Yearly Archives: 2000

How do you know what to play when you only know the chords? This lesson shows you some ways to come up with basslines that sound close enough to the original.

There is a not so subtle connection between the origin of the pentatonic scale and blues music.

There are a few different claims to the origin of the slide guitar. But whatever they are, slide guitar is forever associated with the sound of blues music.

When you write a song with emotion you need to remember that everyone is going to react to it differently. Let’s look at how emotion is tied to songwriting.

What are harmonics and how are they produced? We’re going to delve into these questions and show you how use harmonics to spice up a few songs.

What sort of things can you use to play slide guitar? Here are some ideas and a collection of tips to make your slide playing sound better.

Before the holidays, let’s go through some of the things you can buy for the guitar player on your list. Have no fear – there are no wrong things to buy!

The chorus is the part of a song that repeats the most. It can become very annoying if the songwriter doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Tommy Shaw is best known for his work with Styx and Damn Yankees. In this interview he talks to us about the ups and downs of his impressive music career.

This lesson takes a look at an unusual phenomenon known as sustained tones. You can hear it in songs by Oasis, Pink Floyd, Indigo Girls and others.

Music host Mary has been hosting music jams and pot-lucks at her home in Maryland. It offers a fun combination of food and music.

If you’re left handed, you know it sucks walking into a music store and finding maybe one guitar out of a hundred to play. What’s a lefty to do?

On the anniversary of his first article for Guitar Noise, David Hodge takes off on one of his tangents and considers all things in the guitar universe.

Rasgueados serve two very important purposes. They can be a technical exercise as well as a way to add rhythmic variety to a harmonic accompaniment.

Getting out there and playing music with others can be a lot of fun. Here’s a personal account of what goes into one big summer jam.

Feelin’ Alright was written by Dave Mason when he was with the group Traffic. Our take on this song proves that a two chord song doesn’t have to sound boring.

John Young is an accomplished musician and songwriter who has worked with John Wetton and Bonnie Tyler. He was kind enough to answer some questions for us.

This article discusses some of the mechanics of getting people together to make music and have fun.

This lesson continues our look at ways you can build your improvisatory vocabulary.

We’re going to use this old Buffalo Springfield classic to learn a new strumming technique and figure out how to get a cool percussive rhythm sound.