Frank Zappa - Guitar Heroes A-Z

Oct 29,2007
Albums by Frank Zappa [1940-1993] have always been found in the rock bins in record stores, but pigeonholing Zappa as a rock artist is a bit like labeling Johann Sebastian Bach a church organist—it only tells a small part of the More...

Guest Guru : Joe Satriani’s Blues Bends and Slides

Oct 20,2008
How was this kid playing the blues scale differently than you were? When I went to his house to see him play, I was stunned, because he was one huge leap ahead of me. I mean, I knew the scale, but until I ran into him, I had More...

Sonny Landreth Master Class

Oct 17,2008
LIKE THOSE FAMOUS FICTIONAL KIDS who discover the gateway to Narnia in the back of a magical wardrobe, Sonny Landreth, too, has stumbled on a portal to another world—not one of lions and witches, but one of inspiring new More...

How to Play LIke .... The Edge

Mar 16,2010
With his chimey harmonics, droning intervals, shimmering echoes, and huge arpeggios, U2’s The Edge (born David Evans) transcends the traditional role of a rhythm or lead guitarist to produce a driving, piano-like sound. In the More...

Hey Jazz Guy

Jun 1,2010
Hey Jazz Guy, Can you explain the basic concept of a IIm-V progression and why it’s so important? —Chordless in Cleveland Dear Chordless, A IIm-V (two-five) is a basic progression that is taken from the cycle of 5ths. More...

Pierre Bensusan's Etude Salsa

Jul 14,2011
This “Étude,” or study, is an excerpt from the composition “Agadiramadan” from my album Intuite (which is also published in The Intuite Guitar Book). This lesson will help you acquire rhythmic independence of each finger of More...

Robot Invasion Further Experiments with Diminished Transformers

Jul 1,2010
IN LAST MONTH’S LESSON [“Diminished Transformers,” June 2010 GP], we explored the concept of unfolding a diminished 7 chord into four dominant 7s, an idea we can attribute to Pat Martino. We compared this process to More...

GITs Dean Brown Maps the DNA of the Great American Groove

Jul 1,2010
“EVER BEEN TO THE EXPERIENCE MUSIC Project in Seattle?” asks Dean Brown. “You gotta go. They have that big Hendrix exhibit, and one cool thing you can do there is listen to famous Hendrix tunes with the different tracks More...

Bob Brozman on Open-G Around the World

Jul 1,2010
IF YOU HAVEN’T TUNED ONE OF YOUR guitars to open G yet (D, G, D, G, B, D low to high), you’re missing out! Last month, Bob Brozman showed us how to play a righteous fingerstyle blues using simple, two-note shapes. As More...

Expanded Harmony with Pentatonics

Jul 1,2009
In Ex. 1, we play a minor pentatonic scale over a minor 7th chord, both with the same root: a G minor pentatonic scale over a Gm7 chord. This works because the scale very closely resembles the arpeggio of a minor 7th More...

Open Secrets: Vicki Genfan Shows You the Techniques that Helped Crown Her GP’s 2008 GUITAR SUPERSTAR

Jul 1,2009
As with many guitarists, it was the music of Joni Mitchell that got Genfan started down the road of altered tunings. “Trying to play those beautiful 9th and sus4 voicings I heard on Joni’s records with my tiny More...