This slippery Dm7 arpeggio lick makes a great arpeggio exercise as well as useful soloing/improvisation device. Just adding the slides and varying the notes creates enough interest to be a useful musically.
Check out the tabs here and follow along in the video below. Happy practicing!
Thanks for checking out this lesson. If you found it useful, let me know! Happy practicing!
What are elephant bends you ask? Besides being a bent string lick that reminds me of an elephant, they are bends where two or more strings are played together. It’s usually when a string is bent, and another string gets caught in the midst of that bend.
Check out the lesson on how to play this crazy lick, how to use it in your own playing, and where these crazy bends came from.
“Challenge the Masters” by Jon Tapella is a book of classical music examples written in a neo-classical style aimed at rock and metal guitar players. Everything is arranged so that it can be played with a pick, so think Jason Becker or Paul Gilbert playing through classical pieces rather than classical guitarists John Williams or Sharon Isbin.
This book first came on my radar when my friend Ryan showed it to me in college. Despite not going to music school like I did, his sweep picking technique was impressive, and frankly better than mine, so I decided to give this book a look.
The great thing about this book is that it provides real world examples of pieces that use techniques like sweep picking and tapping. All of the pieces are well arranged and thoroughly enjoyable to play. I ended up learning Paganini’s “Caprice No. 16” to perform for a post-Berklee senior recital for friends and family who could not attend my actual senior recital in Boston. It was a fun challenge to pull off! You can hear me play it in the link below more recently. I only play through the first section, but it will at least give you an idea of what this piece sounds like and what you can expect to learn from this book, and I threw some blues shredding at the end just for fun.
“Challenge the Masters” was also ahead of it’s time in arranging Pachabel’s Canon for rock guitar, predating Jerry C’s canon rock by over a decade. I remember in the years preceding “Canon Rock” that many players would jam on Canon in D with heavy guitars, but “Canon Rock” was the first one to pull it all together and make it a metal instrumental standard. I don’t know for sure, but it’s certainly possible that “Challenge the Masters” may have helped to inspire this rendition.
Who is this book for?
Who is this book not for?
I highly recommend this book as an awesome resource since it’s format encourages learning advanced techniques via time-honored amazing music.
Ready to get shredding? Got your classical wig and cape? Pick up a copy of “Challenge the Masters” here…
Challenge the Masters by John Tapella
Happy shredding!
This post is a friendly reminder to use your ears and listen to the music you want to learn!
This is going to seem like a no-brainer to some, but as a professional guitar teacher I can tell you that it isn’t second nature for some people learning the guitar to listen to the music that they are currently learning. I see this a lot with kids and teenagers, sometimes adults, and even the occasional band member. They simply read the example or look up a tab, but don’t spend enough (or any) time listening and internalizing the music. I often half-jokingly tell my students when talking about listening to the music they’re learning, “YouTube exists. No excuses.” With the advent of the internet, pretty much any song you want to learn is available to listen to, most of the time for free! Here are 6 ways to improve your listening and learning experience.
This seems like a very simple idea. Listen to the music you want to learn. In our hectic, fast-paced, low-attention span world, this can be tricky sometimes. Take a breath, slow down, and listen to some of your favorite music. At the very least, listen passively, have it on in the background. If it’s really something you want or need to master, then take the necessary time to listen intently.
Try these steps the next time you need to learn a piece of music. They will definitely help you on your musical journey and goals, whatever they may be. Happy practicing and happy listening!
There are certain major and minor chords that are typically played as barre chords that have great open position style alternative voicings. In this lesson, we’re going to explore 9 of these uncommon voicings and how they can be used. Click the link below to see the full video.
This lesson is geared towards the guitar player who knows the typical open position major and minor chords, and maybe even 7th chords, and is looking to expand their chord vocabulary. This lesson will…
Before you tackle this lesson, you should already know these chords.
A, C, D, E, G, Am, Dm, and Em
While it’s not necessary to know your open position Dominant 7th chords (or just 7th chords, for short), I suggest that you learn those first before getting into this lesson. Those chords are…
A7, B7, C7, D7, E7, and G7
The 9 uncommon open position major and minor chords are Gm, Eb, Bb, Bm, Cm, C#m, F#m, B, and G#m. Here they are separated into major and minor groups.
Major: Bb, B, Eb
Minor: Bm, Cm, C#m, F#m, Gm, G#m
Here is the notation to follow along with the lesson video.
There are a couple of these that have multiple names. G#m can also be Abm, Bb could technically be A#, C#m could be Dbm, and F#m could be Gbm.
This lesson can serve as a stop gap for students who are new to barre chords and need one of these chords to play a song. These voicings are also very useful after you learn your barre chords. Many of these have become my go-to voicings for strumming rather than the typical barre chords. Experiment, have fun, and happy practicing!