Intermediate Lesson Plan

Hello and welcome to my new tutorial on Economy of motion. In this tutorial we will be focusing on the key elements required to play the guitar with the minimum amount of physical exertion. In this first installment we will be looking at the technique of economy picking. Economy picking is a picking technique which uses ec...Read More

Welcome to the Finger Tapping Tutorial! This is a fairly large tutorial that spans from beginning to advanced levels. So no matter what skill level you're at, I'd encourage you to go through the whole thing from start to finish. There's something for everyone here. With that said, let's rock! Well, what is finger tapping? ...Read More

Welcome to the 16th Note Displacement Tutorial! What are 16th notes? 16th notes add up to 4 counts in one beat. So you have a total of 16 counts in a measure that has 4 beats. Full 16th note measure: '1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a' Pronounced: 'one ee and uh two ee and uh three ee and uh four ee and uh' What is displ...Read More

Hey everyone and welcome to this new tutorial on Hybrid Picking! For the uninitiated, Hybrid Picking is a technique which requires the use of pick and right hand fingers. It's a technique which is used by all manner of guitarists such is the effectiveness of the technique. There are many benefits to using this technique. ...Read More

Part 1: Creating Your Own Pulse - An Introduction to 8th Beat PolymetersWhat this lesson will introduce, or engrain in your brains is just another method for making your improvisational skills set you apart. Drummers love guitarists with great rhythm, and the following excercises will help to introduce a few applications fo...Read More

In this tutorial, we're going to explore a cool sliding technique that can add some spice to your playing. This 'downward slide' basically involves your finger quickly sliding from a higher point on a string to the desired note. The slide in itself is a very quick, swift motion. For starters, pick any random note on the fr...Read More

Welcome to the 'Picking Inside the Strings' tutorial! First thing you'll want to do is watch the video and notice the difference between picking 'inside' the strings and picking 'outside' the strings. You can also see the difference from the first 2 tab exercises below. It's also important to note that an alternate pickin...Read More

Welcome to this follow-up to the Vibrato 101 tutorial. As I mentioned in that tutorial, I thought that timing and vibrato merits its very own tutorial, so here we go. First of all, remember how we discussed the 'smooth and even' vibrato in the previous tutorial, to avoid using the 'EKG' vibrato? Having a smooth, and above ...Read More

Hi there! Welcome to my tutorial on 'Right Hand Dynamics.' The point of this tutorial is to touch on various concepts, and techniques, that will help you develop a myriad of tones, sounds, and dynamic levels. In this video, I discuss the electronic side of this topic. Some things to consider: What are you using for an amp...Read More

Welcome to the Harp Harmonics Tutorial! Here we will lean how to play harp harmonics as well as how to incorporate them into musical contexts. Harp harmonics are played when a finger on your picking hand gently touches a string 12 frets above the note you're playing. It doesn't always have to be 12 frets above the note, bu...Read More

Hey everyone! Welcome to the 'Metal Riffing with 16th Note Triplets' tutorial. Today we're going to focus on a group of rhythmic notes called 16th Note Triplets, also known as sextuplets. First off, let's go over what 16th note triplets actually are... 16th note triplets represent 6 notes for every beat. So for example, i...Read More

Greetings Guitar Slingers! Welcome to yet another (long) tutorial from yours truly. This time we will dive deep into the wonderful world of Harmonics! The theory, concepts and practice of harmonics in all its various incarnations are more often than not VERY misunderstood, and can be a source of great confusion. I will do ...Read More

Welcome! In this tutorial, we're going to explore a technique I call 'Pedal Tone Legato'. This is a classically-influenced technique that combines different elements of legato and pedal tones. Before we learn the technique, let's make sure we understand what legato and pedal tones are. Legato is the smooth transition betw...Read More

Hello and welcome to my new tutorial focusing on the 120 studies for the right hand written by virtuoso guitarist/composer Mauro Giuliani. Mauro Giuliani was born in the coastal village of Bisceglie in the Puglia region of Italy in 1781. He initally studied the cello but it was very clear from an early age that he excelled...Read More

Welcome to this tutorial on Muting Technique! In this tutorial we will be taking a closer look at some various uses of muting for rock rhythm playing. First of is the good old palm muting we all know and love. When you read any rock tab in any guitar magazine, you are pretty much bound to see at least some parts marked P.M...Read More

Hey there and welcome to this tutorial on String Bending technique! I personally feel that this particular technique is often neglected by guitarists even though it is something which can help your musicianship immeasurably. Approached in the right way, it can transform the way you approach phrasing and really help to impr...Read More

Hi folks! Today's lesson is on a very popular technique, used in modern fusion! I am of course referring to the famous 'slide vibrato' used by the great Greg Howe, that has become extremely popular over the last 10 years or more. A few quick things to point out about the examples that I will show in this tutorial: - All ...Read More

