by Brad Carlton
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In this 4-part video guitar lesson series, Brad Carlton explores 40 timeless tips from 40 guitar legends featured in Guitar Player Magazine. Each lesson explores a lick or an exercise in the style of a great guitarist complete with the video guitar lesson, power tab, chart, and more. Now dig in and supercharge your chops!
21. Jimi Hendrix
Inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s signature lick on the Buddy Miles tune “Them Changes,” (which Hendrix popularized with the Band of Gypsys), this greasy riff is a prime example of how Hendrix took standard R&B moves (which he undoubtedly mastered touring with the Isley Brothers, Little Richard, and other soul acts earlier in his career) and transformed them into an explosive, neck-strangling Strat style the world has imitated ever since. Start slow, lock into the groove, and play this over and over until you fall into a Jimi trance.
Click here to get the chart and tab for this guitar lesson.
22. Swap-A-Run
Jimi Hendrix still had a year left on the planet, the Beatles were about to release Abbey Road, and readers all over the world were already getting involved in GP content when Gerd Geerken of Germany sent in this lyrical phrase to “Swap-A-Run,” the predecessor of more recent GP reader submission columns such as “Lick of the Month” and “Reader’s Challenge.” The heart of Geerken’s pleasing intro/outro descent to F major is the recurring major-7th/dominant-9th shift you see in each of the first three bars. Strum the chords (see grids) or arpeggiate them as notated.
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23. Page Milliken
Your guitar can speak! wrote this inspired GP columnist just four years after the great Wes Montgomery played his last note. Milliken used the lyrical octaves lick below (based on a phrase from Montgomery’s “Boss City”) to demonstrate the “vocal” capabilities of the jazz guitar. “Jazz began,” reminded Milliken, “as improvisation around a melody. Louis Armstrong changed all this. Jazz then became improvisation within a given chord progression, which presented the opportunity for much greater self expression.”
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24. Charlie Byrd
During his interview for this inaugural issue of Guitar Player, jazz and fingerstyle legend Charlie Byrd was spied scribbling this simple intro on the back of a notepad. The next moment he was playing it. Byrd was an inspiring beacon of musical literacy. “Sure, some great musicians claim not to be able to read music, but they’re not great because they can’t read music,” he said. “They did it the hard way, and they know it. Can you imagine taking a course in history without being able to take notes, to have to keep all that information in your head? The system of musical notation is over 500 years old. We can learn from what all musicians did before us.”
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25. Lenny Breau
Harp-style octave harmonics from one of the approach’s all-time masters (along with Breau’s hero, Chet Atkins). These are tricky at first, but if you persevere, you’ll have a technique that will make any intro, outro, or breakdown a complete showstopper. Pluck the string with your picking-hand thumb while lightly touching the 1st finger of your fretting hand to the string 12 frets (one octave) above the chord tone to produce each harmonic. Pluck the fretted (non-harmonic) notes with your pinky. Fast or slow, this is an amazing sound. (Tip: You can also pick octave harmonics if you hold your plectrum between the thumb and middle finger.)
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26. Arnie Berle
An introduction to harmonized scales from Arnie Berle, who was the inquisitive guitarist’s best friend in the ’70s. You can grab two, three, or four notes at a time and you will instantly hear the building blocks to a million classic tunes. Each simple cluster herein demonstrates how triads and extended chords are constructed by simply stacking thirds. The blueprint of Western harmony in one measure of music. Yeah!
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27. Kent Murdick
One of the most used and abused styles on the nylon-string guitar is the bossa nova, wrote Kent Murdick in this seminar. “It is actually a jazz-influenced, slower form of the traditional Brazilian samba, and the guitar is its dominant instrument. But of the many players who can knock out tunes such as ‘One Note Samba’ or ‘Girl From Ipanema,’ few achieve a proper samba feel.” With its even bass line and syncopated chord stabs, this simple C major example is based on a traditional “clave” rhythm, and should get you in on the ground floor of bossa guitar-a style that, despite its airy and breezy sound, should never be taken lightly.
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28. Bill Frisell
This amazing and demanding exercise has it all: bizarre chromaticism, monster stretches, eerie dissonance, and a ringing G major scale at the end. “Let all the open strings ring out and don’t let go of any of the fingered notes until the last possible moment,” Frisell advises. “Take each measure and repeat it over and over. Likewise, loop various groups of measures.” He forgot to add, “Prepare to be amazed.”
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29. Zakk Wylde
If you like raging metal solos, few things are more exciting than sitting in the studio with the spectacle that is Zakk Wylde digging into a Les Paul cranked through a blazing Marshall half-stack, as we did for this cover story. Wylde’s solos are just plain relentless, and his ideas infinite. Here’s a diabolical diminished ditty Wylde showed us. (Tip: Pick the first two notes of each triplet using a downward sweep of the plectrum.)
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30. Fernando Carulli
Hey, “advanced” players-don’t just skip ahead. This tablature-less Carulli piece is a good test of your reading chops. Even intermediate guitarists should be able to play through this simple waltz at first glance, in time, and without a single mistake. (Tip for beginners: In the indicated key of G [one sharp], the lines’ notes [from low to high] are E, G, B, D, F#, and the spaces’ notes are F#, A, C, E. The Italian instruction D.C. al Fine means return to the head [da capo] and play to the end [fine].)
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