Somewhere along the way, barre chords became the gold standard. For many songwriting guitarists, they’re seen as a kind of graduation from open chords, a sort of signal to the guitar world that you’ve arrived.

But here’s the truth: barre chords might be hurting your song more than helping. A songwriter’s goal should be to support the vocal melody and lyric, but sometimes, the barre chord can smother the very thing we’re hoping it will elevate.

One of the biggest shifts I help clients make is moving from “functional” to emotional playing. Barre chords might be functional, but emotional playing demands intention. It’s not about proving your strength as a player. It’s about serving the story.

Big chords, wrong feel

Say you’re writing something vulnerable. The vocal is soft and the lyrics are introspective. But you’re still gripping that full F major barre chord, pushing out every string. What you’re actually doing is competing with the vocal moment, not complementing it.

Now imagine grabbing a capo, moving it up, and using a gentle C shape to voice a G. You hit only the top few strings, leave space, and suddenly everything feels more casual, more delicate. The tone supports the emotion, instead of overpowering it.

I’ve worked with artists, top-liners, and sync-focused producers who make this mistake all the time. One of my students was stuck in what I call the Barre Chord Loop, same shapes, same voicings, same strumming. Once we swapped in triads and partial voicings, her entire sound and writing process opened up.

Let the guitar set the floor

In a co-write, your guitar doesn’t just provide chords, it sets the floor of the song. It defines the emotional starting point for everyone in the room. If the voicing is stiff or unclear, it confuses your collaborators. The melody gets muddled. The lyrics don’t land. You end up with a Frankenstein song that doesn’t really know what it is.

But if the feel is dialed in from the start, the vocal flows naturally. Ideas click faster. You’re not just writing a song. You’re creating momentum.

It’s not about what’s “advanced” 

One of the most dangerous myths in guitar culture is that barre chords are “advanced,” while open chords, capos, and alternate tunings are “beginner.” That thinking kills motivation and creativity, especially for songwriters.

Some of my most emotional tracks were built on incredibly simple shapes: a third on the A and D strings, an open sixth string droning underneath, or a repeated motif using just two fingers and a drop tuning.

Open tunings like open D or DADGAD unlock colors you simply can’t get with standard barre chords. Capo at the 7th fret and play a C–F–Am–G shape, and suddenly you’ve got something fragile, cinematic, and fresh.

Don’t underestimate “easy” shapes. Simplicity isn’t weakness, it’s clarity.

Ask better questions

Instead of sitting down with your guitar and asking, “What chord comes next?” try asking something deeper and think more like a producer.

What emotion am I really trying to create? Who’s singing this, is it my voice, or someone else’s? What kind of energy does the song need? Is it laid-back and introspective, or bold and driving? And when I play this voicing, is it giving space for the melody to breathe, or is it stepping all over it?

These questions might seem small, but they shift everything. Because once you stop thinking like a guitarist and start thinking like a producer, your chord choices become intentional. Your guitar stops filling space… and starts shaping the story.

Break the pattern

Take a look at the last three songs you wrote. Seriously. Pull them up and be honest with yourself, are you using the same progressions, the same voicings, the same strumming patterns without even realizing it?

It happens to every songwriter at some point. You fall into habits. Barre chords become your safety net. But the problem with safety nets is they can quietly become cages.

So here’s your challenge: take one of your go-to progressions, maybe it’s I–V–vi–IV, and push yourself to play it in four completely different ways. Use triads. Throw on a capo and change the shape. Try a drop tuning or open D. Or limit yourself to just the top three strings and see what kind of magic you can pull out.

When you push yourself outside of your comfort zone like this, something shifts. Your ear perks up. Your hands find new territory. And instead of repeating what you’ve always done, you start discovering what the song actually wants.

That’s when songwriting gets exciting again.

Serve the song, not your ego 

Sometimes a song does call for full-on barre chords. Other times, it wants something breezy and chill. You might need a powerful octave line, or a delicate fingerpicked motif. The key is knowing why you're choosing what you're choosing.

Don’t cling to barre chords because they feel like something you “should” use. Choose voicings that serve the moment. That’s how you go from just playing guitar to actually supporting a song.

