Guitar Library (Update 05/19/2011)

50 Blues Licks

Download the 50 Blues Licks Here!

Major Pentatonic:

W, W, W+H, W, W+H

Minor Pentatonic:

W+H, W, W, W+H, W

Let's talk about blues. The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The blues form  is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes are also an important part of the sound. The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. In the 1960s and 70s the blues evolved, creating yet another subgenre, blues-rock. Fusion Genres Include Blues-Rock, African Blues, Jazz Blues, Punk Blues and Soul Blues.

Rock Pit (My Favorite Band)

Alter Bridge

Alter Bridge is an American Hard Rock band formed by Brian Marshall, Scott Phillips, Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy. Alter Bridge's music is co-written by Kennedy and Tremonti and arranged by Alter Bridge and the band's lyrics are written primarily by Kennedy, although Tremonti wrote most of the lyrics and all of the music on One Day Remains. The lyrics on the first two Alter Bridge albums mainly touch on regret and overcoming sadness, grief, loneliness and addiction. The subject matter on their third release, AB III, is noticeably darker, with lyrics based on struggling with faith and a loss of innocence, as well as other dark themes including apathy and struggling with the concepts of death and mortality. In all of his lyrics Myles gives an optimistic idea and turns the song around witch makes it very interesting for the listener. Because three of Alter Bridge's members (Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips) are also members of Creed, the band was initially described as Creed with a different singer, also due to what some critics noted as similarities to Creed's music early on although Alter Bridge rejected this description. If you listen to Creed and Alter Bridge you'll be able to hear for your self that Creed and Alter Bridge are totally different bands.

Myles Kennedy sings in the old style of Bel Canto and plays guitar in the old style of awesomeness. The person that helped him improve his Bel Canto was vocal coach Ron Anderson. Myles is influenced by a wide range of artists of several genres. His earliest influence was Led Zeppelin, although he drew his singing influences from artists like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. When asked to describe his vocal style, he said "I wanted to fuse together my favorite elements of rock and soul singers into something I could call my own. The inflections of Stevie Wonder with the soaring qualities of someone like Jeff Buckley". He states that Jeff Buckley's emotional intensity was one of the most inspirational things for him when it came to singing and that it made him accept and embrace the fact that he is a tenor. Myles's number one secret when it comes to singing... "Dig deep into your soul and sing as if your life depends on it. Leave your mark. People react to emotion more than technique". Myles is often compared to Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell. He was also listed as the 86th greatest male rock vocalist of all time by Digital Dream Door. What Mark Tremonti had to say about Myles:


"I remember walking up to my bedroom one night when he was practicing in his room. The first time I knew he could play guitar well was when I was walking by his room and I heard all this jazz going on and I thought it was a CD. And I stepped in and there he is blazing away on just this ridiculous jazzy, jazzy stuff. And he’d kind of hidden it from me because I think he just didn’t want to step on my toes. He knew we had called because of his voice and not because of his guitar playing and then that guitar playing kind of became our secret weapon"

Mark Tremonti is maybe one of the most dedicated guitar players. He plays non stop from the moment his tuning room is set up to the beginning of the show. Guitar World magazine voted him guitar player of the year three times! Another great reflection of his success is the fact that he's sold more that 30 million records. Like Paul Reed Smith says, "His tone is 4 miles long, it goes from the deepest sub base up to your hearing limits on the high end". Mark's only taken one guitar lesson. He said he wanted to learn Metallica and his teacher said that it was too early for that. He never came back and gathered his musical knowledge from guitar instructional DVD's and magazines. Growing up watching players like Paul Gilbert he never thought he'd be able to that stuff... "I remember thinking how I'll never be able to do that. You will get there, it's just a matter of how much time you wanna put into it and how seriously you take it" said Mark. After getting his signature guitar, Mark really pushed him self to get better because he didn't feel like he deserved it and that's only one of the reasons he's one of the greatest out there today. He also got a signature pedal (Morley).
"You have to have investment in loss as a musician, you have to let yourself fail and find your way out of your mistakes. Those mistakes also inspire new ideas and that's all improvisation is, just letting yourself go, float out there and try to survive. It's the only way you'll be able to make progress as a musician".

Guitar Library (Update 05/17/2011)

Beginner

Don't rush it! This is the most important tip you can get. This goes to more advanced players too. Although players with more experience need less time and seem to cut the learning curve, rushing is one of the worst things the can happen to you as a guitar player. Why? Because when you rush something you'll just have to go back and learn it all over again. To be able to learn you'll have to push your self but not over do it.

Intermediate

New stuff! Try learning new techniques and get into other styles of playing. If you're in a rut it can help you in your writing process and it's kinda like starting off with a clean slate. Who knows, maybe you'll get into that kind of music later. Probably classical music can be applied to everything. One of the reasons is that it all started out with classical music and later it evolved. But don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself.


Advanced

Playing With Conviction‏! As you know, to improve our guitar playing you need to pay careful attention to the physical hand motions in order to play cleaner, faster, and more precise. But when most guitar players practice in this way, the result is often weak. It's all "careful practice". So how to play with conviction? It's kinda simple really. Add more emotion, after all it's how you express yourself. As you play your usual technical way, focus on hitting the strings harder when you want to emphasize certain notes. You will eventually learn to balance the feeling of power, passion and conviction with the feeling of control, precision and speed.