Guitar Nine Columns: Mac's Back Page

Stop practicing with boring scales and start testing your fingers with melodic 'riffs' from Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and more.

Stop strumming those simple barre chords, and embellish your chordal work with licks and phrases that blur the distiction between rhythm and lead guitar playing.

Break free of your limiting beliefs about pentatonic scales.

Nowhere to go with ascending licks but up? Dan McAvinchey confronts the problem and gives you several ideas you can use today. Don't just take the easy way out and start descending either.