Содержание выпуска: December 2017 — Guitar Techniques

SHAUN BAXTER One of the UK’s most respected music educators, Shaun has taught many who are now top tutors themselves. His Jazz Metal album is considered a milestone. JON BISHOP Jon is one of those great all-rounders who can turn his hand to almost any style. No ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’, he nails every one with ease! PHIL CAPONE Phil is a great guitarist who specialises in blues and jazz. He teaches at ICMP in London, writes for GT and Total Guitar and has published 10 top tuition books. CHARLIE GRIFFITHS Guitar Institute tutor Charlie first came to fame in Total Guitar’s Challenge Charlie series. He’s also one of the UK’s top rock, metal and fusion guitarists. PHIL HILBORNE The UK’s original magazine guitar tutor, Phil’s…

NICK DELANEY THE USE OF open strings abounds in all styles with virtually endless ideas. This month it is the open second string – the 5th of the accompanying E7 chord. The lick uses only the first and second strings and features notes mostly drawn from E7 – E-G#-B-D. The challenge is in the frequent position changes, how the lick uses the open B combined with fretted notes in a‘3 against 4’rhythm, and the use of hybrid picking - you can use alternate picking if you like, but it’s ‘snappier’with hybrid. After playing it try to come up with other ideas of your own using different rhythms and in other keys - remember you need at least one open string to be a chord tone so you can use it…

➊ Groove Blues (Am) Our first jam track is a fun-to-play groove-based blues in A Minor. You can use A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-D-E-G) as well as A Natural Minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G). I also recommend playing around with the 7th arpeggios: Am7 (A-C-E-G), Dm7 (D-F-A-C) and Em7 (E-G-B-D). ➋ B Minor Blues Jam Here’s a B Minor blues progression, with the chords Bm (Im), Em (IVm), G ( b VI) and F# (V). I suggest starting with B Minor Pentatonic (B-D-E-F#-A) as well as B Natural Minor (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A). For the F# chords you can also use B Harmonic Minor (B-C#-D-E-F#- G-A#), emphasising the A#, which leads back to the Bm chord. ➌ Ambient Jam (D) This ambient style jam track works perfectly with D Mixolydian mode (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C). You can experiment with…

 ON THE CD TRACKS 33-53 “THE GRUNGE MOVEMENT MADE AN EVERLASTING DENT IN THE MUSIC SCENE AND IN POP CULTURE” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 33-53 Will improve your… Creating of stylistically valid parts Rhythm and lead dynamics Playing power and attitude Welcome to the chaotic world of grunge guitar. The scene started in American cities such as Seattle in the early 90s but quickly became a global phenomenon. Grunge fuses heavy rock with influences from 80s alternative rock acts, such as The Pixies and Sonic Youth. The music also has a strong punk element and it was in part a reaction to the stadium rock scene at time where spandex and guitar solos were replaced with a more basic and direct approach (much as punk…

STEVE THORNE/ GETTY IMAGES “JOHN NORUM GENERALLY LEANS TOWARDS THE CLASSIC 60S AND 70S BLUES-ROCK STYLE AND TONE” ONTHECD TRACKS66-68 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Em Tempo: 108bpm CD: TRACKS 66-68 Will improve your… Rock rhythm Legato and picking General timing Europe was formed in Upplands Vasby, Sweden in 1979, and initially went by the name Force, before changing their name to Europe after singer Joey Tempest heard Deep Purple’s Made In Europe live album. Founding members were Tempest and guitar player John Norum, who are both still in the band today, with the current and long-serving line-up being completed by bass player John Leven, keyboard player Mic Michaeli and drummer Ian Haugland. Europe gained worldwide success in 1986 after they had been approached by Epic Records to sign a deal,…

DAVID LYTTLETON ONTHECD TRACKS81-83 ABILITY RATING Info Key: A (A7) Tempo: 115bpm CD: TRACKS 81-83 Will improve your Dominant Pentatonic knowledge Playing of fast sequences Dominant CAGED vocabulary The Dominant Pentatonic represents five notes that can be extracted from the Mixolydian scale that will allow you to adopt a guitar-friendly, two-notes per-string approach with a sound that is closer to the underlying Dominant 7th chord than the more common Major or Minor Pentatonic: Basically, it’s like a dominant 7th arpeggio with an added 2nd note, making it more akin to a 9th arpeggio. By taking the traditional two-notes-per-string shapes of A Major Pentatonic scale, and raising each 6th (F#) a semitone higher (keeping it on the same string), so that it becomes a minor 7th (G), we get the five…

