Rock Style Guitar Course: Level 1

In this opening tutorial in Rock Level 1, Anders Mouridsen will take a look at using open chords in rock. After a brief introduction, you'll learn how to dial in a good tone for these type of chords. Next, you'll learn the classic "stadium" A, D, and G open chords. We'll follow that with a lesson on the open C chord, then how to rock your open E chord. We'll conclude the lesson with a practice tune, putting it all together with a backing track.

In our second tutorial on rock chords, Anders Mouridsen will teach you how to play basic barre chords in rock. Anders will introduce barre chords to you, then set up a good tone. Next we'll break down the E shape major and minor barre chords on the sixth string, then the A shape barre chords on the fifth string. After that, we'll put our barre chords to use in two rock practice tunes.

In this next series of lessons on rock chords, Anders Mouridsen will teach you power chords. After an introduction and setting up a good tone, Anders will show you both the sixth string root and fifth string root power chords by stripping down the barre chords. Then we'll mix things up between strings and voicings, before we apply it all in two practice tunes.

In this tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will be teaching you how to "embellish" your open chords. This is called "suspension", which is a big word for a very simple thing: adding a finger! Anders will demonstrate a good tone to use for this, then show you how to add a finger to spice up your open A, D, E, and G chords. To conclude, we'll put it all together and apply it to an easy practice tune.

In this set of lessons that concludes chapter 1, Anders Mouridsen will teach you some great exercises that will help you develop your rock playing muscles. You'll dial in a direct tone, then learn ways to build strength and fluency with open chord, barre chord, and power chord exercises, and finally exercises for your "add a finger" embellishments.

In this tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will teach you how to subdivide, or "split up" the length of notes. After an introduction on the importance of rhythm and dialing in a simple tone, we'll start by splitting up whole and half notes. Next up are quarter notes, then we'll split those into eighth notes; then we'll split the eighth notes into sixteenth notes. We'll apply all this in a practice tune, then you'll learn some easy practice exercises.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will show you how to anticipate, or "push" the beat. We'll introduce the concept to you, then dial in a medium distortion tone. We'll start with anticipating eighth notes on the upbeat, then look at how to anticipate quarter notes. Next we'll push sixteenth notes, and follow that up with multiple 16th note anticipations; then we'll put it all together in a practice tune.

In this set of rhythm lessons, Anders Mouridsen is going to examine strumming in rock. We'll talk about strumming and get an appropriate tone, then look at palm muting and strumming with both eighth and sixteenth notes. Then we'll learn about ghost strums, and apply everything to two practice tunes. We'll finish with a lesson on how to derive strum patterns from the drums.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you how to start applying arpeggiation to your rhythm playing. An introduction and a good arpeggio tone come first, then you'll learn how to arpeggiate open chords with 8th notes, power chords with palm muting, and barre chords with 16th notes. Next we'll arpeggiate in 3/4 time; then we'll mix it all up. You'll learn some easy practice exercises, then a practice tune.

In this series of rock rhythm lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you some ways to start embellishing your rock rhythm playing. Anders will talk a bit about rhythm embellishments and suggest a tone, then delve into using faster subdivisions as fills. Next we'll use upbeats to spice things up, and how to use broken patterns. We'll conclude with putting it all in a musical context with two practice tunes.

In these lessons, Anders Mouridsen will get you started on rock soloing by teaching you about major and minor scales. First we'll give an overview of the scales, then dial in a basic tone. Then we'll dig in and learn the A major scale and how to improvise with it, trading 4s; next up is the A minor scale and how to improvise with it. After that we'll look at some other patterns and positions, and we'll end with some easy practice exercises.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will break down the minor and major pentatonic scales. We'll give you an overview of these scales and suggest a simple tone, then look at the minor pentatonic scale. After some improvising, you'll learn your first rock lick and how to jam with it. Next we'll learn the major pentatonic and jam with it, and finish with some easy practice exercises.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you hammer-ons and pull-offs. First we'll talk about what they are, then dial-in a good tone. Then we'll learn how to play both hammer-ons and pull-offs, and then combine the two techniques. Then it's time to learn a lick, and after that you'll learn to improvise with it. To conclude, we'll teach you some easy practice exercises.

In this next tutorial on rock soloing, Anders Mouridsen will teach you bending and vibrato techniques. We'll start with an overview introducing the techniques and a suggested tone for them. Then you'll learn basic bending, your first bending lick, and do some jamming with it. We'll do the same using our vibrato technique, then combine both techniques. We'll end with some easy practice exercises.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you about intervals in rock soloing. After a brief introduction and dialing in a suitable tone, Anders will show you how to use the interval of a major third. Next up is the fourth, in a Chuck Berry style context, then the fifth interval. We'll break down the use of the sixth next, followed by octaves; and we'll conclude by putting them all together.

In this tutorial, Anders Mouridsen is going to put everything we've learned thus far in this chapter and put it alll together. Anders will give a synopsis of the material and dial in a tone, then he'll teach you a rock lick using some of the elements we've learned. Next you'll learn a second rock lick using the chapter material, then a third lick. After that we'll combine all three licks, and we conclude with some easy practice exercises.

