Week 1 Lots of my students want to learn how to play blues. I normally teach this in 4 simple lessons which will span 4 weeks. I'm glad to say that so far, the students have been able to do pretty well in playing blues solos in 4 weeks. Now, before we can start, we need to be able to find the key to a particular song. If you are unsure how, I have a simple tutorial on that. Once you have found the key to a blues song (which is generally quite easy), then we are ready to begin with the Blues Scale. Let's get familiar with the Blues Pentatonic Scale first... In t...

Week 2 Now let's practice something which is really important in blues soloing. It is not enough to know the notes of the Blues pentatonic scale. What we need is to play it with technique. The common technique that we use often in blues is the hammer-on and pull-off. This will allow you to strike the string with fewer strikes of the pick. It creates a smooth transition of notes without any picking sounds. Practise this non-stop as well. Play it in every key. If your finger hurts, persevere.... you'll find it gets easier after a week.

Week 4 Here's a short and simple blues solo trick that you can try. I'm now playing along with a blues track. Try the solo out yourself. Remember, you should stick within the notes in the picture above. Try your own hammer-ons and pull-offs and bend those notes... Play along with any other blues track you have like Eric Clapton or SRV or BB King. Use what you learnt in lessons 1-3. You should sound pretty decent! I've attached a jam track you can play around with. Have fun!

Week 4 Here's a practice trick you can work on that will be using all that we learnt in the previous lessons. Be careful not to strike other strings when playing, also, try to incorporate hammer-ons and pull-offs. It sounds great. Soon you will be able to jam along to blues tracks. Final tip, when starting a solo, I try to start on the Root Note (The Red color) Also, for ending a lick, I also try to end on the Root Note. Once you advance in blues playing, you'll realise that there are of course other notes you can end on. I've recorded this in G Blues. Do le...

This is an absolutely basic "Play Power Chords" in 15 minutes lesson. I will not dwell into too much theory here, but it suffices to know the basics to play Power Chords. Technically, however, a powerchord is not really a "chord". By definition, a chord has to have a minumum of three notes. Power chords are sometimes referred to as "5" chords, notated as F5, G5 and so on. Power chords are neither minor or major as it lacks the 3rd note which will dictate it's tonality. Power chords are very commonly used in rock and blues music. Later lessons in the tutorial...

Week 3 Now it's time to try out the blues scale bend notes. From the picture of the fretboard above, there are two notes that are indicated in Blue. Those are great notes to use for bending. These two notes are sufficient enough for beginners to play blues and sound good... In the beginning, it may be a little difficult to bend, but after a week, your finger strength should be fine! Also, if you look carefully at the video, I also used my other fingers (behind the actual bend finger) to assist me in the bending of the note. It gives it more leverage. Remember, you...

Week 4 Here's a final real lick that you can try. This time it's in A Blues. Notice that all the notes I've used are still within the scale. Try writing your own licks using 3-6 notes per time for starters. Listen to more tracks, and you can have lots of fun jamming along! After this tutorial, I will put up a new one where we can take the blues solo one step higher to an intermediate level... In the mean time, keep practising!

Now that we know how to play power chords on with root notes on either the low E string or the A string, let's take a look at some examples. Using the examples in the video, trying following it. What you can try next is to vary the rhythm of the chords, the timing, and in future lessons, I will show you some muting and rhythm tricks to create your own power chord songs. Even though there will be some theory involved in composing music, you can actually try choosing any 3 or 4 powerchords and start singing your own song to it. Just some more examples you can test ...

Well... Here's a real simple rock blues lick that you can use very tastefully in the midst of any jamming session or solo. Prepare by placing your index finger to hold down two strings. Then do the hammer ons followed by vibrato of the last note. The challenge is also to mute all other strings that is not being played. You can do this by using your right palm to mute the remaining strings. Try this on different strings by using the pentatonic scale. You can hear it on Styx, Santana, Survivor etc...

Here's a simple rock rhythm that you can use to play a really nice song. I've recorded it using distortion with reverb. You can play this with a clean or crunch sound and you can write a nice song from it. Practise the notes using different timing for the individual notes. Something important to note is the palm muting which is essential! For more ideas on power chords, check out Power Chords Tutorial - Lesson 2 or Rock Rhythm Riff like Mission Impossible - Tutorial

Here's a simple blues/rock lick which you can play anytime. You'll need to place your fingers in position as shown in the video. Pull-offs will be of great importance when playing this cleanly. Don't forget to vibrato the last note. Finally, I have recorded two fast variations, followed by a slow one. Have fun practising!

After going through the usual basic lessons of chords and strumming, I will always teach lessons on Power Chords. Many think that Power Chords is simply just a pile of chords we play. Not at all, there's a great deal of right hand technique, left hand rhythmic techniques and tonnes of other stuff you can learn! Power Chords... the most well used chords in rock music! A chord is basically made up of three notes. A major chord is made up of the three notes 1, 3 and 5. Example: In a chord C, the 1,3 and 5 will be C, E and G. That means that the chord C is made up of the...

Here's another practice with power chords. But this time, the keeping of timing is really important. At the same time, my right palm is actually muting the sound so that I get a nice rhythmic beat that creates a nice riff that goes with the progression.

Scottish music (rock style) anyone? Here's a simple lick that you can improvise and have fun with in writing your own solos. The idea is to continue ringing the E string in the playing of the notes up or down the scale. Try experimenting for yourself. In this recorded piece I'm using slight overdrive with mild Flanger. You can try with a digital delay and it can sound really amazing.

