Guitar Nine Columns: Guitar Technique

A good guitar riff drives the song, and is often one of the most memorable parts of the tune.

Can your hands actually be too small to play?

How to avoid getting discouraged.

Less is more, more is more - which is it?

A great way to connect the five basic major scale patterns.

Tell a story with your music by the way you phrase notes on guitar.

Ways to change your guitar tone without touching an amp or pedals.

Improvise to Darth Vader's Theme by John Williams.

Improvise to Darth Vader's Theme by John Williams.

Great when learning modes - hear the sound of each mode over a tonal center.

Muting your guitar with tape or a hair band!

The word chromatic in music means two or more consecutive notes that are a half step from one another.

3-dimensional phrasing - as opposed to 2-dimensional (flat, lifeless) playing.

The perils of an out-of-balance guitar practice.

Learn all the little tricks that are easy to underestimate but make the difference.

Strengthen your upstrokes so they are as strong as your downstrokes.

The term arpeggios on guitar means to play chord tones (the notes of a chord) one note at a time.

Using the Pitch Axis technique to express emotion.

Create some threatening sounds with your guitar.

If you know all of your scale patterns, but are not sure how to connect them, this lesson will help you.

Decide to choose modal harmony in your solos.

Resolving to the 3rd of the chords in a chromatic fashion.

Don't spend more cash on guitars, effect pedals, and ampsm - better tone for free.

Hit the 'EASY' button - ear training ideas for the rest of us.

What we are being told by traditional music theory, is a load of crap.

A basic skill you need to have - here's how to get it.

Learning a tune by heart - where to begin and how to make it sound natural.

Stuck inside? Take advantage of the time and challenge yourself to get to the next level.

The more you get to know chords the better time you will having using them.

Control your dynamics by controlling the force of your picking.

You'll sound “outside” once you have mastered the “inside sound”.

When used correctly, guide tones outline the flavor of the chords you’re improvising over.

Creative ways to move around the fretboard at a blazing fast speed.

Creating unlimited licks using the pentatonic scale.

The pentatonic scale contains 5 notes; the melodic combinations you have to work with are endless.

A complete primer on these amazing scales.

Creativity takes practice, just like anything else.

It’s really not about how fast technically advanced it is, but rather how it is phrased.

This scale is most common in jazz, but can be applied to any style of music.

How does anybody know what key they’re in? Let's find out.

Let's get those creative wheels turning, shall we?

Taking the diminished scale and incorporating it with a basic blues scale box.