Hey there and welcome to this month's follow up tutorial. It's hammer time you lot! Now that you have practiced the basic principles we went over in the previous tutorial, you are ready to take a step forward with your legato technique. The majority, if not all, of you will be familiar with the standard 'slurring' techniq...Read More

Hey guys, and welcome to this lesson on string skipping arpeggios! We will be looking major and minor arpeggios, and how to transform them into string skipping arpeggios, and also adding other notes from the major and minor scale, creating those familiar 'shred'-type arpeggio sequences. Later on, we will also be covering t...Read More

Hi there guys! Welcome to this tutorial on visualizing pentatonic scales for guitar. This tutorial aims to help you break out of the rut that the typical box pattern approach to learning pentatonics can produce. If I were to put money on it, I'd bet that most of you out there know one or two, if not more, pentatonic shape...Read More

Greetings Guitar Slingers! The goal of the ”Unlocking the Fretboard” tutorial is for you to be able to break free from the stereotypical ”box”-playing and be able to have our playing and ideas flow all over the neck. Before launching head on into this tutorial I want to to review the order in which...Read More

Welcome guitar slingers! The goal of the Timing and Note Value Alteration tutorial is to expand your improvisational and musical abilities drastically. When you apply these concepts, I can guarantee you that you improvisational skills in all styles will increase exponentially, and you will be that much closer to unlocking ...Read More

Hi there guys! Welcome to this tutorial on 'Playing Over Changes'. This is the idea of playing or improvising over a series of chords that change key every bar or other bar. We aren't going to be dealing with diatonic or functional harmony progressions in this tutorial. We'll have a separate one for that purpose. The first...Read More

Hi there guys! Welcome to this tutorial on how to Visualize the Fretboard. This tutorial is going to deal with learning major scales and their modes and how to visualize them on the guitar. I'm sure in your time as a guitarist you've come across those books that have diagrams of scales all over the fretboard. You know, th...Read More

Welcome guitar slingers! The goal of the ”Pentatonic Finder” tutorial is for you to be able to improvise freely across any key changes, anywhere on the neck, and learn how to conceptually visualize scales and keys, and using scale superimposition. Before launching head on into this tutorial, I must advice you ...Read More

Thanks for joining me in this latest tutorial where we will be looking at various ways of practicing scales. Spending a lot of time playing scales can be extremely boring, especially if we employ few ways of traversing the fretboard. If we focus in on the right hand, we can employ an infinite number of techniques to hel...Read More

In this tutorial, I hope to enlighten you somewhat in the ways of improvisation. Particularly on the subject of outlining chords. We will be having a look at several short musical phrases and analyzing them in context to the use of what are commonly known as 'Guide Tones' The II-V-I progression, aka 2 5 1, will be used as ...Read More

Greetings Guitarslingers! Welcome to my tutorial on Line Alteration! As is mentioned in the video, the goal of this tutorial is for you to understand the concept of line alteration, not just to learn the licks and improvisations transcribed herein. It is very important that you apply this concept as soon as possible on a...Read More

Hey everyone and welcome to this Creative Scales tutorial! We are going to get creative with the Pentatonic scale by creating a hybrid of two scales: A minor Pentatonic and E minor Pentatonic What we are going to do is make 2 groups of three strings and apply each of those respective scales to each group of strings. So, ...Read More

Welcome guys, to a perhaps somewhat 'out there' tutorial =) What we will set out to do here is to open our ears and improvising up to the harmonic context of any chord of choice we might be laying over, be it generic pop or hard core fusion. we want to try and alter our (and our listeners) perception of the harmonies we p...Read More

Hey all, thanks for joining me! In today's lesson we are going to be focusing on Seventh Arpeggios. What we are going to do is take 5 different 7th chord types: 1) Major7th 2) Minor7th 3) Dominant7th 4) Minor7b5 5) Diminished7th and we are going to play them using four different shapes for each arpeggio. These four s...Read More

This lesson will help you in your quest in breaking out of those standard 'Box' shapes and be able to use your entire fretboard. One way is to use what are called 'Linear Scales' which are using scales on one string up and down the neck in a 'Linear' fashion. This first 2 examples are written out in a triplet pattern. Make...Read More

Welcome to this tutorial on Sequencing Pentatonics! A sequence, as I'm sure you know, is a group of notes played together in a specific order. Sequencing scales is very common in classical music, or classical inspired music such as Neoclassical Rock. In this tutorial we will look at some examples of this approach in the p...Read More

Welcome! For this lesson I just wanted to introduce some new voicings to your vocabulary. All the chords listed here are G Major chords. Most are either basic triads or Maj7th chords. There are a few inversions and one extended chord with a non-diatonic interval. In case you don't know what all that means I will briefly d...Read More

