Cool Riffs Guitar Lessons

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10:49 Winding Licks - Repeating Licks for Tension Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi all! We're going to take a look at what I call "winding" licks. These are simple licks that repeat a short phrase a few times to build tension before resolving to a chord tone. These are also great licks on which to build more complex patterns, I...
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Free Drop B Tuning Etude - Intro & Performance Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys, this month we're going to look at Drop B tuning. This tuning(B-A-D-G-B-e) simulates the sound of a seven string guitar and allows for some cool chord shapes and heavy riffs. Check out the short track I put together and then we'll break down...
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Free Drop B Tuning Etude - Riff 1 Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the first section, we focus on creating a pedal tone off of the low string. Remember to use downward pick strokes on every note for maximum aggression. Notice that I am using a fairly heavy distortion sound, but cleaned up by rolling back the volu...
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Free Drop B Tuning Etude - Riff 2 Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this section, we are going to use the same melodic idea from the previous figure, but amped up with the guitar turned up and adding in hammer-on and pull-off techniques to the higher notes as embelishments. This gives us a cool thrashing sound tha...
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Free Drop B Tuning Etude - Riff 3 Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the final section, we'll explore the octave shape that this tuning affords us on the low string. Finish up with some nice aggressive galloping pick strokes and you have a killer metal riff!
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1:31 Free Drop B Tuning Etude - Backing Track Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Enjoy this backing track for your own jams!
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1:28 6/8 Rock Ballad w/Solo - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hello all! For this lesson I wrote a little rock ballad primarily using the 6/8 time signature. Not sure about time signatures? Check out this lesson. INTROThe intro is pretty basic. When playing, be sure you can hear the 6/8 beat behind the music. ...
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1:30 6/8 Rock Ballad w/Solo - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock I took the guitars out for the backing track. Enjoy!
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2:59 In The Style Of Tom Morello: Part 1, Intro and Performance Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey all, We're going to tackle some of the cool sounds produced by the riff lord, Tom Morello. I've put together a short track with a heavy riff, DJ inspired verse and the infamous record scratching sounds you hear on tracks like "Bulls On Parade". ...
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3:44 In The Style Of Tom Morello: Part 2, Main Riff Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock First, lets tackle the loose, funky riff that makes the song groove. This is a very simple idea that involves keeping your picking hand loose and consistent on the attack, allowing your fretting hand to determine when notes jump out.
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2:20 In The Style Of Tom Morello: Part 3, DJ-inspired verse Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock For part 3, we'll use an extremely simple technique to generate the RATM feel. The rhythm is the most important factor here, but the tone is very important as well. Remember to be as precise and clean as possible here, the opposite of the previous pa...
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2:18 In The Style Of Tom Morello: Backing Track Instructor: Lucas Fowler Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Enjoy the backing track!
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1:33 Open Voiced Triads: Minor Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style On to the minor triad. We'll be using the same key center of D but will be playing of the 2 chord, E minor. Root inversion with the root in the bass. 1 - 5 - b3 1st inversion with the 3rd in the bass. b3 - 1 - 5 2nd inversion with...
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5:37 Licks ala Eric Johnson: Intro & Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi all! Back with another tutorial! This time we'll be looking at three licks in the style of Eric Johnson. All of these licks will be focused around sixteenth note E minor pentatonic runs. The licks will include some alternate picking as well ...
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3:46 Licks ala Eric Johnson: Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The second lick is almost a continuation of the first lick. It starts off the b7 (D) of the E minor pentatonic scale which is in the G position of the caged system. It quickly shifts into the E position of the pentatonic scale and ascends in 5 note ...
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4:04 Licks ala Eric Johnson: Lick 3 & Outro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The final lick explores the other postions of the pentatonic slightly more than the first and second. We start at the top of the Gm position of the CAGED system and dscend into the Am position. The "turn around" of this lick happens right at the beg...
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1:58 Playing Vintage Guitars - Song Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Before we dive in, note that we have backing tracks at both normal speed(88bpm) and slower speed(65bpm). If you're a beginner, start out with the slower one so you can work on keeping your technique clean at a slower pace. We're going to start out t...
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1:57 Playing Vintage Guitars - Backing Track (88bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have the backing track at normal speed, 88bpm. If you need to practice it slower, check out the next page to practice with the 65bpm version. Have fun!
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2:37 Playing Vintage Guitars - Backing Track (65bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This backing is slowed down to 65bpm. Practice it here, then at some point try to graduate yourself to the normal 88bpm version. Most of all, have fun while you learn!
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3:26 "Money-Maker" Fills: Playthrough & Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Hello again Infinite Guitar! What are "money makers"? They are guitaristic fills that are musically pleasing to the listener and are heard mostly in very popular styles of music. In other words, they are fills that will get you well-paying gigs! Wel...
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5:31 "Money-Maker" Fills: 4ths Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style On to our first approach of using 4th intervals. Although I'm calling these "4ths" they are more like inverted 5ths because in most cases we'll be playing the root and 5th of the current chord. Pay close attention to how these intervals work over the...
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3:49 "Money-Maker" Fills: Hendrix Double Stops Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style These Hendrix style double stops will always start will a 4th and grace-note into a minor third. The notes included in the fills will not always be chord tones but the chord tones will be emphasized. Each fill will start in the second half of th...
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2:23 "Money-Maker" Fills: Final Fills & Outro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Here we have the last couple variations, and we're done! Be sure to recognize that the main duty of these money makers is to very tastefully outline the chords. Each of these will be very "inside" and are here to please the average person in the aud...
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1:26 "Money-Maker" Fills: Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Utilize the backing track to practice the previous examples. Enjoy!
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0:32 Drop Tuned Triads: Etude Playthrough Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style For practice purposes, I've included an etude to go along with this tutorial. This etude will help with memorizing the new voicings and it also displays how one might use the material when composing. Enjoy!
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0:30 Drop Tuned Triads: Etude Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Use this backing track to play along with the previous etude! Enjoy!
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4:00 Polyrhythmic Modulation: Playing the Riff Part 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal When it comes to playing this riff there are a few things to consider. First off we do not have a difficult fretting hand part. The picking hand is what we need to focus on. In order to play this smoothly I use up strokes for all of the notes and I...
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2:30 Polyrhythmic Modulation: Playing the Riff Part 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I highly recommend experimenting with this type of modulation. In the past I have modulated with riffs that I thought might be totally weird and contrived but it actually ended up working very nicely and adding a lot to the song. I hope you guys en...
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0:59 "Road Signs" - Playthrough Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hi Guys! Welcome to the tutorial! This time around we'll be breaking down the meoldy from my tune "Road Signs". Proceed to the following videos and we will begin the learning!
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1:24 "Road Signs" - Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion So I thought I'd fill you guys in a little bit on the back story of this tune. The thought process behind it was inspired specifically by three different players and two specific tunes. I originally came up with the beginning of the melody after se...
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3:43 "Road Signs" - Breakdown Part 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion We'll start off the breakdown by discussing the first two bars of this melody. It starts off with the stacked 5th idea that originally took from Scott Henderson. This first part is outlining an Amin11 chord. You can see this in the first 6 notes. Th...
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2:21 "Road Signs" - Breakdown Part 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now we will move onto the next two bars of the main melody. Here we are outling a Dmin7 chord with some added extensions. I'm starting with the same type of stacked 5ths idea that leads into further arpeggiations. At this point we've learned half o...
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2:50 "Road Signs" - Breakdown Part 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion At this point we are at what sounds like a repeat but actually it is a variation on the main idea. What I've done is added an odd time signature of 3/4 to the first half and then changed the melody slightly on the second half. The main thing to not...
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4:25 "Road Signs" - Breakdown Part 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now we'll move on to what I guess you could call the B section of this tune. It's a simllar idea, seeing that there are still the continuous 8th notes happening during the melody, but now we'll modulate to the key of Bb Lydian. The first run outlin...
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5:01 "Road Signs" - Breakdown Part 5 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion The final runs are the funnest part! We'll start of with a triplet run through the Dm7b5 arpeggio. After that, moving onto an F dorian run and finally leading into an E augmented run that emphasises the E7 alt chord that is taking place. ...
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0:57 "Road Signs" - Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion And here we have the full backing track. Hope you enjoy! Full tab below.
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2:13 Sweeps a la Frank Gambale: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hello again! In this tutorial I'll be showing you how to approach a Frank Gambale style sweep using 4th voicings (please reference my tutorial on 4th voicings). We'll be playing in the key of g major while focusing more on the relative A Dorian ton...
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3:33 Sweeps a la Frank Gambale: Breakdown Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion As I said earlier we are basing these shapes off of the 4th voicing shapes I taught in one of my previous tutorials. Just to recap a little bit, 4ths voicing are stacked 4th intervals as opposed to stacked thirds that we would see in triads or 7th c...
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1:50 Sweeps a la Frank Gambale: Final Thought Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion I'd like to leave you with another way to approach using this type of sweep. In the final example we will view the notes as being related to the (A minor) pentatonic scale rather than thinking of them as 4th voicings. When we approach it this way w...
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1:21 Richie Kotzen Style Legato: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hello hello! I hope everyone is well! This time around I thought I'd talk a little about legato playing, specifically some Richie Kotzen patterns I learned a long time ago that I still use in my playing today. Each pattern is meant to be more of an...
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3:39 Richie Kotzen Style Legato: Pattern 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Alright this first pattern might be the most recognizable if you are familiar with Richie's playing, especially from the 1980's era Kotzen. This is the 6 note pattern I had mentioned in the last video. As you can see in the tab this can be approache...
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2:56 Richie Kotzen Style Legato: Pattern 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This next pattern is a little trickier to feel. Since it is a group of 5 notes you'll be tempted and more likely to play this with a 5 notes per beat feel rather than the written 16th note feel. I recommend putting a metronome on 80 and really tryin...
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1:46 Oblivion - Progressive Metal Etude Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hi everyone out there in Infinite Guitar land! In this tutorial we're going to learn a piece I wrote called "Oblivion". One thing I'd like to emphasize in the beginning is that I don't ever want you to just "learn a piece" and then leave it at that....
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2:22 Oblivion - Guitars Only and Slowed Tempo Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this video I played the song at a slower tempo (90bpm as opposed to the original 123bpm). I also took out the other instrumentation so you can hear the guitars more clearly. Below I'll paste the section by section analyisis from the previous page...
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1:45 Oblivion - Backing Track (123bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have the backing track! Now, even if you're an advanced player, I'd still recommend starting with the slowed-down backing track on the next page. Get everything memorized with clean technique before you try playing it up to speed.
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2:22 Oblivion - Backing Track (90bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal On this page you'll find the backing track at a slowed-down tempo of 90bpm. I hope you have fun learning this song!
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3:06 Voice Leading: Breakdown continued Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Jazz Allow me to explain the chord inversions I've used in order: Bbmaj7 (root) Eb7 (2nd) Abmaj7 (root) Dbmaj7 (2nd) Gm7b5 (root) C7 (2nd) Fm7 (root) F7 (root) F7 (1st) Root Inversion = root note in the bass 1st Inversion = 3rd in the bass 2nd...
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1:23 Modern Metal Solo Breakdown: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hello again! This is the 4th and final lesson on Modern Metal! If you're new to this series, check out the first tutorial here. We're finally to the guitar solo! We'll be breaking this solo down into 3 sections. 1. The first section is the first pe...
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2:24 Modern Metal Solo Breakdown: Part 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Onto the first set of ideas. I'm a big fan of solos that build into a climactic ending whilst still maintaining some nice technical lines throughout, so I started this solo with a short melody followed by a pentatonic/blues oriented lick. This was ...
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1:32 Modern Metal Solo Breakdown: Part 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The second part of the solo is very similar to the first part and together the two of them almost act as a call and response (minus the rest that would usually accrue between the two ideas in a call and response). I start again with some simple melo...
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3:34 Modern Metal Solo Breakdown: Part 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Now onto the final lick. This lick can be very hard to master because of the mix of techniques and phrasing so take your time and go sloooowwww. It starts with a 9th (fret) position F# diminished 7 arpeggio that is played ascending in groups of fou...
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2:42 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hello once again! We'll finally be breaking down the riffs in the "modern metal" tune I've written for you guys! It's about time! I know! :) First off, you'll need to tune your guitar to dropped C: C - G - C - F - A - D In this tune we have 4 mai...
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4:33 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Riff 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The first riff is what I call my "groove riff". Now this is not your typical groove riff because we don't have much rhythmic variation. In this case, we have a tremelo picked riff that has an underlying half-time double kick part. The half-time feel ...
