Alternate picking! The scourge of every guitar player. From my 15+ years of teaching there's by far no other single technique that most students are desperate to improve on.
We've covered a bunch of different alternate picking-based lessons so far here at the Guitar School, including the super popular 1 Minute Workout, but I've been super eager to make a comprehensive, focussed exercise ...
In today's lesson we're revisiting an older video of mine which I figured would double up as an INSANELY good workout for your soloing techniques. In our usual "levels" format we start super basic and get increasingly complicated, ending with a shredding extravaganza bonus round!
Less about musicality and harmonic content than usual, this workout is purely to drill your techniques and ge...
Here it finally is, the follow-up to the super popular "How To Solo Over Chord Changes Like A Pro" lesson!
In this part we expand on what we learned previously with some more advanced concepts that will not only improve your soloing, but also expand your fretboard knowledge and your listening skills.
Good luck and don't forget to share your progress with everyone in the Di...
My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2024-05-02 10:39:36 +0000 UTC View PostAvenged Sevenfold is my favorite band of all time so I've been super looking forward to doing a solo lesson on them - and the day is finally here! Today we're gonna be learning and breaking down the classic solo to "Hail To The King".
This is an awesome solo that has something for players of all levels to get stuck into! The intro especially is an amazing hand-sync exercise for those of ...
Here's a cool lil' bonus lesson for the less experienced players among you!
Years ago I started a series where I made simplified versions of famous technical solos, to give beginner/intermediate players a chance at learning them. I thought it'd be fun to revisit this concept and turn them into proper lessons with full transcriptions. Hopefully these easier versions will give you guys the...
I do believe it's that time again where we return to the popular "1 Min Workout" series, where I provide you guys with fun, short workouts focussed on a specific aspect of guitar. This time we're diving into the glorious world of the infamous pentatonic scale!
A pentatonic scale is a scale that consists of 5 notes, as opposed to 7 notes in regular heptatonic scales. Even though there are ...
2024-04-17 11:16:40 +0000 UTC View PostIt's often criminally understated how damn important ear training is for musicians. The ability to recognize intervals, chords, arpeggios, time signatures, progressions etc just by listening to something is a skill that really sets the pros apart from the intermediates. Having decent listening skills is something that can benefit song learning, transcribing, improvising, composing - the practic...
2024-04-11 16:19:21 +0000 UTC View PostMy monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2024-04-04 12:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostFor March's bonus lesson vote you guys voted in favor of a masterclass on lead phrasing - so here you go!
Phrasing is one of the hardest things to teach on guitar as it's so incredibly subjective and personal. Everyone has their own unique musical voice and the last thing I wanna do is tell people how to use it!
But what I can do is give you some guidance on ...
I had some extra free time this week so I figured I'd give you guys a bonus lesson!
Pantera is a band whose music I rarely play, mostly because Dimebag has a very specific style and touch which is quite alien to my way of playing, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to cover something a bit different (plus I know there's loads of Pantera fans among you!).
The Cowboys Fro...
It's one of my missions as part of the Guitar School to accurately transcribe all famous and highly requested Metal guitar solos, so that you guys have peace of mind when learning them and don't have to deal with dubious online tabs.
I'm also incredibly eager to get through ALL Rust In Peace solos as soon as possible, so next up we have all 3 legendary Marty Friedman solos from Holy Wars...
I'm hyped to be back with the next instalment of the " 1 Min Workout" series, where I provide you guys fun, short workouts focussed on a specific guitar technique. This time we're focusing on HYBRID PICKING!
Hybrid picking is a technique that involves combining regular picking with finger-style picking, which allows you to have a much easier time approaching certain lines that would be o...
For February's bonus lesson vote you guys voted overwhelmingly in favor of a masterclass on songwriting - so here you go!
In this lesson I share with you 10 of my biggest, most valuable tips for writing strong, memorable Metal songs. From crafting riffs, to layering, to hooks, to structure - I've got you covered.
As always, please do let me know if you have any questions! And if a...
My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2024-03-01 19:20:09 +0000 UTC View PostIt's one of my missions as part of the Guitar School to accurately transcribe all famous and highly requested Metal guitar solos, so that you guys have peace of mind when learning them and don't have to deal with dubious online tabs.
Next on the list are the 2 legendary solos from "Mr Crowley" by Ozzy Osbourne!
This solo was insanely ahead of its time for 1980 and features some pr...
