To tune to Drop D is very easy. Simply lower the pitch of the 6th string down a whole-step from E to D. The pitch of your guitar strings from lowest to highest is now DADGBE. The 6th string harmonic at the 12th fret should now match your open D note on the 4th string.

10 Famous Guitar Riffs in Drop D Tuning – Video Guitar Lesson

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAkVoOcQK4

Here are the sheet music examples from the video.

10 Famous Guitar Riffs in Drop D Tuning

“Moby Dick” – Led Zeppelin

“Dear Prudence” – The Beatles

“Everlong” – Foo Fighters

“Slither” – Velvet Revolver
“Black Hole Sun” – Soundgarden

“Killing In The Name” – Rage Against The Machine

“Your Body Is A Wonderland” – John Mayer

“Last Resort” – Papa Roach

“Higher” – Creed

“Animals” – Nickelback

Drop C# Tuning

A lot of bands use a variation of Drop D where all strings are tuned down an additional 1/2-step. We will cover these in an upcoming members guitar lesson.

Until then, keep rockin’ the Drop D tuning.

Storm Stenvold
=GuitarTeacher.com

If you had to focus on one Guitar Style, which would that be?

Choosing a favorite guitar style is as difficult for me to pick as a favorite ice cream flavor. There are good licks (ha-ha!) and great players to be found in each and every one of them! I guess since I started out a rocker, oh-so-many years ago, that rock guitar still holds a fond place in my heart and my personal guitar style. But, having played in blues, rock, jazz, country, pop, and reggae bands (and some other styles I’m sure I am forgetting) it would be hard to stick to just one guitar style. In fact, many of my favorite guitarists and bands mix these styles,  creating hybrid styles. But, I digress…

If you had to choose one guitar style to focus on, what would that be? Choose below. The poll will also be available in the site’s sidebar.

Because of the number of different guitar styles, I listed only the top handful of styles I get lesson requests for. In a first for these polls, I am allowing your readers to write in your own response (in the ‘Other’ category) if you can’t find a suitable style within the ‘canned’ responses.

I would love to get some comments with your thoughts on learning guitar styles. Remember, these polls help me order and shape future guitar lessons here on GuitarTeacher.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results on this one!

“It’s a 1-4-5 progression in G.”
“His solo uses the flat 6th.”
“Sing a 3rd above the melody note.”

This language sounds obscure and self-important at first but it is really very easy to understand. This fundamental theoretical approach is called CHROMATIC NUMBERING. Learning it holds many benefits to us as guitarists:

1. It simplifies communication with other musicians who “speak the language”, saving us time
2. It gives us a common point of reference for all our different note combinations (Chords, Scales, Arpeggios)
3. It relates extremely well to the way that patterns lay out and move around on the guitar neck

CHROMATIC NUMBERING (Foundation #1)
The approach begins by locating a single most important note and labeling it with the number “1″. You then label other notes you play with numbers that indicate how far away they are from the “1″.

This CHROMATIC RULER can be applied directly to the following example with the most important note at the 3rd fret of the sixth string, as demonstrated below:

You can see in the above diagram how the notes above our “1″, (which starts on the 3rd fret 6th string), now have specific numerical names based on the 3rd fret being labeled as number “1″.

MEMORIZE THE NUMERICAL SEQUENCE BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS and learn to use it on the fingerboard to label things that you play. This will interconnect the many things that you play and study to create a mutually supporting theory base between many different elements of music.

Example:  Play   1    2    3    4    5    6    7    1    =  The notes of the G major scale
Example:  Play   1    2    3    4    5    6  b7    1    =  The notes of the G mixolydian mode
Example:  Play   1          b3         5                        =  The notes of the G minor chord
Example:  Play   1          b3   4    5        b7    1    =  The notes of the G minor pentatonic

One example above, name the G major scale, is shown again below as it occurs in one neck area rather than just using a single string. (Players often use this pattern as a ‘map’ to quickly number neighboring notes that aren’t drawn). The more you apply the chromatic number system to patterns that you know and learn, the easier, quicker and more useful it becomes!

Being able to play number without a lot of neck motion (off any “1″) is a crucial skill. After players can easily find related numbers when ’1′ placed on the sixth string, the next step is to learn to find numbers when to ’1′ is on the 5th string, etc.

The Box Set is great if you want to hear the Beatles (amazing early reviews) and the RockBand release is hip if you want to pretend to be the Beatles. That’s cool. But if you want to really get down to playing guitar and writing songs like the Beatles then you want to purchase The Beatles: Complete Scores.

Learn from the Masters
This book is essentially the bible of pop song writing. Not only does it transcribe every song the Beatles wrote and played, it includes every part of every song (hence the name Complete Scores) from the Beatles catalog. Every guitar part is shown (guitar parts get tab and chord boxes) as well as drum, bass guitar, and lead and harmony vocals. Even piano, strings, french horn parts (!) and such get their place when used. All parts are meticulously transcribed and beautifully presented, a real treat if you are a guitar songbook and transcription hound like myself.

There are so many songs and so many layers to most songs that I can find new things every time I work out of this book. The melodies are unforgettable and the chords progressions timeless. Seeing and learning them will only sharpen your musical ear when you go back to being a Beatles listener.

I would warn beginning guitarists: This book is presented in a ‘conductor score’ format (all parts shown simultaneously) and the print is small. Because of the volume of music shown, finding the right guitar part to play first can be a challenge on some songs. Another Beatles songbook might be better choice for beginners to start with.

Also, if you can’t read traditional staff notation you won’t be able to get to much of the non-guitar information given. Learning the vocal parts, the string lines of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ or the piano intro of ‘Hey Jude’ is some of the best stuff here, IMO. A great reason to get back to working on your note reading!