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4:22 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Riff 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The second riff in this tune is what I'd call a "thrash" riff. In my mind, the main thing that describes a thrash riff is the back and forth interplay between the kick and snare (again, it's subjective, you might use a different descriptive word). M...
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2:38 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Riff 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The third riff is just a variation of the second riff. Nothing too crazy. All I'm doing here is taking the main phrase and repeating it as to build into the next section. This, accompanied by a blast beat, helps to build into the next section of the ...
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3:35 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Riff 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Riff 4 is what I call a chordal riff. It's obvious why I give it that name. This is a very simple right hand pattern of straight alternate picking. The left hand chordal shapes can be a little difficult so be sure to stretch and not strain too much...
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1:00 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Outro Riff Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The outro riff is a recap of the main thrash riff. One of my favorite things to do when I'm composing is to bring back ideas that were previously heard in the song. Keep it thematic people! :) Sometimes even if it's just a small chunk of a riff it c...
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1:26 Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar - Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I've made a backing track that excludes all of the rhythm guitar parts. Have fun!
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1:38 Hybrid Riffing - Introduction Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey everyone! This tutorial is based around a technique that I've found becoming more and more predominant in my rhythm playing, and I've had a few questions regarding the use of this technique - that technique being hybrid picking (incorporatin...
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0:27 Hybrid Riffing - Riff 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal RIFF 1 contains a whole bunch of hybrid picking and legato. This approach offers a rather "robotic" sound, as many of the notes lack having a defined "beginning", ie., a pick stroke. Focus heavily on the notated legato, pick-hand middle finger use as...
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0:31 Hybrid Riffing - Riff 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal RIFF 2 contains more of a "call and answer" approach, as far as technique goes. It begins with a more pick-heavy riff, and is then followed by a hybrid/legato descending lick. Here, we'll get a clearer understanding of how having this weapon in our a...
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0:33 Hybrid Riffing - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The tempo of this etude is 140BPM. Start slow, as demonstrated, and make sure you build up to the official tempo using all the necessary techniques while maintaining cleanliness.
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1:37 The Half Whole Diminished Scale - Licks! Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion The following licks will utilize the dominant 7b5 arpeggios and will resolve to an A blues sound. Pay close attention to the tabs. These licks do not start on a downbeat. Lick 1 will begin on the "and" of 1 and Lick 2 on the "and" of 4. These licks...
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1:15 Happy METAL Birthday - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Looking for that special way to say "Happy Birthday" this year? What better way than with what you do best - sweep arpeggios at 200BPM? We begin with the good ol' fashion "Happy Birthday To You" melody line before ripping into an arpeggio sequence se...
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0:24 Happy METAL Birthday - Melody Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal We begin with an "acapella" style guitar section consisting of three-part harmony, with us leading the way with the main melody. Pay attention to rhythm - playing this melody over a thrash beat while trucking along at 200BPM can prove to be a bit of ...
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0:42 Happy METAL Birthday - Arpeggio Sequence Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The second half is where things get a little tricky. We're dealing (almost) exclusively with 5-string arpeggios, so it's basically a matter of mastering our left and right hand technique playing any one of these arpeggios, at the given tempo - then i...
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0:45 Happy METAL Birthday - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have fun with the backing track! Be sure to utilize the IG metronome to practice at slower speeds.
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1:32 "Desperate Measures" Solo - Intro & Demonstration Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey all! In this tutorial we're going to learn a solo section from my song "Desperate Times". I'm going to play it up to speed, then play it slow, then well break it all down with some in-depth explanation at the end. Remember to remain as relaxed a...
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0:43 "Desperate Measures" Solo - Slow Version Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this video, I'm demonstrating the solo at 100bpm, as opposed to the original 130bpm version. When you're ready, let's get in-depth in the next video and analyze this thing!
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5:54 "Desperate Measures" Solo - Let's Analyze Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay folks, so here are some things to keep in mind: 1. Chord Progression: Now these are technically slash chords, but I'm going to simplify them to how they're being used in the solo. DM - Gm - Adim(or F#dim) - Cm - Repeat DM - Gm - BbM -...
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0:35 "Desperate Measures" Solo - Backing Track (130bpm) Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have fun with the backing track! This one is full speed at 130bpm.
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0:46 "Desperate Measures" Solo - Backing Track (100bpm) Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is a slowed-down version at 100bpm.
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2:33 Free Simple Christmas - Silent Night (Performance) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Hey fellow IGers! T'is the season once again. This year, I decided to take a holiday favorite, Silent Night, and arrange it in such a way that is quite simplistic, with the entire melody line playable on two strings. I had some fun with the backing t...
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0:45 Free Simple Christmas - Silent Night (Breakdown) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday This song is in a three-feel, so be sure to get into the swing of the rhythm before you dive in. There are three verses to the song, so the melody line (as transcribed below) basically repeats three times. There's not much else to it! So get to it an...
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1:59 Free Simple Christmas - Silent Night (Backing Track) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Download the Backing Track here!
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1:01 Licking Up the Modes: Mixolydian - Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country Hi guys! Again, we will continue with the "Licking Up the Modes" series. We are now on to the 5th mode, otherwise known as Mixolydian or Mixo for short. Mixolydian is based of the 5th degree of a major scale and contains the following scale degree...
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1:18 Licking Up the Modes: Mixolydian - Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country This first lick uses notes only out of the C mixolydian scale. It starts with a C7 arpeggio decending from the 3rd which moves into an Em7b5 arpeggio. The C7 arp includes all the essential chord tone while the Em7b5 excludes the root and util...
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2:06 Licking Up the Modes: Mixolydian - Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country In lick number two you can start hearing the country flare that I threw in there. Licks 3 and 4 will also have more of a country vibe. I will admit, I did not stick to strictly notes from mixoloydian in this one. The same goes for the next two licks...
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1:30 Licking Up the Modes: Mixolydian - Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country Lick three is a typical country lick. Players lick Brad Paisley, Johnny Hiland, and others use this same type of idea. It's basically playing 3rd intervals on the G and B strings. They descend diatonically through C mixolyidan, starting on C major.&...
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2:22 Licking Up the Modes: Mixolydian - Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country The final lick utilizes even more notes that are not within mixolydian. Specifically notes out of the C minor blues scale. This is common for country and blues. It helps with the ambiguity that exists within the 12 bar blues progression by incorporat...
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0:39 Licking Up the Modes: Lydian - Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion It's back!!! "Licking Up the Modes" has shown itself once again! Finally moving onto Lydian! Like the rest of the licking up the modes series, we'll be using C as our starting note so as to see the differences in each mode. (Parallel modes) ...
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1:58 Licking Up the Modes: Lydian - Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion LICK #1 This lick uses two arpeggios that accentuate different tensions within Lydian. The first is an Emin9 arp which includes the 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - #11. The second arp is a Gmaj7 arp which includes the 5 - 7 - 9 - #11. As you can see, they are ba...
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1:55 Licking Up the Modes: Lydian - Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion LICK #2 This lick is another that utilizes a couple arpeggios within C Lydian to accentuate various tensions. The first arpeggio is a Cmaj9, which is comprised of scale degrees 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 Obviously this arpeggio is outlining the tonic chord...
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1:40 Licking Up the Modes: Lydian - Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion LICK #3 Onto a triplet lick! Again we will use the Cmaj9 arpeggio but this time we'll be using a slightly different shape, still in the same area of the neck. This lick uses some intervallic ideas within the middle of the lick and ends with an F#m...
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3:04 Licking Up the Modes: Lydian - Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion LICK #4 Our final lick is played using 16th note triplets and is substantially more difficult than the rest. It's kind of in the style of Brett Garsed or Tom Quayle and utilizes more of the scale shapes, rather than various arpeggios like the other...
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0:59 "Up & Up" - Performance Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hi guys! For this tutorial I thought it would be fun to teach you my tune "Up & Up". I won't be covering the full song in this tutorial, just the main melody of the A & B sections. By request, I would gladly go over the rest of the song in a...
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2:16 "Up & Up" - A Section Breakdown - Part 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion We'll start by breaking down the "A" section melody. I see this as being the "main" melody of Up & Up. This melody is in Em and is mainly based around an Em7 arpeggio and Em pentatonic. Other than notes directly from an Em7 arp or the Em pentat...
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3:00 "Up & Up" - A Section Breakdown - Part 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now onto the rest of the "A" section melody! The chord progression for this section is E9 for three bars, and then on the 4th bar we have a syncopated progression of: G/A - F/G - Ab/Bb - Bb/C Each time these chords appear in the A section the melo...
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2:34 "Up & Up" - B Section Breakdown Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now onto the "B" section! The chord progression of this section is the same as every 4th bar of the A section, with a few added chords at the end of each phrase to accentuate the melody. Again that is: G/A - F/G - Ab/Bb - Bb/C - C/D - Db/Eb - D/E (...
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1:03 "Up & Up" - Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Have fun with the backing track guys! Practice hard!
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1:43 Riff like Lamb of God - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey fellow IGers! This past month I've been on a bit of a Lamb Of God kick, so I decided to break down and analyze some of the band's thrashy riffing and dark harmonic qualities. The band usually tunes to drop C, but for this tutorial, let's just sti...
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0:56 Riff like Lamb of God - Intro Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal For the opening riff, I decided to break out with a classic Lamb Of God-style thrash riff which occurs in two parts. Measures one through eight consisting of mostly low D chugging (with higher single notes on the A string to break up t...
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1:12 Riff like Lamb of God - Verse/Chorus Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal So here's our verse riff. As you can tell, it consists of a whole ton of eighth note "chugging". There are many downstrokes, but keep an eye on the accents as they form the over-all shape of the riff. NOTE: The extended 1-bar verse tag on ...
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0:40 Riff like Lamb of God - Bridge Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal And lastly, the segway/bridge riff. Meant as more of a musical-break, the guitars have free reign for craziness; so that's what we're doing. With lots of palm mutes, legato, and sustained chord tones coming at you, it's bound to serve as a decen...
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1:43 Riff like Lamb of God - Backing Track (190BPM) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track at 190bpm. If it's too fast for you, head on over to the next page to access the backing at 120bpm.
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2:36 Riff like Lamb of God - Backing Track (120BPM) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track at 120bpm. Have fun and practice hard!
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0:58 Chromatic Licks - Introduction Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hey everyone! In this tutorial, I'm going to demonstrate 3 licks for you using chromaticism. Bare in mind your visualization so that you may apply these licks to your playing more easily. Once you've watched the intro video, let's head on over to t...
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0:35 Chromatic Licks - Lick #1 Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This lick is based on the pentatonic scale. This lick is designed to show you how you can use the notes outside the key to fill in the gaps of the box shape! Pretty cool!
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0:36 Chromatic Licks - Lick #2 Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion In this example I'm ultilizing the "extended pentatonic" shape, filling in the gaps like in the previous example. Only this time, we're going to shift this chromatic passage from right to left as we make our way down the scale. This lick in particu...
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0:35 Chromatic Licks - Lick #3 Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion And finally, Lick 3! You can think of visualizing this lick in 3-string groupings. Starting on the root in group 1. Playing the same sequence in group 2. Then, resolving to the root at the end of the sequence in group 3. It's a very simple and cool ...
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2:12 Chromatic Licks - Backing Track Instructor: Al Joseph Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Note: Try playing the licks in different time signatures and on different beats as well. For example, instead of playing starting from beat 1, see how it sounds starting from beat 2, or perhaps the "and of 3" or "e of 1, etc. This is in so many wa...
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1:30 Greg Howe Arpeggio Idea: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hello again! In this tutorial, we'll be going over a Greg Howe style arpeggio idea that I like to use. For this example, we will be using Diminished 7 arpeggios, that way we can expand further by moving each position over in minor 3rds. (3 frets) T...
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1:30 Greg Howe Arpeggio Idea: Lick Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion On to the lick! I'm hoping you've taken the time to master the actual arpeggio as it stands! If you have, you'll be ready to tackle this lick. Pay close attention to the tab. There are specific spots where the hybrid picking takes place. As you can...
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1:17 Greg Howe Arpeggio Idea: Expanding on the Idea Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now let's expand on this idea! The easiest route to expanding this idea into something much larger is to slide the position around in minor 3rd. (3 frets) Now if you decide to use this same idea with a Major 7 arpeggio or basically any other arpegg...
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0:30 In The Style Of Metallica - Intro Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I tried to cover the spectrum as much as possible with regards to rhythmic playing style from one record to the next. This first riff is rather ala "Death Magnetic". The main thing to keep in mind when playing this riff, is the picking directions. Th...
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0:52 In The Style Of Metallica - Verse Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal So as a sort of throw-back to "Master Of Puppets", I decided to throw in a call-and-answer-type riff, with the first half being mostly down-picked low E notes, and the second half being a power chord passage of some sort. There isn't much to be said ...