Starting in 1996, Guitar World was honored to publish a handful of lesson columns authored by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The following is the first of these columns, a breakdown of the infamously twisty riff that underpins the Zeppelin classic, Black Dog. It has been edited in certain instances for use online.

Hello everyone. Over the next several months I plan on sharing with you some of my approaches to playing, writing, and arranging music. I'll be discussing some of the concepts that I've gleaned over the years, illustrating them with some well-known – and a few not-so-well-known – musical examples.

Let's begin this first lesson by talking about what I've often heard people refer to as the classic Led Zeppelin “stomp groove.” A prime example of this can be found in the song Black Dog, from our fourth album.

As you probably already know, Led Zeppelin were heavily influenced by blues music – Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and many others.

I was inspired to write the Black Dog riff after learning an old blues riff in E from the Muddy Waters album, Electric Mud. [Ed. note: Jones later retracted this, citing Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning as his inspiration for the riff.]

It's a swampy, circular, single-note riff and Jimmy Page and I used to love to play it forever! I wanted to write an original riff that had that same type of busy, yet plodding, feel.

What I came up with has an extra beat thrown in at the end of the phrase. It just felt natural to hit the A note an extra time before Robert [Plant] came in again with the vocal.

I then came up with the bridge riff, which is in E. This riff is rather tricky-sounding, as it's built from a repeated phrase that is four-and-a-half beats long. Each time the phrase is repeated it's displaced by half a beat.

The E note, which falls neatly on beat one the first time the phrase is played, falls on the second eighth-note of beat one the second time around, on beat two the third time, and on the second eighth-note of beat two the fourth time. This technique of repeating an odd-length phrase in an even time signature such as 4/4 is known as hemiola and is a very effective compositional tool.

When this riff was played against Bonzo's [drummer John Bonham] half-time backbeat and doubled an octave higher on guitar, the result was a very powerful and catchy-sounding “stomp groove.” It seems that quite a few bands have picked up on this concept.

Originally, I wrote the bridge riff with different accents that disguised the beat even more. In the long run, however, playing it this way proved to be too tricky for everyone to hear and perform together without losing track of the beat, so we ended up changing the accent pattern to make the downbeats a little more obvious.

I used a pick for this song to get that growling, trebly tone. Many bass players scoff at the thought of using a plectrum for anything, but I've found it to be quite useful for a lot of things.

For example, during the chorus/solo sections of Black Dog, I would sometimes strum E5 and D5 power chords behind Page's G and D chords, especially when performing live. I really don't think the song would have sounded as punchy and “fat” if I hadn't used a pick.

A few years after we recorded this song, I started using an eight-string bass when performing it live. Since every note I played on that bass would be doubled one octave higher, it really helped fill out the middle register. This was particularly effective when Jimmy would go to solo.

Keep in mind that when it comes to creating music, there are no “rules.”

Look at Led Zeppelin – we broke just about every so-called rule of music and recording that there was, and for the most part, it seemed to have worked to our benefit. The only thing that really matters is that you like what you hear.

• This lesson originally appeared in the December 1996 issue of Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Last year, Joe Satriani assembled the original G3 trio and hit the road with Steve Vai and Eric Johnson for what turned out to be one of 2024’s most notable guitar tours.

The tour saw the three electric guitar greats reunite under the G3 banner almost three decades after Satch first initiated the long-running format back in 1996. As per tradition, each show saw the three players headline their own sets, before joining forces for a finale jam.

G3 2024 was recently delivered to the masses via the new G3 Reunion Live album, and to celebrate the highly anticipated record’s release, Guitar World has teamed up with Vai, Johnson and Satch for three personal lessons breaking down some of their favorite instrumental tracks.

While Johnson offers a whistle stop tour of the verse section of his Ah Via Musicom acoustic classic, Desert Rose – particularly the crucial muting technique he deploys – Vai serves up a bespoke insight into Avalancha, from his most recent studio record, Inviolate.

“I was looking for a song to open the show with,” Vai says of Avalancha’s origins. “This melody is like a Clarion Call of sorts. That’s what I was looking for.”

