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  • Top 20 Techniques



  • 1: Alternate Picking

Absolute Beginner - Alternate Picking

  • Focus: Technique
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Now is the time to put what we've learn so far to play a new picking technique : Alternate picking! Simply put, alternate picking is nothing more than down and up strokes. Sounds easy right? Maybe not at first. The main challenge here is to be able to be as efficient in your downstrokes that you are in your upstrokes. Most of us guitarist are stronger at one technique. The key is to work on you...




  • 2: Bending - Country

String Bending

  • Focus: Reference
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This tutorial was inspired by several post in the forum, by users that were interested in learning how to bend strings. This is by no means all that you'll want to learn, but it's a good start. This will show you bending positions that work with the major chords, from the 3rd to the 15th fret.






  • 3: Bending - Rock

Bending & Vibrato

  • Focus: Technique
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A look at bending and vibrato techniques, used in rock lead guitar playing.








  • 4: Double Stops

Double Stops

  • Focus: Style Tutorial
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This tutorial will show you what double stops are and give you multiple licks to practice them.








  • 5: Finger Picking

Acoustic Fingerpicking for Beginners, Level 1

  • Focus: Technique
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Acoustic fingerpicking is not as difficult as you might think. A simple 4-step pattern is all you need to play zillions of songs and chord progressions, in a variety of musical genres. This tutorial is designed to teach all the basic skills you need to begin to play acoustic fingerstyle guitar. Whether you are a beginning guitarist just starting out, or an more experienced player looking to get into a new style of playing, this tutorial will get you started on the right foot. Learn this 4-step pattern presented in Series One, then go on and try some of the variations and ornamentations presented in subsequent tutorials. You'll be amazed at how powerful and versatile this technique really is!


  • 6: Hammer-ons

Hammer-Ons & Pull-Offs

  • Focus: Scales
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Hammer-on and pull-off demonstrations using the minor pentatonic scale.








  • 7: Harmonics - Pinch

Pinch Harmonics

  • Focus: Technique
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If you're playing electric guitar, especially rock, you'll want to know how to get a good pinch harmonic on demand and it's takes a little practice. The best way to to get them is to understand how they work and then to practice the technique. There are high pitched harmonics right under your picking hand as you play. The secret to getting them is to get the skin on the side of your thumb ...




  • 8: Harmonics - Natural

Natural Harmonics

  • Focus: Technique
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You've probably heard harmonics before, they are very common in acoustic and electric playing. In this lesson I'll show you how to get a good, clear harmonic and the best place to find them on your fretboard.






  • 9: Hybrid Picking

Basic Hybrid Picking Exercises

  • Focus: Exercises
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This tutorial was inspired by a young man that asked how to get started hybrid picking. I showed him a couple of chords, and explained the concept of root/5 to him. Then I decided to post a lesson like this, and got some messages saying how helpful it was. They asked me to do some more chords this way, so I put the other lessons together. I'm not using any muting techniques in these, we'll get into that after you get used to this part.




  • 10: Legato

Lesson 4: Legato

  • Focus: Technique
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In musical notation the Italian word legato (literally meaning "tied together") indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence. In this example we will be utilizing the legato technique in tandem with hammer ons (ascending) and pull offs (descending) on the 3-note per string C major scale in a fashion ...




  • 11: Palm Muting

In the Palm of My Hands

  • Focus: Technique
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Palm Muting is an essential technique for every rock guitarist. This tutorial will walk you through the mechanics of how to use palm muting with power and barre chords, accents, and more.






  • 12: Pull-offs

Hammer-Ons & Pull-Offs

  • Focus: Scales
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Hammer-on and pull-off demonstrations using the minor pentatonic scale.








  • 13: Rolls

Banjo Rolls For Guitar

  • Focus: Style Tutorial
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This series of lessons will detail the technique used by guitar players to emulate the fingerpicked style made famous on the banjo. This technique can be used in all country rhythm styles.






  • 14: Slapping

Slap Pop Style

  • Focus: Style Tutorial
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The slapping and popping style employed by bassists is a very popular method to enhance a rhythm guitar part. This C minor example explores rhythmic playing from both the right and left hand along with chord choices and short phrases that are similar to 70's funk and modern hip-hop. The progression is very short but serves as a way to demonstrate a phrase that is strong enough to be used as a cons...




  • 15: Slide - Bottleneck

Blues Slide Guitar Techniques

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In this blues course tutorial, we'll look at basic slide technique, open D tuning and standard tuning, some Duane Allman approaches, how to play slow blues slide, and pedal steel 3rds.






  • 16: Strumming

Beginner Chord Strumming Techniques

  • Focus: Technique
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This tutorial will teach you the basics of strumming. I will show downstrokes, upstrokes and how to alternate between both of them.








  • 17: Sweep Picking

Simple Sweeps

  • Focus: Exercises
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In this tutorial you will find examples of 3 strings sweeps. These are easy sweeping patterns meant as an introduction to sweeping.








  • 18: Tapping

Rock/Metal Tapping: Beginner to Advanced

  • Focus: Technique
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This tutorial will hopefully serve as a basic tapping primer course, that will take the player through a wide range of tapping techniques, ranging from the most basic building block patterns up through more advanced licks that incorporate modern elements such as string skipping, using adjacent strings, using multiple fingers on the tapping hand & more. I will also work feature some tips for incorporating tapping into your playing, while trying to avoid many of the typical cliches that are out there. How you can use a two handed approach for more than just flashy licks.


  • 19: Touch Technique

Tapping in the Style of Stanley Jordan

  • Focus: Style Tutorial
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Here you can learn the basics on the tapping and touch technique which was invented by Stanley Jordan. You learn how to create rich sounding chords, grooves, and how you can play chords with your left hand and melody with your right hand.






  • 20: Vibrato

Lesson 6: Vibrato Technique

  • Focus: Technique
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Now we'll talk about what really adds a lot of personality to your guitar playing - vibrato! This makes the guitar sing. We'll talk about some players who use varying amounts of vibrato to stylize their own personal sound.






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