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0:48 In The Style Of Metallica - Chorus Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal To finish up, I tried to replicate the sort of melodic-meets-chaotic chorus approach Metallica is famous for. Power chords which emphasize tonal shifts with just enough in between to keep the riff interesting. Have fun with the backing tracks (avail...
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1:03 In The Style Of Metallica - Backing Track (200BPM) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Download backing track at full speed (200BPM).
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1:24 In The Style Of Metallica - Backing Track (150BPM) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Download the backing track at slow speed (150BPM).
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0:55 Melodic Chorus - Lead and Rhythm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hello everyone! In this lesson I'm going to show you a chorus from one of my songs. We'll be exploring the lead as well as the rhythm. This lesson is not just to show you this chorus and that's it, I want you to apply what you learn and write your o...
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2:34 Melodic Chorus - Lead Backing (102bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock With this backing track, let's practice the lead part. I left the rhythm parts in for your reference. Remember, use tasty vibrato and let that melody sing! Head on over to the next page for the rhythm backing.
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2:34 Melodic Chorus - Rhythm Backing (102bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock With this backing track, let's focus on learning the rhythm section. I left the lead parts in for your reference. Keep those notes clean!
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1:15 Tapping with Pentatonics: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi guys! In this tutorial, we'll be talking about three different ways to tap out pentatonics! We will be in the key of E minor and will be using three different pentatonic boxes. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the pentatonic shapes below,...
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1:28 Tapping with Pentatonics: Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Lick 1! In the first lick we'll be using the first two pentatonic shapes that were discussed. This lick is kind of in the style of Greg Howe or maybe even Michael Romeo of Symphony X. We'll be using two fingers from the left hand and one tapping f...
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1:15 Tapping with Pentatonics: Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Lick 2! This one is very much using the Van Halen style of tapping. Leading with the tapping finger in the right hand. Again, three notes to each string but this time we'll be climbing up the strings in groups of three. This makes more sense when v...
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0:48 Tapping with Pentatonics: Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The final lick/style of tapping pentatonics! This final lick was inspired by Guthrie Govan's approach to tapping 7th chord arpeggios but in our case, we'll be using pentatonics. We finally will add in our third pentatonic shape, making our li...
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1:36 Free Licks in the Style of Guthrie Govan: Intro & Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey guys! Thought I'd throw out another "Licks in the Style of..." tutorial! This time we're covering the amazing Guthrie Govan! Personally, Guthrie is a huge influence on my playing and I had a lot of fun making this tutorial. One thing that is v...
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1:01 Free Licks in the Style of Guthrie Govan: Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 2! This is a fast one! I actually use this lick a lot in live situations. The way I'm thinking of this lick is being based around three pentatonic shapes to which I've added either chromatics, the blues note, or notes from dorian. Make sure t...
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1:07 Free Licks in the Style of Guthrie Govan: Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 3! This one is Guthrie at his core. It uses a lot of different techniques and some interesting note chooses. The really nutty part is the sweep that happens in the middle of this lick. It utilizes the major 7 (G#), bringing outside for that on...
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1:07 Free Licks in the Style of Guthrie Govan: Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 4 The last lick is a tapping lick that uses some 7th chord arpeggios. Very similar to the video on Guthrie's arpeggios that a did I while. If you've not mastered the technique previously it would be beneficial to take this slow and use each a...
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0:23 Abusing The Blues - Introduction Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome back IGers! This month, I wanted to break down and analyze a few of my "go-to" licks within the blues scale. But before we do, let's expand our harmonic spectrum of the blues scale, to spice things up. First, let's play through the regular o...
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0:49 Abusing The Blues - Lick 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues So this first lick is pretty "twisty" in that it highlights a fair portion of the first position A minor pentatonic scale while adding hints of the major third (C#) through out. This is a great mechanism for adding a more "Down South" kinda vibe to y...
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0:51 Abusing The Blues - Lick 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In much the same descending motion, this lick makes use of the second and third position pentatonic scale. Again, be sure to keep an eye on the techniques involved and execute the lick as cleanly as possible.
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0:43 Abusing The Blues - Lick 3 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 3 approaches the blues scale from an ascending perspective. With three notes per string, our intervals are spread up to six frets apart. The main "purpose" of this lick is to highlight the #4 (D#) in a pretty blatant way. Be sure to note that th...
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0:53 Abusing The Blues - Lick 4 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues And last but not least, lick 4. This one is very "pentatonicy" in the sense that we see a ton of two-note-per-string-ness. Note the heavy use, again, of the major third interval (C#) on both the D and B strings. I hope you enjoyed playing through th...
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1:31 Licks in the Style of Greg Howe: Intro & Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hi guys! In this tutorial we'll be covering licks in the style of the great fusion guitarist, Greg Howe. Each of these licks uses some of Greg's most often used techniques like hybrid picking, hammer ons from no where, and tapping, just to name a...
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0:55 Licks in the Style of Greg Howe: Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 2! This second lick is not only in the style of Greg Howe, I've heard Greg use a version of this lick many times. The first half of this lick uses the pick, middle, and 3rd finger (right hand). This lick also uses the famous Greg Howe slide v...
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0:57 Licks in the Style of Greg Howe: Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 3! I transcribed this lick straight out of a Greg Howe solo. Note that the theoretical explanation I give for this lick might not be how Greg sees the lick. This lick is also considered an "outside lick", meaning that some of the ...
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1:04 Licks in the Style of Greg Howe: Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion The fourth and final lick! This lick is a pentatonic tapping lick that uses a lot of hammer ons from no where. It is also very repetitive, playing the same basic idea on each string. Also notice that each string switch starts with a hammer on from...
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10:06 Licks in the Style of Greg Howe: Backing Track Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion
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2:50 Tapping 7th Chord Arpeggios like Guthrie Govan: Licks Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion These licks are nothing special but I thought it would be a quick easy way to start using these arpeggios. Remember to start slow and gradually speed up. Also, focus on keeping the taps, hammer ons, and pull offs dynamically equal!
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2:15 Threat Signal - "Uncensored" Solo Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I was listening to a lot of Born of Osiris at the time of writing the solo and ending lick to “Uncensored”. I went for a really Jason Richardson type sound, but still with my style of writing mixed in. The solo to this song is spli...
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0:55 Threat Signal - "Uncensored" Outro Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I was going for a very chaotic and evil sound for the lick at the end of the song. It may sound kind of random, but it took me a few hours to write! I made sure to go through and pick out every note that sounded just right to me for the sound I was l...
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2:06 Chronic Xorn - Mercy Solo Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's a lick that I used in a guest solo for the band Chronic Xorn. The song is called "Mercy". I was going for a Paul Gilbert-esque string skipping type feel. This lick uses quite a bit of hammer-ons, pull-offs, tapping, and a bit of alternate...
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2:15 The Second Surface - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock For this song tutorial, I wanted to break down a few of the key sections in an original track of mine entitled "The Second Surface". Complete with all kinds of funky rhythms, dorian and phrygian melodies, pentatonic goodness and string skipped, tappe...
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0:38 The Second Surface - Intro/Verse Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock So we open with a few measures of odd time. Make sure the rhythmic distinction between "on" and "off" is adheared to. Meaning, to give the rhythm the most amount of punch, avoid noise during the rests at all possible cost. The verse itself is just a ...
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0:26 The Second Surface - Pre-Chorus I Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The melody line in the pre-chorus is pretty straight forward, the reason I isolated this section is due to measures 17 and 18. Here, we see a run that rhythmically, seems rather... sloppy, in a sense. It's intention is to "float" over the beat, simpl...
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0:46 The Second Surface - Pre-Chorus II/Chorus Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The "trademark" of this tune is in this Ghost Busters-esque pentatonic section. Although we're playing a total of 4 or 5 notes in a rather familiar section of the fretboard, there can be hiccups with regards to execution due to fast position changes....
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0:54 The Second Surface - Tappin' & Sweepin' Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Alright, so let's finish this off with some utter chaos! Through bars 39-42, the rhythm contains 16th note triplets. The catch is, however, that the starting point of each arpeggio doesn't begin perfectly on a quarter note. This will throw a monkey w...
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2:00 The Second Surface - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Download the backing track and get busy!
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2:05 Threat Signal - "New World Order" Outro Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Originally, the ending to this song was just the final riff, but our bassist Pat told me that it needed more shred! I thought it would be cool to do a Jeff Loomis/Jason Becker type arpeggio sequence. This lick requires a lot of stamina to keep it goi...
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0:38 Threat Signal - "New World Order" Outro (slow) Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I recommend you practice this solo at a very slow tempo to make sure you have proper control over all the notes and techniques. Take it section by section, don't try to play the whole thing at once!
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0:54 Threat Signal - "New World Order" Outro - Backing Track Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track guys. Have fun!
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1:47 Licking Up the Modes: Phrygian - Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion So our first lick is a 16th note run. The tempo I'm working with is 105bpm so these 16ths are a little slower. Note that this lick does not start on a down beat but rather on the "a" of 2. (1 -e -& - a - 2 - e - & - a - 3 - e - etc...) ...
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2:08 Licking Up the Modes: Phrygian - Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion The second lick is somewhat similar to the first lick except this time we are starting on the "e" of 1 (1 - e - & - a - 2 - e- & - a - 3 - e - etc...). It is also a 16th note run just liike the first one. Also note that this lick does not en...
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1:26 Licking Up the Modes: Phrygian - Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Alright, this is our first lick utilizing 16th note triplets. This one, like the others, is using a lot of different techniques like sliding, legato, and string skipping (sort of). Pay close attention to the phrasing and work this one up to speed. S...
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1:33 Licking Up the Modes: Phrygian - Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Another 16th note triplet run! This one also using some different triad shapes but rolls off the fingers nicely once worked up to speed!
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2:05 Licking Up the Modes: Phrygian - Lick 5 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion So our final lick utilizing some "Frank Gambale" style sweeping. If you've checked out last months tutorial you should have a head start at this lick. Pay close attention to the tab and work on getting the right and left hand synced up.
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2:14 Threat Signal - "Trust In None" Outro Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey everyone! Today we're going to learn part of the outro to Threat Signal's song "Trust In None" from our self-titled album. It was aiming to create an almost whammy pedal effect, but without the use of a whammy pedal. This lick was actually writt...
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1:07 Threat Signal - "Trust In None" Outro - Backing Track Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track folks, have fun and practice hard!
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1:10 Frank Gambale Sweep Idea: Intro Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style So I decided to take a break from "Licking Up the Modes" this time around. I apologize if you were looking forward to Phrygian, but I promise we'll pick up where we left off in the next tutorial. I thought it'd be fun to talk about this Frank ...
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1:54 Frank Gambale Sweep Idea: Major 7 Arpeggios Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Alright, so here is the sweep "idea" applied to our two major 7 arpeggios diatonic to the key of C major; Cmaj7 and Fmaj7. Note that these shapes are exactly the same, just played at different parts of the fretboard. Basically, this lick is an eigh...
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1:33 Frank Gambale Sweep Idea: Minor 7 Arpeggios Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style This is the exact same thing, just applied to our three minor 7 arpeggios this time. Dm7 - Em7 - Am7. No barring this time, but we'll have to use all four fingers on our left hand. Again, all three shapes are exactly the same but just at different ...
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0:53 Frank Gambale Sweep Idea: dom7 and min7b5 Arps Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Alright instead of doing separate videos for the last two, I decided to put them together, since there is only one of each. So again, the same thing as before. There will be some barring in the G7 arpeggio but none in the Bm7b5.
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1:48 Threat Signal - "Fallen Disciples" Solo Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal “Fallen Disciples” was one of the first songs written on the self-titled Threat Signal album. I was listening to a lot of Nevermore at the time, so the song and solo have quite a big Jeff Loomis sound to them. Overall the solo isn’t...
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1:03 Threat Signal - "Fallen Disciples" Solo (Slow) Instructor: Travis Montgomery Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the slowed down version of the solo. Keep it clean folks!
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3:11 Licking Up the Modes: Dorian - Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion When I wrote this lick I was thinking about large interval jumps so it starts with some minor 6ths. This lick is self explainitory but the last short bend is really what needs attention. Make sure to get the phrasing correct for that bend.
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2:05 Licking Up the Modes: Dorian - Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here is the first 16th note run. I use licks like this a lot. I bassically just travel down the dorian scale in this specific pattern (a pattern that I use a lot). There is a blues note added in this but otherwise it's only dorian notes. That minor b...
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3:36 Licking Up the Modes: Dorian - Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This 16th note run starts off very similar to lick 2. This pattern is something I do a lot and it bound to show itself in my licks. This lick has three different patterns happening that need close attention. It starts with a scale run (that I do a lo...
