I was lucky enough to be asked to do some writing for GuitarEdge magazine. The lessons are in the March issue with Alice in Chains on the cover. GuitarEdge is a magazine that contains mostly transcriptions and lessons with a few articles about gear and artists. As a guitar teacher I really like this magazine because it is an easy way to keep up on the latest tunes that my students might want to learn.

Here are the links to the lessons I wrote:

Tip Jar: Alternate Tunings

John Mayer – “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (live)

Twisted Sister – “I Wanna Rock”

Three Days Grace – “Break”

Boston – “More Than A Feeling”

Alice in Chains – “No Excuses”

These transcriptions are only available for a limited time, so make sure to check them out soon!

One of the most difficult parts of learning a new style is developing a basic vocabulary. Most times that involves long hours of transcribing licks from your favorite musicians. Although I believe that is the most effective way, another option is to analyze and play pre-written etudes.  Guitarist Joshua Breakstone presents a collection of well-written jazz etudes over standard progressions.

The book begins with a very helpful look at alternate picking. In this section Breakstone analyzes several common jazz rhythms and gives suggesting picking for each. A common myth is that all alternate picking is strict up and down. According to this article, all downbeats should be played with a downstroke and upbeats with an upstroke.

The etudes are in the category of easy to intermediate, but they are very melodic. A recording accompanies the book where Breakstone plays each etude and then demonstrates certain passages. Along with each example, there is a corresponding lesson that discusses the concepts used in each etude. To me, these are the most valuable part of the book. Similar books are not uncommon, but where the disconnect occurs with students is how someone got from point A to point B. This book demonstrates exactly how certain phrases and techniques are created.

Overall, this is a great book for students who want to develop their jazz vocabulary. Another added benefit is that these etudes are great for getting your sight-reading together. Many times while working through this book, I would just open to a random page, start the metronome and begin to play. Highly recommended.

Go check out Joshua Breakstone at www.joshuabreakstone.com

Disclosure: The author sent me a review copy.

John Coltrane was one of the most gifted musicians of all time.  Coltrane developed a sound and a method of playing that is emulated by almost every jazz musician today.  When I was in Grad School, one of the concepts we covered in improv class was Coltrane’s Three Tonic System.  The most famous example of this is his composition “Giant Steps.”

For many jazz musicians, Giant Steps represents an ultimate goal.  If you can play over this tune at a fast tempo, then you are a “jazz musician.”

Not true.

This is merely an exercise in becoming more flexible on your instrument.  That is exactly why Coltrane composed this tune and once he got it under his fingers, he moved on.

Here I want to show you how to break down this tune and make it into easy, understandable pieces. The first part of the lesson will focus on how to reharmonize a ii-V-I progression using a three tonic system.

Here are the basic changes of the tune.

As you can see, there are only two tricky parts to this tune.  Measures 1 through 3 and measures 5 through 7.  The rest of the tune consists of basic ii-V-I progressions.  Nothing too crazy.

First let me show you the basics of how these changes work.  Let’s start with an easy ii-V-I progression in the key of C.

The progression Coltrane used in Giant Steps is based on a three tonic system. Since we are in the key of C for this example, the key enters for this progression will be C, E and A flat.

The next step is to place our key centers.

Once we have established our key centers, we will approach each major 7th chord with it’s diatonic dominant 7th chord.  Like this.

So now that you understand how to reharmonize a basic ii-V-I using Coltrane’s Giant Steps progression, start to work on voicings that will allow you to move through this progression at a reasonable tempo.

In the next lesson we will start to learn how to solo using some digital patterns.

This is a guest post from Christopher Davis, who is the editor of the Classical Guitar Blog.  The CG Blog is an amazing resource for both classical and wanna-be classical guitarists.  If you are interested in contributing a guest post, please contact me here.

Fingerstyle or classical guitar seems daunting at first.  Like any other style of guitar, however, the basics apply to everything.  The purpose of this article is to get you playing some beginning patterns with the right hand fingers.

The Basics

Right hand fingers are labeled with letters.

p=thumb, i=index, m=middle, a=ring, and c=little finger.

While playing fingerstyle it’s important to keep a generally straight right wrist.  Try this:  make a fist with your right hand.  Place the thumb along side the fist.  Then relax the hand and let the fingers curl gently, the wrist should drop a bit too.  That’s what your hand should look like on the guitar!  Just “freeze” the wrist/hand in place and play it over the strings.

Now place p on the fifth string, i on the third, m on the second, and a on  the first.  This is home position.  Just like with the left hand, the right hand use is limited mostly to the fingertips.  Avoid putting  the fingers too far back and having the strings touch in the pad of the fingers.  Here’s a few photos of my right hand in home position to give you an idea.