Hello. Today, I bring you a way to help you build your chord vocabulary by learning how to build different chords. Since there are a multitude of different chords out there, I will break this into parts. In order to fully benefit from this tutorial, or any of my theory lessons, it is a good idea to go back and look over m...Read More

Hi everyone! Welcome to this tutorial on the minor blues. The minor blues is much like our beloved standard blues in many ways. It contains 3 primary chords, is generally 12 bars long and doesn't follow our standard ideas of music theory - in other words it's more of a feeling or sound than a theoretical musical idea. Unl...Read More

Hi there everyone and welcome to this tutorial on Shell Voicings. Shell voicings are chords which contain the minimum number of voices or notes required to outline a particular harmonic sound. In other words, if I wanted to play a Cmaj7 chord for example, a shell voicing would contain the minimum number of notes required t...Read More

Chord Inversions - What are they ?? An inversion is a name for a chord who's notes have been re-arranged. Lets start by looking at the Bb7 Chord. For each inversion I will give you a notated example of each chord as you might see it notated for a piano. This will make the inversion process more clear since pianos allow us...Read More

Welcome. In my next few lessons I want to lay out some simple structures that I found valuable when altered chords became more a part of my vocabulary. Although, this is marked as intermediate. Hopefully some of you beginners will be able to catch on pretty quick as well. So in this vid we are looking at a simple Dominan...Read More

In this tutorial, we're going to learn a handful of simple chord progressions. I played everything on an acoustic guitar, but the progressions and principles can of course be applied to electric as well. Let each progression spark ideas for you. While you learn each one, think about how you can apply the progression techni...Read More

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Drop D Chord Progressions Tutorial. I recently did a chord progression tutorial based on standard tuning, but in this one we'll be experimenting with the tunings a bit. We're primarily going to stay in Drop D tuning, however we will also delve into 'DADGAD' tuning. Now, if you have no idea what...Read More

Welcome Guitar Players! Over the next several lessons we are going to be looking at possible chord substitutions that can be used over a 'I Vi ii V' progression. To begin with, I want you to have a go at this sequence of chords and try and get them sounding nice under your finger tips. Once you have a feel for this progre...Read More

Welcome Guitar Players! Over the next several lessons we are going to be looking at possible chord substitutions that can be used over a 'I Vi ii V' progression. To begin with, I want you to have a go at this sequence of chords and try and get them sounding nice under your finger tips. Once you have a feel for this progre...Read More

Hey there Guys! Welcome to this month's tutorial. This time we'll be looking at a form of harmony known as Quartal Harmony. Before we get into that though lets have a look at what normal harmony is in a Western context. In the western world we build harmony (chords and chord progressions) to sound functional. This, in ba...Read More

Welcome to the 'Building Speed and Stamina' Tutorial! Throughout this tutorial, we are going to be strengthening our ability to control speed changes while playing. It's critical that we are able to transition smoothly from one speed to another with ease. Whether it's a quick burst of fast notes, or a sudden change to slowe...Read More

Hello and welcome to this tutorial on building speed and accuracy. One thing that alot of people ask is 'How do I get faster?' and of course, the almost automatic reaction is 'Practice!' and while that may be true, I really believe there is a lot more to it than just practicing, and you really have to know WHAT to practice....Read More

Hey folks! In this lesson, we're going to learn a jazz rhythm exercise that will help us get familiar with the concept of polymeter. Polymeter occurs when there are multiple time signatures being used simultaneously. For example, a guitarist might be playing a riff in 5/4 time, while a drummer might be playing a beat in 4/...Read More

Hi there guys and welcome to this tutorial on creating backing tracks! We're going to be focusing on how I record my backing tracks with specific reference to the software I use and the plugins used to create the sounds. I use three pieces of software as my primary source of recording and creating sounds. The first is App...Read More

Hi there guys! Welcome to this months tutorial which is a slight departure from what you were probably expecting. First let me say that 'Playing over Changes Part II' is coming your way next month but I wanted to make that tutorial as awesome as possible for you with written examples and lots of ideas. So, I need a little ...Read More

Greeting guitar slingers! In this tutorial we will analyze a song of mine, still in the making. The reason for choosing such a song, is to be able to more easily explain a bit about the creative process in which the song develops. This tutorial will be helpful both for those of you that have complex harmonies in your son...Read More

Welcome my friends! In this song tutorial, we're going to learn a rock piece called 'Trusting a Hope'. The majority of this piece is at an intermediate level, but we'll also be mixing in some advanced techniques here and there. Once you've checked out the above video, head on over to the next page to get started!Read More

