Author Archives

In 1983, Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut album "Texas Flood" reintroduced blues guitar back into popular consciousness. The title track is a slow blues in G, much like the jam track from our earlier lesson. While covering the entire song would be best tackled in private lessons, the intro alone is a cornucopia of classic blues triads, 6th chords, 9th chords and a great single-note ... Full story

When I first started taking guitar lessons, I was anxious to understand the explanations provided in the different guitar magazines I was reading at the time. There was a language being used that I did not comprehend. You probably hear it thrown around by musicians all the time: "It's a 1-4-5 progression in G." "His solo uses the flat 6th." "Sing a 3rd above the melody ... Full story

A "slow blues" really lets blues guitarists showcase their soloing skill. The following smoky slow blues backing track in 12/8 time is similar to "Texas Flood" by Stevie Ray Vaughan or T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday". Just a standard  12-Bar Blues progression in the key of G, but with the added interest of a quick change to the IV chord (C7) in the second bar and ... Full story

Most of the first guitar chords we learn incorporate notes from our open strings. These open string chords are some of the easier chords to play yet possess a beautiful, full-bodied sound that bring even advanced guitarists back to them time and again. The following chart should be review by beginning and intermediate guitarists. It includes the typical "cowboy chords" along with some less expected ... Full story

Some songs will live forever. Some songs even lived "long ago in a galaxy far, far away". Such is the case with the Star Wars theme! I recently had a private lesson request on how to play the melody to this classic movie theme so here is a quick video and the tab. I have included the notes along with the tab so even piano ... Full story

Mauro Giuliani was a guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century and one of the first to provide instruction for this young instrument. His 120 Right Hand Studies are famous for working out various finger picking combinations. I find these studies useful not only for classical guitarists but also for folk, jazz or any other fingerstyle ... Full story

Full length Canon Rock Backing Tracks and looping Canon Rock jam tracks at original and slow tempos. Hey guys! I have some private students working on 'Canon Rock' so here are some jam track resources for them and you. The original JerryC full length backing tracking used by JerryC, FunTwo, MattRach, etc. is embedded below. You can download it to your computer here (right click ... Full story

The video/tab mashup I made for 'Canon Rock' is a popular post here on GuitarTeacher and on my YouTube channel. Because the song uses super-sonic sweep picking, rapid position shifts and string-burning alternate picking, I often get requests to slow it down.  So to help us mere mortals work toward getting the chops of FunTwo or JerryC here is my original video tab lesson ... Full story

The chromatic scale is one of the easiest scales to understand and also one of the most incorrectly played by guitarists. Let's look at this, the "mother of all scales", and explore some useful chromatic scale patterns for the guitar. The chromatic scale is made up entirely of half-step or semi-tone intervals (the distance of one fret). Therefore, the chromatic scale includes every note within an ... Full story

Boy Howdy! Today, for your six-string pleasure we have a cut-time, country jam track in the good 'ol country boy key of A major. It's just a simple I-IV-V progression but moves along at fast clip. Y'all give respect to those country and bluegrass players who can make the changes and get 'er done. Country Guitar Jam Track - Key of A... Full story