Evening Patrons! Here's this week's video. (A little later than usual - thanks to a mega time-consuming edit - but I got there in the end!)
I'm looking at the classic Replacements track I Will Dare. I know quite a few of you on here have requested I look at some Replacements, so hope you enjoy this one. A great song, tons of nice riffs and licks. Link here:
I've tabbed it ...
2021-01-15 19:28:57 +0000 UTC View PostHeres the backing track. It should follow the arrangement of the original recording. I also recommend you experiment with your own variations and embellishments on the Teenie Hodges part. Have fun playing along!
2021-01-08 15:33:17 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! To follow on from the Rainy Night In Georgia I did a few months back, I wanted to look at some more classic soul rhythm playing. So here's my take on the Al Green track Stand Up, featuring some lovely guitar work from the great Teenie Hodges. I always advise anyone looking to improve their rhythm guitar skills to study a few tracks such as this one. It's all in there - rhythm, groove, ideas, economy. Here's the link -
Happy New Year all! Hope everyone's doing OK. To kick things off for 2021 I have a selection of my favourite guitar exercises. I don't know about any of you, but I've hardly picked up a guitar over the past couple of weeks and am feeling slightly rusty. So I'm going to be working on a few of these myself in an effort to get my technique back up to scratch. Here's a link to the video:
https://youtu.be/w-cQRr4nI1U<...
2021-01-01 15:09:47 +0000 UTC View PostJust in case you wanted to play the chorus melody yourself on the guitar (or maybe you object to the cheesy robot voice - what's wrong with you, it's great!?) here's the backing sans vocoder.
2020-12-18 12:48:48 +0000 UTC View PostHello patronz! My Christmas special proper this week, and I'm once again looking at a track from the great Ventures' Christmas album. Here's the link -
It's a fun track to play. Great melodies and phrasing and nice use of double stops. Find the tab below. I've notated the intro bits as I hear them on the original, though I don't play it exactly like that in the video, and ...
2020-12-18 12:41:20 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the backing to go with this week's video. I had fun making this one. A great bass line with chorus effect, real sleigh bells, mellotron choirs. I used the Arturia Mellotron V plug-in for the choir sounds - a great instrument, highly recommended. Enjoy playing along!
2020-12-11 11:59:53 +0000 UTC View PostI've been meaning to look at this track anyway, but since we're getting on towards the middle of December, I thought I'd make this one my annual Christmas Special. We have sleigh bells, a choir, some excellent riffs from John McGeoch!
Her's the link: https://youtu.be/Sg-qKYlrl4w
Tab is attached below.
Have fun with it. speak next week,
Adrian
2020-12-11 11:56:19 +0000 UTC View PostThis week, some acoustic blues and a wonderful piece from the great John Fahey. Quite a difficult one (at least it is for me) but don't let that put you off making an attempt. It's certainly achievable if you take it slowly, bit by bit.
Here's the link to the lesson:
I've written it all out below. The transcription is pretty epic as I wanted to include all the little variations ...
2020-12-04 17:28:04 +0000 UTC View PostHere's my backing. Figuring out the bass and drum parts for this track really deepened my appreciation for the Banshees rhythm section. Really great stuff. Enjoy playing along.
2020-11-27 17:45:02 +0000 UTC View PostHello all! I'm feeling much better this week, and normal service is resuming. I recently got sent an Eastwood McGeoch 1000 guitar and that gives me the perfect excuse to look at other post-punk classic from Siouxsie and the Banshees.
I take you through all the wonderful, quite unusual riffs in the track and also talk a bit about getting the McGeoch sound.
Here's the link: https://youtu.be/YOD8XvBl_jI<...
2020-11-27 17:42:41 +0000 UTC View PostHello all!
Bad news. Sadly there's going to be no new video today. Nothing too serious, but I've been slightly under the weather all week. Just a cold with a sore throat, but I attempted to film earlier in the week and sounded ridiculous. So the exciting new video I had planned will just have to wait until next week.
I'm sure this news will come as a crushing disappointment to many of you, and I hate to ruin anyone's Friday. So...I've got a couple of bonus videos for you fro...
2020-11-20 11:06:58 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the backing track to accompany this week's lesson. Have fun!
2020-11-13 16:56:11 +0000 UTC View PostHello all,
This week, a simple yet powerful concept aimed at developing your soloing and improvising abilities. We're going to be playing over a blues in E, but you're only allowed to use the B string. These kind of restrictive exercises can be excellent ways to get away from always playing the same old thing. Here's a link to the video:
Give it a try. I'd be interested to hear ...
2020-11-13 16:52:23 +0000 UTC View PostHello all!
