Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i Total Guitar

Here we’ve prepared a round-up of the chords and rhythm lessons we’ve been looking at, providing you with three simple tests that all beginners can work towards in the first few weeks of playing the guitar. The first area is learning eight essential chords. G and C both require a bit of a stretch, so come back to these once you’re comfortable playing the others. Staying with chords, test 2 is to practise changing from one shape to another - so we’ve provided six easy chord sequences for you. Look for shapes that share notes. For example, E minor and G share a note on the fifth string. Play E minor with your first and second fingers to make a change to G easier. C and A minor share two…

Guitar solos. We all wanna play ’em, right? And we probably all wish we were better players too. Yet, exactly what makes a better player and soloist is highly debatable. Do you shred, or do you aim for something simpler? Do you opt for familiar pentatonic scales, or would something more tuneful be better suited to the music? Well, we’ll leave the creative choices to you but, whatever kind of music you like to play, there’s always plenty to practise. Our opening lessons will help you hone your technique and learn a bit about how to structure your solos. Finally, get shred-ready with our big A-Z, complete with a handful of challenging licks for you to learn. ON YOUR DISC MP3 audio tracks for every tab example on your Guitar…

Here, we’ve written out 10 bars of music for you. Each bar contains a simple lead guitar phrase that will test you on one specific technique. Listen to the backing track where you’ll hear each phrase played twice before the lead guitar drops out, leaving space for you to repeat the lick then move on to the next one: listen, repeat, move on. Simple! And remember, it doesn’t matter what kind of music you’re into – these techniques apply to nearly all styles of lead guitar. 1 BASIC BEND Use three fingers for strength. Keep your fingers rigid and turn your wrist to bend the string. 2 UNISON BEND Two notes should sound at the same time here: the string bend and the second note on the second…

A ALTERNATE PICKING SPEED THRILLS! The most common approach to technical guitar playing is to use strictly alternating down- and upstrokes, aka alternate picking. The strength of the technique lies in its pure simplicity, and it remains the best way to articulate riffs and scale-based runs with unflinching metronomic accuracy. Some of the most proficient pickers are John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse and Rusty Cooley. A IS ALSO FOR… Tosin Abasi, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Michael Amott B JASON BECKER MASTER SWEEPER AND INDOMITABLE SPIRIT Jason Becker’s two solo albums, Perpetual Burn and Perspective, earned him god-like status in the guitar community. The likes of Serrana and Mabel’s Fatal Fable showcase Jason’s incredible sweep-picking technique, which allowed him to traverse the entire fretboard with apparent ease. Two albums with fellow shredmeister…

Most modern electros sport some kind of rudimentary three-band EQ built into the preamp, but a dedicated graphic EQ pedal will not only enable you to fine-tune your tone – it can help kill troublesome feedback. If you’re finding you can’t tame the howl, stick an EQ pedal between your guitar and your amp/PA, and start tweaking the faders. Once you’ve found the frequency band that’s causing your ears to bleed, nudge the fader down just enough so that the noise subsides – et voila, your feedback is busted! Even if you don’t have feedback issues, an EQ pedal can be used to give you a more natural, more sculpted plugged-in tone.…

Tune to DADGAD by lowering the first, second and sixth strings on your guitar down a tone. The open strings are an open Dsus4 chord – a rich, lush chord in itself. With its ‘neither major nor minor’ sound the tuning lends itself to jamming and you can come up with musical ideas often by moving one finger up and down a string while using the remaining strings as drones. Jimmy Page used DADGAD with Led Zeppelin on tracks such as Kashmir, and, perhaps surprisingly, the tuning is also found in the Slipknot song Circle. We’ve written three examples for you to try out: firstly a strummed chord progression playable with one finger, then a fingerstyle part and finally a hybrid-picked line. WITH ITS ‘NOT MAJOR OR MINOR’ SOUND, DADGAD…

Just picked up a guitar for the first time? Perhaps you’re stuck in lockdown and you’ve finally dusted off the guitar you always told yourself you’d learn to play. Or perhaps you just need a refresher on some guitar-playing basics. Well, whatever prompted you to pick up the guitar, the next few pages will help you get started playing your instrument. We’re starting with a look at how the guitar is built, how it works, then we’ll have you playing your first notes and chords in no time. It doesn’t matter whether your guitar’s acoustic or electric – as long as it’s got six strings, we’ll have you playing in no time. Turn the page and let’s get started! ON YOUR DISC MP3 audio tracks for every tab example on…