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3:25 Licking Up the Modes: Dorian - Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This lick is a 16th note run kind of inspired by Tom Quayle's playing. Starts off with a scale run and uses some Cm pentatonic ideas into an Am7b5 arpeggio. Feel free to end this lick however you'd like. I chose to hit a few pentatonic notes using qu...
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3:12 Licking Up the Modes: Dorian - Lick 5 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here's another 16th note run that ascends in groupings of four notes. Each set of four is a different arpeggio. Pay attention to the notation / tab for this lick. I do a lot of hybrid picking in this lick and that is marked in the notation (not the t...
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1:44 Drilling Drop D - Riffin'! Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock I'll leave you with some riffs which I've devised to help instill some of these concepts into your repetoire. Keep an eye out for D string symmetry, it may just help you along! Until next time, have fun and keep rockin'!
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2:54 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Lick 1 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This first lick starts off with a C Major triad with a added 4 that resolves to the 3. It then moves to some string skipping intervallic jumps. Pay attention to the tab to see how it is picked.
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2:04 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Lick 2 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Lick 2 starts with some string skipping 6th intervals and then moves into A min7 land. The string skipping at the beggining can be hybrid picked but also works with an upstroke.
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2:12 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Lick 3 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion We're hitting some more advanced territory with this 3rd lick. It is specifically designed to utilize your middle and ring finger for hybrid picking. Pay attention to the triplets that take place. Phrasing on this one can be tricky.
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2:31 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Lick 4 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This lick is kind of in the style of Brett Garsed. There is a lot of legato happening here. This whole lick is 16th note triplets, except for a short 16 note and 32 note chromatic run near the end.
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2:15 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Lick 5 Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion This one is fast! A lot sweeping and economy type picking happening so pay attention to the tab. It's all 32nd notes so take your time and slowly work it up to tempo.
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0:57 Licking Up the Modes: Ionian - Demo Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here is the demo where I demonstrate all the licks over the backing track.
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1:43 "In the Style of Andy Mckee" - Acoustic Ballad Part II Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Hey guys! This is another song in an "Alan Parson" mood, with an Andy McKee flavor. Here's the tuning for this song: D G D G B D Change Low E string to DChange A string to G Leave D stringLeave G string Leave B string Change High E string to D Th...
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2:35 "In the Style of Andy Mckee" - Acoustic Ballad Part II - 1 Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic In the tablature below, I'm going to highlight the sections that I'll be discussing in the video. For the harmonics in the intro, you can pick them with the second or third finger, allowing your first finger to stay available. For the rhythm part, ...
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2:43 "In the Style of Andy Mckee" - Acoustic Ballad Part II - 2 Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Watch out for the quick lick here. It's something i like to use, playing open notes and hammer notes. Always keep the rhythm in mind (thumb percussion). First, work on the lick itself, then add the thumb rhythm. For the last chord, the finger order ...
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0:45 Fusion Rock Solo over 7/8 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion In this lesson, we're going to learn a solo from a song I recently finished. The solo floats over a 7/8 time signature. If you aren't familiar with time signatures, you can check out a basic introduction here, or for an in-depth analysis check out th...
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0:34 Fusion Rock Solo over 7/8 - Backing Track (142bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here is the backing track at the original speed of 142bpm. If you'd rather practice at a slower speed, head on over to the next page to access the backing at 92bpm.
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0:52 Fusion Rock Solo over 7/8 - Backing Track (92bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here is the backing track slowed to 92bpm. Have fun!
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0:53 Free Melodic Solo Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey folks! In this lesson, we're going to learn a short melodic solo taken from a song I wrote recently. Very fun to play. Very melodic. We have a lot of different techniques squeezed into a short amount of time, so go through the solo very slowly a...
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0:28 Free Melodic Solo - Backing Track (136bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track at normal speed, 136 bpm. If this is a bit too fast for you, head on over to the next page to get the backing at 90bpm. Have fun!
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0:43 Free Melodic Solo - Backing Track (90bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track slowed down to 90bpm. Rhythm guitars are not included in this track.
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1:02 Ballad in the style of Andy McKee - Demo Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Hey everyone! This is a song tutorial that will show you how to play a ballad with thumb percussion, in the style of Andy McKee. Here's the tuning for this short song: D Bb C F G C Change Low E string to DChange A string to Bb Change D string to CCha...
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2:03 Ballad in the style of Andy McKee - Part 1 Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic The first half of the song is not too terribly tricky. I'm going to touch on a few different sections, and you'll find those sections highlighted in the tab below. While you learn this song, don't be afraid to implement your own interpretations, add...
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2:57 Ballad in the style of Andy McKee - Part 2 Instructor: David Soltany Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic The second half of the song has couple of tough spots to work on. Again you'll find the parts I touch on highlighted in the tab. The main dfficulty in the second half is the fast little run you get at the end. Try working on the run all by itself b...
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1:13 Melodic Lead over Djent Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey everyone! In this tutorial, we're going to learn how to play a melodic lead section from a song I'm writing. To me, this is one of those licks that once you learn, it's pretty fun to play over and over! It's entertaining to the ear, and also a go...
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1:26 Melodic Lead over Djent - Backing Track (187bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing tracked looped at 187bpm. Rhythm guitars are included. If this is too fast for you, head on over to the next page to practice with the 90bpm backing track. Have fun!
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2:56 Melodic Lead over Djent - Backing Track (90bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track slowed down to 90bpm.
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1:14 Rock Ballad Solo Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome everyone! For this lesson I'm going to show you a solo from a song I recently wrote. There's a lot of emotion and depth to this particular song, so when it came time for the solo I wanted to write something simple yet powerful. One of the k...
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2:10 Rock Ballad Solo - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Time for the backing track! The tempo is 124bpm. I extended the progression quite a bit, so practice improvising your own solos in addition to the one I wrote. Have fun!
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0:36 7-String Metal Riffs - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal You're waiting patiently for a parking spot. You see someone backing out. You then turn on your car's blinker to claim the spot. But just as you're about to pull in, an old lady driving a corvette speeds her way into your spot! You then get mad! How ...
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0:35 7-String Metal Riffs - Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Most of the notes in this riff are played without palm muting, however at the end of bars 1 and 3 make sure to mind those palm-muted Low B notes. Make them solid and chunky so you hear a clear differentiation between the normal notes and palm-muted n...
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0:35 7-String Metal Riffs - Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This section illustrates a cool contrast between a riff being played with tight palm-muted chunk and then the same riff being played with a more open feel. Bars 5 through 8 being the former. Bars 9 through 12 being the latter. Keep the palm mutes ti...
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0:37 7-String Metal Riffs - Backing Track (180bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at full speed, 180bpm. If this is too fast for you right now, go to the next page to access the backing track at 110bpm. Have fun!
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1:01 7-String Metal Riffs - Backing Track (Slow - 110bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track slowed down to 110bpm. Practice hard!
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1:16 Megadeth Riffage! - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys! For this tutorial, I decided to break down a bunch of Megadeth-esque riffs in an attempt to unlock a few of the many techniques associated with this style of playing. From finger-twisting "spider chords", to thrash beats to straight up low...
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0:37 Megadeth Riffage! - Riff 1 (Intro) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal And we're off! With a blazing thrash beat and tons of intricate pick strokes - reminiscent of something from Megadeth's "Rust In Peace". The first six bars are very much the same sort of "fast picking call" with a "two-chord answer" throughout, howe...
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0:22 Megadeth Riffage! - Riff 2 (Segue) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Like riff 1, this riff is again, very much centered around the low E string. Serving as a segue between the intro and the first verse, it offers more of an eerie-type "Youthansia" groove - with all the phrygian, harmonic minor and chromatic reference...
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0:38 Megadeth Riffage! - Riff 3 (Verse) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Continuing with a similar vibe as the segway riff, the rhythm is broken up and we add "space" for Dave's snarls. Note: The last eighth note in bar 18 and the first in 19 are tied, and then followed by a series of low E pick strokes beginning with an...
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0:40 Megadeth Riffage! - Riff 4 (Chorus) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Let's clue up with a "Crypric Writing"-esque chorus. Again, with tons of room for a more melodic chorus as uniformly demonstrated on most Megadeth albums - we see groupings of four eighth notes in the second half off each bar. Play each chord "shot" ...
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1:18 Megadeth Riffage! - Backing Track (Full Speed) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at 190BPM (Full Speed).
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2:00 Megadeth Riffage! - Backing Track (Slow) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at 120BPM (Slow).
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2:56 The Lens of Clarity - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey everyone! In this tutorial we'll be learning a portion of one of my songs called "The Lens of Clarity". It's a heavy yet very melodic piece with a bunch of atmosphere/synth stuff. I hope you enjoy it! This song was originally composed with a mu...
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0:50 The Lens of Clarity - Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Alright, let's get going! In this first riff we're going to be playing around with the concept of polymeter. Polymeter represents multiple time signatures going on at the same time. In this first section, the drums are outlining a 4/4 groove, while ...
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1:10 The Lens of Clarity - Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have the chorus. In this part we'll basically just be strumming power chords using straight eighth notes. In the video you'll see me down-strumming every chord, however if you'd prefer alternating between downward and upward strums that's to...
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0:42 The Lens of Clarity - Part 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have another instance where the palm mutes need to be clearly defined. Makes sure your technique is clean! At the end of bars 26 and 28 it gets a little tougher as you connect the riff sections. Take those parts slowly and make sure when the...
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0:42 The Lens of Clarity - Part 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is definitely the most challenging part of the song. When I hear it I think it has a big Symphony X vibe. You'll be using a lot of legato here, including both hammer-ons and pull-offs. It might be tempting to cheat a little bit and get lazy wit...
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0:42 The Lens of Clarity - Part 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The notes in this riff are all sixteenth notes and palm-muted. When you listen to the riff, you can hear that the notes are in groupings of 3. If you count "One, two, three, One, two, three" where each count represents each note, you'll really hear/...
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2:57 The Lens of Clarity - Backing Track (142bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track at full speed, 142bpm (beats per minute). If this is too fast for you right now, check out the backing track on the next page where you can practice it at 100bpm.
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4:12 The Lens of Clarity - Backing Track (Slow - 100bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have the backing track slowed down to 100bpm. Have fun!
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1:24 In the Style of AC/DC: Thunder from Down Under Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Meeeerrry Christmas from IG-Santa once again! Last year we had some knuckle busters in your IG stockings, this year I'll treat you to a bit of Christmas Thunder from Down Under! But, all kidding aside, this is a song tutorial in the style of AC...
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1:23 In the Style of AC/DC: Thunder from Down Under - Rhythm Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Ok, so first out is the rhythm guitars! In AC/DC we have one of rock history's hardest working and most stable rhythm sections, I'm talking of course of Malcolm Young - Guitar, Phil Rudd - Drums and Cliff Williams - Bass. Now this IS a guitar ...
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2:08 In the Style of AC/DC: Thunder from Down Under - Lead Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Time for some classic Angus lead guitar! Now, if this was an all out AC/DC tune, we would of course have some killer vocals by the late great Bon Scott on top, but in this case, I've just provided you with the bare guitar essentials. The tune s...
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1:36 In the Style of AC/DC: Thunder from Down Under - Backing Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Finally, here's the backing track! Now, as I mentioned in the rhythm guitar break down, I've mixed this tune in true old-school AC/DC style, with the rhythm guitars almost hard panned left and right, and the lead in the middle. So, if you have...
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2:35 Free A Metal Christmas - Introduction Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Around this time of year, we begin hearing tons and tons of the traditional songs which serve as landmarks for the season. If you're like myself, things tend to get old after about the 487th time hearing the same tune. In any event, that's what we're...
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1:12 Free A Metal Christmas - Part 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday We start with "Carol Of The Bells". Heavily based on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra metal arrangement of the song, here we feel the uplifting effects of some good ol' fashion classical composition. And again, the melodies should "ring a bell" once...
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0:55 Free A Metal Christmas - Part 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Up next, the only "fully original" section of the medley; an arpeggio sequence used as a compositional segway. Ay 180BPM, 8th notes should be well within our grasp. Some will find "slower" arpeggios more difficult than "fast" ones. And the reason be...
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1:20 Free A Metal Christmas - Part 3 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday ...The basic melody-line from Walter Rollins' "Frosty The Snowman"! Be sure to, yet again, focus on phrasing nuances and vibrato; it's important when faced with situations where the melody is slower-paced and heavily carried on the higher register o...
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2:22 Free A Metal Christmas - Part 4 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. This is the segment where we totally sell-out and play one of the all-time most famous Christmas songs. Forced into a new meter, 4/4, this is yet another section which heavily revolves around executing a simple melody...
