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Five Great Fender Strat Mods Anyone Can Make
Most guitarists have a Fender Strat, whether it’s a U.S., Mexican or some other variant of the model.
Simple Ways to Do More with Power Chords
First, the purpose of this column is to help you do more with your power chord progressions. If you think it’s over-simplified or over-complicated, then please consider the possibility that it’s...
Zakk Wylde's Hybrid-Picked, Acoustic Shred
As the Black Label Society's leader (and Ozzy's guitarist for more years than anyone else), Zakk Wylde has become infamous for his brew-tal riffage and lethal lead style. Remarkably, though, he...
How to Play “Johnny B. Goode”
Chuck Berry wrote dozens of rock and roll classics, but perhaps the best-known of them all is “Johnny B. Goode.”
Challenging Exercises to Keep Your Chops Fired Up
Back in the Holiday 2012 issue, I compared guitar playing to being like a winter sport. In the summer, we tend to put away our guitars while we engage in outdoor summer activities. Speaking for...
Practice Tips from Joe Satriani
Check out these practice tips from Joe Satriani!
Add New Dynamics to Your Solos with Triplets
Enough math, let’s get to shredding. Triplets will add a new dynamic to your solos. And they may engage your audience in a way other note progression cannot. Why? The rule of three.
Increase Your Picking-Hand Strength
It’s good to mix things up a bit. In this lesson, I’m going to show you a pentatonic scale workout that helps you get the five positions of the pentatonic scale memorized and under your fingers,...
Simple Exercises to Improve Your Playing
At first look, it seems harmless enough. But when we analyze it, this exercise presents a few challenges. The rhythm starts out as triplets played legato with hammer-ons. But in the second measure,...
Intensive 30-Minute Workout for Guitarists On the Go
We all have busy lives and responsibilities that distract us from our playing. For this reason, I've developed a quick, intensive guitar "workout" that can be completed in 30 minutes. You can use...
Six Simple Tips to Better Guitar Playing
After three and a half decades of publication, we're bound to have published—in print or online—thousands of useful tips for guitarists.
Vital Ingredient for Killer Hand Synchronization
One thing that gets in the way of developing hand synchronization—without us even realizing it—is bad timing, especially in terms of the fretting hand.
John Petrucci: How to Visualize Melodic Shapes
This month, I’d like to delve deeper into concepts for expanding scalar ideas across the fretboard.