For his own lesson, Satch breaks out both his Ibanez JS1CR and Ibanez 12-string to walk through the micro-tonal hook, main melodies, and accompanying lead sections of Sahara.

“Playing the melody on top of that was the real challenge,” Satch says of the opening motif, before giving players a close-up look at the wild whammy bar techniques he uses to amp up the central lead line.

Head over to the Guitar World YouTube channel to watch all three lessons. G3 Reunion Live is out now via earMusic.

Since Slayer’s 1983 release, Show No Mercy, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have established a brand of sinister, frenetic thrash metal that took the world by storm.

Their fast-paced, 16th-note picking, chromatic sequences, and use of notes both inside and outside of the key make way for an energetic, adrenaline-fuelled sound laced with attitude and tension.

Despite their fair share of riffs based on unrelenting aggression, Slayer also make effective use of mid-tempo, arpeggiated chords, as in Seasons in the Abyss. This creates dynamic space while keeping the listener drenched in the mood and atmosphere of the song.

Slayer have used various tunings over the years, but for this lesson we’ll keep everything at standard pitch, as on the group’s first album.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 4

For a classic Slayer rhythm tone, use your bridge pickup and the high-gain channel of your guitar amp. To get a chunky sound while keeping things focused, Slayer use less gain than expected, so push the middle frequencies, and roll off some of the treble. The bite and presence should come from the picking-hand attack.

Example 1

The opening phrase alternates between fast flurries of E notes played on the open sixth string and diminished 5th double-stops descending chromatically along the fourth and fifth string. To tighten up the faster passages, palm mute the notes on the sixth string while all other notes remain unrestricted.

Example 2

This study features fast-paced powerchords that outline the root note of each key. This establishes a tonal centre for the ear to lock on to before the chromatic motifs step outside of the key. By bookending the chromaticism with the root chord, our ears can make sense of the harmonic tension.

Now, admittedly, we can’t imagine that guitar, amp and pedalboard featured too highly in most 19th century sailors’ luggage – we’ll concede that. 

Still, we’re not going to let that stop us from plugging in and rocking out with our own version of Wellerman, the 150+ year-old sea shanty which recently became Nathan Evans’ sensational viral TikTok hit and number one single in the UK chart. 

An unlikely and unfathomable new trend it may be, but this traditional tune has endured thanks to its strong, instantly memorable melody line. As with What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor or a trad. folk tune like The Wild Rover, one listen to Wellerman and it’s in your head for good! 

So, here we present our own version of this traditional tune. There are only two four-bar sections to learn, but we’ve let rip during the last eight bars to give you some ideas for your own version, and tabbed it all out for you. 

The main Wellerman tune is made of two four-bar sections (bars 1-4 and 5-8 here), so work on those parts primarily. We’ve written another eight bars of music, taking the melody higher up the fretboard and adding a few flourishes. 

Learn the bare bones of the melody, have a go at our shreddier licks, then try making up your own version.

Sick Riffs #52: We’ve had some pretty thorough lessons on Sick Riffs, but Orchards’ Sam Rushton has gone above and beyond, teaching you the entirety of the upbeat math-rockers’ ridiculously catchy single Peggy - and even including the tab (which you can view below).

In the video, Rushton gives you a full playthrough of the track, before diving into each section in-depth. The song showcases Rushton’s impressive percussive fingerpicking technique, including a slick tapping section, plenty of extended chords and some nifty harmonics.

Rushton plays a Fender Telecaster through a delectable assortment of pedals, including an Xotic SP Compressor, Electro-Harmonix Cathedral, EarthQuaker Devices Plumes and Boss DD-7 set to a modulated setting.

“We've released our debut album amidst the coronavirus outbreak, so it’s been a bit of a crazy time in the Orchards camp,” Sam reflects.

“We've had to reschedule our album tour and our first headline tour of Europe too so we've been left (like every other band) in this general purgatory of not being able to tour and meet everyone who'd bought tickets to the shows but still trying to keep active on social media and connect with people that way.

“We're lucky we've got our Orchards community (The Juice Box on Facebook) so we have a direct link to a lot of our close fans - it's lovely to see people helping each other through this weird time the world is having to deal with!”

