Guitar
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson: The 3 Shape Method
When first learning how to play the guitar, most of us begin by studying a few fundamental major and minor chords. These chords are typically the common open-position chords, sometimes referred to as “cowboy chords,” in the lowest register on the guitar neck. However, as we progress as players, we quickly discover that each chord quality within any key offers a plethora of different chord shapes and fingerings that can be played in various octaves and inversions up and down the fingerboard.
Flatpick Guitar Lesson: Pentatonic Patterns Across the Fretboard
When learning to improvise on the guitar, the first scale that almost every player begins dissecting is the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is the perfect collection of notes from which to begin one’s improvisational journey on the guitar.
Flatpick Guitar Lesson: Hammer-Ons & Grace Notes
One of the most beautiful characteristics that all musical instruments share is their unique ability to mimic the emotive qualities of the human voice. Musicians are able to perform subtle inflections on their instruments that imitate the expressive nuances of the human voice in a way that speaks to us and moves us universally as people. The guitar is no exception to this trait, and there are several techniques in particular that highlight the vocal-like qualities of the instrument, including hammer-ons, pull-offs, the use of grace notes, vibrato, and more.
Flatpick Guitar Lesson: Modified Crosspicking Patterns
Crosspicking is one of the most critical techniques used in flatpick and bluegrass guitar playing. It is essential to the bluegrass aesthetic and is designed to make the acoustic guitar produce a sonic characteristic similar to that of a banjo roll.
Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson: Alternating Bass Using The Thumb
One of the most beautiful features of the guitar is its expansive harmonic range. Guitarists have access to notes ranging from a low E (or lower depending on the guitar’s tuning), all the way up to a high C more than three octaves above, in most cases.
Guitar Lesson: Opening Up the Neck Using Triads
When learning music, it’s often the case that unpacking and understanding a seemingly small and simple concept can lead to enormous breakthroughs that have an immeasurable impact on your playing, knowledge of music theory, and musicianship. In traditional Western music, one of the most basic harmonic concepts is that of the triad.
The Virtual Guitar Roundtable with Jared James Nichols, Guthrie Trapp, & Richie Faulkner
On Saturday, May 13, 2023, at 4:00 pm PT, ArtistWorks and TrueFire will be hosting a free virtual live-streamed event featuring ArtistWorks guitar instructors Jared James Nichols and Guthrie Trapp. These two guitar virtuosos will also be joined by a very special guest, Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest.
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson: Relating Chords & Scales
Music theory establishes the backbone of everything that we play on our instruments as musicians. And, while parsing through complex music theory concepts can sometimes feel tedious or maybe overwhelming, the key is to break down one simpler topic at a time and apply it on our instrument. One such concept is the relationship between the major scale and the quality of the chord associated with each note in the major scale. Understanding how the major scale and these major and minor chord qualities relate will help take both your improvisation and rhythm guitar playing to the next level.
Blues & Americana Guitar Lesson: Small Chords & Double Stops with Keb’ Mo’
When first learning to play guitar, most students begin by focusing on full, open-position chords, sometimes referred to as “cowboy chords.” From there, tackling barre chords and learning comprehensive, multi-octave harmonic voicings is next. However, in many styles of music and guitar playing, the use of larger multi-octave chord voicings and barre chords is not always necessary or even encouraged. In Americana and blues guitar styles, for example, smaller two, three, and four-note chords are frequently used and are critical to the aesthetic of the genre and style.
Blues & Americana Guitar Lesson: Keb’ Mo’s Approach to Fingerpicking
One of the most beautiful elements of blues, country, and Americana guitar playing is the flow between acoustic and electric tonalities, gritty and clean soundscapes, slow and fast tempos, fingerstyle and flatpick techniques, and more. All of these different approaches and tonal textures are utilized throughout these iconic genres, and thus, it’s important for blues, country, and Americana guitarists to be able to execute all these various methods. An artist who consistently accomplishes this in spades is five-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist, singer, songwriter, and performer, Keb’ Mo’.