How you ever wanted to learn how to play slide guitar? I was searching YouTube a couple of months ago and came across some educational slide guitar videos by John Tuggle, who is a guitar teacher in Athens, GA and owner of Learning Guitar Now. John sells several blues guitar instructional videos on the site, including four that are focused on helping you learn how to play slide guitar. Specifically, John focuses on slide guitar topics in the style of Duane Allman, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks.

I was impressed with the YouTube videos, so I checked out John’s first video in the slide guitar series: Open E Tuning. The video features 80 minutes of instructional material, plus a PDF file containing tablature of the lessons and backing tracks that you can use to play over.

After watching the video, I like John’s instructional style. It’s clear he’s an experienced teacher. He starts off teaching the basics, including the basics of the Open E tuning. He goes over right and left hand technique in quite a bit of detail. If you’ve ever played slide guitar before, you know that it’s important to get the basic technique down right or you’ll never sound good. I like the fact that John doesn’t rush through the technique part of the video. In fact, he stresses multiple times how important it is to get the technique down before moving on.

After teaching right- and left-hand technique, John discusses the 12-bar blues progression and the major chords involved. Next, John introduces some licks from the major chords and teaches you how to play them. After you get familiar with the major chords, John goes over the minor pentatonic scale and how it can be used with slide guitar. Along the way, he provides examples and gives some helpful tips for how to use the scales in your playing. The scales part of the video is followed by some more technique exercises to help you get familiar with playing the scales.

Once you’ve got the scales down, John shows you 10 licks based on the scales you learned previously in the video. As with all the exercises, tablature is provided for each lick, which is very helpful.

Finally, John ties the lessons together in a sample slide solo. Again, tablature is provided for the solo, which should keep you busy for a little while. I like the fact that John has provided a sample solo to help you get started. Additionally, as I mentioned above, backing tracks are provided so you have some music to play over, which is a nice addition.

Learning Guitar Now’s Open E Tuning slide guitar video is only $19.99, which is a great value considering the quality of the content you get. Nowadays, guitar lessons cost $20-25 per half hour, so you get almost three times the instruction for less than the price of one lesson. Plus, you can rewind and replay parts to help you master it. I think John’s videos are a great value and would recommend them if you’re looking to get started playing slide guitar. Check out a sample video:

The Black Keys guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach will be releasing a solo album titled Keep It Hid tomorrow, Feb. 10. Unlike the Black Keys’ music, which is just Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, Auerbach says that Keep It Hid is more of an ensemble effort, including organs and bass along with drums and guitar.

There are samples of the new album on Auerbach’s MySpace page. If you’re a fan of the Black Keys, I think you’ll likely to be a fan of Keep It Hid. While there’s certainly some differences, the Black Keys’ vibe is still strong on Auerbach’s solo record. That is to say, there’s a heavy dose of psychedelic blues on Keep It Hid, and that’s a good thing in my opinion.

Like the Black Keys’ albums, Keep It Hid is being released by the Nonesuch record label. Read more about the new album on the Nonesuch site.

Earlier this week, I posted a video about how amps are made. I thought I’d follow that video up with a two part series about how electric guitars are made. These videos are from the Science Channel’s show How It’s Made, and they highlight Godin Guitars. Part 1 discusses the crafting of the wood, and part 2 discusses the electronics.

Part 1:

Part 2:

As a bonus, here’s a video from the Travel Channel series Made In America highlighting how Gibson guitars are made:

Below are a couple of videos of Eric Johnson discussing his amp setup. In the videos, he explains the types of amps he’s running and how he uses them. He also discusses the effects he’s using with the amps.

Here’s part 1:

And, here’s part 2:

John Mayer posted a video on YouTube talking about how he approaches some blues licks based on listening to some earlier blues players. Basically, he gives some advice for breaking out of the pentatonic box. Check it out:

The other day I was watching an episode of the Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made series, and one of the features in the episode was about how guitar amplifiers are made. Traynor Amps was the featured manufacturer, and it was really interesting to watch the process they use to make their amps. Of course, the video was on YouTube, so I’ve embedded it below.

Gibson has recently released the Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood tribute guitar. Gibson recently sat down with Beck in London to talk about the guitar, why he chose Gibsons early in his career, and what drives him musically:

Gov’t Mule are back in the studio recording a new album in Austin, TX. As they did for the High & Mighty sessions, they are posting daily news, photos, and videos to the In the Studio section of their Web site. Full-size videos are posted to the band’s Facebook page.

Here’s a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, with a small bit of “Third Stone from the Sun” thrown in. I’ve said before that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favorite guitar players. There’s just something about his playing that reaches me on an emotional level, and “Little Wing” is one of those songs that when Stevie plays it, I feel it as much as hear it.

(via Chris Jankowski)