guitar columns

For many guitarists, playing and songwriting go hand in hand. Since both skills improve with practice, why not try practicing on both simultaneously?

We continue our study of walking bass lines, looking specifically at how the timing and distance become our guideposts, helping us to map out our journey from one target note to the next. Examples from many songs, including a little of Bob Dylan’s You Ain’t Going Nowhere and Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day will serve as demonstrations in our lesson.

Here’s an interesting twist – we’re going to use a walking bass line as a way to help us get faster and cleaner chord changes, specifically between the G and C chords. Sound implausible? Well, come along and join in the fun.

Walking bass lines are an easy way to spice up your playing and also learn a little about music in the process.

Just as there are all sorts of ways to make a living in music, there are more ways why people decide not to follow their dreams. More often than not, the simple task of being prepared to ask oneself questions (and to answer honestly) can get you living the life you dream about.

In celebration of his hot selling book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar, David has put together a couple of bass lessons exclusively for the readers of Guitar Noise. Learn how to play this classic Pink Floyd song. It’s as easy as counting to seven (and occasionally eight)!

Just the words augmented and diminished give us pause. Do we need a special degree or extra study to employ one of these chords? Not at all! Let’s examine these chords, how they’re formed and the functions they can serve. If you’re capable of counting to twelve, you’re capable of understanding and using these marvelous chords.

Let’s take some of the things we’ve discussed in past columns and see them put to good use. If you’d like, you can even learn how to play Lindsay Buckingham’s solo from the original recording of Landslide. But you’ve got to promise to learn something.

Here’s something especially for those of you who think that having small children gives you an excuse not to practice – you can play this arrangement of Brahms’ Lullaby at least several times each day! And we’ve turned it into a fairly decent lesson so that those of us without children can learn a few things as well.

In this column we show you how to put together any modal scale yourself. Also, we’ll explore a few of the practical applications when it comes to modes. And if you’re not careful, you may learn two easy songs – Green Day’s Warning and that old Desmond Dekker reggae classic, The Israelites.

Not everyone picks up the guitar to be a strummer! But song arrangements and chord melodies do not have to be the forte of just classical and jazz players. You, too, can learn to create song arrangements to play at your own level.

This lesson takes some of the myth and mystery out of playing a 12 string guitar. We even throw in an arrangement of a classic Allman Brothers song as a bonus.

Scales are much more than a run of notes. Learning how they work is useful for all sorts of things, including writing your own guitar riffs.

We’re going to take some chord shapes that you know already and start working on moveable chords. These chords sound cool and we’ve thrown in several examples.

A quick guide to reading music notation. This is something that many of you have asked for. It is also something that any and every serious musician needs.

Knowing the little nuances of different musical genres can help you be a more flexible musician. The more styles you can play, the more music you can play.

A popular reader request is a lesson on how to get a Celtic sounding guitar style. This lesson has more than a few ideas to achieve that sound.

This article is full of advice for anyone thinking of buying their next guitar online. David shares some of his experiences in buying instruments from ebay.

Today we’re going to introduce the subject of modulation. Modulation is a great songwriting tool and a key subject to understanding how music is put together.

We are going to dispel some of the mysteries and anxieties surrounding songs written in minor keys. Included in this lesson is a whole bevy on examples.