The Guitar Resource

One of the great ways up picking up new things on guitar is to watch other great guitarists play guitar. Watching the techniques and tricks used by great guitar players will help spark new ideas in your own playing. It also helps you figure out how to play more complicated songs on guitar as you can see what the guitarists are doing. (Of course, some things on guitar are done so fast and fluid that they are even hard to pick up after you see them played multiple times).

That is the reason I added the Concert Shop to The Guitar Resource. This is a place where you can get great deals on DVD’s of concerts from your favorite guitar players. So check it out and let me know what you think. Also, if you don’t see something on there that you think other guitarists would benefit from, let me know and I’ll add it! Visit the new Concert Shop now!

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I just finished reading the issue of guitar world magazine and I wanted to share a few of the things I learned in this month’s issue.

I always learn a lot from Guitar World and this issue was no different. As usual, I learned something great just from reading one of the interviews. The interview was with jazz guitar virtuoso Pat Martino. And while the whole interview was enlightening, there was one part in particular that I liked. If you read my post on listening (click here if you haven’t), you know that I am a big advocate of listening to everything to make you a better guitar player. But Pat Martino made a comment that takes it even a step further and think it is such a great point. He says:

“As an improviser, you need to experience the moment—and that includes everything in the moment. Observe the people around you—the bandleader, the bartender—what they wear, how they deal with people, the simple continuity of their presence. As you do that, you’ll see how you affect them, and you’ll play and act accordingly. You need to study the reality of the moment, and that is very rarely about studying modes and intervals.”

Great stuff!

Another thing I learned was in the lesson “10 Things You Need to Do to Play Like T-Bone Walker.” I learned that T-Bone Walker was the originator of the “lazy” bend. I did a post on this technique titles “Bluesing your bends”. But the article had a bunch of other great blues playing tips.

I also learned a lot about guitar amplifier cabinets and how their construction affects your sound. We are all always trying to get the most of our tone and I think we sometimes overlook the small thinks like amp cabinet construction. This article helped break down how different types of construction affect your sound in different ways. A very cool article.

I also learned that cowboys can play jazz! (See the extended lesson “Wester Swing-Roping in the Rip-Roarin’ Riffs of Cowboy Jazz”.)

There were also a lot of other great lessons like Larry Carlton’s extended lesson on the blues, which was more advanced then you might think. And there was a great mini-lesson by Herbie Hancock on adding pedal tones to the highest note instead of the lowest note (the technique is called “pedal point”.)

All in all it was a great issue. For more information on Guitar Player magazine read my post “My Thoughts on Guitar Magazines”.

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Chord inversions are one of those things that often seem a lot more complex then they really are. A lot of guitar players push off learning how to play chord inversions on guitar because they think it is too complicated for them. In this lesson I will try and break down what chord inversions are and show you how to play a few of them. And once you understand what chords inversions are you will be able to figure out all sorts of them on your own.

Here it goes:

What is a chord inversion?
Unless you know chord inversions, which for this lesson I am assuming you don’t, the chords you are used to playing are all in “root position”. This means that the tonic of the chord is the lowest not (the bass note) of the chord. So, for example, in an Cmaj7 chord the bass note of the chord is C. But whenever a note other than the root (tonic) is the bass note, then the chord is an inversion. Make sense?

As you know, most chords are played with three or four notes on guitar. That means that besides the tonic, there are at least two to three other notes that can bee in the bass position. (For example a C major chord is C, E, G. Besides C there are two other notes that can be first. Cmaj7 is C, E, G, B. Besides C there are 3 other notes).

How to make chord inversions
There are three common chord inversions and they’re called first inversion, second inversion and third inversion. In first inversion the 3rd of the chord is the bass note. (It’s called first inversion because the 3rd of the chord is the first note after the tonic). In second inversion the 5th of the chord is in the bass. (Called second inversion because the 5th is the second chord tone after the tonic). And third inversion has the 7th as the bass. (Called third inversion because….well, you get the idea).

Not so bad too far, is it?
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I am not crazy about most shredders. There are only a few who I really like. I just think the whole speed and tapping bit gets a little tired and tasteless from time to time. But there are some shredders that I do like. And Steve Vai is one of them. I think his songs are tasteful and musically interesting. That’s why I chose this liver performance for this week’s great guitar video.

For The Love of God happens to be one of my favorite Vai songs. Even though this song is a little bit cheesy (the solo is a bit showy), there is still just something about it that I really like. Sometimes it is just fun to watch someone tear it up like that. For those of you not familiar with Vai or this type of music, you will see it is quite cool. His whammy bar tricks add a cool dimension to his playing. It’s hard to think that all this kind of music is because of Jimi Hendrix. But that’s for another time.

I think this performance is from the G3 tour with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson

Just enjoy the video:

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I just read a great post on a new blog I found today. The blog is called “A Guitar Teacher’s Lesson Notebook” and the post was titled “A Memo From the Department of Thumb Placement Correction”

Many guitar players have a hard time figuring out where to put their thumb when they play. This post covers a few grip options and lets you know when to use each one for different playing situations. I actually use both of the main grips that the author refers to in his post. As he points out, they each have their practical applications.