I'm trying something slightly different this week. Since many of my favourite Nick Cave songs don't contain that much guitar, I thought I'd have a go at doing my own arrangement of this beautiful piano-based ballad. In the video I take you through how I went about putting together my arrangement, and give you some general advice about how you could do a similar thing yourself with any song. Here's the link:
Here's my backing to go along with this week's video. I'm afraid I didn't do the entire track, just the first verse and chorus. But hope some of you find it useful.
2020-10-30 17:34:11 +0000 UTC View PostHello all,
This week, another loosely Halloween-themed video: Nosferatu Man by Slint. Again, this is a band I was planning on taking look at sooner or later anyway. This is a fascinating track, with tons of interesting things going on: drop D tuning, odd time signatures, harmonics, weird and dissonant chords. Here's the link:
If you're unfamiliar with Slint, do check out their a...
2020-10-30 17:19:05 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the backing for this week's video. It doesn't really follow the original too closely. The main riff is just played, er, lots of times and then I go into a chorus towards the end.
There's an interesting octave bass part. And for the dub sound effects on the drums I used the Soundtoys Echo Boy plug-in, which is fantastic, and highly recommended to those of you into recording.
Enjoy playing along and making some crazy noises over the top of this.
2020-10-23 16:06:45 +0000 UTC View PostHello all! It's that time of year for a goth-rock Halloween special. This has long been a favourite track of mine. We have a couple of easy barre chord riffs and lots of crazy atmospherics. There's some spooky silliness, but also some serious stuff about how to approach playing in a textural kind of way. Hope you enjoy it.
Here's the link:
And I've tabbed out the basic rif...
2020-10-23 16:00:24 +0000 UTC View PostI wanted to do something acoustic this week and have plumped for a bit more Bert Jansch, one of my all-time favourite acoustic players. It's a short piece, but quite an intricate one. So slow it right down, and take it a bar or a beat at a time if you need to.
Here's the link: https://youtu.be/nhIAajS0I_g
Here's a live version. Good close ups of his hands. Notice how he's changed a few bits compared to the origin...
2020-10-16 12:05:15 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the backing track to go along with this weeks video. It's just the solo section of the song, since it's a long and complex track and, if I'm honest, I simply didn't have time this week to figure out and record the whole thing! But hope some of you find it helpful. Enjoy playing along.
2020-10-09 15:23:27 +0000 UTC View PostHello all,
This week, more X. As I say in the video, I don't usually like to repeat myself by looking at the same artist in consecutive videos, but I couldn't resist taking a look at this track. It contains a superb country-influenced guitar solo. And I also discuss how you can use triads and chord tones to solo over a slightly awkward chord progression. Here's the link -
...
2020-10-09 15:19:21 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the backing track. It follows the arrangement of the original recording. Enjoy playing along!
2020-10-02 12:02:30 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patrons!
This week, I'm looking at a track by LA punk band X. X are one of those bands I've known about for along time, but I'd never properly explored their music until quite recently. Now I'm a true believer - great songs, great lyrics, and stunning guitar work from Billy Zoom. Here's the link to the lesson: https://youtu.be/vQId7OfcyfU
And here's a nice live in the studio clip of the band performin...
2020-10-02 11:58:14 +0000 UTC View PostHere's my backing. It follows the arrangement of the original recording. Of course feel free to also use it to improvise your own stuff over. Have fun!
2020-09-25 15:47:52 +0000 UTC View PostAfternoon all,
I'm in the mood for a bit of classic rock n roll this week. As I say in the video, I was surprised to find there's not much out there in the way of detailed lessons on this track. It contains 2 essential rockabilly solos from the great Cliff Gallup.
Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzWGKVXgyn0&feature=em-comments
There's very li...
2020-09-25 14:54:18 +0000 UTC View PostHope everyone's having a good weekend. As promised, here's a video breakdown of my Folsom Prison Blues solo. I go through it lick by lick and talk about some of the thought process behind it. Here's the link:
Hope you find the video interesting.
Tab is attached below.
Speak next Friday!
Adrian
2020-09-20 14:30:52 +0000 UTC View PostI've made this backing track available free to everyone on my site, but I'm putting it up on here too in case any of you want a downloadable mp3 version.
It follows the 11/22 bar blues structure you hear on Cash's recordings.
Enjoy playing along!
2020-09-18 13:36:21 +0000 UTC View PostHello all! This week, another Improv Session. For this one, I'm playing over a Johnny Cash-inspired backing track. There are lots of soloing tips and tricks - scale options, bending ideas, licks...
Here's the link: https://youtu.be/Be6ioXGaaA8
I didn't want to go into the specifics my own solo in this video, as I wanted to keep the focus on improvising and doing your own thing. However, in case anyone would like ...
2020-09-18 13:32:56 +0000 UTC View Post