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2:25 Free A Metal Christmas - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Check out the full backing track and be sure to post your renditions of the tune on the IG forums!
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0:45 Pentatonic Tapping - Exercise 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi guys! In this lesson we'll take a peek at two tapping sequences in the Emin pentatonic scale, incorporating open strings into the lines. This first example starts out just moving up the high E-string covering all five positions, before turning a...
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0:42 Pentatonic Tapping - Exercise 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this example, we take a pretty common kind of pentatonic tapping sequence that you can find in solos of everyone from Nuno to Howe. I use this type of moving pentatonic shapes in my own soloing quite a lot. Here however, we incorporate open strin...
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0:32 Djent Series Part 1 - Introduction Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys, This is part one in an upcoming series of lessons I'll be doing on the rhythmic concept of "djent". Derrived from a word "invented" by members of Meshuggah, and popularized by Periphery song-writer Misha Mansoor, the term has become synony...
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3:44 Djent Series Part 1 - "Even-Odd" Pulses Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal So let's start out with the basic concept of polymeters. I've addressed this concept in a previous tutorial regarding creating pulses in your lead playing, so let's apply that to riffing, and learn how we can use these odd rhythmic pulses to create s...
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2:25 Djent Series Part 1 - The Pattern Approach Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's another common technique, alike the "Even-Odd" rhythm approach, we'll be playing meters within meters, except this time, meters within meters within meters. Confused yet? Don't be. Here's what's happening: The pattern is One... One-Two... On...
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0:30 Djent Series Part 1 - Backing Track - Pulse of 5 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Check out this drum backing track and play along to the exercises under "Even-Odd", exercise: "Pulse of 5". The drum track plays first at 150BPM, and then at 200BPM.
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0:32 Djent Series Part 1 - Backing Track - Pulse of 7 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Check out this drum backing track and play along to the exercises under "Even-Odd", exercise: "Pulse of 7". The drum track plays first at 150BPM, and then at 200BPM.
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0:43 Djent Series Part 1 - Backing Track - Pulse of 9 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Check out this drum backing track and play along to the exercises under "Even-Odd", exercise: "Pulse of 9". The drum track plays first at 150BPM, then at 150BPM with added groupings for the riff demonstration, and then again for the r...
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0:21 Djent Series Part 1 - Backing Track - Pattern Approach Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Check out this drum backing track and play along to the exercise: "Pattern Approach". The drum track plays at 200BPM.
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1:10 Slap Guitar Basics - Example Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Okay let's now try out the slap technique with a longer example. Start slow, then gradually increase speed while making sure the notes stay clean. *Notes on low E are to be slapped, notes on D are to be plucked.
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0:28 Shawn Lane Lines - Part 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hello stringslingers! In this "lick & line" lesson we'll look at a hybrid legato pattern, that is usually played in triplets. However, we will do it in 32nd notes AND do it in the style of the late, great Shawn Lane and his "falling down the sta...
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0:35 Shawn Lane Lines - Part 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock OK! In the second "Lane Line", we'll use a whole-tone scale, descending diagonally in the opposite direction. Whilst the first line descended in the opposite direction, we only moved approximately 1 octave in range, while we here will move more than...
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0:35 7-String Essentials - Etude Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Download the backing track and have fun! \m/
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1:24 Intervallic Fusion lick in B Dorian Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Hey folks! Here's a fun little lick I came up with. Hope you enjoy! This lead lick falls into the key of B minor / B Dorian, with most of the notes coming from the minor pentatonic box. I tried to play the lick with a 'swing' feel, but feel free to...
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0:57 Hybrid Lick Extensions - Intro and Playthrough Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Welcome to this short ”lick-based” tutorial. This time we’re going to have a look at a Hybrid Picking lick or ”line”. This line was something I came up with in improvisation over an A Dorian groove. Thus, the lick is pri...
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2:42 Hybrid Lick Extensions - Isolation Exercises Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion In this part we’ll first look at the lick slowed down, and then some isolation exercises derived from the lick. I want to note here that I have not notated the isolation exercises to conform to any kind of bar-lengths, that is say 16 notes over...
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1:46 Free Govan-esque Funk: Performance Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Hello IG! This tutorial is a short and sweet funk track, primarily based around a lead idea that I came up with while improvising. The track is based around a pop/funk drum beat, with a couple guitar parts on top of it. You may notice a similarity ...
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0:24 Free Govan-esque Funk: Part 1 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk This idea almost immediately came to my head after hearing the drum beat. Very simple, but it "says" what it needs to say. I'm very often inspired to write after hearing a groovy drum beat. I almost prefer to write with a drummer vs. on my own, or wi...
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0:21 Free Govan-esque Funk: Part 2 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk The second riff adds a percussive feel to the song, especially when using palm muting. Once again, this follows the G minor Penatonic scale. I would consider this an extremely common type of riff when dealing with pop/funk/R&B. You may notice th...
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1:07 Free Govan-esque Funk: Part 3 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Now we're on to the main focus of this lesson. As said in the intro, be sure to focus on phrasing, feel, vibrato, bending, and accenting. I've tried to include a lot of detail in the notation below, but there is still a lot that can't be taught with...
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2:20 Free Govan-esque Funk: Backing Track Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Quick Overview:Key of G minorTempo: 111bpmHeavy focus on the G minor pentatonic scaleLead lick can be easily manipulated and changed to fit your own personal style Enjoy!
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1:35 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Hey once again, shredders! For this tutorial, I chose to break down a track that was (structurally) written by myself and a drummer friend of mine, Brandon Hopkins, with some super funky bass lines and keyboard tracks done by Tony Dickinson. (www.to...
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1:34 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Part I Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk As I mentioned in the introduction, here's where the "groove" aspect of your playing should be in full-force. Learn the notes, analyze the demonstration video to ensure your 8th shuffle feel is in line with the original, and have fun. A quick pointe...
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0:58 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Part II Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Here's where we're introduced to our first "Guthrie" influenced lead. It highlights an F#m9, Dmaj7 and Bm7 progression and floats in and out of notes diatonic to the key to offer a very "accidental" sound. Focus on all the techniques used, including...
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0:53 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Part III Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk This riff predominantly consists of three notes, F#, E and A. Still keeping with our shuffle-feel, the note groupings offer a polymetric sound that extends four bars. In bar 36, the meter resets resulting in a "speeding up" effect that helps the...
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1:06 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Part IV Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk At last, the guitar solo! Again, within the F#m blues scale, the scale slips in and out of different modes hinting at all kinds of different flavours. Bar 60 through 61 consists of, yet again, another tapping lick - and like before - the rhythm is ...
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1:37 Vanilla Funk Sundae! - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Download the Backing Track here and have fun!
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1:17 Makin' a Mayer - Performance Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Welcome everyone! In this tutorial, we'll be looking at a song riff in the style of John Mayer. This riff is something I came up with after watching his performance on "Storytellers". It's actually meant to be played on an acoustic but I didn't have...
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1:16 Makin' a Mayer - Intro and Verse(s) Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Now for the verse. Of course, if this song was to be true to the style of John Mayer, it would have to have some pretty killer vocals and lyrics on top, but since I'm not that proficient in either of those two fields, I'll leave that up to you ...
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0:58 Makin' a Mayer - Chorus Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Now, the chorus has something of a half-time feel compared to the verse, which I feel is a nice reprieve from the up-tempo groove of the verse riff. The same holds true here as well with the right hand. The right hand "slaps" mark the 2 and 4 ...
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0:51 Makin' a Mayer - Right Hand Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style In this part you can see how the "slap" and thumb techniques work in unison. I begin slowly, and as I build speed I gradually move from the "slow version" of the verse bass line to the line played in the performance section, and as I move the the tem...
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1:31 Makin' a Mayer - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Now for the backing track. I've given you a 4 beat countdown, then I've added a hi-hat on the 1 and 3 beats until the actual riff begins. Try it out!
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1:14 Riff Like Threat Signal - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys! This month, due to being heavily involved in the writing process of the new Threat Signal record, I decided to break down the mechanics of this interesting rhythm-style, in hopes that you can incorporate it into your own compositions. We'll...
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0:38 Riff Like Threat Signal - Intro & Verse Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Intro: Make the distinction between rests and longer note durations, for instance; the Bb note on the third fret in bar 1 is a held 8th beat, wheras the two 16ths that follow are short 16ths followed by a rest. Palm muting is imparitive and it's im...
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0:50 Riff Like Threat Signal - Pre-Chorus & Chorus Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Pre-Chorus The pre-chorus riff is very Vigilance-esque. Pay close attention to how the riff "resets" near the end of bar 7. The note sequence will be much easier to grasp by not biting off more than you can chew, or in other words, memorize the patt...
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0:26 Riff Like Threat Signal - Post-Chorus Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Post-Chorus This riff serves as the common "heavy riff after the chorus" segment which usually ties the chorus back to a verse. Rhythmically, it's a bit of a finger-twister. Each bar starts the same, and ends a little differently. Please recognize ...
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1:14 Riff Like Threat Signal - Backing Track (Full Tempo) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Download the backing track at Full Tempo (122BPM)
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1:46 Riff Like Threat Signal - Backing Track (Reduced Tempo) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Download the backing track at a Reduced Tempo (85BPM)
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1:45 Maroon Funk - Performance Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Hey folks! This tutorial features a latin-funk piece that I came up with. You'll be learning four different parts, and improvising at the end. If you haven't already guessed, this is heavily influenced by Maroon 5. Hope you enjoy!
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0:25 Maroon Funk - Part 2 (Melody) Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Part 2 is a catchy melody, played as a rhythm guitar part. Even though this is a fairly 'busy' line for rhythm, it still works well with vocals, or lead guitar. It's important to play staccato, especially where noted in the tablature below. Try hard...
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0:25 Maroon Funk - Part 3 (Harmony) Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Next, we'll be moving the melody up a minor third to play the harmony part. It's quite easy to play once you've learned the main melody in the previous lesson.
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0:27 Maroon Funk - Part 4 (Lead) Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk The lead part naturally came to me as soon as I started improvising over the backing track. It's a repetitive melody that I feel stacks well with the previous ideas, as well as other melodies! I can see this as being looped over and over, in the outr...
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1:44 Maroon Funk - Backing (Drums & Bass only) Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Here's a stripped down version of the backing for practicing the specific parts which I've taught in this lesson. Have fun!
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0:34 Eric Johnson Triads - Lick 1 Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Okay, now it’s time to increase our soloing vocabulary with a few licks. Any of these 3 licks can be used against a static Dmin7 chord. The first one is a melodic sequence that uses a few substitutions against the old Dmin7 chord.
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0:32 Eric Johnson Triads - Lick 2 Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In order to spice things up a little, let’s add a few color tones to these triads. This example uses the 9th (the note E against Dmin7) and the 11th (the note G against Dmin7) in conjunction with the regular Dmin triad inversions.
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0:52 Eric Johnson Triads - Lick 3 Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This last example shows how to incorporate these shapes into a more straight-forward shredding context. Like the first lick, it utilizes a few substitutions and some very tricky string skips, so it is bound to get your alternate picking up to shape. ...
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0:54 The Eccentric Hillbilly - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi guys, for this tutorial I wanted to break down an original of mine entitled "The Eccentric Hillbilly". After writing this track in late 2007, I decided to enter it into Guitar Idol 2008, it got me through to the finals in London, England and it's ...
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0:58 The Eccentric Hillbilly - Gettin' Fired Up Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock To get started, we'll see some quick licks, most incorporating "chicken pickin'" , which is commonly referred to as "hybrid picking" (a technique incorporating both the pick and fingers of the right hand). The number 2 will be seen written throughout...
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0:18 The Eccentric Hillbilly - Slappin' n' Poppin' Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's where things get really interesting: incorporating common bass technique. Slapping and popping in this context is rarely seen, but when demonstrated effectively, can produce a very interesting and innovative sound. Harmonically, we're playing...
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0:39 The Eccentric Hillbilly - A 'lil More Modern Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock To conclude, we play the chorus, and a 3-bar tapping lick which brings us to verse 2 (another time!). The main thing to keep in mind, with regards to the chorus, is the nuances in phrasing. The bends, vibrato and legato demonstrated effectively will ...
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1:01 The Eccentric Hillbilly - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Download the backing track at full tempo.
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1:07 The Eccentric Hillbilly - Backing Track (Slow) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Download the backing track at a reduced tempo.
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1:27 4 Step Groove - Performance Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hi guys, and welcome to this tutorial called "4 Step Groove". I decided to put together a backing, combining both my love for Joe Satriani along with my funky taste in music. Though I've labeled this as a "song tutorial", I'm more or less playing a...
