tips and tricks
KILLER METAL RIFFS AND THE ‘DEVILS INTERVAL’
Killer Metal Riffs and the ‘Devils Interval’
Put the heavy into your metal riffs with the tritone or ‘devils interval’! It’s been the secret weapon of heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Slayer and Metallica for years, now you can find it and start to use it to create killer riffs of your own. So get ready to learn all about the devils interval or tritone and how you can instantly use it to create crushing riffs like the worlds greatest metal bands.
So what is a tritone? It’s the distance of 3 tones between two notes. Of course what really matters is what it sounds like, and the good news is that it sounds dark and heavy, making it perfect for those doom-laden metal riffs!
Now we know what a tritone is we can look at finding power chords whose roots are a tritone apart. This is where the magic starts to happen! Hear me demo the sound in the lesson…instant Black Sabbath!
The theory behind this is pretty simple, but some example metal riffs using the tritone could be helpful. So see me demonstrate and break down 3 example riffs using power chords and pedal tones. These will help you see some of the possibilities and give you some ideas for killer riffs of your own.
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5 TOOLS YOU NEED WHEN YOU PRACTICE GUITAR
5 Tools You Need When You Practice Guitar
Guitar practice time? Here are 5 tools which you’ll need to help you get the most from your session and see great results every time you practice your guitar. Just deciding to ‘practice guitar’ won’t get you where you want to be unless you’re doing it the right way! The 5 guitar practice tools I share in this video will help you stay on track, remember what you’ve learned, develop a good practice routine , manage your practice time more efficiently and ultimately make you a better guitar player!
Having these 5 practice tools in your practice room will help you get off to a flying start with your practice session, so keep them close by. Let’s look at them one by one:
1) Timer to help you break up your session and cover all the areas you want to practice. A small digital egg timer is perfect, or you can use the stopwatch on your phone
2) Blank tab paper to keep a record of any cool ideas you discover. We can learn a lot from ourselves when we do our guitar practice…so note down what you find out so you don’t lose it!
Grab your FREE blank tab book here (you don’t even need to submit an email address!). Print it off and you’re sorted!
3) Metronome. Great for building speed, keeping a consistent rhythm and staying focused on an exercise. Wind up or digital great…or online! Just make sure it’s loud enough.
4) Video camera in your phone. Record yourself to listen back for feedback and to document the progress over your weeks and months of guitar practice sessions. Great practice tool!
5) Backing tracks and drum loops. Unless you have a band on standby for every time you feel like jamming (I’m guessing you haven’t) backing tracks and drum loops are amazing for putting what you are practicing into a more real-life situation in the practice room.
Hope these guitar practice tips help you out. Leave a comment below the video if you have any cool practice tips or practice tips you want to share. See you next time! James
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POWER CHORDS – LEARN POWER CHORDS FAST WITH THIS EASY METHOD
Learn Power Chords Fast with this Easy Method
Power Chords: Learn the power chord shapes for guitar you need to play rock and metal with this simple memory/learning technique. Learning and remembering the power chords you need on guitar can be tricky and take time, but I’ll show you a simple method you can use to nail them fast and remember and find them when you need them. Good news huh?
Power chords are an important part of any guitarists chord library. Obviously, they are used in rock and metal guitar, but you’ll also hear them in punk, country, pop, funk and other common guitar styles. So, chances are that you need to know the power chords in this lesson.
You’ll learn four common power chords in this tutorial: starting on the E, A, D and G strings. We’ll group them together into ‘octaves’ to make them easy to learn and remember. I’ll also give you tips on how to combine them and layer them to get some cool guitar sounds happening.
So guitar player, strap in and prepare to learn the most important power chords you need to know!
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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Drum Loop For Guitar Practice – Metal 70bpm
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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!
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