Right, let’s recap! So far we’ve covered a lot of guitar basics. By now you should know how to tune up, how to hold your guitar so that your hands are in the right place, and be able to play some notes and chords. Now we’ll move on and take a look at how to tackle your first guitar solo. We’ve recorded a short piece for you (tabbed below) in a power ballad style. It’s ‘single note’ playing, meaning that you have to play one note at a time. This makes it easy to choose which fingers to use: use your first finger for all the 1st fret notes, your second finger for the 2nd fret notes and your third finger covers the 3rd fret. For picking, use a firm,…

Featuring on the The Strokes’ long-awaited 2020 release The New Abnormal, Bad Decisions kicks off with Nick Valensi’s cool riff – a four-bar line which runs from the intro and through the verses and choruses. So a little goes a long way here! The riff is based around C and F chords, but, instead of playing the shapes straight, the riff outlines the changes in a more melodic way. Start off with a 3rd position C5 powerchord and use your pick to alternate between the fifth and fourth strings before moving to play the 2nd fret E note. It’s a tricky position shift, as is the move to F that follows. Move to the F root note while the open fourth string rings out to make things easier. The most…

You’ve done some basic down-picking practice, now here’s a tougher challenge! This down-picked riff ramps up the speed to a whopping 180bpm and includes some fast fret-hand chord slides. It’ll not only challenge your pick-hand speed, stamina and ability to switch from palm muting to standard picking, but also fret-hand accuracy too. 120-140bpm: Novice Noodler Nothing else matters, bar nailing it at this speed 150-170bpm: Speed Demon …And picking for all! You’ve got a hand like a jackhammer 180-190bpm: Thrash Legend Move over Hetfield, it’s my turn to ride the lightning!…

1 QUARTER-TONE BEND Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, pointing forward. Your shoulders should be back and your back straight, resting against the back of your seat. 2 ANGLE OF GUITAR Your guitar’s body should sit against your ribcage, with the underside of your forearm resting on the guitar. Depending on its shape, your guitar’s body should reach your belly button. 3 STANDING POSTURE Guitars are heavy, so make sure you keep your back straight and avoid the temptation to lean over towards your fretting hand. Bad habits ingrained early are difficult to undo later on. 4 STRAP HEIGHT A low-slung guitar looks cool, but all your seated hand positions change drastically and you’ll have to compensate. Set your strap so the guitar’s position doesn’t change…

Learning a lick’s easy, right? You just play it over and over – starting slowly of course – until you get it. Well, kind of. When you’re tackling tricky phrases, it’s better to isolate individual elements to perfect them before stitching them all together. Once your muscles have committed the movements to ‘memory’, you’ll find everything comes together quicker. Try breaking this tabbed lick down into four elements. And, remember, you can do the same with any lick. FOURTH-FINGER VIBRATO Focus on a consistent vibrato using your weakest finger FAST HAMMER-ON AND PULL-OFF Work on making each note clean and even in length and volume CROSSING STRINGS Aim for minimal pick movement as you deal with one of the toughest picking manoeuvres ALTERNATE PICKING Use strict alternate picking and aim…

The title says it all! We’re looking at three altered tunings here: open G (D G D G B D), open C (C G C G C E) and open E (E B E G# B E). Altered tunings can feel unfamiliar at first. But that’s the idea! The shapes you use all the time in standard tuning will give different sounds and moods when you’ve retuned. New tunings really can be a constant source of fresh inspiration. OPEN G TUNING (D G D G B D) OPEN C TUNING (C G C G C E) OPEN E TUNING (E B E G# B E)…

Tone is one of the most debated and elusive areas of guitar playing. Some say it’s all in the hands, and, while there’s an element of truth to that, we’d argue that the gear you choose and how you use it plays a big part in the your sound. And that’s why we’re talking tone here in our Ultimate Lesson. Because when you get your gear hooked up just right you’re bound to find yourself playing better. Here we’re looking at ways you can tweak your rig to make it better to play and to help you deliver the tones that are in your head.…

