Guitar Teacher » Songs & Guitarists

How To Play “Rumble” by Link Wray – Guitar Instrumental

Storm — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:25:56 +0000

I recently saw the movie “It Might Get Loud” featuring Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) and Jack White (White Stripes/The Raconteurs). In the movie Jimmy Page digs through his mammoth vinyl collection and plays some favorite songs, one of which was Link Wray’s “Rumble”. This song was also famously featured in “Pulp Fiction”. It is a classic instrumental and a real easy song, too!. In this video lesson I show how to play this iconic early rock instrumental.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTorczDeb7A

The song is in the key of E and is really just a blues form. It does interestingly feature a bar of B7 that is in 6/4 time before returning to common time for the E minor pentatonic lick.

The chords used are E major, an open string D5 power chord over an A bass note, A major, and B7. The little lick in the tune is straight out of the open position of the E minor pentatonic scale. About as straight forward as it gets!

There is a guitar solo break built off an E major triad in the 12th position. Simply strum it really fast while sliding into the shape at the beginning of each of the first two measures. Then slide every two beats for a measure and then each beat for the final measure before returning to the open A chord.

This song is famous for being one of the first ever to feature distortion. The tone is very gritty. Link Wray famously used a pencil to punch holes in the speaker of his amplifier to get this raw sound. I might suggest not going to that extreme! But think raunchy. The song also features a tremolo pedal. Or if your amp has the tremolo built in, so much the better.

How To Play the Star Wars Theme On Guitar

Storm — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:51:17 +0000

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 and other instrumentalists who stop by GuitarTeacher.com can learn it as well.

To keep this simple, I transposed the song from its original key of Bb to the more friendly key of G. If you want to play along with the movie as it starts, simply move every note up a minor third (three frets). You could also move the entire melody up an octave for true authenticity. Doing so is a good reading exercise as the guitar sounds an octave lower than written (you knew that, right?). Watch the timing as this song switches often from straight eighth notes to eighth note triplets.

Here is a quick video:

And the sheet music:

Star Wars Theme

GuitarTeacher.com private lessons members can get a PDF of this for offline study.

Canon Rock Backing Track

Storm — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:00:16 +0000

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 to save).

Canon Rock – Jerry C Backing Track

Of course you should know the progression anytime you are soloing. Here are the Canon Rock chords:

Next is a loop of just the main backing riff for never ending soloing. I am providing both a full tempo Canon Rock jam track and a second track at 80% tempo.

Canon Rock – Looping Jam Track (Full Tempo)

Canon Rock – Looping Jam Track (80% Tempo)

Two additional slower tempos are provided exclusively for private members. Why not join them?

[private_GuitarTeacher]

Canon Rock – Looping Jam Track (66%Tempo)

Canon Rock – Looping Jam Track (50% Tempo)

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How to Play “La Grange” by ZZ Top

Storm — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:32:59 +0000

Billy Gibbons

When you play in a lot of cover bands (guilty as charged) you discover some riffs that always get a good crowd reaction. ZZ Top’s “La Grange” is one of those riffs. Learn it and channel Billy Gibbons channeling John Lee Hooker in an all-time blues-rock boogie classic.

La Grange also is a great jam night song because it can be learned quickly (just two chords), it is very open ended (lots of solos, yeah!) and there only, like, 20 words to remember (yes, bartender, I will have another).

Learn how to play “La Grange” in this video lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjoVdcOkFkM

Lesson Audio podcast (mp3)
Lesson Video Podcast (m4v)
iTunes Podcast feed

Here is the tab:

Riff 1

Riff 2

Some technique and theory highlights to keep in mind from the video lesson:

Shuffle/”Boogie” Riff
Key of A (A5 Chord)
Hybrid Picking
Slight Palm Muting
Left Hand Muting

Check out the following resources for more ZZ Top sheet music:

If you want to learn more about blues-rock guitar, Billy Gibbons or other ZZ Top riffs consider signing up as one of my private students. And, as always, subscribing to my RSS feed or a bump on one the social networking links below is super appreciated. Thanks!

Flight Of Icarus

Storm — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:07:29 +0000

Right click to download video [mp4]

Right click to download TAB [pdf]

How To Play “Get On Your Boots” – U2 Guitar Lesson

Storm — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:16:48 +0000

In the following video guitar lesson I show the opening riff and main guitar parts for “Get On Your Boots” from the new U2 album ‘No Line On The Horizon’. The lesson includes both full and half speed versions and an explanation of the parts shown. If “Vertigo”, the first single from U2′s last album, is any indication, get ready to hear this new U2 single a lot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3wTKhYe8NE

If you like U2, this should be a good lesson for you. If not, come back tomorrow for something new!

And, as always, please subscribe to my RSS feed. You can now subscribe using the sign-up form in the sidebar, too!

Famous Guitar Riffs – Play “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads

Storm — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:11:47 +0000

Back in 1980, I bought my very first record album from Tower Records (remember them?) in San Francisco. It was “Blizzard Of Ozz” by Ozzy Osbourne. I don’t really know why I bought that album. The cover kind of freaked me out and I don’t think I even knew who Black Sabbath was at the time. Regardless of my sheltered childhood I fortunately purchased one of the most momentous metal albums of all-time. The guitar playing of Randy Rhoads on that album continues to set a benchmark for all hard-rockers with a sensitive side. The fact that almost every guitar part, even the leads, were double or triple tracked is still a mind blower.

In the following video guitar lesson I show the opening riff and verse guitar parts for “Crazy Train” both full and half speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTzsNuTQCg0

If you like this lesson and want to dig in on this song or Ozzy/Randy in general, consider taking private lessons with me. You might also like to check out the following resources:

Crazy Train Intro & Verse Riffs

And, as always, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

‘Canon Rock’ Guitar Lesson – How to play the YouTube classic

Storm — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:28:59 +0000

This video lesson features a mashup I made combining the video tablature lesson format featured here at GuitarTeacher.com and the most watched guitar video in YouTube history! Korean guitarist ‘funtwo’ performes the arrangement of “Canon Rock” by Taiwanese guitarist JerryC, a rocking take off of classical standard “Pachelbel’s Canon in D”. I added the in-video guitar tab and animated guitar neck on top using Guitar Pro software. This is dedicated to bedroom guitar shredders worldwide! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3cLC4e2xMI

If you want the Guitar Pro file used for the tab you can download it here. I also uploaded a browser-playable version at Songsterr.com, a cool website you should all be aware of.

Update: PDF version of the tab available here.
Update: Here is a link to the source file of my video with tablature: Canon Rock Video (Right click to save: “Save Link As…”)

Now that you know the notes, I will expect you to post your version of ‘Canon Rock’ to YouTube shortly!

Famous Guitar Riffs – “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” by Led Zeppelin

Storm — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:11:05 +0000

Jimmy Page is the greatest riff writer in the history of rock, IMO. I firmly believe in studying the greats so in homage to Jimmy and Led Zeppelin check out the guitar parts to “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”, from the album “Led Zeppelin I”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcaR8hKSQxw

If you like this lesson and want to dig in on this song or Led Zeppelin in general, consider taking private lessons with me. You might also like to check out the following resources:

And, as always, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

“Iron Man” by Black Sabbath – Video Guitar Lesson

Storm — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:44:18 +0000

One of the all-time HEAVIEST guitar riffs must be “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath. Fill your victims (neighbors!) full of dread by turning your amp up to 11 and playing this Tony Iommi classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsuf9TilGFo

The tabs are in the video (full and 1/2 speed, how cool!) but here they are for your off-video practice.

You might also like to check out the following resources:

Black Sabbath sheet music