PLAY GUITAR FASTER – BUILD YOUR SPEED USING ‘SPEED STACKING’

PLAY GUITAR FASTER…

Want to play guitar faster? Build your speed, get faster fingers, and more improve fret-hand accuracy with my ‘speed stacking’ exercise. This speed exercise is based on the idea of pushing ourselves to top speed for a short period of time, and then gradually starting to maintain that speed for longer. With practice, we can see dramatic results in our playing speed fast!

We’re going to look at increasing the speed of a repeating blues scale lick. It’s using hammer ons and pull offs and is a great way to speed up your fingers! But this speed exercise works for almost any lick, whether picked, tapped or whatever. So adapt the exercise to build your playing speed in whatever area you want to.

We’ll be using a metronome to build our speed in this lesson. A metronome is a great way to measure progress and to keep us in time. We start the metronome off slow and gradually increase it up to warp speed…

After finding your cruising speed (explained in lesson) push your speed by playing short repetitions of the lick at higher tempos. Keep going till your playing speed maxes out…then go back to the start again. Hours of fun, and guaranteed to increase your playing speed and make you a faster guitar player!

Have fun!

BEGINNER BLUES GUITAR LICKS (PART 2)

Beginner Blues Guitar Licks (Part 2)

In this video tutorial discover 3 more blues licks for beginners. These authentic but basic blues licks are perfect for helping you learn to play great blues solos and licks of your own. Learn to play these licks and you’re on the way to sounding like a great blues guitarist.

In this free blues guitar lesson, I’ll show you how to play licks used by all great blues players. All these licks are from the blues scale, the most often used scale for soloing and improvising in blues and rock. We’ll be playing in the key of A and these licks will work great over a 12 bar blues in the key of A.

If you are just starting out playing blues licks then jump in and get started the right way! Then armed with these blues licks you’ll have ideas to use in your own improvisation. Good luck!

BEGINNER BLUES GUITAR LICKS (PART 1)

Beginner Blues Guitar Licks (Part 1)

In this video tutorial you will learn 3 blues licks for beginners. These basic blues licks are essential for all blues guitarists, and once you can play these licks you’re well on your way to being a bluesman! Inside these beginners blues licks you’ll find many of the essential tools used by the blues guitar greats: the tastiest string bends, double stops and blues rhythms to give your licks that bluesy groove.

These blues licks are all coming from the A blues scale played at the 5th fret and will all work great over a 12 bar blues in A.

The blues scale is the most often used scale for soloing and improvising in blues and rock. If you are just starting out in blues licks you should definitely check out this video to learn it, and get a bunch of ideas to use from it. And with these blues licks in your arsenal, you’ll be all set to start trying to play your own blues solos and improvisations.

Beginner Rock Guitar Licks (Part 2)

Beginner Rock Guitar Licks (Part 2)

Beginner Rock Guitar Licks Lesson Part 2 shows you 3 more rock guitar licks that are perfect for the beginner to intermediate rock guitar player. These rock guitar licks are great for beginners or intermediate guitarists…but even your favourite rock guitar legend is using them too! Guitar solos by Gary Moore, Slash, Schenker, Randy Rhoads, Kirk Hammett have all used licks just like these ones. So these ‘beginner rock licks’ are super powerful…whatever level of player you are so dive in and learn how to play and use them, and get them into your solos to build yourself an awesome rock or metal guitar style!
These licks are in the key of E minor using the E blues scale played up at the 12th fret.

• 0:57 Beginner Rock Lick 1: This scaler rock lick is similar to something played by Slash in his “Sweet Child ‘o’ Mine’ solo. Follow the picking and bending guidelines in the lesson (they’re important!) and watch that ‘blues curl’ at the start!
• 4:15 Beginner Rock Lick 2: It starts with a repeating blues scale lick. Follow the picking guidelines on this one, it will help you get the lick fluent and up to speed.
• 6:30 Beginner Rock Guitar Lick 3: All rock guitarists play licks like this one some of the time. It’s basically working it’s way down the blues scale. A great frethand exercise to build up a repertoire of speedy licks. Follow the picking to make it easier to play!

Even if you’re a beginner rock guitar player, it’s never too early to start experimenting with these guitar licks! See how you can take the bits of them and use them as the building blocks for some rock licks of your own. Repeat bits, change parts of them, add a different ending…just explore the possibilities with your imagination. This kind of guitar practice really pays off big time…it takes you from a beginner to a more intermediate level guitar player!

Beginner Rock Guitar Licks (Part 1)

Beginner Rock Guitar Licks (Part 1)

This Beginner Rock Guitar Licks lesson shows you 3 guitar licks that are perfect for the beginner to intermediate rock guitar player, teaching you essential concepts and techniques you’ll use time and again to play great rock guitar solos. These rock guitar licks are great for beginners…but don’t be fooled: even your favourite rock guitar legends like Slash, Schenker, Randy Rhoads, Kirk Hammett have used licks just like these in their epic rock and metal guitar solos. These ‘beginner rock licks’ are super powerful…whatever level of player you are so dive in and learn how to play and use them now! These licks are in the key of E minor using the E blues scale played up at the 12th fret.

• 0:57 Beginner Rock Lick 1: This repeating rock lick is using hammer ons, pull offs on the top 3 strings. Follow the picking and muting guidelines in the lesson (they’re important!)
• 3:30 Beginner Rock Lick 2: Michael Schenker does this sort of thing a lot! This move can be a bit tricky for beginner rock players but it’s important to learn how to do it. It starts off with some unison bends before moving into a repeating blues scale lick.
• 6:55 Beginner Rock Guitar Lick 3: This lick shows you a cool bending idea, a favorite of players like Slash and Zakk Wylde!

Even if you’re a beginner rock guitar player, it’s never too early to start experimenting with these guitar licks! See how you can take the bits of them and use them as the building blocks for some rock licks of your own. This kind of guitar practice really pays off big time…it takes you from a beginner to a more intermediate level guitar player!

Drum Loop For Guitar Practice – Metal 70bpm

Drum loop for guitar practice in heavy metal style. This slow metal drum beat at about 70bpm is a great way to practice power chords, riffs and even soloing with. Use it to try out your own riffs and ideas, practice getting a rock-solid groove in your playing, and to practice playing solos over.

Drum loops are a great practice tool for guitarists. You’re not restricted by keys, chord sequence…or anything else! All you’ve got is a rhythm. This is cool because it makes you concentrate on your groove and rhythmic feel more, and can result in big improvements in your timing and rhythm feel (very important!)

This track goes well with my power chords lesson here on the ‘Free Guitar Lessons’ section of the site

Happy riffing!

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Blues in A Backing Track

Blues in A backing track for blues guitar practice. Practice along with this track to improve your blues soloing, blues chords, blues riffs, time feel, improvisation and lots more.

This blues track is in the key of A and is based on a 12 bar blues form. This is the most common chord pattern in blues music. In the key of A it uses the chords A7, D7 and E7. Try playing the chords over it to improve your rhythm guitar chops!

If you want to solo over this backing track then the most common approach would be to use the A blues scale or the A minor pentatonic scale. There are other choices, but these will give you that classic blues sound. So try out all those tasty blues licks and bends you’ve been working on.

When soloing remember to leave space between the phrases and to use some repetition. There’s nothing wrong with playing the same licks round and round with slight changes, in fact this is an important part of learning to play great blues.

Enjoy it!