I missed this when it was originally posted last December, but last year Paul Gilbert was a featured Guitar Center Sessions artist. During part of the session, he gave an interesting rhythm lesson in which he talks about taking familiar rhythms (like “Smoke on the Water” and “Purple Haze”) and using different notes with that same rhythm pattern:
Guitar Player magazine recently caught up with Jonny Lang, who is currently touring as part of the Experience Hendrix tour. Lang gave Guitar Player a lesson in some of the techniques he uses, including his vibrato technique and alternating between a pick and using his fingers. See the lesson below:
Christopher Davis, who runs the Classical Guitar Blog and who is a graduate student at Austin Peay State University (APSU), let me know that APSU is hosting a Summer Guitar Workshop this summer from June 28-July 2. The workshop will offer classes in both classical and fingerstyle guitar styles.
In addition to the classes, the workshop will have competitions for collegiate/post-collegiate classical guitarists, pre-collegiate classical guitarists, and pre-collegiate fingerstyle guitarists. Additionally, there will be concerts each night.
The workshop sounds like a lot of fun. APSU is located about 45 minutes north of Nashville. Housing is available at the college, so if you’re not from this area you can still participate in the workshop.
The February 2010 issue of Guitar World magazine is a blues-oriented issue and features John Mayer on the cover. On the bonus disc that comes with the magazine, John Mayer gives a lesson on how he plays his cover of “Crossroads” on his latest album Battle Studies.
The intro to the lesson is hilarious, and the lesson itself covers how he plays the entire song, including what pedal he uses to get the dead-battery fuzz tone on the album:
Guitarist Chuck D’Aloia has recently released an instructional lesson set titled Blues with Brains. Unlike other blues lessons that try to teach you basic pentatonic blues licks, Blues with Brains teaches you how to add a different element to your blues playing.
While you do not need to know music theory in order to benefit from the lessons D’Aloia provides, I think you’d get the most benefit from the lessons if you have a basic knowledge of blues progessions (I-IV-V) and a basic knowledge of the pentatonic scales. This is the foundation that D’Aloia starts with, and he then shows you how to take it in a different, slightly jazzier direction.
He starts off with a basic blues progression in A minor and discusses how the notes work over the chords. Some notes work better than others, and D’Aloia discusses which ones work and which ones don’t. After going over examples slowly, he then plays over a jam track to illustrate his ideas. Not only is it helpful to see Chuck play the examples, it’s just fun to hear Chuck play.
After explaining how to work with pentatonic scales, Chuck talks about dominant 7 blues and the diminished scale. Throughout all of the lessons, Chuck’s teaching style is warm and infectious. It’s clear that Chuck enjoys the music he’s playing and that he enjoys teaching it to others.
There’s a LOT of information packed into the 1:15 of Blues with Brains. I think it’ll take a number of run-throughs of the lessons in order to fully grasp the concepts Chuck is teaching, but I’ve already got some new ideas to explore.
In addition to Blues with Brains, Chuck has recently released a CD of jazz/fusion music titled Circle 7. Chuck’s playing is very tasteful and illustrates many of the concepts he goes through in Blues with Brains.
You can purchase Blues with Brains directly from Chuck as either a DVD or a download. Here’s a video sample of Blues with Brains.
Guitar Center recently posted to YouTube some videos from Joe Bonamassa’s recent guitar clinic in Hollywood, CA. In the clinic, Joe discussed a variety of topics, including his influences, his time with Danny Gatton, his signature Gibson Les Paul, his amps, his slide playing, and his chosen style of music.
One of the things that I respect about Joe Bonamassa is the fact that he’s willing to share his knowledge and experience with others. Through his 20 years as a professional musician, Joe has seen a lot and learned a lot, and he’s got a lot of information to share.
One of my favorite clips from the clinic is his discussion of his slide technique and how he really got interested in slide when he heard Ry Cooder’s playing in the movie Crossroads. That was a somewhat cheesy movie, but the guitar playing was top notch. Check out Joe discussing his slide technique:
I always want to squeeze the optimum tone out of each note. Guitarists often say that your sound comes from your technique, your guitar or your rig. That’s true to a certain degree, but in my opinion, the finger you fret with and the string you use will also drastically affect your tone. I like all the notes in my lines to have a certain cohesiveness of texture. To that extent, I constantly work out my fingerings, using any and all permutations I can to play my lines. If necessary, I will skip around the strings in order for a passage to maintain tonal consistency; that’s why I might make some fingering choices that seem odd, illogical or simply more difficult to the average guitarist.
The article provides some insight into Johnson’s approach to fret fingering with some nice examples.
While at his recent tour stop in Milwaukee, Joe Bonamassa gave an impromptu guitar lesson to young guitar prodigy Tallan “T-Man” Latz, who you might remember was recently banned from playing in bars around Wisconsin. In the lesson, Joe gives Tallan some good advice about being able to play anywhere on the fretboard.
Later that night, Tallan got to sit in with Joe at the show. What a day for Tallan!
There is no short cut to becoming a good player. Being constant in your practice is perhaps the main secret. This reminds me of Aesop’s fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. Some talented young players did not reach their potential as guitarists because they were getting by on talent and didn’t put in the daily work. Others have surprised us and reached much farther than we would have expected because they have put in the continued work.
So the only short cut is to practice every day, be constant. With tenacity and perseverance you will be able to make beautiful music on the guitar.
Hello, and welcome to Guitar Lifestyle! My name is Josh, and I thank you for visiting this site. I am a guitar player based in Nashville, TN, aka Music City, USA. More »
