One of the best weapons a guitarist has in the the battle to improve their playing speed is the Metronome. This small machine keeps perfect time with a series of beeps that can be configured for several purposes.
In this article I will explain the 2 most crucial settings to use on the metronome and their relationship to developing lethal shredding speed!
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Posted in Technique on Jul 19th, 2007
Hybrid picking is a great way of adding another dimension to your sound. Players in many different styles such as blues, bluegrass, country, rock and jazz use hybrid picking when they play guitar. One of my favorite guitar players, Stevie Ray Vaughan, uses hybrid picking for his solo in the song “Lenny.”
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Posted in Exercises, Technique on Jun 9th, 2007
Guitar solos can get boring when they only use one rhythm. One way to spice up your solos is to play different rhythms while in your guitar solo and improvisation. This is a great exercise to help you learn to switch rhythms while playing lead guitar.
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Posted in Exercises, Technique on Jun 3rd, 2007
Many guitarists know how to bend strings. But not all guitar players put a lot of thought into their string bending. This guitar lesson will show you how to add a bluesy, soulful sound to your string bends. Try incorporating this banding technique into your playing. It will add another dynamic to your string bending. Watch this quick video lesson on how to bend like a blues player. (If you need an intro to basic guitar techniques please see my post on Essential Lead Guitar Techniques before watching this video):
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Posted in Exercises, Technique on Apr 22nd, 2007
There are many picking techniques guitarists use when playing guitar. An there is no “right” answer on which technique you should use. In fact, many guitarists use different picking techniques for different situations. But the focus of this lesson will be on alternate picking. This is one of the most widely used picking techniques and it is essential for any guitarist to be comfortable with alternate picking.
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Posted in Technique on Apr 1st, 2007
Here is a video demonstrating the most essential guitar techniques for anyone playing lead guitar. Sorry for the poor audio and video quality, I don’t have such a great recorder.
The guitar techniques shown in the video are: hammer-ons, pull-offs, trilling, bending (and releasing), sliding, and vibrato. There are guitar tabs for each of the examples below the video. Enjoy!
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Posted in Exercises, General Tips, Technique on Mar 21st, 2007
For some reason most of the self-taught guitar players I know do not own a metronome. Whether they don’t understand the importance of being able to play in time and to tempo, or they think they can keep tempo just fine by tapping their foot, or they are just plain lazy, most self-taught guitar players do not practice with a metronome.
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