Guide to the perfect pickstroke
Here's some advice that I've learned from observing my own practice sessions over the years regarding how to achieve the perfect pickstroke. What do you think of when you imagine the perfect picking technique? Fast picking runs? Small and visually…
A student interviews me
The following is an interview between a student and myself for a college assignment of theirs where they had to question somebody working in the music industry. Hopefully you will enjoy learning a little bit more about me and perhaps…
How to read guitar TABs
Reading and writing guitar tablature (TABs) is essential for learning other people’s music and for keeping a record of your own creations. I would even argue that it’s more practical than standard music notation as TABs dictate the exact and…
How the Pros Sweep: Style vs. Style
Let's take a look at how a few famous pro guitarists execute 3-string sweep arpeggios. We'll compare the techniques of Rusty Cooley, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Andy James. Players tend to stick to one sweep picking style for their entire musical careers without even considering alternatives. It…
Tapping Arpeggios Lesson #2
Welcome to the second lesson on two-hand tapped arpeggios! Last time we covered the fundamentals such as: muting, string transitions, and a small 2-string example arpeggio to begin with. Now it's time to delve further into the technique and learn…
Essential Scale Sequences
What are scale sequences? A sequence is a repeated and ordered pattern applied to the notes of a scale or arpeggio. Imagine walking in a straight line for 8 steps. You could go ahead one step at a time like…
Clean Note Transitions
This is a lesson on how to play passages of notes in a perfectly clean and intelligible way. You must eliminate silence between notes to create a seamless stream of sound. Picture your notes as a brick wall. You want…
Tapping Arpeggios Lesson
I proudly present an in-depth technical guide to basic multi-string two-hand tapping arpeggios. Learn how to tap, how to cross strings and how to perform a basic 2-string, string skipped diminished arpeggio on the g and e strings. From there…
Japanese Scale Picking Patterns
Get exotic with the Japanese Pentatonic scale! Like the standard pentatonic scale, the Japanese pentatonic also has 5 box positions. This lesson also includes diagonal picking patterns to aid your horizontal playing and fretboard vision. This lesson will be in the…
Diminished Scale Picking Patterns
The diminished scale is another very interesting scale. It's a neverending repeating pattern of whole tone, half tone, whole tone, half tone etc. For this reason there are only two main scale positions, as opposed to the 5 positions of…
Alternate Picking Exercises
Alternate picking for the lead guitar is where the picking hand executes alternating pickstrokes to play passages of notes. This down, up, down, up pattern is kept constant no matter what pattern the fretting hand is fingering or how many…
How to Sweep Pick: Beginner's Guide
This lesson is a no-frills study of how sweep picking is performed. Always start with the basics when learning a new technique. Nailing them and creating a strong foundation is essential for making good, quick progress. Do not dive right…
Min7 Alternate Picking Patterns
Last time I showed you how a Cmaj7 arpeggio could be arranged into useful picking patterns. Now, staying in the key of C major/A minor, we will be moving on to the Amin7 arpeggio. The notes and intervals contained in…
Cmaj7 Alternate Picking Shapes
Here I have arranged the notes of a Cmaj7 chord into some seriously handy scale-like shapes. Pick through these, work them into your own soloing and get ready to jam with a whole new sound. While using every note in any…
Mixed Scale Runs: Picking + Legato
Blast through your scale runs and create subtle texture differences in sound by mixing picking and legato. While there's little more satisfying than a perfectly executed alternate picking run, I'm a huge fan of injecting legato into the mix. Why?…
Introduction to 3-notes-per-string scale sequences
The following scale shape is the Aeolian mode, otherwise known as the natural minor, the full minor, the minor scale and so on. I firmly believe that the 3-note-per-string scale shapes are the only modal scale shapes needed. Box shapes…
Clean Up Your Alternate Picking
A hugely under discussed aspect of alternate picking is that of picking hand imbalance and the trouble it can cause. Alternate picking is when notes are executed by the picking hand in an alternating manner - a downstroke followed by…
The Mystical Romanian Scale
Try something new and check out the Romanian scale! The Romanian scale is actually the 4th mode of the harmonic minor scale. It has a rich and exotic sound when played and features the following intervals: Root, 2nd, minor 3rd, sharp 4th, 5th,…
Three-Note-Per-String Blues Scale Patterns
As we know, the blues scale is a fundamental scale learned rather early on. Perhaps for this reason, it is widely thought of as a beginner's tool. This is not the case! Not only can the blues scale be used…
Creating Custom Blues Scale Shapes
The very first scale a guitarist learns is often the minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale is easy to familiarise oneself with and is incredibly versatile. After this may come the addition of the blues note – to make…