Here's a nice rock lick adapted from Dave Gilmour that you can use for your songs. All you need is to play in the key and you can sound really nice. It can be used as an intro to your next song. Don't forget to vibrato any holding notes, and use the hammer-ons well. Work on the feel of the song. The notes are based on the major scale.

Here is a mixture of Spanish and Metal put together... Pretty cool especially if you go faster and faster! Of course, please use it depending on the type of music you are playing. You can use alternate picking for this lick. And don't forget to palm mute! Other lessons with high speed licks include: Speed Blues: Real Fast Blues Lick in A - Part I or Gilmour speed licks Play with Feel - Speed Licks Gilmour-Style or Run it with Fury - Speed ...

One of my students asked me how I would play a song from a soundtrack once, so that's how this trick came about. This is something really fun to play and inspired by Mission Impossible. You can vary the rhythm and muting patterns to get an entirely different feel to the song. Try in different keys. I've done this using G power chord. You can play guitar lead using Gm scale. I'll be showing more soundtrack rock themes soon...

I've used distortion for this really nice lick. One of my favorites actually. I used to listen to Gary Moore do this in similar fashion. Don't forget to bend the note and hold it while you strike the strings below it... takes a little practice, but definitely worth it!

Here is a nice rock riff which you can improvise and vary to write your own songs. Don't forget to mute the rest of the strings using your right palm. Try experimenting with different rhythm patterns and muting so as to get a different rock riff. The chords are F, C, Bb, C. Use power chords any you can follow this with a rock lead solo intro. You can check out some of my other lessons on rock licks and tricks solo tutorial.

Next practise riff: focus on power chords A, G, F. Watch your timing and also right palm muting at certain places will be important. Play the video continuously, and jam along so that your rhythm and muting sounds the same. These chord patterns can be found in similar fashion in many rock songs.

Here's a simple rhythm using delay which you can use for different rock songs. You can use it to write your own riffs. You can listen to U2 stuff to get more ideas. Especially in the notes and timing to play.

Hi, here's a nice simple blues lick that was inspired by BB King. You can use in B Minor Blues. It starts off with hammer-on, then a strong vibrato of the following note. Most important will be the control of the bend that is coming up. Hold that bend so as to create a slight tension while you vibrato the bent note. You can try this out in a slow blues rhythm. Give it a shot. For this recording I used a little delay with it. You can try it with some overdrive. It also sounds good.

Hi, here's a really nice little riff you can use when writing your next rock song. It's played in Dm for my video, more importantly is the use of the barre Dm chord that is critical in creating the rhythmic muting that you can hear. The video has a slow and fast version. Use the slow to practise the up down strum movement. Note that during upstroke, strike about 3-4 strings should be sufficient. Downstrokes can strike all 5. You can use the tip of your left index finger to mute the lowest string. To play a nice lead to something like this, it is possible ...

Many of my students have asked me how to find the key to a song. I'm afraid there are no shortcuts, but here are some tips to help you. Let me start by saying that every song has got a Key. The Key to the song is important as it tells you all the other chords that is being played in a song. Songs are built on a series of repeated chords. Hence the key is important. There are only 12 keys. However the key can be either major or minor. Hence there will be 24 possibilities. I will list all the possibilities here: Major Keys: C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B Minor K...

Here's something that seems very basic, but absolutely important. Every good guitarist must learn how to do this to great effect. Vibrato is basically holding and vibrating a note. The technique is to vibrato the note with any finger. In the examples I have created, I've shown two ways in using vibrato. The first lesson is using vibrato through vertical movement of the string. If you are using the index finger, you can use the neck of the guitar as a fulcrum. Then make sure the timing of the vibrato is consistent and the distance you move up and down also the ...

Want to dive into power chords without getting too caught up with theory? Then try writing your own rock song using an experimental approach... here are the lessons to do just that!

This tutorial will hope to shed some methods in finding the key to a song.

Here I give you a bunch of different styles of licks for your enjoyment:)

Many of my students ask me how to jam along to blues tracks. Well... here's a simple 4 week tutorial that will help you understand the basic blues scale and simple techniques that will take you off on basic blues soloing... And if you are creative, you can create the next amazing blues solo. Upcoming will be another tutorial entitled Blues Solo - The Next 4 Weeks.

After going through the usual basic lessons of chords and strumming, I will always teach lessons on Power Chords. Many think that Power Chords are simply just a pile of chords we play. Not at all; there's a great deal of right hand technique, left hand rhythmic techniques, and tons of other stuff you can learn.

A good guitarist always creates beautifully placed vibratos. Every time you have to hold a note for more than half a beat, you should vibrato. The first two lessons will teach you how to do it using two different methods. Finally, lesson part III gives you a chance to practice!

This tutorial comprises different rhythms that you can use and adapt to write your own rock songs. Use your creativity and experiment. This tutorial will continue increasing in lessons as I keep adding more ideas!

Hi, I have a lot of students with a good understanding of basic theory, and know all the scales. But how to improvise in solos? How to play along to any song? This is when 'coaching' comes in. Students can emulate and copy from licks and gain inspiration from them. This tutorial will continually increase in number of lessons to help guitarists. All lessons here will be video-based. So do check back here for recaps and latest updates!