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0:29 4 Step Groove - Level 1 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the first section, I chose to play the rhythm guitar part simply for the sake of showing it to you. Pay close attention to the timing, and also the pick strokes marked in the notation below. This song is in the key of Eb minor.
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0:24 4 Step Groove - Level 2 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Now let's start doing some leads! You may notice that I'm outlining the chords through my melody. A very simple, effective, and melodic approach, commonly heard by Eric Johnson. I should point out that if you play these licks exactly as written (wi...
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0:24 4 Step Groove - Level 3 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock We continue arpeggiating in this lick, and get a bit more into the shred-realm. If you've watched my Descending Legato Lick lesson, you may recognize some common techniques displayed here. Try experimenting by placing vibrato on different notes.
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0:30 4 Step Groove - Level 4 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The final section features a series of 16th note triplets using chromatic passing tones. This is a common type of lick for me. I chose to use it in this tutorial to offer a more challenging and "technical" lick. The final 4 bars are not transcribed....
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1:28 4 Step Groove - Backing Track Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Have fun with the backing track! The tempo is at 97bpm and the key is in Eb minor.
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1:05 Exploring the Sixth - Blues Solo Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues To conclude our lesson, here are sixth intervals in an actual “real life” soloing situation. It’s really important to apply these things but mix them up with your other concepts and licks, in order to not sound like you’re pra...
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0:46 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 1 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 1 The first example uses a chromatic run and legato. Use it to break out of the traditional blues box. The chromatic notes add interest and stretch the listener. The tempo is quite fast, so practice it cleanly. Make sure you're hitting all of t...
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0:35 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 2 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 2 This is a unique way to turn ordinary lines into head turning slide emulation. Heavily influenced by Jimmy Herring and Derek Trucks, it uses only a few notes, but wrings every possible sound from them. By staying on only one string and using ...
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0:57 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 3 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 3 This is a lick in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Nothing says blues like an occasional nod to one of the greats. Many players try to emulate Stevie to the point of unoriginality. Be careful to become your own player. This lick is fun to pla...
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0:41 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 4 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 4 This lick is built around an Am arpeggio played over G minor. It sounds fairly outside when played in context due to the first notes in the pattern. Don't overdo it though. An occasional departure from the diatonic key can add interest,...
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1:27 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 5 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 5 This lick requires you to master the art of raking the strings. It's a good transition lick to set up your favourite blues runs. It is derived from the F# Blues scale. Don't let the fact that it's short fool you - it takes work to make this e...
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1:40 Code Seven - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey everyone, and welcome to this song tutorial! This is a piece taken from a pretty heavy tune I wrote a while back. You can hear the full version on my profile page if you'd like. Make sure you turn your amp up to 11 for this one! And do not be al...
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0:33 Code Seven - Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This first riff is going to be somewhat floating over the 4/4 time signature. I like incorporating riffs over 4/4 drum grooves that don't always perfectly line up within the 4/4 structure. For example, bar 4 is in 4/4 time, however depending on how y...
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0:33 Code Seven - Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part is an extension of Part 1, except it's a lot more aggressive with the palm muting and we're also now perfectly aligned with the drums in 4/4 time. Make sure your palm muting spans across all three bottom strings to really get that crunch s...
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1:04 Code Seven - Part 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part will definitely test your picking hand's stamina. There is a massive amount of "galloping triplets" on the sixth string. You'll need to concentrate on making sure everything stays in perfect sync with both hands. Practice this part very slo...
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1:04 Code Seven - Part 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part has a cool call and answer section. In bars 29-30, we have a heavy rhythm creating the "call", then in bars 31-32 we have the guitar's melody "answering the call". Then the same thing happens in bars 33-36. "Call and answers" are very fun ...
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1:04 Code Seven - Part 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The last part is the easiest section of the piece, involving some solid strumming of power chords. Again, make sure the rests are dead silent. For this riff in particular, it's very important that the riff breathes between the chords to give it that ...
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1:39 Code Seven - Backing Track (Full Tempo - 192bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at full tempo, 192bpm. If this is too fast for you right now, go to the next page to access the backing track at 150bpm.
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2:07 Code Seven - Backing Track (Slow Tempo - 150bpm) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track slowed down to 150bpm. Practice hard and have fun!
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1:40 In the Style of John Petrucci - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys, I've been on a classic John Petrucci kick lately so I decided to piece together a solo which captures the essence of Mr. Petrucci as best as possible. The solo is comprised of two sections, the first covering his blues-esque Steve Morse in...
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2:11 In the Style of John Petrucci - Part 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This first 16 bars of the solo move in and out of the blues scale; from a natural Bm scale to F# dorian. Based mostly around simple pentatonic positions and "box" scales, it portrays Petrucci's ability to take elements of blues/classic rock and combi...
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1:57 In the Style of John Petrucci - Part 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The second half of the solo, as mentioned in the introductory video, contains more linear and minor sounding licks. It opens with some tricky scale fragments that should be treated "loosely" as opposed to being locked in completely to the 16th note n...
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0:44 In the Style of John Petrucci - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at full tempo. If you need to start slower, go to the next page to practice along with the 150bpm version. Enjoy and practice hard!
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0:56 In the Style of John Petrucci - Backing Track (Slow) Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track slowed down to 150bpm. It includes rhythm guitars along with a metronome. Have fun!
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1:59 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Solo Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys! This lesson is going to be devoted to one of my favorite lead players in metal today - Per Nilsson of Scar Symmetry. After getting quite a few requests to break down some of Per's licks, I decided to piece together a solo "in the s...
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0:58 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Part 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Part 1: Sweep Arpeggio Sequences The solo begins with a sequence of major arpeggios with the exception of the opening (minor). The key modulations are rather random, but warrant a very classical sounding movement that is very prodominant in many of ...
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1:03 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Part 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal PART 2: Harmonic Minor Madness Bars 5-12This section contains some signature Per-licks, from the pedal-tone lick in bar 6 to the descending harmonic minor lick starting in bar 7. The only key to mastering these, specifically, are practice and perser...
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0:42 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Part 3 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal PART 3: A Play on Rhythm Bars 13-16 At 150BPM, some of the rhythms found within bars 13-14 may cause some frustration. Be sure to play these slow and REALLY examine where the beats are, the durations (especially dotted 8ths) and be sure not to rush...
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1:18 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Part 4 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal PART 4: Legato Arpeggio SequencesBars 17-22This section begins melodically, then climbs a 2 note per string pattern beginning on an up-stroke. This IS subjective as I know a lot of players who would attack this lick starting with a down-stroke instea...
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0:46 In The Style of Scar Symmetry (Per Nilsson) - Backing Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track - be sure to practice each part at a decreased speed before attempting to shred all over it! Enjoy!
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1:17 Instrumental Song Idea - Main Theme Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hello! Here's a neat little idea I came up with a while ago. This idea contains a handful of different techniques, so be sure to pay close attention to the tablature. I have included the pick strokes, to further assist your understanding of the lic...
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3:53 Instrumental Song Idea - Variations and Exercises Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this video, I touch on a couple variations of the lick. Try playing the lick with a 'triplet feel', or 'swing'. Hybrid picking also works well with this idea. If you struggle with alternate picking across multiple strings, be sure to practice the...
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6:08 Original Music of Richard Lundmark Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Hey guys! This is a performance video showcasing clips from songs I've written and also used in previous tutorials. I hope you enjoy the music, and be sure to check out these tutorials if you haven't already! NeoBlues Song Tutorial TT-Zop Song Tut...
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4:35 The March Guitar Triathlon - Performance Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome Guitar Athletes! In this month’s tutorial we’ll be looking a song transcript from my 2004 FretDance album, called The March. We won’t be going into detail with every single overlay and harmonized lead in this song, but rath...
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2:11 The March Guitar Triathlon - Event 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Get set, ready, GO! In this first event, we’ll look at the main 6-string riffs in the tune, the main riff, the bridge, the chorus and the bridge leading in to the solo sections. In the first riff, the key element is muting. Since you’re...
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1:45 The March Guitar Triathlon - Event 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock First off in event 2, please note that the 7th B string is down tuned one whole step to A. Furthermore, you might note that the part is noted with bass clef instead of G clef, which is something that GP seems to do by default, so concentrate on the T...
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2:39 The March Guitar Triathlon - Event 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock For the final event, we have the melody line and some other fun stuff. First of all, I have noted the melody line with the same kind of alternate picked approach as the riffs. However, this can be played using legato, hybrid picking or whatever your...
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4:37 The March Guitar Triathlon - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track. Enjoy!
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1:07 "Starting Here" Solo - Performance Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey guys! I'm very proud to say that I am now an official member of the Infinite Guitar team! I hope to be able to provide guitar tutorials to subscribers of all experience and ability levels.
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5:48 "Starting Here" Solo - Part 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The solo opens with a 7-position 5-string arpeggio pattern, which begins at the root of the key (Am), and ascends through every diatonic major, minor as well as diminished pattern up the fret-board. Beginning with Am, it ascends to a Bdim/G arpeggio,...
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5:38 "Starting Here" Solo - Part 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This section is basically the “core” of the solo. It incorporates mostly melodic lines in the key of A minor, and one short, but tricky alternate picked section. Be sure to apply a firm palm mute to these sections, and practice with a cle...
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6:55 "Starting Here" Solo - Part 3 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is the conclusion of the solo. A fiesta of string-skipped legato tapping lines which highlight the underlying chord progression (Am, Dm, G, C, F, Bb and E). Much like the sweeping technique, it is imperative that you isolate issues related to st...
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0:42 "Starting Here" Solo - Backing Track Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track. Enjoy!
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1:41 Funky Blues - Intro Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Hey guys! This tutorial will focus on a beginner 'Funky Blues' riff, and will also include a modified example, as well as a short lead run! As mentioned in the above video, some techniques that may stand out are: Staccato: Characterize...
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1:16 Funky Blues - Example 1 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Here we have a riff that follows the notes of a minor pentatonic scale. If you are unsure of what that is, there are several tutorials available that will help you get the grasp of it. For this lesson, its not entirely necessary to know; though, it w...
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1:14 Funky Blues - Example 2 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues For the second example, we will play the riff over dominant 7th chords, and will slightly change the idea, adding a major 3rd. If you get this down fairly easy, try switching your techniques, from alternate picking, to legato, etc. Move on to the t...
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0:29 Funky Blues - Simple Lead Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues This lick works well with both example one and two, and follows the E minor blues pentatonic scale. Try picking every note in the run, using mostly legato, or combining both techniques to achieve what may be the most comfortable for your playing. Y...
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1:39 Funky Blues - Outro Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Remember, be creative, and use your own 'voice' in music! As always, send questions my way if you have any. Thanks for checking out this tutorial!
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1:09 Trial and Error - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey everyone! In this tutorial we'll be learning a piece called "Trial and Error". It has a mix of some old school progressive rock elements as well as some modern rock elements. I labeled this as a "Beginner" tutorial. However, if you're just star...
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0:44 Trial and Error - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock When you observe the tablature below, the first thing you'll notice is that there are a lot of slides. Sliding is a form of legato and is a technique you'll definitely need to master. The most important thing about slides is making sure the notes sus...
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0:42 Trial and Error - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In Exercise 2, we'll now learn the clean chorus section. If you want to pull this part off like I played it in the video, you'll need to use a timed delay effect. If you have the proper gear for that, set your delay to a tempo of 148bpm (beats per mi...
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1:08 Trial and Error - Backing Track 148bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's the backing track at 148bpm. Background guitars are included. If you're using the delay effect we talked about in Exercise 2, be sure to set it to 148bpm with dotted quarter notes as the note value. If this backing track is too fast for you, ...
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1:24 Trial and Error - Backing Track 120bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's the backing track at a slower tempo of 120bpm. Background guitars are not included in this one. If you're using the delay effect we talked about in Exercise 2, be sure to set it to 120bpm with dotted quarter notes as the note value.
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1:14 Friday Night Cruise - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey everyone! In this tutorial we'll be learning a short experimental rock piece. It has a bit of a Latin rock feel and part of it is also slightly influenced by a band called Muse. The wah pedal I'm using in this video is a Dunlop Crybaby 535Q. An...
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0:41 Friday Night Cruise - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This first exercise is where I significantly implemented the wah pedal. If you have a wah pedal, definitely use it for this so you can get that rock/funk sound. Basically all you'll be doing with the wah pedal is pressing down on it while you strum ...
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0:51 Friday Night Cruise - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Exercise 2 is pretty straightforward in that we'll be playing straight sixteenth notes throughout the entire thing. Keep your alternate picking steady and make sure each note sounds crystal clear and equal in volume.
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0:43 Friday Night Cruise - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Exercise 3 has both a clean part and a distorted part. In the clean part, you'll primarily be playing dead notes on most your downstrokes, then with your upstrokes you'll be playing the notes normally. Watch out for the quick legato line at the end o...
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1:15 Friday Night Cruise - Backing Track 109bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track at it's original tempo of 109bpm. If you need to practice it at a slower speed, go to the next page to access the backing track at 80bpm.
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1:42 Friday Night Cruise - Backing Track 80bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the backing track slowed down at 80bpm.
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1:01 Rockin' Rhythm - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey everyone! I hope you've all been having a great holiday season! In this tutorial we'll be learning a simple and catchy rock rhythm. Regardless of your skill level, I want you to really concentrate on feeling the rhythm and playing tightly. Once...
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1:50 Rockin' Rhythm - Slowed Down Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock There are basically 3 parts to this piece. In the tab below, you'll see each part specified. When you first observe the tab, you'll see plenty of "X" markings. These markings represent what are called dead notes. Dead notes can add a great percussiv...
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1:02 Rockin' Rhythm - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Have fun with the backing track! The tempo is at 137bpm.
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1:32 Mind Melt - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hello everyone! Welcome to this song tutorial called "Mind Melt". This is a short clip taken from a song I'm currently writing. I hope you enjoy it! We're going to be learning some significantly intense rhythm playing in this tutorial. Make sure yo...
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2:19 Mind Melt - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 1, we're mainly going to be dealing with eighth notes here with the exception of bar 8. In all of these exercises, be very mindful of all the notes that require palm muting. Anytime you see the "P.M." markings, be sure to palm mute the a...
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1:37 Mind Melt - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This particular riff is played for a large portion of the song. What I really like about it is how it's played identically over three sections, yet each section sounds unique. This is in large part due to the other instruments, especially the variate...
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1:42 Mind Melt - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this riff, we're going to be all over the place on the 6th string, so make sure your fret-hand is loose and limber! Use whatever fingering feels best for you, but of course feel free to use my fingering in the video as an example. Just like we sa...
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1:27 Mind Melt - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal To close out the piece, we're going to break away from the intense rhythm playing on the lower strings and play something a bit more melodic. Make sure all your pull-offs on the G string sound clean and equal in volume to the other notes. And don't ...
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1:32 Mind Melt - Backing Track 186 bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at 186 bpm. Background guitars are included. Don't forget to stretch and warm up! If this tempo is too fast for you, go ahead and move on to the next page for the 150 bpm backing track.
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1:53 Mind Melt - Slow Backing Track 150bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the backing track at 150 bpm. Background guitars are not included in this one. Have fun and practice hard!
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1:55 Making of a Song - Demonstration Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style Here is the current draft of the main melody of the tune. This will give you an idea of how far from its basic origins it has developed, and perhaps a glimpse of what's to come for this little tune. As this is not in any way the finished product, I h...
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1:38 Memories - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Hello all! In this tutorial, we'll be learning an acoustic piece called "Memories". It's a soft CMaj7, G progression that gave me the imagery of taking a "stroll through memory lane". Once you've checked out the full video above, head on over to th...
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1:49 Memories - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic In the first exercise, we'll be doing some picking patterns while we play through the CMaj7 and G chords. If you're new to playing picking patterns through chord progressions, make sure you practice this slowly so you can focus on developing clean t...
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1:52 Memories - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic This exercise can be played a couple different ways. The easy way would be to simply play the notes how they're indicated in the tab below. But if you want to give the pattern some extra rhythmic flavor, I'd recommend adding some subtle percussive el...
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1:50 Memories - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic You'll find this exercise to be similar to the last one, but it has an added variation. If you look towards the middle of each measure, you'll see we now have some palm-muted notes on the 7th fret. The "P.M." markings above the notes indicate to play...
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1:39 Memories - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Have fun with the backing track!
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4:50 Bridging the Gap to Country - Introduction & Example 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country Greetings guitar slingers! Welcome to this look back at the previous tutorial. We will use the TT-Zop tutorial as a starting point to head on into some Country guitar playing, so if you haven't checked out the previous tutorial, please do so here. ...
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4:06 Bridging the Gap to Country - Example 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country In this example, I expand upon the main rhythm idea, adding arppegiated ideas with hammer-ons and pull-offs that are so typical for Country guitar playing. You will also find the G-arpeggio from the TT-Zop riff here, but played in straight sixteen no...
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7:11 Bridging the Gap to Country - Example 3a & b Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country Example 3a is yet another variation of the main rhythm idea. I included a short lick as a turn-around in the end. Try grooving along on the main rhythm, and throw in any of these variations at the end, to be able to always get back on the first downb...
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4:49 Bridging the Gap to Country - Example 4 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country In this example you will find some double stop bending, typical in country guitar playing. Even though this tutorial is not aimed towards this technique (The bending part of Country needs a tutorial all by itself!) I choose to include as an example o...
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4:19 Bridging the Gap to Country - Example 5 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country In this example, I use the A major (F#min) pentatonic, and incorporate open strings as well (thus expanding the scale a bit). You recognize the beginning "roll" from example 2. Pay attention to the right hand fingerings, and try it your own way as we...
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3:41 Bridging the Gap to Country - Example 6 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country And here' s the final example for you! Here I have once again taken inspiration from the TT-zop solo, part 1. Check it out here, in case you missed that one! This one has a slightly more "blues-country" feel to it, since I'm staying in the A minor ...
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0:52 Destroy the Alarm Clock - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I don't know about you, but I dislike it very much when my alarm clock goes off. Stop beeping at me and let me sleep! :) So, here's a short piece for all of you alarm clock haters. The imagery I see in this piece basically has me battling it out with...
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1:30 Destroy the Alarm Clock - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Let's take a look at the first beat in each of the bars below. See the triplet note grouping? Those are sixteenth note triplets, which basically have a span of six notes per beat. Make sure you palm mute that grouping, then immediately after play a q...
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1:46 Destroy the Alarm Clock - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The first thing to point out about this riff is that the first two beats of each bar are very similar to what we saw in Exercise 1. So be sure to keep that part the same. The main things new in this riff are the quick legato runs that begin on the s...
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0:50 Destroy the Alarm Clock - Backing Track: 140 bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have the backing track at 140 bpm (beats per minute). If this is a little too fast for you, feel free to go to the next page to practice at 105 bpm. As always, if you ever make a recording of yourself playing along to the backing, be sure to...
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1:07 Destroy the Alarm Clock - Backing Track: 105 bpm Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have the backing track at 105 bpm. As always, if you ever make a recording of yourself playing along to the backing, be sure to post it in the forum!
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1:31 Moonlit Waters - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Hello Infinite Guitarists! In this song tutorial, we'll be learning a piece I wrote called "Moonlit Waters". It has a bit of a sexy, latin jazz feel to it. Once you watch the full video above, head on over to the next page to begin the first exercis...
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1:34 Moonlit Waters - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Picking-Hand Fingering T Thumb I Index Finger M Middle Finger A Ring Finger O Pinky Finger In Exercise 1, we're going to be accenting certain eighth note beats with the Cm7 and Bm7 chords. ...
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1:41 Moonlit Waters - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin In this section, we're going to be playing an octave pattern on the Low E and D strings. Just like in Exercise 1, we have a lot of rests and space between the chords. Try adding that rhythmic effect that we discussed in Exercise 1 to this exercise a...
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1:37 Moonlit Waters - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Now we get to the main theme of the song. This part isn't too difficult, but be careful with your fingering on both the left and right hands. Using proper fingering will help the transitions between the parts go as smoothly as possible. Also, don't ...
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1:39 Moonlit Waters - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Have fun with the backing track! Just for your reference, the backing track is at 138 bpm (beats per minute). If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums! See you next time,Sean
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0:52 TT-Zop - Performance Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Summer-greetings Guitarslingers! In this song tutorial, we will play through some texas-style blues-rock. As you might have guessed by the title alone, this track is rather inspired by a certain bearded texas-trio named ZZ-top. However, during the ...
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4:33 TT-Zop - Intro Riff Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Let's begin with the intro riff. Here we have a classic type of texas-riff, which lends heavily from country guitar playing, but is played in a shuffle beat. Many country ideas can be used in rock and blues, it's just that most of these country line...
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2:02 TT-Zop - Main Riff Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Ok guys, in this part we're looking at the main riff during the solo. Pretty much the same thing as the last riff, same chords, just with distortion and more "edge". Don't be afraid to "dig in", this is supposed to be played with a fair amount of att...
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2:19 TT-Zop - Solo Part 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the first part of the solo, we begin with a classic Texas bluesline, a minor third with some heavy víbrato. It's all in triplets, to keep that groovy shuffle feel. The second part includes an almost country'esque little idea. As ment...
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3:49 TT-Zop - Solo Part 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the second part fo the solo, we start out with a more Blackmore-styled ide. The key here is to get that small, but quick and agressive bend going in the first finger. It is easy to slip of the string, especially on a vintage radius tele-neck, so k...
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3:39 TT-Zop - Solo Part 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Ok! This final part introduces a technique of playing harmonics that I personally love! What I'm doing is playing the harmonics with the side of the nail and the flesh of the side of my fingertip (middle finger). This is a technique that guys like J...
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1:15 TT-Zop - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues And finally, here's the backing track for ya! I've made it a bit longer than the actual song snippet itself, so that you can use it as a practice track for improvisation as well.
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1:42 The Seeker - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome folks! In this song tutorial, we'll be learning an intermediate rock piece called "The Seeker". As you learn this piece, keep in mind that there's a tempo change about half way through, where the bpm (beats per minute) increases from 127 to ...
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2:26 The Seeker - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In Exercise 1, we'll be learning the main riff of the song. This riff will be primarily played in the 2nd position. There's going to be a good amount of palm muting in this song, so be mindful of all the "P.M." markings throughout the tablature. Mak...
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2:08 The Seeker - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock With the exception of a few notes in bar 4, Exercise 2 will mainly be played using eighth notes. For now, go ahead and observe the note grouping on the fourth beat of bar 12. See how there are 5 notes joined together over the duration of a single qu...
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1:24 The Seeker - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In Exercise 3, we'll be playing a brief chord progression before the song transitions to a tempo increase in Exercise 4. We'll start off strumming the D power chord, then in bar 18 we'll play the A and G# chords along with the drums as we descend to...
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2:00 The Seeker - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In Exercise 4, we have the section of the song where the tempo increases from 127bpm to 148bpm. In the context of the song, once Exercise 4 is finished, you'll then proceed to play Exercise 1 and Exercise 2 at the new speed of 148bpm. With the excep...
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1:44 The Seeker - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Now it's time to rock out to the backing track! Keep in mind the tempo increase at about 48 seconds in. If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along with the backing track, be sure to share it with us in the forum so we can all hear your s...
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1:29 Spatial Gravity - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome! In this tutorial, we'll be looking at a progressive rock piece I wrote called "Spatial Gravity". We'll be learning a good mix of rhythm and lead playing in this one while also incorporating various time signatures. Once you've checked out ...
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1:34 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Before we learn the first exercise, I want to highlight the fact that we'll be using a couple different time signatures in this song, primarily being 7/8 and 4/4, and a little bit of 2/4. If you need a refresher course on any of these time signatures...
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0:57 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is the section where the drums come into the song and we play a bit of a teaser before building up into Exercise 3. In bar 5, we'll start out by playing a G power chord on the 3rd fret of the Low E-string. Make sure to let the chord ring out so...
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1:40 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is the main "groove" part of the song. Now, let's pay very close attention to what's going on rhythmically here. When you watch the Full Video, listen carefully to what the guitar and drums are playing in this part. Basically, both instruments a...
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1:54 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 4 (Solo: Part 1) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock It's time for the solo! We'll now be branching away from the 7/8 time signature into a more groove-oriented 4/4 feel. When you look at the tablature below, you'll see quite a few "wavy lines" above certain notes. Those markings simply indicate that...
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1:16 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 5 (Solo: Part 2) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This section is definitely the most difficult part of the song. So warm up, stretch your arms and fingers, and get ready to rock! First, let's observe the type of rhythmic notes we'll be playing: thirty-second notes. 32nd notes equate to having a sp...
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1:46 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 6 (Solo: Part 3) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The final section of the solo has a bit of a bluesy feel with lots of bends and pentatonic phrases. The goal here is to add as much "attitude" to these notes as possible. Give the vibrato-indicated notes a good amount of heavy and fast vibrato. We al...
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1:27 Spatial Gravity - Exercise 7 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock As we conclude the song, we'll be playing an exercise that is very similar to Exercise 3. The main difference is that in this exercise, we'll be playing a brief descending pattern to close out the song. There is one other difference between the two ...