Support Orchards

Lovecore stream: https://orcd.co/lovecore
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Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.

Originally a Russian folk tune based around Nikolay Nekrasov’s similarly titled 1861 poem, Korobeiniki has been part of traditional Russian repertoire for well over a century. 

However, it was Hirokazu Tanaka’s 1989 arrangement of this piece for the Nintendo Game Boy version of the hugely successful Tetris game that brought it to global consciousness. It’s frequently ranked among the most instantly recognisable and popular videogame tunes of all time.

So what does that mean for us guitarists? Well, it’s a great tune to learn. The chords are fairly easy if you only want to jam along. For convenience, just play E7 wherever you see E7/G# or E7/9 chord names.

The lead part isn’t too challenging though, except for our shreddy tapping section, which will need slow, careful practice. 

Figure 1. Korobeiniki main theme

We’re kicking off our arrangement with a run through of the main melody. Look for a small dot above or below some of the notes. This tells you to play staccato, which simply means the note is cut short. All you have to do is lift your fretting finger slightly to bring the string away from the fret to mute out your sound.

Figure 2. Harmony melody

This harmony to the main melody isn’t phrased quite the same as the main part; it’s similar, but, in places, the two guitars weave around each other. Listen out for the programmed hi-hat (panned right) to keep you locked in. Timing is pretty important here, otherwise the two guitars will sound a little loose.

Figure 3. Middle eight

In contrast to the previous two sections, this part is played with long sustaining notes. Use an even vibrato, repeatedly bending the strings down towards the floor and back again with a turning wrist movement. Head back to the main/harmony melody when you reach the end.

Figure 4. Tapped section

After a repeat of the main/harmony melody we reach a Bumblefoot-inspired tapping section where the chord notes are played along the first string. 

Tap with the first finger of your pick hand or use your second finger if you need to keep hold of your pick. Mute the idle strings by resting your pick hand on the lower strings as you tap.

Figure 5. Powerchord section

Strum confidently and slide as accurately as possible between chords wherever there’s a slide line in the tab. Keep steady momentum by strumming consistently, using downstrokes for onbeat notes and upstrokes in between. In bar 3 you switch to octave shapes – mute the fourth string by resting your first finger against it.

In this classic GW lesson, you can learn how to play the intro to Led Zeppelin's classic track, "Immigrant Song."

In the video—which is hosted by our own Jimmy Brown—you can learn the deceptively complex intro riff piece by piece, from the difficult picking pattern to the finger placements.

Check it out, and be sure to stay tuned for more classic lessons in the coming days!

When you think of great guitar riffs, pop music isn't usually what comes to mind.

In his newest lesson video though, guitar instructor Robert Baker shows you five different pop songs with riffs that'll be stuck in your head all day. Check the lesson out for yourself, and be sure to grab the tabs below.

For more of Robert’s lessons, stop by his YouTube channel.

"American Girl," the second single off Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1977 self-titled debut album, has pretty much got it all. There's its urgent Bo Diddley beat, its undeniably catchy melody, its New Wave punch, a tasty hook or two—even a bizarre "American" tie-in (It was recorded July 4, 1976, which is some wild, wacky stuff).

Best of all, it sports lots and lots and lots of guitar, including an exciting, impressive-sounding yet somewhat easy-to-play guitar solo/outro by Mike Campbell.

Bearing in mind that we've got a very nice transcription of the song coming up in the next issue of Guitar World, we hereby submit a few videos that will tide you over—and help you play it like a pro.

As I found out when my band briefly covered this song in 2009, Campbell's dazzling outro licks are really just one fun shape that moves up the fretboard with only one alteration when it gets to the 12th fret.