Getting started with rhythm guitar is easy. All you need is your guitar, a pick and the humble E minor chord. We’ve based this month’s rhythm lesson on this simple two-finger chord. Learn it, make sure you can play it cleanly, and then turn your attention to your pick hand, because that’s where the action takes place. The first rhythm exercise is labelled Groove 1 in the tab at the top of the opposite page. It’s a simple idea, just strum towards the ground four times. Most rock, pop, blues and metal is based on rhythms with four pulses, so count to four to keep time. There’s a backing track on your CD so you can practise playing with a drums/bass backing. Groove 2 takes the idea a step further…

There’s an old adage that guitarists spend 90 per cent of their playing time on rhythm duties, but 90 per cent of their practice time on lead. There’s probably some truth to this, so here we’re going to help you with the oft-neglected side of guitar playing. We’ll kick things off with a workout that’ll help you hone your picking skills – great for both rhythm and riffing, but also a skill you can apply to your solos. From there, we’re going to try and inspire you with over 60 chord shapes. More importantly, we’ll show you how to use them, so you’ll always be ready to jam. Plug in and let’s get grooving! On YOUR DISC MP3 audio tracks for every tab example on your Guitar Skills CD…

1 QUARTER-TONE BEND From BB to Bonamassa, there isn’t a blues player out there who doesn’t use this device. Just bend the string slightly sharp and be sure to stop if the note clashes. 2 TWO-FRET BEND The two-fret bend is an almost universal technique that can take a while to master. As a general rule, bend toward the middle of the neck to avoid the edge of the fretboard. 3 VIBRATO Vibrato can be slow and shallow, fast and wide, or a mix. Stevie Ray Vaughan used a medium speed wide vibrato; Eric Clapton and BB King lift the thumb off of the neck. 4 FRET HAND POSITION Thinking of a group of notes as a chord can yield some great solo ideas. Just be…

AUTHENTIC BLUES LEAD Expand on basic pentatonic blues licks with these three simple techniques, as used by classic era players such as BB King, revivalists like Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and to this day by guitarists like Eric Gales and Gary Clark Jr. 1 THE BB KING ‘ZINGER’ The original BB King ‘zinger’ as it’s known simply slides down from a high root note of whatever key you’re in, nearly always somewhere high up on the first string. It’s areally effective trick that can help break up pentatonic scale pattern ideas. Just make sure you’ve got a solid lick up your sleeve to follow it with! 2 STRING RAKES Rakes can be picked in either direction, down or up. The idea is to pick the muted…

t’s nearly summer. Generally the season of holidays, I festivals in muddy fields, and, for guitarists, the very likely prospect of an occasional al fresco jam session. Usually that’d mean heading outdoors, acoustic guitar in hand, but, with the coronavirus pandemic keeping us all at home, it’s unlikely any of us will be venturing far beyond our own back gardens just yet. And yet, these unprecedented world events have fuelled the fire for online collaboration, whether that’s sharing recording projects over the internet or livestreaming a solo performance on Facebook or Instagram. So here we are with some essential acoustic lessons for you. We’ll start with some strumming and fingerstyle basics, before we move on to look at the folk and blues styles of some of today’s most popular players.…

01 GET A BIGGER SOUND! TRY A WET/DRY AMP SETUP If you have two amps, this can be a fantastic way to supersize your guitar sound; splitting your signal to send some effects to one amp. We’d advise splitting after your drive pedal/s. Send one split to the first amp (this will be your ‘dry’ amp) and the other split through the effects placed after the drive pedals (modulation and time-based like delay and reverb) to the second amp (this is your ‘wet’ amp). It’s really a best of both worlds scenario because amp one is direct and dynamic, while the second adds more ambient textures. No matter what amps you’re using they need to be isolated electrically to avoid any ground loop hum and in-phase. An AB/Y box with…

01 VOLUME Where to put it: At the start of your chain. Placed here, it’s like having your guitar’s volume knob in pedal form. ALTERNATIVELY If you don’t want trails from delays and reverbs, and want the signal’s decay, place it at the end. It can be quite dramatic to gradually roll off large, heavy guitar parts in a studio-like fade while playing live. 02 COMPRESSOR Where to put it: Ideally, any compression should happen before the rest of the signal chain, so as to tame peaks, while still allowing for a jump in volume. Since compressors work by evening out the signal and adding gain, pedals after them, especially drives, might need their output level tweaking. Once they’re dialled in you’re set. Placed in front of drives, compressors can…