Hey people! In this lesson I'd like to discuss basic 12 bar blues improvisation. Although this element of music is taught all over the world and has been for quite some time, I feel that a lot of players can overlook the solid foundation that blues can give you, particularly in terms of improvisation. The solo example tha...Read More

Welcome Guitar Athletes! In this month’s tutorial we’ll be looking a song transcript from my 2004 FretDance album, called The March. We won’t be going into detail with every single overlay and harmonized lead in this song, but rather focusing on the main themes and riffs of the tune. We’ll be lookin...Read More

Greetings Guitar slingers! Welcome to my tutorial on funk rhythm guitar playing! As I mention in the video, there are many, many variations on funk guitar playing. There is single note funk (more like playing bass lines on guitar), strumming (like what we will be covering here) and much more. You might want to check out S...Read More

Hello again! Welcome to my latest acoustic fingerstyle tutorial in which we will be studying a piece I wrote called 'Lullaby'. I have done some strategic editing as the original piece is much longer and I feel that it is much more digestible in this shorter format. Although I have graded this piece as intermediate level, ...Read More

Welcome! In this tutorial, we're going to delve into some Latin styles. If you enjoy guitarists like Al Di Meola and Steve Oliver, this will be right up your alley. And if you haven't heard of those guitarists, go check them out! :) Once you've watched the video above, head on over to the next page for the first exercise.Read More

Hello! and welcome to the Rhythm Changes. This tutorial will have two ends to it. Right now we are just going to learn a 32 bar solo. The solo will be broken up into two 16 bar segments for you to work on. Then I'll introduce you to the chord progression we were soloing over. My next tutorial will be on this same subject...Read More

Welcome! In this song tutorial we'll be learning a piece I wrote called 'Redemption'. As you go through the tutorial, you'll notice that the entire piece is centered on the following chord progression: C, Em, Am, F. You'll also notice that everything is played on only 2 strings (Low E and A). What I attempted to do in thi...Read More

In my last tutorial, I spent a fair bit of time explaining and breaking down the factors that make up polymeters. In essence, we scratched the surface of the concept. This month, I chose to turn up the heavy knob just a little, and get your guys' brains back in motion, except this time, with some heavy metal riffs.What you'...Read More

Welcome! In today's lesson we will be studying the classical guitar solo written by Spanish composer/guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852 - 1909). Tárrega is considered by many to have been responsible for the revival of interest in the guitar as a concert instrument during the 19th century. His relationship wi...Read More

Hey everyone! Here's a little acoustic piece I wrote called 'Acoustic Synergy'. Why did I call it 'Acoustic Synergy'? Because it sounds cool! I hope you enjoy this short tutorial. Once you check out the full video above, head on over to the next lesson and we'll learn the first riff. Break out your acoustic guitar, and le...Read More

I hope you've packed your suitcase, because we're about to leave on the Blues Cruise! Okay maybe not, but let's learn a cool blues song while we're here. :) I was in a bluesy mood the other day so I decided to write this little tune. I hope you have fun learning it! Once you've watched the video above, head on over to the ...Read More

Alright! Time for some metal riffing! What we'll do in this lesson is - we'll take a simple key of E but will turn it into a Locrian mode and apply such techniques as standard down stroke picking, a bit of slides, artificial harmonics and some heavy palm muting. Important thing to keep in mind is your tension - you should ...Read More

Funk in the Trunk! Every once in a while, I get a crazy urge to play some funk music. This is a short piece I wrote that focuses on some fundamental funk guitar elements. So grab your guitar, break out the disco ball, and let's get going!Read More

Hey! Thanks for tuning in to this tutorial in which we are going to look at a piece that I have written for my new album called 'Aftermath'. Aftermath started off a study I wrote for one of my students. The music was inspired by a television series called 'tales of the unexpected' and in particular, an episode called 'the ...Read More

Welcome one and all to this very special rendition of the classic Christmas song 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' performed just for you even more special IG'ists. Snuggle up to the roaring fire and don't forget your steaming cup of cocoa because you won't want to miss this...............   Read More

Welcome guitar slingers, to this behemoth of a tutorial on guitar set-up! Proper guitar set-up is something that everybody know is needed, but few know how to do. It’s sort of like the mechanics of a car. We all know how to drive one, but if it need adjustments or repair, very few of us knows what to do, and conseque...Read More

Welcome to this tutorial on ear training techniques! I’m sure many of you have already had some kind of ear training in school, and are familiar with the concept. What I want to do here is to perhaps give you some new exercises that will help strengthen your ear even more, and fill in any gaps that you might have in ...Read More

Hi guys! Welcome to this tutorial - a lesson all about developing your internal metronome and time feel. Time in music is without a doubt the most important aspect of your playing. This has been demonstrated most graphically in my mind by guitarist Scott Henderson. He presents the idea that a tune can be understood and rec...Read More