First, behold a vintage clip of the Heartbreakers performing the song on a long-gone sketch comedy show called Fridays (I remember watching Paul McCartney and Wings perform "Old Siam, Sir" on Fridays, but who cares?):

Although we get to see Campbell's hands every so often (in the video above), the cameraman loves to pull away just when things are about to get interesting. Ergo, take a look at this performance of "American Girl" by the Petty Hearts, an Epiphone-loving Tom Petty cover band:

Finally, let a guitarist named Tom lovingly break down the entire song, including the clever outro lick, in this well-done video:

Finally, and purely "for the hell of it," check out a cover of "American Girl" by Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. It was an interesting idea for a cover, since the reference most classic rock fans thought of when they initially heard Petty's "American Girl" was McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker attack from a decade earlier—so McGuinn went ahead and covered it (in 1977). According to legend, when McGuinn's manager first played Petty's "American Girl" for him, McGuinn said, "When did I write that song?"

A few months ago, Darrell Braun presented a video in which he demonstrates 24 easy jazz chords. He’s back with the second lesson in this series, “Three Easy Jazz Songs for People Who Don’t Play Jazz.” These songs use the chords from the previous lesson, which you can see right here.

The songs are “Stormy Monday,” which Darrell explains is essentially a 12-bar blues with jazz chords (and which many of you have heard performed by the Allman Brothers Band, B.B. King and Eric Clapton, among others); “Blue Bossa,” an instrumental jazz composition by Kenny Dorham that’s been performed by Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon and many others; and “Blue in Green,” a Miles Davis composition featured on his 1959 album Kind of Blue.

As always, Darrell has included tab right in the video.

If you’re unfamiliar with any of these songs, we’ve included popular renditions of them below Darrell’s lesson. In true jazz fashion, they may not strictly adhere to the chord changes presented in Darrell’s lesson, but interpretation is what it’s all about.

For more of Darrell’s lesson, visit his YouTube channel. Photo by Pexels.com.

In the same lighthearted spirit as last month’s presentation of “The Irish Washerwoman,” I now offer a fun solo guitar arrangement of another enduringly popular, although less well-known, folk-dance tune, this one originating in the opposite side of Europe, Ukraine.

It’s called “Hopak” (See FIGURE 1), which is also the name of a breathtakingly acrobatic “martial-arts-ballet”–style dance traditionally performed by troupes of highly athletic and flexible young men who call themselves cossacks or, in Ukrainian, kozaky (“kaw–za-keh”), dressed in colorful, baggy pants, embroidered shirts and leather riding boots, in celebration of a comrade’s wedding or battle victory against foreign invaders and fueled by adrenaline and vodka.

The concept is to begin slowly and boldly—the “slow clap”—and gradually ramp up the tempo to “cruising speed” by the 16th bar or so, which is then maintained for the remainder of the performance, until the final three chords are played…or until the dancers eventually tire. The challenge is to keep up with the breathtaking pace for the duration of the tune.

The melody begins with an accented grace-note arpeggio sweep into a high G note, fretted with the pinkie. Barre the first three notes with your index finger, then immediately loosen the barre as you strike the high G, to mute the grace notes. Add a robust, shimmering finger vibrato to the G note the first couple of times you play through the tune’s “A” section (bars 1–4).

When you revisit this section later, at the quicker tempo, you won’t have time to add the vibrato and will simply want to nail the G note cleanly, which is chanllenging, as there are big position shifts immediately before and after the note. You’ll notice that there are several additional shifts throughout the arrangement.

These are all made for the sake of staying on the top two strings as much as possible, to achieve a consistently bright timbre. To achieve a uniform attack, pick all the quarter notes and eighth notes with downstrokes, switching to alternate (down-up) picking only for the brief bursts of 16th notes. For a smoother, less intense articulation, you could optionally hammer-on and pull-off some of the 16th notes in bars 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. When performing the hammer-ons and pull-offs in bars 1–4, hammer firmly and, when pulling-off, pulling the string in toward your palm as you release it.

Many of the eighth notes are to be performed staccato (short and crisp), as indicated by the dots over the tab numbers. This is accomplished by relaxing the fretting finger immediately after picking the note. A fun thing to do here is have a bass player accompany you with a polka- or bluegrass-style root-fifth bass line, following the indicated chord changes. Invite other people to add a hand clap or tambourine hit on every beat and shout a hearty “hey!” on each accented chord in sections “C” and “D,” and you’re guaranteed to liven up any party! Na zdorovja!

