means it’s a continuous and non-repetitive piece of music.

The melody was written by our keyboard player Woody Goss and “made famous” by bassist Joe Dart. I decided to octave-double Joe’s intricate bassline through the long initial section of the tune, which was challenging!

Before launching into the melodic line, let’s take a look at the basic underlying chord changes, outlined in Figure 1. In the song, each of these notes – F#, C#, E and B – is played for two full bars, as steady 16th notes. So it’s an eight-bar loop. The tune’s melody is 16 bars long and is played over the eight-bar progression two times.

The first time the 16-bar melody, or “head,” is played, it’s performed by the bass alone. The second time through, I octave-double it on guitar.

This 16-bar melody is shown in Figure 2. Using palm-muting throughout, I begin with a one-beat pickup, and bar 1 starts with the 16th notes E-D#-C#-A, followed by the root note, F#, which falls on beat 2. Right from the start, this is a little deceptive, as the low F# root note hits you like it’s on “1,” but it is in fact on beat 2.

As you play through the line, you’ll see that it includes some complex, syncopated rhythms driven by eighth and 16th notes and rests, with many “holes” dropped into unexpected places.

Bar 6 begins with a four-note chromatic row, from F# up to A, followed by high melodic notes that bounce off open low-E 16th note syncopations. Bars 7 and 8 circle around B7 with the notes of B major pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#), which resolves in bar 9 to F#m, with the bar ending with dead-string hits and a high chordal accent on the final 16th note of the bar.

Bars 10-12 offer a break from the barrage of 16th notes with repeated eighth-note accents on the F# root note, only to return to very syncopated lines in bars 13-16.

The biggest challenge when doubling a complex, rhythmically dense bassline like this is precision. It simply will not work and will sound sloppy if I don’t nail every phrase and mirror the articulations of the bass.

Later in the tune, I play a funky rhythm part high up on the fretboard that consists of syncopated double-stops on the G and B strings, shown in Figure 3. Notice that each bar repeats and how the notes work with the underlying chord changes. Utilizing two-note chords like this is a great way to outline the harmony with just a minimal amount of information and textural density.

This is the last installment of my column Follow the Groove for now, so I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these columns and the ideas presented have been useful to you. See you on the road!

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