SOMETIMES WE LISTEN to music and make big presumptions. Take jazz. One presumption is that jazz is always complex, full of tricky chords and fistfuls of scales. Well, I was listening to the radio some years back when a jazz standard came on, announced as featuring guitarist Kenny Burrell. I knew of Kenny, of course, and was familiar with the tune, which was indeed full of colourful changes. But when I homed in on his soloing I realised that, far from using unpronouncable scales and arpeggios outlining every chord, he was mainly employing the Minor Pentatonic with added b 5, or ‘Blues’ scale. What I heard Kenny doing, was navigating the changes using notes from the various chords, common with the most potent ones from his R- b 3-4- b…

TINA K I’ve loved messing about with guitar tunings since I first heard someone play Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones) with the correct tuning and being floored by how much better it sounded than my hack standard tuning version. Since then I’ve messed about with them a lot and I’m always surprised at so many people being afraid of changing the tuning of the guitar, or thinking it’s really hard. It can be real hard if you make it so, but it’s such a fun thing to explore and can be a lot easier than most people think, so I hoped you might like to come on a little journey with me. A couple of things before we get going: don’t try altered tuning on a guitar with a floating…

LUCIUS FONTENOT “ONE BIG NOTE THAT SAYS SOMETHING IS WORTH MORE THAN A FLURRY OF THEM THAT DOESN’T GO ANYWHERE” GT: What is it about instrumentals that appeals to you? SL: There is an abstract quality that I have always been drawn to wherein the listener is free to conjure up imagery as inspired by the emotions they experience from the music. Lyrics, though I love them dearly, literally spell out one story whereas a good instrumental can inspire imagery of many different stories and emotions in different listeners. GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal can’t? SL: There is something intangible and quite profound that resonates in a more individual and personnel way. Maybe people just attach a strong emotion to a melody or a…

RELATING TAB TO YOUR FRETBOARD HAND LABELLING Here are the abbreviations used for each finger: Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T) Picking hand: p (thumb), i (first finger), m (second), a (third), c (fourth). CHORD EXAMPLE The diagram represents the G chord in the photo. The ‘O’ symbol is an open string, and a circled number is a fretting finger. Intervals are shown below. SCALE EXAMPLE The diagram shows the fret-hand fingering for the A major scale (root notes in black). The photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with first, third and fourth fingers. NUT & FRETBOARD The fretbox diagram above represents the fretboard exactly, as seen in the accompanying photo. This is for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or chord shape…

 ON THE CD CD-ROM “BREAKING AWAY FROM COMFORT ZONES IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE, SO HERE’S THE PERFECT EXCUSE TO THINK A LITTLE OUTSIDE THE BOX” ABILITY RATING Info Key: Bm/Em Tempo: 130bpm CD: TRACKS CD-ROM Will improve your Groove playing Fingerstyle independence Improvisation With a relentless international touring schedule, multiple awards under his belt and being hailed by the music press as the ‘Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar’, Antonio Forcione is certainly a force to be reckoned with. But for all his virtuosity on the instrument, what sets Antonio apart from so many others is the diversity of his playing and compositions. Everything from West-African Kora melodies, Italian folk dances, Piazzollainspired Argentinian tangos and Cuban songs have appeared in his performances and recordings. By immersing himself in the countries where…

ON THE CD TRACKS56-61 EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 1 COLDPLAY CD TRACK 56 Play this example with steady up and down directional picking with the kind of clean Telecaster tone that Jonny Buckland enjoys. Perhaps add judicious delay and a little chorus. You could arppeggiate this kind of idea over any open chords to give a thick, orchestrated sound. EASY LICKS EXAMPLE 2 PETER GREEN CD TRACK 57 A slow and controlled approach is required to make this chordal pattern feel right to the listener. Green really knew how to milk emotion out of even the simplest piece, so use plenty of dynamic touches to vary the velocity between the ascending notes and the chords and give it all the feel you’ve got! INTERMEDIATE LICKS EXAMPLE 3 ALBERT KING CD TRACK…