In these lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you about rock riffs. First we'll give an overview of riffs and dial in a simple tone. Then we'll look at what's at the foundation of riffs: basic chord progressions. Next we'll learn to create a riff out of the chord progression. Then we'll create two other types of riffs using some different approaches; the first from the same chord progression, and the second from a whole new chord progression.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will define the difference between riffs, licks, and themes. After an introduction to these concepts and getting a good tone for the examples, we'll first compare a riff versus a lick. Then we'll have a look at themes, or melodic hooks. Then it's time to examine recurring licks before we play a simple practice tune.

In this series of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will take you step-by-step through an original practice tune using many of the concepts that have been taught so far. Anders will introduce the tune, then dial in a 335 tone; then we'll learn the chord progressions in the tune and compose a riff. Next up are the rhythm parts, then it's time to learn a lick for the solo. We'll end the solo with a theme, then go through the song form.

In this group of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will take you a second practice tune using many of the techniques and concepts taught thus far in the course. After an introduction and achieving a Telecaster tone, Anders will again teach you the chord progressions, then how to compose the riff; then the rhythm parts for the tune. Next is a solo lick, and a theme to end the solo. We'll finish with a review of the song form.

In these lessons, Anders Mouridsen will show you some easy practice exercises for riffs. First Anders will go over what will be taught, then get a clean direct tone. Then we'll work a riff up to speed, and work on the riff rhythm. We'll do some easy subdivision exercises, then end with exercises on right hand ghost notes.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will show you how three common rock amps work, and how to achieve different tones from each. After an overview of the amps - a Fender Super Reverb, a Marshall Plexi, and a Vox AC30 - we'll learn a riff that we'll play consistently throughout the lessons to check out our tones. Then we'll examine how each amp works, and how it sounds when you dial in different frequencies.

In this next tutorial on amps and effects we're going to take a look at distortion effects. Anders Mouridsen will show you how to use four common effects pedals: first the RAT, then the Tube Screamer, then the Fuzz, and lastly the Metal Zone. Anders will dial in various distortion tones with each pedal, then put it into a rock context by teaching you a riff to play using each type of distortion.

In this next set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen is going to teach you about dynamic effects. Each of these effects control volume, and here Anders will teach you about three common dynamic effects: the volume pedal, the tremolo pedal, and the compression pedal. We'll demo each one, then you'll learn a musical example using it.

In this effects tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will teach you about three modulation FX that cycle and sweep frequencies. Anders will introduce the modulation concept, then talk about the chorus pedal and give you an example. Next is the flanger pedal and a riff example using it, and we'll finish with the phaser pedal and an example.

In this set of effects lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you about the delay pedal. After an introduction to delay effects and a look at a basic delay pedal, Anders will demonstrate how to dial in four types of delay: a single lead delay, a slap back delay, a big washy delay, and a rhythmic delay. We'll put all these into a musical context using riffs and licks set to backing tracks.

In these five lessons, Anders Mouridsen is going to show you how to use the wah pedal. First up is an introduction the wah, then Anders will demonstrate how it works. We'll then look at how to use it in a rhythm context with sixteenth and eighth notes, followed by how to use it in your lead playing.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will talk about how to combine your effects pedals into a pedal chain. We'll first introduce the pedal chain concept, then you'll learn what connector cables to use and how to power your chain. Next, we'll put our basic and "joker" pedals into an effective order, then show you two common pedals setups.

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen is going to teach you an example of an early rock 'n' roll song. Anders will talk about the blues influence, then the tone; then we'll take a blues riff and make it rock. The 12 bar form as the body of the song is up next, then we'll add an intro, a solo lick, and an outro before we put it all together in a play along.

In this next tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will take a look at the experimental era of the 60s and 70s. First Anders will give an overview of the lessons and dial in a tone, then he'll create a basic progression. Then it's time to add a blues note and make it a riff, after which we'll focus on the rhythm. A wild and reckless solo comes next, then we'll add a tag for an outro before we put it all together for a full play along.

In this third set of "Born From the Blues" lessons Anders Mouridsen is going to lead you through the parts of a practice song that explores the sound of the 80s. Following a synopsis and a look at tone, Anders will set up a basic 80s chord progression, then spice up those chords a bit. We'll add an arpeggio riff after that, then learn a virtuoso solo. We'll tag the song with an epic outro, then put it all together and shred!

In this next tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will examine the 1990s by teaching you a grunge-style practice tune. First up are an introduction to the style, then setting up a grunge tone; then we'll lay out a heavy tuned-down riff that builds on a bass line. Anders will further develop that riff in the next lesson before he looks at a strumming part. Our grunge solo is next - based on octaves - then we'll do a play along, putting it all together.

In this final set of lessons in this chapter, Anders Mouridsen will take a look at the era of the 2000s in rock. First we'll give an overview of the tutorial then dial in an appropriate tone. The dissonant and muted song intro is up next, the a variation for the verse parts. We'll use interesting power 9 chords for the chorus lesson before we take on an epic "post millenium" solo. To conclude, we'll put everything together do a full play along.