The Dorian Mode

November 28, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials 6th, Dorian, guitar, minor, mode, music, scale, theory

In this lesson I’m going to go over the 2nd mode of the Major Scale: The Dorian Mode. The Dorian mode most closely resembles the Natural Minor Scale, so we’ll start with that, here is the D Natural Minor Scale. R 2 m3 4 5 m6 m7 D E … Continue reading The Dorian Mode

Standard Chord Progressions 1: Maj & Min I, IV, V Chord Patterns

October 18, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials 1 4 5, blues, bob dylan, chords, cool, cream, guitar, I, I IV V, IV, jimi hendrix, major, minor, music, pride & joy, rock, stevie ray vaughn, the kinks, theory, V

The I, IV, V chord pattern is a very common progression, and it is for that reason I will be focusing on it for several lessons. If you have an interest in blues, rock or jazz music, this will form the basis for many songs you will learn, (especially in the case of the blues). … Continue reading Standard Chord Progressions 1: Maj & Min I, IV, V Chord Patterns

Quartal Harmony

October 18, 2012May 21, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials chords, guitar, jazz, quartal harmony, rhythm

Here’s something that’s been fascinating me recently - Quartal Harmony. If you’re at all into jazz or fusion you may already be aware of this idea, if not you might like to use it to embellish chord progressions, or use them as a basis for some unique solos. As I’m still getting to grips with these ideas … Continue reading Quartal Harmony

Blues-Rock Licks 1 & 2

September 17, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials

These are the kind of licks you’d get from a blues-rock band, or perhaps in a melodic moment from someone much heavier. Good technique and knowledge of string bending, finger-rolling, and one note per string style licks is advisable, so maybe refresh your memory of these if you’re unsure. In almost all of these cases … Continue reading Blues-Rock Licks 1 & 2

Technique: String Bending

September 13, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials awesome, doug aldrich, guitar, guitar lessons, jimi hendrix, joe satriani, lead, music, slash, solo, steve vai, string bending

String bending is awesome. I won’t bore you, (rather, myself), with the physics of string bending, but the gist of it is when you make a guitar string tighter the pitch becomes higher, just like when you tune a guitar, or add a tighten-up a new string. This can be useful when you want to reach … Continue reading Technique: String Bending

Natural Major & Minor Scales

August 27, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials

Scales represent almost the entire make-up of music. In strictly diatonic compositions all chords will contain notes from the same scale. Likewise, any instrument or vocal melodies will be in that same scale. The most common scales in Western music contain seven different notes. Tabbed below are the Natural Major and Natural Minor scales, (often … Continue reading Natural Major & Minor Scales

Memorizing The Fretboard

August 14, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials awesome, blues, flamenco, fretboard, guitar, guitar-based theory, jazz, memorizing, memory, metal, music, music theory, notes, rock, theory

(I've stolen an image from http://www.CortGuitars.com for this. So there.) These are some tips and tricks to help you memorize the fretboard. Memorizing the fretboard will help you to instinctively know where to go in order to voice different chords. The first step is to remember the order of the open strings, which is as follows, (from … Continue reading Memorizing The Fretboard

Hammer-Claw Finger-Picking Technique

August 7, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials awesome, blues, claw, country, finger, finger-picking, guitar, hammer, hammer-claw, jazz, music, picking, rock, technique

Hammer-claw finger-picking is a technique used in country, jazz and sometimes blues music where the guitarist plays with their fingers rather than a pick. In this style your thumb is the “hammer” and your fingers are the “claw”. Your “hammer” is intended to play the bass strings, (E, A and sometimes D), and replicate the job … Continue reading Hammer-Claw Finger-Picking Technique

Example Song #2 – Open 7th Chords in C

July 31, 2012May 30, 2015 LTGuitarist Music Tutorials awesome, blues, cambridge, guitar, jazz, learn, learn to play, learn to play awesome guitar, rock, strings, teach yourself, teacher, tutor

This track is intended as an exercise for students who have recently been introduced to 7 Chords. Once they are familiar with the shapes this track is a good way of putting them into practice and using them between chords they’re already familiar with. You can review the Basic Open Chords and Open 7 Chords … Continue reading Example Song #2 – Open 7th Chords in C

Example Song #3 – 7th Barre Chords in Gm