Guitar Tricks
September 2006


Welcome to Guitar Tricks. We have over 3000 multimedia guitar lessons. 
367 of them are beginner lessons. Each individual lesson is designed by 
one of over 47 guitar instructors that contribute to our site. 

If you are just starting out, we suggest that you take a look at our 
Absolute Beginner's Guide.
 
It takes you step by step through the basics. 
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=3554

You can also contribute to our free Forum area. 

Ask a question, give some advice or just say hi!.
http://www.guitartricks.com/forum

Learn how to read guitar tablature 
(the notation on this site).

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=3554

This months FREE lessons

---------------------------------------------------- 

1) Bluegrass Hot Lick 1  -   Bobby Howe (VIDEO LESSON)
Guitar teacher from Illinois specializing in fingerstyle guitar.

My name is Bobby Howe and I live close to Champaign, Illinois. I've 
played both professionally and semi-professionally since I was 12 years 
old. Last year, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my twenty-something 
birthday. :-) I've played on the Nashville circuit with several of the 
big names, been in dozens of bands and had 3 different bands of my own. 

This is a standard bluegrass lick--one of the first ones you should get 
to know--a very common ending lick for a song. 

In Bluegrass, pulloffs, hammers and slides are used and are very common. 
They allow you to divide up the work between your right and left hands, 
i.e., since most bluegrass picking is very fast, you learn how to pick 
one note with your right hand and use pulloffs, hammers and slides with 
your left hand which could result in two, three or maybe even four notes 
sounding. 

Notice that I have shown in this example how to use a flatpick and also 
how to use three-finger "banjo roll" type picking as well. Notice the 
right hand close up and how sometimes the pick or finger will pick one 
string but achieve more than one note. Also notice how in this example, 
generally the notes go from higher pitched to lower pitched. When I use 
the pick, and I don't need to return back to a higher pitched note, the 
pick comes to rest on the next lower string, that is, it is in position 
to do the next thing--pick the next string in sequence. 

When I use three finger picking, generally the thumb and first two 
fingers are situated such that I have command of whatever three string 
group they happen to be resting on at the time, i.e., 2,3,4 or 3,4,5, 
etc. After a string has been played and I am ready to play the next 
string, most times the finger for the string that was just played comes 
back to rest on that string thereby muting it so that the next string 
can clearly sound by itself. If not the finger that played that string, 
then another one that is coming into position to play the next sequence 
of notes as I move to the next position. 

There will be more to say about these techniques as we go through 
subsequent lessons. This is a great entry level bluegrass lick.

More@
http://www.guitartricks.com/freelesson.php?input=MGoxZjNuZjY=

---------------------------------------------------- 

2) "Swan Lake Theme" by Tchaikovsky - Lesson 7  - Christopher Schlegel 
(VIDEO LESSON)

Classical, jazz, rock & blues lessons for all levels of ability.
I have enjoyed playing guitar for 30 years! 

I am experienced in musical performance and teaching. I have a BA in 
Music with an emphasis in Applied Guitar. I love music of many different 
styles and know how to apply the basic fundamental, unifying principles 
of music to any genre. 

I am currently working on my own original music as well as teaching 
classes & seminar involving music technology (MIDI sequencing, digital 
recording, scoring). 

I also have 20 years of private instruction experience teaching guitar 
and music theory to students of all ages and all styles. Because of this 
background I know how to effectively impart my knowledge and am excited 
to do so!


This is the main theme from Russian composer Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan 
Lake". 

This time we will put it ALL together!

More@
http://www.guitartricks.com/freelesson.php?input=ZjxlPmYxZzA=

---------------------------------------------------- 

3) Blues slide guitar tutorial - - Nick Marchant 
Advanced slide piece in E  

Easy Rock Riff lessons for beginners , Blues Slide Guitar lessons, 
Spanish Style Lead Tutorial plus a fresh look at Chords for acoustic 
players.

Here's a bit about me then - I live and work in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 
the U.K. I've been playing guitar for about forty years (crikey!) and 
teaching for about fifteen - I've played in many amateur and semi-pro 
bands over the years playing many different styles of music Blues Rock 
Funk Punk etc. etc. 
My current band is a very laid back affair called "The Kings of Lounge". 
We are an acoustic guitars + double bass trio who play a selection of 
laid back tunes from around the world.Go HERE to hear some clips of the 
Kings in action.

