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Archive for the ‘Lead guitar’ Category

Learning guitar solos by ear  is hard work.  I remember many years ago, a friend of mine managed to secure a copy of Ritchie Blackmore's guitar solo to Smoke On the  Water slowed down to half space.  Suddenly we could hear how clean his runs were and how many notes he was actually playing.

I still love playing that solo note for note because it was the first real guitar solo that I ever  learned and the great thing was that it taught me so much about phrasing, light and shade and what notes not to play.  And I have to say that without being able to listen to the guitar solo at half pace I would never have attempted to study it the way I did.

Fast forward a quarter of a century or so and learning guitar solos is still a challenging and time consuming process – but technology has zoomed way past whatever reel to reel tape system my friend accessed to get that solo slowed down.

A great piece of software on the market is the recently updated Riffmaster Pro.

Riffmaster Pro saves hours of time and frustration by instantly enabling you to

• Slow down music to a pace you can play Without changing the pitch
• slow down Mp3, slow down Wav,wma,Mp4 , Ogg Vorbis and AFF files directly from your computer
• play any Riff or phrase over and over
• Zoom right into the wave allowing  You to find the exact phrase you want to work on(down to the note)
•  Save your own user settings
• Slow down an entire song so you can play along at your pace.
• Change the key of a music file for convenience
• Rip audio directly off a cd and save as mp3 or wav.
• Save a slowed down loop for training purposes
• Transcribe music of any song (tab or transcribe what you hear)

The benefits of Riffmaster Pro are simply awesome.

• You can master ANY Guitar solo faster than ever before
• You can master Any Guitar Riff faster ever before
• You can master the Chords To Any Song faster than ever before
• You can build and maintain Amazing speed of Any solo or riff
• You can master difficult phrasing like never before
• You can master any guitar solo, lick or riff Note for Note.
• You can learn the lyrics to Any song quickly
• You will discover the Magic of “Playing By Ear”
• You will learn any song Fast
• You can transcribe music of any song FAST

Riffmaster Pro is the Perfect Speed & Ear Training tool for all musicians  -from raw beginners to advanced.  I have bought this for myself – simply as a teaching tool to help me quickly teach students their favorite riffs, solos and tunes.

This is the shortcut to playing good quality guitar solos – slow down guitar solos learn them and increase the speed to full tempo as you master the solo.

I highly recommend Riffmasterpro

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Steve Morse is the only "shredder" on my list of influential guitar players and that's primarily because although Steve has an amazing picking technique that enables him to play faster than what I thought was humanly possible, he uses the technique sparingly and to great effect.

In the mid seventies Steve fronted the seminal fusion outfit the Dixie Dregs, and the band enjoyed tremendous critical acclaim, winning numerous Grammy awards and Steve personally forcing Guitar Player Magazine to change its reader's poll awards by inducting him in to their Hall of Fame after he won the player of the year five years running.

In the eighties Steve withdrew from the music industry, and became a Commercial airline pilot for several years but re-emerged with the Steve Morse band in the early nineties, a three piece outfit with a slightly harder edge than the dregs.  In 1994 Steve was approached by Deep Purple to replace Ritchie Blackmore on a permanent basis and after some initial misgivings about joining, Steve found that he fitted right in to a band that has always placed a high emphasis on improvisation and musicianship.

The resultant album Purpendicular saw a greatly refreshed Purple produce work comparable in quality to their classic material with Steve's classic guitar work on tracks like Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming  and Cascades establishing his identity with the band.  

Morse remains with Purple whilst continuing to perform with his own outfit.  His playing remains clear and distinctive and his style is instantly identifiable.

Several years ago I had the pleasure of attending a workshop conducted by Steve and his playing and knowledge were extraordinary.  Besides his obvious talent Steve appears to be completely unaffected by his status and is very humble.  His success with Deep Purple and his acceptance by the vast majority of fans as a replacement for Ritchie Blackmore has given him the opportunity to reach a far wider audience than what otherwise would have had teh pleasure of listening to this guitar virtuoso.