This hard-back book is huge (1136 pages!) and comes in a nice hard sleeve to protect it. I think it would make a great gift even for a non-musician as a ‘coffee table’ book. The presentation really is that beautiful and artful.

If I had to bring one book to a desert island, music or print, I would choose this book. I recommend it that much.

In the tradition of the “Secret” Pentatonics lesson let’s continue looking for pentatonics in undiscovered places. Maybe our familiar, five-note friend has been ‘hiding’ under our noses, just waiting to be revealed in other familiar scale patterns? In fact, this is the case! I present (drum roll, please!): Hidden Pentatonics. We will start with an overview and diagrams and then search out those pesky,  profitable pentatonics one step at a time.

DIAGRAM #1:  This is a G major fingering.
The numbers label the scale degrees for theoretical discussions. (See 4 Scales You Should Know for reference)

DIAGRAM #2:  One minor pentatonic scale can be found starting on the second note of any major scale.
This is still a G major scale but the shaded notes highlight the “hidden A minor pentatonic” inside of it.

DIAGRAM #3:  Another minor pentatonic scale can be found starting on the third note of any major scale.
This is the same G major scale with the shaded notes highlighting the “hidden B minor pentatonic”.

DIAGRAM #4:  Another minor pentatonic scale can be found starting on the sixth note of any major scale.
This is the same G major scale with the shaded notes highlight the ‘hidden E minor pentatonic’ inside of it.

DIAGRAM #5:  Use this one standard pattern to easily play all three pentatonics listed above.
Positioning the dark dot at the fifth fret ‘A’ note creates an Am pentatonic fingering. Positions dark dot at fret 7 for Bm pentatonic and at fret 12 for Em pentatonic.

TRY IT: Improvise over the following ‘alternating Am to D’ jam track.

Use the G major scale to improvise over the jam track… Next, try using an Am pentatonic to guide your improvising approach… How about Em pentatonic… Bm pentatonic works also.

I would be curious to hear in the comments about your results with the different approaches.

Practicing long and hard is no guarantee that you will achieve all of your goals on the guitar. But not practicing guarantees that you won’t achieve any of your goals on the guitar. There is no avoiding that practice is a primary component of moving your guitar playing towards where you want it to be.

I have heard and read all ranges of answers for how much guitarists practice, from “I never practice” to Steve Vai’s monk-like “10-Hour a Day” practice sessions. I have provided some quick tips on practicing in previous posts. Coming up, I have a series of posts devoted to the subject of guitar practice in more detail. These cover practice routines, structuring your practice time, developing proper practice “mind set” as well as covering tools and resources to get more out of your practice sessions.

But to start I want to know more about you - here’s the poll (it’s also in my sidebar):

Do you practice every day? Every other day? How long is a typical practice session? Do you have a routine, do you just wing it or do you just “jam”? I would love to get comments below to add on top of the poll results. I think we could all learn a lot! I will weigh in with my 2 cents without trying to influence the poll before it is complete.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results on this one!

I have hosted live group lessons before, back in my days collaborating with Riff Interactive (you can find a list of my Riff Interactive group lesson archives here). Each of those guitar “webcasts” had a specific topic as part of a larger lessons series. For these new GuitarTeacher.com webcasts I will use an “open counseling” format. Through the embedded chat client you can ask me YOUR guitar questions. To improve the chances I get to a specific question, ask in advance through the ‘Ask The Teacher’ section of my forum so I can prep a reply. Right now, some of the content planned for this Thursday includes:

* Blues Turnarounds
* 10 Early Rock/Rockabilly Licks
* Single String Scale Patterns & Licks

The cool thing of having a blog is if I can’t fit all this great content in the allotted time or answer every question I can always role it out on GuitarTeacher.com!

After the preview this Thursday, the plan is to move the Live Group Lessons to Tuesdays, starting June 16th @ 2:00 PM (PST). The lessons will progress weekly from that point on.

If you like these lessons or the content here at GuitarTeacher.com and you want more personal attention, I also teach Private Students online. The sign up process starts with a 15-minute FREE
consultation with me via Skype. Go to my Private Lessons page to start.

Head over to the forum and/or comment below. Then I hope to see you Thursday!

Storm Stenvold
GuitarTeacher.com

In a previous post, I presented a Guitar Harmony Chart for twelve major keys. In teaching guitar I find that there are five keys that are far and away the most common. In fact, any one of these five might be used more than the remaining ones put together! These keys are C major, G major, D major, A major and E major. If we reorder the key note names we can call them the ‘CAGED’ keys – C,A,G,E and D.

The following chart shows the chords for the five most common guitar keys. Simply find the key you want to work with and then read left to right to get the chords in that key. The roman numerals at the top show the position and quality (major or minor) of each chord in key.

The above Major Scale Chord chart shows a major chord for ‘VII’ rather than the diminished chord indicated by the previous harmony chart. While technically out of key, in practice this is a common substitution for the diminished chord in a major key: go down a half-step from the diminished chord and play a major chord in its place. This is a ‘borrowed’ chord from the minor scale or Mixolydian mode starting on the same key note and is a very common substitution in rock and pop styles.

Storm

If you don’t know how to solo over this I will help you out with an upcoming ‘Early Rock Licks’ post shortly. Until then you can work on the two rhythm guitar parts shown here:

Rhythm Guitar Part 1

Rhythm Guitar Part 2

Have fun!

Hear it in action, first at 50 Beats Per Minute (BPM) then at 100 BPM.

Start slowly. Only when you can keep an even tempo throughout should you speed up!