My "day job" is to run my own guitar making and repairing business - 
I've been a luthier for 25 years - check out my site at 
www.guitarrepairsuk.com - as well as seeing pictures of my guitars you 
can find out how to tune a guitar without using a tuner plus a page of 
guitar tunings HERE ,some cool links - and try and find my "Django" page 
and follow the clues,this is a must for any Django Reinhardt fan. 

I think that good guitar playing is as much about attitude as about 
technique - I would prefer to listen to bands like the Ramones or Sex 
Pistols playing three chord songs "with attitude" than some virtuoso 
players playing a thousand notes a second. You don't have to be a 
virtuoso to be a great guitar player and musician!

The slide piece for this lesson uses the same relative tuning as the 
previous lessons but pitched up a tone i.e E Major rather than D Major.

The first technique to master for this piece involves angling the slide 
at about 45 degrees to the fretboard so that the slide only touches the 
top E string leaving the rest open.
To start try placing the slide at fret 4 on the top string and then pick 
through all six strings - you will then get a chord of E Major with five 
open strings plus the slide holding a G# note on the top string (compare 
this note to the open third string - they should be an octave apart)

Once you've got the hang of holding the slide at the right angle try 
playing melody on the top string only- while strumming or picking the 
open strings - this is the basis of a lot of old style blues where the 
slide line doubles the vocal melody over a rhythm part on the open 
strings.

Having mastered this you have to then use your right hand thumb to pick 
out bass notes while playing the melody on the top string with a right 
hand finger (I tend to use finger 2 for the top string and finger 1 for 
the lower strings but I suggest you use what feels right for you)

More@
http://www.guitartricks.com/freelesson.php?input=YDswZ2U5az8=

----------------------------------------------------
 
4) The Elephant  -  Ben Lindholm (VIDEO LESSON)

23-year-old guitar player from Sweden playing anything between metal and 
country!

I grew up in Gothenburg on the Swedish westcoast and started playing 
guitar at the age of 13 after seeing Jimi Hendrix put his guitar on fire 
in a documentary on Swedish tv. Since that day I've been hooked on 
guitar! I learned pretty much every Jimi Hendrix song and ONLY listened 
to Hendrix for about three years. Then I started getting into metal with 
Dream Theater, Pantera, In Flames and really started to develop my chops 
learning John Petrucci's runs!

But metal is too heavy even for me sometimes so I started listening to 
jazz and country and players like George Benson, Pat Metheny and Brent 
Mason (what a guy). 

Today I try to practice all styles and am currently working on my rhumba 
strumming! There are some pretty difficult right-hand techniques out 
there!!!

This is a completely useless guitar trick, but I will teach it to you 
anyway!

You'll need a volume knob, a whammy bar, distortion, a touch of delay 
and a little bit of imagination to make this work!

With your volume set to 0 on the guitar, simply hit the 5th fret natural 
harmonic on the G string, the 7th fret natural harmonic on the B string 
and the 12th fret natural harmonic on the high E string and let them all 
ring together. 

With the notes still ringing (duh) and the volume off, lower your whammy 
bar and as you raise it again also increase the volume on the guitar and 
voila!!! You now sound EXACTLY like an african elephant. 

More@
http://www.guitartricks.com/freelesson.php?input=NG4zZWEzYjU=

---------------------------------------------------- 

5) C6th Swing Ending -  Wayne Nea
Get your B-bender ready. Country guitar from Ohio.

I live in a little country area named Kitts Hill.(Ohio) I have played 
music since I was 4 years old. I play guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo, 
dobro, harmonica, and a little steel (which I am still learning). I do 
mostly guitar work in my current band (a little Harmonica on the side). 

My two major influences are Vince Gill, who has a nice smooth string 
bendin style and Jimmy Olander the lead player for the band Diamond Rio, 
he perfected the B-bender style of playing.

Here is a neat little ending lick for a western swing type tune. It 
kinda has that "C6th" steel guitar "feel" to it. The first part of it is 
a repetitive lick with 1 note descending. The ending licks I use my 
pick, middle and ring finger to grip a 3 string combo followed by a D 
chord with a downward strum.

More@
http://www.guitartricks.com/freelesson.php?input=M2kyZWEzMGM=

---------------------------------------------------- 

6) Rocksplosion