How To

How to Transcribe: The Lead Sheet

So in this next part on tabbing stuff out and transcription, we’re going to look at the “Lead Sheet”. Firstly, what even is a “lead sheet”? …and how does it help you to transcribe? Well, it doesn’t directly tell you how to transcribe, and nor does it improve your skills. However, if you read on [...]

June 3, 2011 at 4:44 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments





String Bending Lesson

In this video, I explain the correct technique for “string bends” and also the importance of getting bent notes to the correct pitch. I’ll also show you how to tell if two notes are the same pitch (which is also useful for tuning) because two notes that are nearly the same pitch almost sound like [...]

June 1, 2011 at 5:04 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, The Blues | No comments





Hybrid Picking

“Hybrid picking” is kinda a mix of “pick picking” (for want of a better name…) and “fingerpicking”. I explain in more detail in today’s video: Any questions? Please leave them in in comment section below… Rob.

May 31, 2011 at 5:11 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to | No comments





Transcribing: Jamming the Key

So, as I promised, this series is going to help you when you want to tab stuff out. One of the easiest ways to start is to simply “jam” over the song as a backing track. Sounds kinda simple for something that’s supposed to be so difficult, right? First, read the pages on the major [...]

May 26, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments





How to Play Bass: Summary

Just to re-cap what we’ve covered in this series- and this is by no means the last post I’ll write for bassists, so stay tuned! We have covered: The fretting hand The picking hand How to create Basslines How to use Octaves Walking Bass Using Syncopation How to Swing Slap Bass and using Harmonics Just [...]

May 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Bass Lessons, How to | No comments





Guitar Scales: Modes

I’ve kinda been putting off doing this one for a long time. You see, there’s so much misinformation out there about Modes for guitarists that I didn’t want to just confuse the issue. What I’ve (eventually) decided to do is to explain the basics of what modes are and how the different ways they’re used [...]

May 2, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Scales, How to | 1 comment





How to Play Bass: Harmonics

Harmonics are when you lightly touch a string at certain points, without pressing the string down. I go into more detain in this video: Quite useful on bass to get those higher-register notes and to allow you to form chords that aren’t too “muddy” sounding (as would happen if you tried playing chords normally on [...]

April 28, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Bass Lessons, How to | No comments





Guitar Modes: Ionian

I’m probably going against the grain a bit here when I say: “No, it’s not the major scale, it’s a mode!”. Just like with the aeolian mode (which is the same notes as the minor scale), but the important thing is: it’s treated as a “mode”, not a “key”. Here’s the tab (A Ionian): e [...]

April 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm | Guitar Scales, How to | No comments





Rock Rhythm Guitar: Pushing the Beat

What on earth am I talking about? Have you ever heard anyone talk about “pushing and pulling the beat”? I kinda touched on this one on the post about swing. Conventional wisdom tells us that you’re either playing “in time”, or “out of time”- but it’s actually slightly more complicated than that. You can play [...]

April 19, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Chords, Music Theory, Rhythm Guitar | No comments





Guitar Modes: Locrian

Dissonant, full of “wrong” or “avoid” notes, and you would probably never use it to solo with (but I’ve had a go anyway), it’s the locrian mode! To create that very doomy sound, I’ve tuned my low E string down to a B which gives some of the notes that “downtuned” feel. Also, I decided [...]

April 19, 2011 at 9:05 pm | Guitar Scales, How to, Music Theory | No comments





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