How to Play Slide Guitar

Slide guitar playing is a great way to introduce a very hip tone into your style. Whether you choose a glass or metal slide, the color of this sound is something that can't be overlooked. Often at Creative Guitar Studio student's will ask which slide they should begin with; i.e., glass or metal. It is a decision that lies with the player. Both have their unique tonal properties. And, only after trying both will a guitarist be able to truly make their decision.

Luckily, slides are inexpensive to purchase. So, buy a few types and see what you prefer. I normally suggest that players new to slide try a short glass slide with a thick sidewall. Jim Dunlop company makes a nice one; the short - small glass pyrex (212). Metal slides tend to be heavier and might work best for the middle and ring fingers for most guitarists. Glass is far lighter and will work better with the pinky for most folks.

To develop the slide technique players need to decide upon which finger they prefer placing the slide. Test all fingers. Many players have a misconception walking into playing with a slide that they "must" use the slide on one particular finger. This is simply not the case. Any finger (aside from index) should do. Bonnie Raitt & Joe Walsh play slide with it on their middle fingers; Duane Allman & Derek Trucks use their ring; Sonny Landreth, Johnny Winter and Ry Cooder all play slide using their pinky fingers. So, test and see what works best.

Watch the video lesson for a whole host of other slide details, tricks and tips!

Guitar String Bending Technique

This week a viewer has a question about string bending technique...

"I looked through all of your videos and could not find one about bending. Id like to see you do a video all about bending technique."
Thanks,
Doug - San Diego, CA. U.S.A.

Bending guitar strings with excellent technique, style and accuracy involves work on three important areas:

1). Bend Types: There are two categories here; Standard Bends and Pre-Bends. Each category has sub-categories, such as, (but not limited to), sustain and release concepts.

2). Pitch Accuracy: Bending a note to a wrong note is still a wrong note. However, tweaking notes out of pitch for short durations, (as in; 1/4 or 3/4 increments), can yield very interesting effects.

3). Practice Exercises: In order to achieve great results with bending, players need to practice various bend styles as well as, pitch accuracy.

The instructional video contains solid explanations of all of the above points.

Enjoy & Please consider following my Blog!
- Andrew Wasson

Tapping Guitar Technique (Two-Hand)

Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar goes over the two-hand tapping guitar technique. Tapping usually incorporates pull-offs or hammer-ons, where the fingers of the fretting hand will play a sequence of notes in synchronization with the other hand (tapping hand).

The technique is often associated with Eddie Van Halen and his songs "Erruption" and "Hot for Teacher." Although many other styles of guitarists use this technique (including Acoustic players) it is mostly considered and associated with Rock guitar. And, it is almost always seen performed on an electric guitar with distortion.

Guitar Technique: Harmonized Melodic Lines

To Download the FREE jamtrack and Powertab file follow the link below:
http://www.creativeguitarstudio.com/lessons/guitar_theory/harmonized_lines.php

The act of harmonizing a melody is not at all difficult to do once you are aware of a few basic concepts.

1). Guitar players will need to know their key signatures, as well as the notes found in scales associated with the basic major and natural minor. These other scales include, but are not limited to the modes and the other common forms of minor; including the Harmonic and Melodic minor scales.

2). Learning the shapes of the various scales on the fingerboard is also quite an integral element of harmonizing melody lines. This knowledge allows the guitarist to be able to trace the interval of the harmony being followed. For example; if the guitarist wanted to track a series of third intervals through a key, the speed with which this could be accomplished would mostly be dependent upon their knowledge of scales on the neck.

3). Aside from a solid understanding of the full scale patterns, players must also understand individual interval shapes. The various shapes for 3rds, 5ths, 4ths, and octaves are quite similar around the fingerboard. However, new patterns are present between strings three and two. This is due to how the guitar is tuned and how the intervals alter between these strings.

To develop the ability to harmonize melodies is an important musical concept for guitarists to master. Obviously the key to success is practice, so download and study the examples below. Most importantly, write a melody of your own and work out a harmonized line. You might also like to consider recording it and composing an alternate interval idea to complement the primary and secondary lines.

Guitar Technique: How to Practice Scales

To download the Handout and a FREE MP3 Jam Track simply follow the link below:
http://www.creativeguitarstudio.com/lessons/guitar_theory/how_to_practice_scales.php
 
How To Practice Scales:
STEP 1). I strongly suggest starting with a 4-5 day practice plan. Each day work on new keys and study the scales all over the fingerboard.

STEP 2). Memorize the layout of the scales pattern. Get the scale up to a level where you do not need to look at your handout papers.

STEP 3). After memorizing the scale, turn on a metronome. Work through several durations such as; Eighth's, Sixteenth's and Triplet variations. Constantly turn the metronome faster to improve your technique.

STEP 4). Move along the fingerboard up one shape and down the other. This combined verticle and horizontal practice will produce fantastic results when you turn your focus toward improvising and composing.

STEP 5). Apply scale sequencing to the scale shapes.

STEP 6). Work on creating melody with jam tracks.

STEP 7). Study the Pentatonic and Arpeggio shapes along with scales.

Comping & Hybrid Picking Rhythm Guitar Techniques

Q: "I have played guitar for 3 years and strumming with a pick is all that I mainly do when it comes to the playing hand. I have tried strumming with my fingers but, I prefer a pick. I keep hearing of two techniques that do not make sense to me and none of my friends who play guitar around where I live know much about them, because they all do not use a pick.

The techniques are called the, Hybrid technique, and the, Comping technique. I have read a few things online and watched a few YouTube videos about each one, but since I trust your knowledge and teaching abilities above most others, (because you went to G.I.T.), I would really like to hear you explain each one of these in a video."

Thank you very much,
Hector - Cordoba, Argentina

A: It is important to take a good look at the techniques of Comping and Hybrid Picking together, since the two techniques play off of other. Plenty of demonstrations as well as practice exercises are discussed in my 17 min. video guitar lesson.

COMPING:
The comping technique has to do with accompaniment rhythm guitar. Made popular by jazz guitar players performing typical chord progressions that are encountered in most jazz tunes.


HYBRID PICKING:
When it comes to applications around Rhythm Guitar the Hybrid Picking technique works extremely well to fill in melodic statements during comping of the accompaniment performance of rhythm guitarists. The Hybrid approach also offers double-duty since it has amazing applications for very fast lines (that would sometimes be next to impossible to perform by flat-pick alone).

- Andrew Wasson

Guitar Technique: String Skipping

Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers a viewers question...

From Mark: YouTuber; soblindwhobuddy

Q: "Would you be able to do a video on string skipping like the sweep picking video, (which I found incredibly helpful). I know there are other people with string skipping videos on you tube but the way you do your lessons, they always come across really well."

Kind regards,
Mark U.K.

A:  When it comes to this technique I actually think of it in two different ways...

STRING CROSSING:
I think of, "String Crossing Technique," as going between two different strings, while performing non-repetitive melodic lines.

STRING SKIPPING:
I think of, "String Skipping Technique," as performing a repetitive pattern of notes for a riff in a song's section, (intro., verse or chorus melody. i.e., "Sweet Child of Mine").

The video lesson contains detailed information along with close-up views to help students better understand this information.

- Andrew Wasson