Technorati Tags: Classic Guitar, Classic Material, Commercial Airline Pilot, Critical Acclaim, Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, Grammy Awards, Guitar Hero, Guitar Player Magazine, Guitar Players, Guitar Work, Hall Of Fame, Mid Seventies, Misgivings, Musicianship, Nineties, Piece Outfit, Ritchie Blackmore, S Poll, Steve Morse Band

I teach guitar in Ararat, Victoria and charge $20 per half hour session. 
The rate is cheap and within half  an hour I can usually take a typical student through a particular piece or technique, gt them familiar with it and set them some practice exercises.
While I enjoy teaching and I dleiver a quality service, I cannot compete in a straight out value sense with online guitar lessons.
Programs like Jamorama charge a one off fee for a set number of lessons which will honestly take me over a year to deliver to the average student – if they practice and remain motivated.
The immediacy of online guitar lessons is is another huge advantage, allowing the student to progress at heir own pace through a set structured program.
The better courses have video instruction and allow the student to play the piece over and over again until they get it right.
While one on one lessons provide for an individual approach, there is only so much that can be delivered in a weekly session.
My sincere advice to people seeking guitar tuition is to investigate online guitar lessons. from a program like Guitar tricks which offer some free lessons to start with.
If you find that you like the delivery and style, I would highly recommend using this cheap guitar lesson alternative

Technorati Tags: Ararat guitar lessons, guitar lesons online, cheap guitar lessons, cheapest guitar lessons, guitar, guitar online

Technorati Tags: Ararat guitar lessons, Ararat Victoria, Australian guitarlessons, Cheap Guitar, cheap guitar lesson, Guitar Guitar, Guitar Lesons, Guitar lesson], guitar tricks, Guitar Tuition, Heir, Immediacy, Investigate Online, jamorama, online guitar lesson, Online Guitar Lessons, Own Pace, Quality Service, Typical Student, Video Instruction

Here’s a quick video I put together showing you the G Major pentatonic scale in 2nd Position
Pentatonic Scales (or variations thereof) are the building blocks for 95% of all rock and blues scales.  I intend to put together a series of basic videos explaining how they work.
I’m using a battered old nylon string acoustic that I use to give most of my lessons on.
It’s just convenient to use 

Hope you get something out of it

Technorati Tags: blues guitar scales, G Major, learn guitar, learn guitar solo, Pentatonic scale, rock guitar solo

When I started playing guitar many years ago I fell for perhaps the silliest trap that I could fall for. For some reason, I thought that if I could master the chord positions and get my left hand to move fast I would have mastered the guitar and be entertaining and amazing my friends in no time flat. As a result, I wasted an inordinate amount of time solely focusing on my left hand technique. Boy, was I dumb. Playing the guitar in many ways can be likened to driving a car.  Your left hand steers the course and the right hand provides the momentum, the brakes and the gear changes.  One is useless without the other . Imagine sitting in your car, with your hands on the steering wheel, with the motor running and no means of putting the car in gear or having the means to move but no steering capacity.  Each element needs the other to make it work properly. So how do you consistently build both techniques? At the risk of sounding boring, I find scales to be the most effective means of improving both hands' technique, while at the same time training my ears to hear the right notes.  Yes, I know that some people say you don't need to play guitar scales, but I'm yet to see a pro who doesn't know theirs backwards, sideways and upside down! You don't need to spend a lot of time each day – maybe 15 – 30 minutes at first, but the idea is to concentrate completely on getting your technique right during those periods.  Start slowly and focus upon the following points

• getting your left hand's fingers to land exactly behind the fret ensuring that each note sounds crisp and clear
• Whatever right hand technique you choose make sure that you are getting it right.  If it's classical rest stroke make sure you alternate your index and median figures on each note – if it's alternate rock picking as favoured by virtuosos like Steve Morse make sure that each note is picked in the opposite direction to the last.  This is easier said then done and requires concentration in the early stages.
• Listen completely to each note as you play it.  Say the note out loud to emphasise the point
• Work with a metronome to get your right hand trained to working in time
• FORGET ABOUT SPEED until you have your basics mastered than gradually build over time.  You cant play fast unless your technique is sound with both hands.  To attempt to play fast before you are ready is like trying to drive while under the influence.  You might fool yourself but you won't fool anybody else

In summary, what you need to do is to view your guitar as an instrument that requires total control  with both hands.  Focusing on basic technique with both hands is the solid foundation for good guitar playing.

Technorati Tags: Alternate Rock, Amount Of Time, Brakes, Chord Positions, Driving A Car, Favoured, Fret, Gear Changes, Guitar Scales, Learning Guitar, Left Hand Technique, Median Figures, Momentum, Nbsp, Playing Guitar, Playing The Guitar, Steering Wheel, Steve Morse, Two Hands, Virtuosos