While you’re there check out some of the other posts. They are very informative, interesting and well-written.

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I am curious to know what guitar accessories people love most. It can be anything that you use in your playing, not including your actual guitar, amp, or cable. It can be your favorite pedal, your slide, maybe a capo. Really anything. Also let us know why you love that accessory so much.

Please post your answers to the comments section of this post. Then i will tally the results and let everyone one know the overall results along with my own.

I’ll get things started. My favorite accessory is my analogman comprossor. I love this pedal for a number of reasons. It is really well made and a great high-quality compressor. I got it for about $175 on eBay. Well worth the money. It is not noisy like other low-end compressors and it doesn’t have that “pumping” sound like other low-end compressors. When it’s on my guitar sustains so beautifully, and when I strum a chord the notes really sparkle. I can’t imagine not having it. I would replace it without hesitation if it were ever lost or stolen. In the near future i will write a full review on it with sound samples.

Ok, now it’s your turn…

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Many guitar players get in a rut after they have been playing for some time. It usually happens at around 1-2 years. It happened to me. I’m sure it happened to you. For one reason or another we just get discouraged. Mostly because we feel we stopped making real progress. So what should we do to motivate ourselves to keep playing guitar?

First let’s try and find out why we lost our flare.

Throughout the first year or two of your playing you are learning so many new things on guitar. You’re like a newborn baby learning all about your new environment. Every day you find out fantastic new things. You learn what the string names are. You learn what a major chord is. You learn minor chords. You learn basic scales and their applications. But then you hit a wall. Where to go now?
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Hybrid picking is a great way of adding another dimension to your sound. Players in many different styles such as blues, bluegrass, country, rock and jazz use hybrid picking when they play guitar. One of my favorite guitar players, Stevie Ray Vaughan, uses hybrid picking for his solo in the song “Lenny.”

What is hybrid picking?
As the name suggests, hybrid picking is a technique that is a cross between regular picking and finger picking (AKA fingerstyle). Hybrid picking allows for the guitar player to sound notes on separate strings without sounding the string in the middle.

For example, lets say you wanted to play something like this:

What would you do when you got to the red notes? Well a good option would be hybrid picking.

How to hybrid pick
Here is how I approach hybrid picking. I hold my pick like I would normally hold it, between my thumb and index finger, like so:

(I use a small pick, so it’s hard to see my pick, but it’s there)

But for hybrid picking I use my middle finger to pluck the lower string like so:

So in the tabs above I would pick the note on the G string and pluck the note on the high E string with my middle finger. To get the notes to sound at the same time I “pinch” them so my pick and middle finger both squeeze towards each other. Once you pinch let the strings slide off your pick and finger at the same time by moving your hand slightly away from the string. This will cause both strings to slide off at the same time. Presto! Hybrid picking!

Another great way to use hybrid picking is to alternate between using your pick and your middle finger. What is the advantage to this? Well it sure makes string skipping a lot easier, especially when you are skipping two or more strings. Try playing this A minor lick with hybrid picking. The red notes use a pick and the blue use your middle finger:

Experiment with hybrid picking and see how you can incorporate it into your playing. It is quite a cool technique

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Now that you have an understanding of the basic 12-bar blues, let’s talk a little bit about the 8-bar blues format. Unlike the 12-bar blues format, the 8-bar blues is much less defined. And that’s part of the fun of playing an 8 bar blues-you can experiment with the chord changes.

Typically in 8 bar blues changes the IV chord come in the 3rd bar (it comes in the 5th in 12 bar blues). Here is probably one of the more typical 8 bar blues changes:

Note that in bars 7 and 8 there are 2 chords per bar. So each chord in those bars is only played for 2 beats.

But by no means is that format the one you need to stick to. You can mix and match the chords in any way that suits you. You can even play one 8-bar blues format for the verse and then play a different one for the verse. Here are some examples of some other eight bar blues changes to get you started:

“Key to the Highway” (variation with the V at bar 2):
I V IV IV
I V I V

“Walking By Myself” (somewhat unorthodox example of the form):
I I I I
V IV I V

Now start experimenting with your own eight bar blues compositions.
Next blues lesson will begin to talk about the “shuffle”, which is the key to playing blues rhythm. Then we will go on to soloing over the blues. Stay tuned!

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From Delta Blues to Modern Rock, Washburn Stringed Instruments Roll With the Times

(Chicago, IL. July 10, 2007) Washburn Guitars, a division of US Music Corporation is celebrating 125 years of stringed instrument innovations. From the 1880’s to today, Washburn has been producing stringed instruments for amateur and professional musicians combining design, innovation and technology to deliver quality tools to artists across all genres. Washburn guitars have been played by classic guitar icons including Greg Allman and Bob Dylan. Today rockers such as Nick Cantanese of Black Label Society, Scott Ian of Anthrax and Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy rely on Washburn to create the signature sounds that drive modern music.
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