String Theory May 2016 FIGURE 1

In the tab book Best of the Clash, you get note-for-note transcriptions of 17 songs from this seminal Seventies and Eighties punk band.

Songs include:

"Career Opportunities," "Clampdown," "Clash City Rockers," "Complete Control," "48 Hours," "Ghetto Defendant," "Know Your Rights," "London Calling," "London's Burning," "The Magnificent Seven," "Rock the Casbah," "Safe European Home," "Should I Stay or Should I Go," "Straight to Hell," "Train in Vain," "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and "White Riot."

The 96-page book is available now for $19.95 at the Guitar World Online Store.

The Green Day Guitar Tab Anthology is a 158-page softcover book featuring tabs of 22 songs by Green Day.

Songs include "21 Guns," "American Idiot," "Basket Case," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "Good Riddance," "Know Your Enemy," "Longview," "When I Come Around" and many others.

The book, which is published by Alfred Publishing Co., is available now for $19.99 at the Guitar World Online Store.

Fingerpicking Beatles: Revised & Expanded Edition features 30 Beatles songs arranged for solo guitar in standard notation and tab.

The arrangements in this book are carefully written for intermediate-level guitarists. Each solo combines melody and harmony in one superb fingerpicking arrangement. The book also includes an easy introduction to basic fingerstyle guitar.

The 30 songs include "Across the Universe," "All You Need Is Love," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Hey Jude," "In My Life," "Let It Be," "Michelle," "The Long and Winding Road," "Something," "Yellow Submarine," "Yesterday" and more.

The book is available now for $19.99 at the Guitar World Online Store.

Learn all your favorite Johnny Cash songs with The Best of Johnny Cash Songbook (Second Edition), which is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

The book features 27 songs from the heart and soul of country, including "A Boy Named Sue," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line."

All the songs are in easy arrangements with notes and tabs.

Songs Include:

• "A Boy Named Sue"
• "Cry, Cry, Cry"
• "Daddy Sang Bass"
• "Folsom Prison Blues"
• "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"
• "I Walk the Line"
• "It Ain't Me Babe"
• "Jackson"
• "Orange Blossom Special"
• "Ring of Fire"
• "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"
• "Understand Your Man"

The 64-page book is available now for $16.99 at the Guitar World Online Store.

The new Eagles: Acoustic book/CD is part of the Guitar Play-Along Series, which helps you play your favorite songs quickly and easily.

Just follow the tab, listen to the CD to hear how the guitar should sound, and then play along using the separate backing tracks. The melody and lyrics are also included in the book in case you want to sing, or to simply help you follow along.

The audio CD is playable on any CD player, and also enhanced so Mac & PC users can adjust the recordings to any tempo without changing pitch!

The Eagles: Acoustic includes eight Eagles hits:

• After the Thrill Is Gone
• Desperado
• Lyin' Eyes
• New Kid in Town
• Peaceful Easy Feeling
• Sad Café
• Take It Easy
• Tequila Sunrise.

This 72-page book is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $17.99.

Hal Leonard Country Guitar Method is a 64-page, softcover book that uses real country songs to teach you the basics of rhythm and lead country guitar in the style of Chet Atkins, James Burton, Albert Lee, Merle Travis and many others.

Lessons include:

• Chords
• Scales and Licks
• Common Progressions and Riffs
• Carter Style and Travis Picking
• Steel Licks, String Bending and Vibrato
• Standard Notation and Tablature
• and much more!

Songs include:

• "Could I Have This Dance"
• "Green Green Grass of Home"
• "I Fall to Pieces"
• "Satin Sheets"
• "Yakety Sax"
• and more ...

Softcover with CD — by Greg Koch.

Hal Leonard Country Guitar Method is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $22.99.

The February 2015 issue of Guitar World, which hits subscribers' mailboxes this week, is our Ultimate Dimebag Darrell Tribute Issue!

Among its exclusive Dime-themed offerings are:

• A private tour of the late guitarist's estate in Arlington, Texas, featuring his most cherished guitars and memorabilia

• The Guitar World guide to the 25 Greatest Pantera Songs of All Time

• An interview with metal producer Terry Date, who reflects on his days in the studio with Pantera

• An interview with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, who recalls how he nearly drank himself to death on the road with Pantera

• Plus a gallery of Dimebag Darrell art and tattoos from Guitar World readers, who continue to express their devotion to the late guitarist.