Now Make Some Noise

So far we’ve covered the basics:  finger labeling, the wrist/hand, and home position.  Now make some noise.  Keep your thumb in place on the fifth string.  Now snap all the fingers off the strings, and bring them back into the hand.  That is, play the strings, but curl the right hand fingers into the hand — it’s the same motion as making a first.

Do this exercise a few more times to get a feel for it.  This motion of the fingers back into the hand is the norm for all right hand playing.  When you’re just starting with fingerstyle playing, it’s better to exaggerate the motions at first, and work on refining and shrinking them down later.

Some Basic Right Hand Patterns

First, a word on planting or preparation.  It’s very hard for a right hand finger to miss a string if it’s already on it.  That’s the idea behind preparing or planting the right hand fingers.  As the following patterns move up the strings (going from the lowest string to the highest), we’re going to do a full plant.  At the start of each arpeggio all the fingers are on the strings.  Some of the pattern move back down the strings, in these cases work on bring the finger back to the string right before it plays.

p i m

Plant/prepare the thumb, index and middle fingers on strings 3, 2 and 1 respectively.  Now peel them off one at a time.  Or…

1. Plant all the fingers
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m
5. Return all the fingers to the strings and start over

p i m i

Plant/prepare the thumb, index, and middle fingers on strings 3, 2, and 1 respectively.  This pattern is a little bit different, as it requires the index to return alone before it starts over.

1. Plant all the finger
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m, while m plays return i to the second string
5. Play i
6. Return all the fingers and do it again

A great practice method for this arpeggio is to just do steps one through four, then stopping.  This just practices the return of i to the string, one of the things students have the most trouble with.

Eventually the beat of planting is combined with the thumbs motion.  This would turn the p i m arpeggio into…

1. Plant all the fingers
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m
5. p plays, i and m return to the strings and the arpeggio starts over

Playing fingerstyle for the first time always feels awkward.  But just checking out some videos of great classical or fingerstyle guitarists leaves no doubt that fingerstyle players can be just as capable and virtuosic as the usual guitar icons.  Some right hand chops will only add to your skill as a guitarist.  Good luck! and thanks for reading!

This is a guest post from Peter Hodgson, who is the editor of the iheartguitar blog.  It is one of my top 5 blogs I would recommend to anyone who is interested in guitar.  If you are interested in contributing a guest post, please contact me here.

One of the most effective ways of injecting excitement into a riff is syncopation. In a nutshell, syncopation is when you play a note on a beat where you probably wouldn’t expect a note. Now, when I’m playing guitar I tend to approach rhythm differently at different times. When I’m soloing I’m led by whatever melody pops into my head. As a result, the rhythm can be a bit unconventional. But when I’m playing metal rhythm, I’m all about the 16th note pulse. I keep the 16^th notes in mind even if I’m not actually playing them – for example, even when I’m playing a chugging 8th note riff I’m listening to the notes in between as well, and every now and then I might fill those spaces with little accents. Try it some time: picture the musical bar as a version of that board game Mastermind, except instead of four rows to put the pegs in, there are 16. Each peg represents a note or chord, and there’s ya rhythm.

As an example of syncopation I present to you a couple of riffs from my song ‘Just One Thing,’ which you can hear a rough mix of on my Myspace at www.myspace.com/peterhodgson The first riff has a note on every one of those 16 spaces, but some of them are accented chord stabs and others are palm-muted. The result is a steady pulse punctuated by jarring but kinda cool chords in places where you don’t really expect them, and this track has burned the brain of many a drummer for the first few listens. Initially it seems like an odd time signature, and it’s fun to watch a drummer take out the slide ruler and metronome to try to figure out where the ‘one’ is, only to realise the underlying beat is so simple that even a guitarist like me could come up with it.

Another way to approach this riff, if you’re not into the whole ‘thinking in 16th notes’ thing is to run the riff through a few times then only think about the fretted notes, letting the open-string notes in between take care of themselves by going on semi-autopilot with your alternate picking. That’s a method I find especially handy playing some Muse riffs where I’d rather enjoy the riff than think about the maths behind it.

The autopilot alternate picking method ain’t gonna help you in Riff 2 though. This one is purely chord-stab, with no chuggy muted notes in between. You need to pay close attention to the rhythm to get this one to work. Once again, imagine 16 slots. Okay? Okay. Now, in the first bar of this section, the chords fall on sub-beats 1, 2, 5, 10 and 15/16 (the last two actually being a three-note chug). Let’s try this with capitals and lower-case letters: BA-BA-ba-ba-BA-ba-ba-ba-ba-BA-ba-ba-ba-ba-BADDABA.

Obviously this kinda stuff is best used as a springboard for your own riffs and ideas. You could probably even use a 16-sided dice (you have one in your junk drawer, right?) to help you come up with random note locations. Above all, just have fun with it and don’t hurt yourself.

Download the TAB (PDF)