J LEPAGE “I LIKE MY SOLOS TO SOUND LIKE A COMPOSED MELODY. I’M NOT ALWAYS SUCCEEDING, BUT THAT’S MY GOAL. IT’S LIKE AN ETERNAL COMPOSING PROCESS Philip Catherine” ONTHECD TRACKS69-78 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 69-78 Will improve your… Picking articulation and fluency Ability to ‘make the changes’ Jazz vocabulary Philip Catherine is one of Europe’s finest jazz guitar players, with a phenomenal resume and the well-earned respect of both peers and music lovers the world over. Born in London but raised in Brussels, Belgium, Catherine’s father was a classical violinist for the London Philharmonic and young Philip entered into the family business at the earliest opportunity, studying at the prestigious Berklee School of Music and turning professional while still in his teens. Catherine’s playing has…

CLAYTON CALL / GETTY IMAGES “INFLUENCED BY BOTH DUANE ALLMAN AND ELMORE JAMES, DEREK TRUCKS PLAYS SLIDE ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY IN OPEN E TUNING” ONTHECD TRACKS84-90 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 84-90 Will improve your Slide control Intonation String skipping Open E tuning is hugely popular in electric slide playing having been used by many guitarists including Duane Allman, Sonny Landreth, and Derek Trucks (the latter almost exclusively). From standard tuning, the first, second and sixth strings are the same as in standard tuning, the third string is tuned up a semitone to G# (the Major 3rd) and the fourth and fifth strings are tuned up a whole step to E and B respectively, going from high to low E-B-G#-E-B-E. This is equivalent to open D tuning…

GARY MOORE BLUES AND BEYOND BMG ✪✪✪✪✪ This new retrospective focuses on Gary’s blues output, highlighting his most emotive work. The standard package is a two-disc (four LP) set featuring 28 post-’90 tracks whereas the deluxe package has an extra two discs featuring an unreleased live concert. The studio recordings represent the cream of Gary’s blues period, beginning with Enough Of The Blues from 2001’s Back To The Blues with classic cuts like Stormy Monday, You Upset Me Baby, I Can’t Quit You Baby and My Baby (She’s So Good To Me). The live stuff will delight completists and die-hards alike as it’s where his fire often burned the brightest. These two discs cover a further 15 tracks from an as yet unspecified performance and it finds Gary in fine…

FEATURE #2 SWEEP PICKING It’s not as scary as you think! If the very term ‘sweep picking’ sends you scurrying for cover then this gem from Milton Mermikides is for you! CLASSICAL TAB ROBERT JOHNSON Bridget transcribes ‘Alman’ Not some weird blues collaboration, this Johnson was in fact an English composer of the Tudor era! VIDEO LESSON ANTONIO FORCIONE PT2 More from the maestro This stunningly brilliant acoustic guitarist continues and concludes his exclusive video series for GT. TECHNIQUE & THEORY THINGS TO LEARN & PLAY Open E slide & double-stops Learn some cool slide moves in Vestapol tuning and play muted and unmuted double-stop riffs and licks Learn the chordal secrets of... THE BEATLES! Any Beatles song is instantly recognisable as ‘them’, due to their often unusual chord…

Tap the links Finding your way around the magazine is easy. Tapping the feature titles on the cover or the contents page, takes you straight to the relevant articles. Any web and email links in the text are tappable too! Animated tab & audio All the mag’s main lessons have the audio built in with a moving cursor that shows you exactly where you are in the music. Simply tap the ‘play’ button and you’re off - you can fast-forward or scroll back at will. Play the videos Certain articles have accompanying videos full of useful insight and additional information. Once again, tap the play buttons to enjoy video masterclasses on your iPad (recommended) or smartphone. PLUS! Get a FREE iPad/iPhone sample of GT. For full details and how to…

GRETSCH INTRODUCES THE 6187 Viking model with a sunburst double-cutaway, hollow, bound maple body and two f-holes. The bound ebony fingerboard features pearl thumbnail inlays up to the 12th fret then offset dots above. It’s loaded with two covered rail humbuckers, a master volume, two more volume controls, a pickup selector and more switches; add to that a string mute, a roller bridge assembly, a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and a leatherette back pad and there’s not much wood to see! INTRODUCING THE BEATLES IS THE first Beatles album released in the USA and the Fab Four get their first US chart topper with I Want To Hold Your Hand. It stays in the number one position for seven weeks and the group lands at JFK airport for its first American…

