10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like Tony Iommi

Oct 1,2010
WHEN EDWARD VAN HALEN CALLED Tony Iommi the master of riffs, he wasn’t just whistling “Dixie.” Master riffmeister Iommi’s back story, rise to legendary status, and his influence on the New Wave of Heavy Metal have been well More...

Mastering 7-String Minor 7th Arpeggios with Buz McGrath of Unearth

Nov 1,2009
AS METAL HAS EVOLVED, THERE HAS BEEN a trend toward lowered tunings. In an effort to make their music sound deeper and darker, many guitarists have turned to alternate and dropped tunings, as well as 7-string guitars. Buz More...

Technique Toolbox “Melodic Tapping”

May 1,2011
By Paul “TFO” Allen Many techniques that are often used for flashy soloing, like sweeping or tapping, are generally lumped in the “shredding” category. A shred solo is certainly not the only setting for those More...

10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like Metallica

Mar 3,2008
It’s been a blast watching Metallica grow. Now well past their quarter-century mark, the band has been together longer than the Beatles, Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Led Zeppelin combined. Musically speaking, More...

Eric Peterson of Testament The Forgotten Hand of Metal

Mar 1,2010
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT learning scales, sweeping arpeggios, and shredding speed runs. These are important, but while working on a new Rock House program with Eric Peterson of Testament, I realized that there is an 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...

10 Things You Gotta Do To Play Like Eddie Van Halen

Feb 1,2009
MANY GUITARISTS WHO WERE ACTIVE IN the late ’70s remember exactly where they were standing when they first heard Van Halen. Like film footage of an erupting volcano, the band’s eponymous 1978 debut captured in real time a More...

Shredding Up on the Dark Side with Jeff Loomis of Nevermore

Dec 1,2009
JEFF LOOMIS IS THE GUITARIST FOR THE band Nevermore. He recently released a highly acclaimed instrumental CD Zero Order Phase that has put him in the elite shredder club. Jeff’s songwriting has a very dark side to it and he More...

Shred Secrets from Kiko Loureiro

Aug 1,2009
IF YOU DON’T ALREADY RECOGNIZE the name Kiko Loureiro, you will soon. I’ve never heard, seen, or had the pleasure of working with any guitarist with as much technique, creativity, and versatility. To have the ability to play More...