As part of our Dime tribute, we're also premiering "Whiskey Road," a never-before-heard song that features Dimebag Darrell on vocals and all the instruments!

Listen to the song below—and play along with the complete transcription, which can be found at the very bottom of this story (Remember you can see the tabs full size by clicking on the full-page icon at the bottom right of the transcription preview window). The bulk of the "Whiskey Road" transcription also can be found starting on Page 126 of the February 2015 issue of Guitar World.

"Whiskey Road" was tracked in 2001, during the last outing of Pantera's Reinventing the Steel tour in the U.S. For more information about the song, check out the February 2015 issue of Guitar World.

Take note of Guitar World's new "Dimebag Demo Subscription Offer"! This subscription (for one or two years) includes an exclusive Flexi-Disc of "Whiskey Road"! For more information, head here. NOTE: If you're already a GW subscriber but still want to buy the exclusive "Whiskey Road" Flexi-Disc, visit the Guitar World Online Store now.

Dimebag Darrell — Whiskey Road

Fingerpicking Christmas: 20 Carols Arranged for Solo Guitar in Notes & Tablature is available for $8.95 at the Guitar World Online Store.

It features 20 classic carols carefully written for the intermediate-level guitarist.

Each solo combines melody and harmony in one superb fingerpicking arrangement.

Includes: Away in a Manger • Deck the Halls • The First Noel • Good King Wenceslas • I Saw Three Ships • It Came Upon the Midnight Clear • Jingle Bells • O Come, All Ye Faithful • Silent Night • We Wish You a Merry Christmas • What Child Is This? • and more!

Head to the Guitar World Online Store now!

Fingerpicking Neil Young's Greatest Hits is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $12.99.

This fantastic collection offers fingerpicking arrangements in notes and tab for 16 Neil Young classics!

Includes:

• After the Gold Rush
• Cinnamon Girl
• Harvest Moon
• Heart of Gold
• Helpless
• Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
• Like a Hurricane
• Ohio
• Old Man
• Rockin' in the Free World
• Southern Man

... and more, plus a helpful introduction to fingerstyle guitar and loads of photos, design pages and lyric sheets. 80 pages!

Head to the Guitar World Online Store now.

Today is Day 6 of our second annual 12 Days of Holiday Deals Sale at the Guitar World Online Store!

You can expect a great new deal every day, including today's deal:

Get the Play Christmas Songs on the Guitar DVD for $5!

Play Christmas Songs on the Guitar is your ultimate DVD guide to playing holiday songs. It teaches you eight classic holiday tunes: "Silent Night," "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," "Deck the Hall," "Jingle Bells," "The First Noel," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Auld Lang Syne."

Plus, as a special bonus, you'll learn a Christmas medley for the electric guitar featuring "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night" and "Auld Lang Syne."

With more than 80 minutes of lessons, Play Christmas Songs on the Guitar will let you evoke the holiday spirit with your playing, and teach you valuable skills along the way!

The Play Christmas Songs on the Guitar DVD teaches you:

"Silent Night" (See the video below)

• Adding Bass Line "Walk-Ups"
• "Willie Nelson Style" Melody Playing
• Tremolo Picking and Pick-Hand Anchoring
• Fingerstyle: Accompaniment in C, Instrumental Solo in G, and Solo with Chord Substitutions

"Oh Come All Ye Faithful"

• Using Capo with Key-of-C Chords
• Instrumental Duet in D
• Instrumental Solo Arrangements: Key of D, Capo 7, Key of C

"Deck the Halls"

• Basic Strum Accompaniments: Key of C, Key of G, Capo 5
• Instrumental Duet in G
• Picking Tips

"Jingle Bells"

• Country-Style Strum Accompaniments: Key of C, Key of E, Key of G, Key of D
• Using A Capo with Key-of-G Chords

"The First Noel"

• Chord-Melody Solo in G, Capo 7
• Instrumental Duet in D

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"

• Muted-Sting Chords
• Alternative Voicings
• Instrumental Duet in G

"Jingle Bell Rock"

• Intro and Ending Licks
• Lead Guitar Chord "Stabs"

"Auld Lang Syne"

• Strum Accompaniments: Key of C Basic and Added Chords, Key of G Basic and Added Chords, Key of D Basic
• Instrumental Chord-Melody in C

…and much more!