“AN INTERVAL WITH THIS MUCH HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE DESERVES SO MUCH MORE THAN TO BE CONSIDERED A PENTATONIC PASSING NOTE” ABILITY RATING Info Key Various Tempo Various CD TRACKS 3-32 Will improve your… Blues scale fluency Understanding of flat 5s Solo phrasing The Blues scale (R- b 3-4- b 5-5- b 7) is a six-note scale. It can also be viewed as the minor Pentatonic with an added flattened 5th interval, creating a passing note between the perfect 4th and 5th of the scale. While the flattened 5th works extremely well in this context, it can also be used as a melody note and hit squarely on the beat with no apologies. The purpose of this feature is to challenge your current perception of the flat 5 and explore the potential…

 ONTHECD TRACKS54-55 “IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE BACH’S CONTRIBUTION TO WESTERN MUSIC, NOR THE PROFOUND BEAUTY IN HIS OUTPUT OF OVER 1000 WORKS” ABILITY RATING Info Key G Tempo 44bpm CD TRACKS 54-55 Will improve your… Baroque ornamentation Two-part playing Melodic phrasing This month we return to a work by the timeless genius Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), a composer whose technical and expressive mastery continues to awe and inspire countless musicians in many styles. It’s nearly impossible to overstate Bach’s contribution to Western music, nor the technical achievement and profound beauty in his output of over 1,000 works. It’s an enduring legacy, which some argue represents one of the pinnacles of artistic achievement; so much so that when it was suggested that some of his music be included in the…

LIVEPIX “ERIC’S LEAD PLAYING IS EXEMPLARY AND HIS RHYTHM FULL OF BEAUTY” ONTHECD TRACKS62-65 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 62-65 Will improve your Blues-rock vocabulary Odd note groupings Picking styles Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is yet another virtuoso guitarist to have come out of Texas. Born into a musical family Eric started his journey on the piano after his father sent him and his sisters to lessons. At age 11 he picked up a guitar and began transferring his piano knowledge to his new love, which explains those rich chord voicings for which he’s famously known. From his beginnings with The Electromagnets, through to his solo albums and session work with artists such as Cat Stevens, Christopher Cross and Carole King, Eric has constantly…

DOUGLAS MASON / GETTY “CHORDS WITH MOVING BASS, STRUMMED PARTS WITH OPEN STRINGS AND DEFTLY PICKED RIFFS ALL APPEAR IN THIS STUDY” ONTHECD TRACKS79-80 ABILITY RATING Info Key: D Tempo: 98bpm CD: TRACKS 79-80 Will improve your… Moving bass notes against chords Using chords with open strings Alternate picked acoustic parts One of America’s most original and quirky singer-songwriters, Dave Matthews is also one its biggest selling. A veritable superstar in the USA The Dave Matthews Band fills stadiums and arenas across the country. Although less known throughout the rest of the world his unique approach to writing acoustic guitar parts merits wider study and recognition, and so in this lesson we’ll examine some key features of his style. Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1967 and spent…

“WHEN YOUR HAND IS MOVING UP AND DOWN THERE’S AN INHERENT MOMENTUM THAT HELPS KEEP THE NOTES EVEN” ONTHECD TRACKS 91-98 ABILITY RATING Info Key: Various Tempo: Various CD: TRACKS 91-98 Will improve your… Picking dexterity Arpeggio playing Timing and accuracy Moving your pick from string to string is one of the most necessary but overlooked skills on the guitar. In this lesson we will focus purely on this skill by accurately articulating arpeggios by alternate-picking one note per string. A common problem with picking across strings is that the pick can sometimes get snagged on the strings, or we hit the wrong string, or even miss the string altogether. Practising alternate picking arpeggios will give you more control over your note articulation and picking confidence. The main benefit of…

GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without? DAVE: I used to use Dunlop Tortex 1.14s but about three years ago I switched to Jazz III XLs. I love the focused point and rigidity for riffs and lead work. JACK: Dunlop Tortex .88mm (green ones). I used to use lighter ones but I hit the strings a lot harder now, and I find that these give me the best feel. GT: If you had to give up all your effects pedals but three, what would they be? DAVE: I’m a pedal addict! I have buckets of vintage stuff. However, for Austin Gold I’ve reduced my board to literally a Korg tuner, an Xotic BB Plus, a TC Electronic Flashback delay and a Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail…