The BB King Box
Time to learn about one of the all time great areas for soloing – the BB King box. Four simple notes, an unlimited array of sounds.
Time to learn about one of the all time great areas for soloing – the BB King box. Four simple notes, an unlimited array of sounds.
The Black Crowes have a bluesy, old school rock sound and love using pentatonic extensions to create some wailing solos. We’ll show you how.
Learn a SRV inspired riff using the BB King box in this pentatonic blues lesson.
Time for another pentatonic extension, this one named after the immortal Chuck Berry. Many a great lick can be played using this box, so let’s get started.
What better way to study the Chuck Berry box than with a Chuck Berry style riff? We’ll show you the rock n’ roll legend would use his own box.
We’ve got another pentatonic extension for you guys, this time it’s the Clapton box. You can make some killer chunky riffs with this pattern, so let’s get started.
The Clapton box is known for its low, grungy sound, and many bands, including Cream, have used it to create timeless riffs. We’ll show you how they might use it.
Now that we understand how the Clapton box works, we’re going to learn a juicy rock blues in the style of Joe Bonamassa to get some practice.
Today’s pentatonic extension is built off of the root 5 pentatonic scale. This simple 6 note box is home to many of the greatest riffs of all time, so let’s get started.
Today we’ve got a Queens of the Stone Age style riff to get some practice with the Hendrix box. So let’s get started!
The Zakk Wylde box actually consists of several other boxes strung together to give us one area to effortlessly create blistering riffs. We’ll show you how it all works!
We’re going to change gears here and learn a super funky, dancy riff in the style of Cake that uses the Zakk Wylde box.
Tony Iommi was an early hard rock pioneer and often used pentatonics to craft his solos. We’ll show you how he might use the Zakk Wylde box to create a fluid lead line.
Now that we have a handle on the Zakk Wylde box we’re going to learn a riff in the style of Zakk Wylde to show how you can use this box in a metal/blues style.
We’re going to learn yet another Chuck Berry box, but this one is mostly used to connect positions. This is super handy and will give you complete fretboard fluency.
Leslie West of Mountain combines the best of rock and blues, often using pentatonics. We’ll show you a riff in his style to demonstrate the repeated Chuck Berry box.
A major part of soloing is creating a game plan of where you can solo. We’ll show how to do this so that you can be confident as you rip up the fretboard.
Today we begin a new technique – fingerpicking. This timeless playing style is used in acoustic and folk music, but can really apply to any soft music.
As your fingerpick, your thumb should always be plucking the lowest note of the chord. We’ll show you how to move your thumb to different strings and give you an exercise to practice.
Now that you guys have a handle on fingerpicking, we’re going to learn a few more must know patterns that you can apply to progressions and songs.
Finger picking isn’t just limited to folk guitarists, even indie rockers like Band of Horses will use this technique for their ballads.
James Taylor is one of the great fingerpickers of all time, so it would be a shame not to learn a riff in his style!
The man in black was known to use fingerpicking for some of his most timeless riffs. We’ll show you how he might use this technique.
Welcome to the CAGED system! This fairly advanced concept will open up your chord vocabulary many times over and truly expand your musical mind. Let’s get started.
Today we’ll be looking at the softer side of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to learn how they might use CAGED shapes to create a progression.
We’re going to put those CAGED chords to work with a poppy Everclear style riff. We hope you guys enjoy it!
Maroon 5 combines the best of funk, pop, and rock into a very catchy package. Today, though, we’ll be looking at the ballad side of Maroon 5 for this CAGED riff.
Here’s a great exercise that will really reinforce those new CAGED shapes. Get ready to flex those mental muscles!
Let’s make the CAGED system musical! We’ve got an awesome riff in the style of John Lennon to practice the idea of playing the same chord in different shapes. Enjoy guys!
In this lesson we’re going to start a study on something called reggae chords. These are smaller shapes that work very well in band settings. So let’s get started!
We’ve got another batch of reggae chords for you guys, this time they are derived from an open A. So grab your guitar mon and let’s go!
Today we’re checking out the D shape reggae chords, one of the most popular shapes to play for reggae, rock, and many other styles.
We’re checking the F shape reggae chords today, a super common shape that all guitar players need to know!
Learn how the reggae master Bob Marley might use reggae chords in this super groovin’ lesson.
Welcome to the boneyard everybody! Today we’re looking at a super cool Aerosmith riff to get some work with our reggae chords!
To get some practice with our reggae chords, we’re going to learn a super cool riff in the style of 90′s reggae/ska powerhouse Sublime. Enjoy guys!
Welcome to the world of inversions! By taking chords we know and changing the lowest notes, we can get a host of new sounds! We’ll show you how it works.
Inversions are an awesome way to make your chords sound more emotional, intense, or heavy. We’ll show you a John Mayer riff to demonstrate.
Welcome to the world of intervals! An interval is basically playing two notes at once, and by combining certain intervals together, you can create some amazing riffs.
The minor second is one of the most grinding intervals in music, but can sound cool within a metal context as we’ll show you in this Korn style riff.
We’ve got two new intervals to learn today: the major and minor third. And then to get some practice with these intervals we’ve got a sweet Jimmy Buffett riff for you!
The tritone interval is the darkest and most brutal in all music, making it a favorite among metal players. We’ll show you the interval then show you how to use it.
We’ve got two new intervals which are often played together, the perfect 4th and perfect 5th. In conjunction these intervals can be used to create some truly rockin’ riffs!
We’ve got two classic guitar intervals up today: the major and minor 6th. Then, to practice these intervals, we’ve got a super tasty George Harrison riff.
We’ve got two more intervals today: the major and minor 7ths. These are dissonant yet jazzy intervals, and we’ve got a John Mayer style riff to show you one way to use them.
Our last interval is one we’ve already learned before – the octave. We’ve got a great Eric Johnson riff to help challenge you a little bit!
Welcome to the world of modes! Don’t be scared though, we’ll break down this traditionally intimidating topic and make it super easy to grasp.
Now that we understand the basics behind modes, we’re going to see how we can create modal keys in order to write and understand music on a new level.
Phoenix is an awesome pop band from France that often uses the Ionian mode to establish their catchy, groovy hooks. We’ll show you an example to illustrate their use of this mode!
The Dorian mode is well known for its Latin sound, making it the mode of choice for a player like Carlos Santana. We’ll show you how he might use the Dorian mode.
The Phrygian mode is a favorite among metal players for it’s dark, heavy quality. This Metallica inspired riff will show you how to get your metal on using this mode.
The lydian mode is often seen as the dream-like, spacy scale, and is used from time to time by alternative bands like Filter.
The mixolydian mode has long been a standby for rock music, and this Foo Fighters riff will give you a glimpse into what you can do with this versatile mode.
The Aeolian mode has a dark quality making it perfect for a hard rock band like Shinedown. We’ll show you how these guys might use this mode.
Joe Pass is perhaps the greatest jazz guitarist of all time, so we choose to honor him with a tasty Locrian riff. Enjoy guys!
Up until now we’ve been looking at modes from a chord perspective. In this section, however, we’re going to change gears and study modes from a lead guitar point of view.
The first mode we’ve got is the Ionian scale. While the actual scale won’t be anything new, the pattern will be!
There’s no limit to what you can do with the Ionian mode, so today’s lesson in the style of The Smashing Pumpkins is only the beginning!
We’ve got one of the most popular and grooviest modes up next – the dorian scale.
The Dorian mode can be super funky, and we’ll show you how with this James Brown style riff.
We’ve got another scale up today, this time it’s the Phygian mode. This scale is used in classical Spanish, metal, and more. So let’s get started!
The phrygian mode is a favorite among heavy metal players, and today we’ll be looking at a Children of Bodom style riff to illustrate how heavy this mode can get.
Next up we’ve got the Lydian scale, often called the dreamy scale for its air like quality. However, it’s also very common in jazz and progressive rock!
The Lydian mode is a favorite among progressive rockers because of its futuristic, advanced sound. We’ll show you how a band like Rush might use this scale.
The Mixolydian scale is a great tool for soloing in classic rock, blues, jazz, southern rock, and pop styles. It’s extremely versatile and a must know for guitar players.
Brian Setzer is a master of swing, rockabilly, and jazz guitar playing. Secret to many of these style is the mixolydian mode, and we’ll show you how to use it.
Believe it or not, but this is a mode you already know! Take this lesson and find out why!
Today we’ll be looking at riff in the style of Bon Jovi axeman Richie Sambora to get some practice with the Aeolian scale.
Today we’ve got one of the weirdest sounding scales out there – the Locrian mode. It’s the last mode of the major scale and will let you get some out there sounds!
The Locrian mode can really help give your song a chaotic, heavy sound, making it a good choice for a metal band like System of a Down.