Head to the Guitar World Online Store now!

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive guitar tutorial from Deadlock.

In the video, which you can check out below, guitarist (and Ibanez user) Sebastian Reichl shows you how to play "Dead City Sleepers," a track from the band's new album, The Arsonist (Napalm Records).

The album can be purchased on Amazon and iTunes.

Be sure to check out Revolver's premiere of Deadlock's “The Great Pretender” music video RIGHT HERE.

For more about Deadlock, visit their Facebook page and official website.

Check out these two Dream Theater books, both of which are available at the Guitar World Online Store.

Dream Theater: A Dramatic Turn of Events

Dream Theater fans, rejoice. This collection features note-for-note guitar tab transcriptions for every song on the album A Dramatic Turn of Events. Titles include "On the Backs of Angels," "Build Me Up Break Me Down," "Lost Not Forgotten," "This Is the Life," "Bridges in the Sky," "Outcry" and more. (Publisher: Alfred Publishing Co., softcover, TAB) $24.99

Dream Theater: Guitar Anthology

Dream Theater's best work, as selected by John Petrucci himself, spanning their entire history and including the never-before-released in print “YTSE Jam.” Now guitarists can play along to the most popular songs ever released by the progressive metal band. Titles include "Voices," "Metropolis - Part 1 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'," "Peruvian Skies," "Beyond this Life," "The Glass Prison" and more. (Publisher: Alfred Publishing Co., softcover, TAB) $26.99

Check out both titles at the Guitar World Online Store.

Don't know which in-depth lesson DVD to start off with at the Guitar World Online Store? Get your feet wet with this sampler of 13 Guitar World lesson DVDs, The Best of Guitar World DVD.

The DVD, which is available now for only $9.95, is packed with lessons on essential guitar techniques for metal, rock, thrash and more. You also get transcriptions that will teach you how to play songs by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pantera and Black Sabbath.

The Best of Guitar World DVDs contains lessons on:

• Lead Guitar: Learn advanced picking techniques and how to sweep, tap and more in this guitar boot camp.
• Hard Rock and Metal: A primer in everything from thrash and speed metal to death metal and grindcore
• Cool Ideas for Beginners: An easy-to-understand overview of music theory, strumming techniques and bass grooves

• Plus, you get complete transcriptions for:
• Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains the Same"
• Jimi Hendrix, "Spanish Castle Magic"
• Pantera, "Walk"
• Black Sabbath, "Sweet Leaf"

Check out this DVD at the Guitar World Online Store -- and watch a sample below.

This video is bonus content related to the August 2011 issue of Guitar World. For full print reviews, lesson tabs and more, look for the August 2011 issue of Guitar World on newsstands now!

In the following video, Seether guitarist/vocalist Shaun Morgan and bassist Dale Stewart perform a guitar-only version of "Country Song" before giving a detailed lesson on the song's performance and covering the gear used to record the track.

In Quick Licks, we'll be bringing you short, bite-sized video lessons that show you how to play classic riffs from your favorite songs.

In this Quick Lick, Guitar World's Matt Scharfglass shows you how to play the acoustic intro to Soundgarden's "Burden In My Hand," from their 1996 album, Down on the Upside.

The song utilizes a unique tuning, with Soundgarden guitarists Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell tuning to Open C.

In Quick Licks, we'll be bringing you short, bite-sized video lessons that show you how to play classic riffs from your favorite songs.

In this Quick Lick, Guitar World's Jimmy Brown shows you how to "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. This series of videos covers both Angus and Malcolm's parts and demonstrates the intro, verse and chorus.

(Note: Due to the old player, the volume may automatically be set to "off." If you don't hear anything when the video starts, just adjust the volume control.)