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How to Play Drone Guitar
Playing a melody or solo with a “drone” means playing over just one note or, in some instances, one chord. Besides playing without any harmonic accompaniment, it is about as simple a concept as one...
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Whitesnake’s Early Years
Whitesnake’s self-titled album is a pinnacle of ’80s hard rock, instantly making them one of the biggest rock bands of the era. It was a departure from their previous six albums due to significant...
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How Bach Can Make You a Better Guitarist
Bach’s BWV 995 Sarabande is a special piece of music. It’s sparse, delicate, and deceptively complex even though it looks simple on the page! There are some approaches, informed by Baroque performance...
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7 Essential Blues Chord Substitutions
Staying creative and phrasing musically while playing chords, especially over a blues progression, seems like an impossibility to many players. After all, most blues songs contain only three chords,...
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Defensive Guitar: How to Trim the Fat & Stop Playing So Damn Many Notes
The intersection between guitar and piano is ever present—and so is the potential for harmonic conflict, especially when improvising. However, guitar and piano can be a wonderful combination. Listen...
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Triads Made Easy!
Everybody needs to start somewhere, and the basic triad is a cornerstone of nearly every guitar style. In this video, Michael Palmisano breaks down how triads are constructed, the most common shapes,...
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What No One Tells You About Power Chords
Nothing is more visceral than standing in front of a cranked amp and ripping out power chords. Famed string masher Ben Eller shows you the trade secrets behind getting your power chords in shape....
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Can You Twang with CAGED?
The CAGED system is simple way of visualizing the fretboard. Learn to visualize five chord shapes and pretty soon you will be flowing up and down the neck. The main thing I love about the CAGED system...
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Top 10 Lessons of 2022
We’re all on the same journey—to become better at guitar. Each week we post a lesson that helps you get closer to that goal. This year we covered everything from basic triads and pentatonics to Brad...
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Ending Sonic Pollution: How to Make Simple Things Sound Good
Open-string notes are arguably the most magical sounding notes available on the guitar. However, there are times when those are precisely the notes we don’t want to hear. We might only want to hear...
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The Fine Art of John Frusciante
I had a bit of a strange introduction to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Back in the day, during my first week of school at New York University, I noticed a sign on the door of the student cafeteria...
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Suspended Truths
Suspended chords have a unique sound and play an important role in a variety of styles of music. A quick internet search will give you the basic theory, but few articles help you actually apply these...
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Where to Start with Funk Guitar
The 1960s saw the rise of many legendary guitarists bringing us revolutionary new styles and techniques that we still use and build upon to this day. Arguably, one of the less heralded is Jimmy Nolen...
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The “Stairway” Progression
From the 12-bar blues to a shuffle pattern to a IIm7–V7–I progression, many musical motifs get recycled and repurposed. It's accepted that these ideas are simply out there in the air for songwriters...
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Barney Kessel: Badass Jazz Guitar
Admittedly, I was late in discovering one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time. It wasn’t until 2018 through a deep dive that I truly understood how incredible Barney Kessel was. I found him to...
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7 Ways to Improve Your Technique
Guitar technique refers to the physical skills and abilities necessary to play the guitar with precision, speed, and clarity. It encompasses everything from finger placement to strumming and picking...
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Learning to Fly (Around the Fretboard)
We all know the CAGED system is a great way of learning the fretboard, but are we truly applying that knowledge in a musical way? This lesson will help you do exactly that, by explaining the CAGED...
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A New Mom’s Guide to Practicing
Just like anything that is important to you, you need to have a plan in place to accomplish it. Last month, I had to learn approximately 60 songs in the span of less than three weeks for a three-part...
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Why I Don't Teach the CAGED System
The CAGED system has a reputation but I’m not here to argue its benefits or its hindrances. I want to explain how the CAGED system is scaffolding.Scaffolding is a teaching technique used to build...
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A Crash Course in Capos
Capos are a simple tool that unlocks the most singular sound a guitar can make—open strings. Don't know where to start or maybe can't figure out what. partial capo does? Let Tom be your guide. What is...
View ArticleHacking DADGAD
Getting bored with standard tuning? You might want to explore DADGAD tuning, which is a great intro in alternative tunings. The wide-open sound is popular with fingerstyle players and metal bands...
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Mick Ronson: Glam Rock Chameleon
Glam rock roared into existence in the 1970s along with its flamboyant and theatrical style, both in terms of music and fashion. Artists like David Bowie and T. Rex brought a brash sense of camp as...
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Jazz Chords Made Simple
Have you ever felt like jazz is a secret society? An exclusive club where the password to enter is to spell out a Bb7#5b9 chord? Well, in this lesson we’ll start to decode the language of jazz harmony...
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What Is "College" Rock?
College rock started as a generic term meant to cover the bands or genres that were neglected by mainstream radio in the 1980s—bands like Hüsker Dü (punk), Bauhaus (goth), P.I.L. (post-punk), Violent...
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5 Grateful Dead Riffs for Beginners
The Grateful Dead was one of the most iconic bands in rock history. Their unique and improvisational guitar style became a hallmark of their sound. At the core of this style were Jerry Garcia and Bob...
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Playing Soul Guitar Rhythm
Chops: Intermediate Theory: Intermediate Lesson Overview: • Understand how to craft rhythm parts using simple triad shapes. • Create authentic-sounding soul guitar riffs. • Learn about some of the...
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5 Things You Need to Know on Guitar
Watch as Gabriel Bergman outlines five essential topics you need to level up your playing. How Do I Learn All the Notes on the Fretboard? The guitar fretboard can be a very tricky instrument to...
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Grant Green's Bebop Blues
Grant Green was a luminary in the realm of jazz guitar and crafted a distinctive style that seamlessly blended bebop, blues, and soul. His approach to the instrument was characterized by an...
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Play the Wrong Notes. Please.
Why is it that when soloing some notes that seemingly shouldn’t work, do? And no, it’s not jazz we’re talking about. So get ready to play some dissonant music that sounds wonderful.Which Are the Wrong...
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How to Syncopate Your Strums
Syncopation is like the secret sauce of rhythm playing for guitarists. It's what gives your music that extra kick, that groove that makes people nod their heads and tap their feet without even...
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