It's one of my missions as part of the Guitar School to accurately transcribe all famous and highly requested Metal guitar solos, so that you guys have peace of mind when learning them and don't have to deal with dubious online tabs.
Next on the list is the legendary solo from "Painkiller" by Judas Priest!
This was an especially tricky one to transcribe due to the very sloppy natu...
Hey everyone! I'm hyped to be back with the next instalment of the " 1 Min Workout" series, where I provide you guys fun, short workouts focussed on a specific guitar technique. This time we're focusing on TAPPING!
Like last time, I've structured this exercise in a "5 levels" format with tapping licks of increasing difficulty; starting with basic 2 finger tapping licks on 1 string and go...
It's become clear during our weekly hangouts that a lot of you are keen to be able to play your guitar direct-in over Discord using your plugins. Unfortunately the process of doing this is not super intuitive so I've taken the liberty of making a quick tutorial on how you can set this up! This will work for any DAW and any comms software (not just Reaper and Discord) but please note that you mu...
2024-02-05 16:00:56 +0000 UTC View PostFor January's bonus lesson vote you guys voted unanimously in favor of a masterclass on how to effectively solo over chord changes - and I'm proud to announce it's now here!
This is a BIG topic with a hell of a lot of ground to cover, so I thought it best to split it up into 2 videos. In this 1st instalment we cover this fundamentals of chords, chord progressions and why exactly it's so ...
I took the legendary tapping section from Van Halen's "Eruption" and converted it entirely into sweeping! I know that a lot of you are really keen to improve your 3 string sweep arpeggios (as these are arguably the hardest kind) so this exercise will be the perfect opportunity to really start working on them.
Please note that this lesson assumes you're confident with the fundamentals of ...
So the vast majority of lessons I make for the School are aimed at players of varying difficulties, but occasionally (when time allows it) I like to create some bonus lessons aimed at a specific difficulty. We've been covering a lot of intermediate and fundamental stuff recently so I figured it was time for something a bit more advanced!
Today we're gonna be focussing on how to replicate...
Hey everyone! I'm hyped to be back with the next instalment of the " 1 Min Workout" series, where I provide you guys fun, short workouts focussed on a specific guitar technique. This time we're focusing on the glory of legato!
Like last time, I've structured this exercise in a "5 levels" format with legato licks of increasing difficulty; starting with basic 1 string pedal-point legato pa...
I know there's loads of you here that are just starting to venture into (or wanting to venture into) the world of home recording and keen to start committing those home-brewed riffs and solos to disk! But unfortunately you're not gonna get very far if you don't know how to program some tasty drums to accompany your creations.
In this lesson I show you exactly how to get started writing d...
After getting to know all of you wonderful folk over the past few months I've come to realise that there are A LOT of avid Death fans among you, to say the least! So when it came to deciding the next classic solo to transcribe and analyze, it was obvious what to choose.
In this lesson we're gonna be looking at Chuck's insanely cool solo from the band's most iconic song - Crystal Mountain...
So for December you guys unanimously voted in favor of a lesson on learning the fretboard, so here you have it!
In this video I break down my super secret shortcut (well, no so secret now I guess) for quickly getting to grips with navigating the fretboard in ANY key by using the magic of relative chords/scales. The best part is that my method's built on pretty fundamental knowledge you l...
Figured I'd share the tab and backing track for my Shred Collab contribution in case anyone wants to have a crack at it!
Inspired by Nuno Bettencourt and Bumblefoot, the main challenge of this solo lies in the pretty insane 16th note legato run in the first section that switches between the whole tone scale and F# minor pentatonic scale. The trick to getting that cool percussive sound is...
I'm back with part 2 of this "1 Min Workout" series, where I provide you guys fun, short workouts focussed on a specific guitar technique. This time we're focusing on sweep picking!
Like last time, I've structured this exercise in a "5 levels" format with sweeping licks of increasing difficulty; starting with basic 3 string sweeps and going right through to some crazy 5 and 6 string shap...
So with the holidays upon us (and more time to practice) I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to give you guys some fun things to keep you busy! Every few days over the next couple of weeks I'm gonna be uploading short "1 Minute Workouts", each focusing on a specific technique.
Seeing as we've been spending a lot of time on that recently, I'm starting the series off today with good o...
Ever wondered how exactly all of the pro alternate pickers throughout history such as Paul Gilbert and Michael Angelo Batio manage to pick such blindingly fast lines while still remaining super clean and fluent?
While all of their approaches may be different, there's one thing they all have in common...
Pick slanting!
Pick-slanting is a picking mechanic tha...