How To

How to Play like Black Sabbath

The very first thing you’ll notice here (especially if you watch the video first), is that I’m severely downtuned for this recording! I’m in “Dropped-D” tuning (where the low E is tuned down to a D, but I’m also tuned down by two whole tones, which is (from thick to thin strings): Bb F Bb [...]

March 15, 2012 at 8:20 pm | In the Style of... | No comments





Jimi Hendrix’s Style

This is a special post in honour of Jimi Hendrix’s birthday- today, the 27th November. So what if he’s not alive anymore? He was an amazing guitar player! This jam is based around the E minor pentatonic scale, and the main riff (played here at the intro and then twice at the end) is based [...]

November 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm | In the Style of... | No comments





Kirk Hammet Style!

MetallicA! This week I’ve been looking guitarist “Kirk Hammet” of Metallica’s approach to creating a guitar solo. Kirk’s style is heavily influenced by a mix of angular, more modern metal, and classic rock style blues licks- which is what I’ve tried to show here. The solo starts off with a quick, tapped lick inspired by [...]

October 25, 2011 at 1:38 pm | In the Style of... | No comments





Zakk Wylde Style

Here we are with another of our “In the Style of…” series, and this week we’re looking at Ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist “Zakk Wylde”. You may also know Zakk from his own band “Black Label Society”, his appearance on “American Idol” (as a guitar player playing with one of the contestants), and more recently from his [...]

October 5, 2011 at 5:46 pm | In the Style of... | No comments





Slash’s Style

This week on “In the Style of…” we’re looking at Slash from bands such as: Guns’n’Roses and Velvet Revolver. Recently, Slash (real name “Saul Hudson”), has been involved in his own solo project too (the album is just called “Slash” if you wanted to look for it…). I wanted to show Slash’s approach to melodic [...]

July 25, 2011 at 2:39 pm | In the Style of... | No comments





Jimmy Page’s Style

This lick is in the style of Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. His technique and style are influenced by many different genres because he started out his career as a session guitarist (just listen to the album “Houses of the Holy” to hear what I mean!). This lesson, however, focuses on his blues-rock style found [...]

June 30, 2011 at 6:00 pm | How to, In the Style of... | No comments





Dimebag Darrel’s Style

Here’s an example solo in the style of Dimebag Darrel from the heavy metal band “Pantera”. Dime liked to use plenty of legato in his soloing, and his phrases would often be a mixture of pentatonic and chromatic lines. The solo starts with a chromatic idea based on the E minor pentatonic scale at the [...]

June 11, 2011 at 3:00 pm | How to, In the Style of... | No comments





Randy Rhoads Style

Here is a very short solo/lick I’ve written in the style of Randy Rhoads (the original guitarist from Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band). The chord sequence outlined here in the first two bars is: Am D G C (or ii – V – I – IV) in G. This is a very “classical” sounding progression because [...]

September 16, 2010 at 2:59 pm | How to, In the Style of... | No comments





Tony Iommi’s Style

This lick is in the style of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath. His technique was mainly influenced by an accident he had in a factory when he was 18, where he cut the ends of his fretting fingers off. After hearing about the Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (who also lost some fingers in an accident), [...]

August 11, 2010 at 7:00 pm | How to, In the Style of... | No comments