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1:27 Spatial Gravity - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Now, it's time to put all those exercises to use with the backing track. Have fun, and if you ever make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums so we can all hear your awesome skills. See you next time! Sean
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0:53 Funky Fusion Song - Intro Section Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here's the intro section of the tune which is repeated again when the band enters and at the end after the drum solo. This line is created from a hybrid pentatonic scale - B minor Pentatonic with an added 6 (the note G#). This is a very common devic...
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2:09 Funky Fusion Song - Main Melody Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here's the main melody played slowly then at tempo. Check out the fingerings and phrasing. A lot of these notes are played using slides and vibrato which is hard to notate so be sure to check these out in the video. The melody is played over the sam...
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1:02 Funky Fusion Song - Riff Section Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Now onto the Riff Section which is played underneath the Drum solo. This is very much influenced by later Greg Howe and Wayne Krantz. Lots of syncopation (off the beat playing) and built from a few different harmonic areas. The main idea is built fr...
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1:30 Spiral - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome everyone! In this tutorial, we're going to learn a song of mine called "Spiral". It has a modern metal feel with a few Eastern themes thrown in there. Please note that this song is in Drop D tuning. If you aren't exactly sure what that is, ...
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1:18 Spiral - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal As you probably noticed from watching the main video, there is going to be a lot of fast picking involved with the rhythm playing. When you look at the tablature throughout the song, you'll be noticing a lot of sixteenth notes mixed with eighth notes...
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1:14 Spiral - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 2, we have the part of the song where the full band kicks in gear. The actual riff is similar to that of Exercise 1, but we'll be adding a couple new ideas. Pay attention to the palm-mute markings (indicated as "P.M.") in the tablature. ...
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1:46 Spiral - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Exercise 3 represents the "Symphony X" part of the song. I like playing riffs that somewhat tease the listener, letting them know that there's an even bigger riff coming their way next. So I like to think of this part of the song as a build-up to Exe...
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1:53 Spiral - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal And now, we have the big riff that we were building up to in Exercise 3. Make sure you headbang when you play this one. It will make you play better!... ...Okay maybe not. :) Similar to Exercise 3, the effectiveness of this riff relies heavily on t...
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1:12 Spiral - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this last exercise, we're going to be adding in a hint of tapping into our rhythm playing. First off, make sure you use alternate picking exclusively in this riff. The only time you won't be using it is when you'll be tapping. In bars 28 and 29,...
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1:54 Spiral - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the full tempo backing track at 170 bpm. If you ever record yourself playing along to the backing, be sure to post it in the forum so we can hear your skills!
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2:41 Spiral - Backing Track (slow) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here is the slow tempo backing track at 120 bpm. If you ever record yourself playing along to the backing, be sure to post it in the forum so we can hear your skills!
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0:59 Mixing Time Signatures Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey and welcome to my Mixing Time Signatures tutorial! Checkout the video of the example riff and before we head over to the breakdown section, see if you can try and figure out what the time signature is and where it changes. Don't peek at the scor...
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1:17 Mixing Time Signatures - Breakdown Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome back and give yourself a big pat on the back for getting the time signatures correct! If you did, that is. ;) The purpose of this tutorial is to give you a gentle push in the direction of combining time signatures, which will hopefully give ...
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0:57 Mixing Time Signatures - Backing Track Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Have fun with the backing track and remember, post your takes over at the forum. See you next time!
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1:52 TapOut - Full Video Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to this riffage tutorial based on a tune of mine called "TapOut". You guessed it, I'm a UFC fan! :) This riff is pretty much what you might label "Swedish Metal", in which I have tried to capture some of the essence of my Swedish metal herit...
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1:06 TapOut - Breakdown 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this first breakdown, we'll be looking at the first riff. This riff is made up of a sliding 3-string chord (an augmented power chord, or "half-diminished power chord" or "b5 power chord" as I believe you call it in the US), and some heavy palm-mut...
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0:44 TapOut - Breakdown 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part contains a continuous 16-note riff, with some off-beat accents occurring thanks to the placement of the un-muted notes in relation to the muted low C. This type of riffing can get really mesmerizing, so please use this riff as fuel for crea...
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1:27 TapOut - Breakdown 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this part, I'm using a rather un-orthodox harmonic technique. The actual physics of this technique is something I will include in my upcoming tutorial on harmonics, which will cover just about every possible harmonic technique out there. For now, ...
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1:52 TapOut - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Finally, here's a backing track for you to play around with. I have left one of the rhythm guitars in there (panned hard left) so you can get a sense of the harmonies when practicing to it. Get riffing, and see you in my next tutorial!
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1:30 6/8 Rock - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome folks! In this tutorial, we'll be focusing on a rock tune in 6/8 time, hence the amazingly creative title, "6/8 Rock". :) You can think of 6/8 as having a span of six eighth notes per measure. Listen for the high-hat count at the beginning o...
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2:17 6/8 Rock - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the first exercise, we'll be doing some sweep arpeggios in the key of D Major. The first 2 bars highlight the Major feel, then in bars 3 and 4, we'll be playing in B minor (D Major's relative minor key). We'll then repeat a similar sequence in bar...
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1:34 6/8 Rock - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this section, we'll be playing a "call and answer" sequence. A "call and answer" sequence is when you have a brief musical theme that somewhat "leaves you hanging", then it's immediately followed by another brief theme that offers resolve. In this...
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1:41 6/8 Rock - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is the slightly "metal" section of this seemingly upbeat rock tune. Be mindful of the palm mutes. Anytime you see the "P.M." markings in the tab, be sure to play solid palm mutes. Also, you might notice that I'm doing some brief downward slide...
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1:25 6/8 Rock - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock We're now going to be doing some full out sweep picking. In bar 25, we'll be sweeping over an A Major triad. Then in bar 26, we'll be sweeping over a D Major triad. Bar 27 will go back to the A Major triad. Then lastly, in bar 28 we'll be sweeping o...
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1:37 6/8 Rock - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is the quiet part of the song and is pretty easy. You'll see a couple bars of only rests as well. In bars 35 and 36, be sure to gradually build the intensity of your playing as you transition back into the main chorus melody. Once you have all ...
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1:35 6/8 Rock - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's the backing track. Have fun and practice hard. If you ever do a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum so we can check out your skills!
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1:40 Free Christmas Medley - Carol of the Bells/God Rest Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Merry Christmas everyone! I wrote this little piece after I heard an excellent song by Trans-siberian Orchestra. They did a medley where they mixed together two Christmas classics: "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". I thought th...
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2:07 Free Carol of the Bells/God Rest - Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday The first thing to be aware of with this piece is the 3/4 time signature. Except for the very last part of the song, everything will remain in 3/4 time. Before you start learning the piece, make sure you can properly identify the time signature when ...
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1:32 Free Carol of the Bells/God Rest - Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Here we have the second part of the main "Carol of the Bells" melody. In bars 13 through 16, we have a different melody than the last lesson, but the rhythmic structure is exactly the same, where we have the following count: | &nbs...
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3:16 Free Carol of the Bells/God Rest - Part 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Now comes the section where we begin playing the "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" theme. This section begins at a very soft volume and I'd suggest using your picking-hand's thumb to gently play the notes. Look for the "T" markings under the notes which...
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2:04 Free Carol of the Bells/God Rest - Part 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday To close out the piece, we'll be playing a rockin' breakdown that will be sure to wreak havoc on the North Pole. So get ready to rock! We'll now be playing in a standard 4/4 time signature. If you need a quick overview of that time signature, feel f...
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1:42 Free Carol of the Bells/God Rest - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Holiday Okay, now it's time to rock out to the backing track. But make sure you drink a lot of eggnog first. The Christmasy magic of eggnog will help you play better! As always, if you ever make a recording of yourself playing along to the backing track, be...
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1:41 Premonition - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome everyone! In this tutorial, we'll be learning a piece I wrote called "Premonition". It has a bit of a Symphony X vibe to it and has a good mix of melodic and heavy riffs. I hope you enjoy it! Once you've watched the video above, head on ove...
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1:41 Premonition - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this lesson, we'll be learning the riff that represents the main theme of the song. All notes in this section will be played as sextuplets (16th note triplets). If you look at each beat in a given measure, you'll see that there are six notes grou...
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1:47 Premonition - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 2, we'll begin the prelude to the heavy middle section. When you listen to the full video with the band, you can hear how I'm playing some accented notes along with the drums between rests. This is a very common yet effective technique wi...
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2:03 Premonition - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal And now we come to the heavy riff we referred to in the last lesson. This is where the drums go full throttle and you begin headbanging in headbanging heaven.* *Headbanging optional, but strongly encouraged. The chords in this riff are similar to t...
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2:01 Premonition - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this riff, we're transitioning from the darker sound to a more melodic sound. In bars 17 and 18, we'll be playing 32nd notes exclusively. Pay very close attention to the palm muting. The only notes you won't be palm muting are the ones where you'...
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2:01 Premonition - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have fun with the backing track! Be sure to stretch and warm up before you play. As always, if you ever record yourself playing along with the backing, be sure to post it in the forum so we can hear your skills. See you next time!
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1:42 Eluding the Mastermind - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome everyone! In this song tutorial, we'll be learning a modern metal piece entitled "Eluding the Mastermind". Please note that this song is in Drop D tuning. If you aren't exactly sure what that is, click here. Once you've finished checking ou...
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2:34 Eluding the Mastermind - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The intro riff to this song is mainly comprised of sixteenth notes. Most of the notes will be palm muted as well. However, study the tablature closely to catch which notes aren't supposed to be palm muted. When you look at the tab, you'll notice a f...
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2:10 Eluding the Mastermind - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Now let's start getting more melodic! I especially like this riff as it's pretty fun to play. It may be a bit challenging at first though as there are many hand movements shifting back and forth on the fretboard. The trickiest part here may be the f...
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2:59 Eluding the Mastermind - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Now we've come to the very fast and heavy rhythm section. Make sure you are especially warmed and stretched before playing this part! There is a lot of strain on your picking hand here, so be sure to gradually increase your speed as you practice. Don...
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1:12 Eluding the Mastermind - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal We'll begin this section by strumming back and forth between two particular chords: Am(without the 5th) and A#(without the 5th). You'll also see a lot of 16th note rests between the strumming patterns. When you encounter these rests, make sure the pa...
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1:41 Eluding the Mastermind - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have fun with the backing track! Please note that there are two counts with the high hats before the guitar is supposed to start. You can hear this in action in the full video. If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post ...
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1:32 Turbulence - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome! In this tutorial, we'll be learning a metal piece entitled "Turbulence". Please note that this song is in Drop D tuning. If you aren't exactly sure what that is, click here. Once you've viewed the video above, head on over to the next page...
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1:30 Turbulence - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal We will be starting out the song in a 5/8 time signature. In other words, there will be a span of 5 eighth notes in each measure. The first riff is a bit Meshuggah-esque. Meshuggah often uses heavy palm muting riffs synced with drum patterns. You'll...
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1:20 Turbulence - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part is a bit tricky as far as rhythm goes. As much as you can, really try to pay attention to what the different instruments are playing during this part in the Full Video. Basically, there are two time signatures occurring at the same time, wh...
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2:38 Turbulence - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the previous lesson, we were playing a 5/8 riff while the drums played a 4/4 groove underneath. In this lesson however, we'll begin playing the guitar in 4/4. We'll be playing the same rhythmic pattern in this entire lesson, but we'll also be add...
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3:17 Turbulence - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This riff has a really nice groove with the drums. As far as your picking, it will pretty much stay the same throughout this section. When you look at the tab, you'll see that most of the notes are in groupings of 2. For each grouping, you'll simply ...
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1:34 Turbulence - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have fun with the backing track! As always, if you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum so we can all hear your skills!
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2:14 Redemption - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome! In this song tutorial we'll be learning a piece I wrote called "Redemption". As you go through the tutorial, you'll notice that the entire piece is centered on the following chord progression: C, Em, Am, F. You'll also notice that everythi...
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1:21 Redemption - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The riffs and picking are pretty straightforward in this piece, but be sure to examine the tablature closely so you don't miss any details. Also, there a few exceptions, but most of the notes we'll be playing in this piece are sixteenth notes. In th...
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0:54 Redemption - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Exercise 2 is where the rhythm playing gets interesting. This is also where you'll find a few eighth notes mixed in with the sixteenth notes. Also, be mindful of the sixteenth note rests that you'll see in each bar. For those rests, I'd recommend le...
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0:50 Redemption - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have the chorus section. The main trick we have to master in this exercise is our picking. As far as our picking motions, we'll be using alternate picking. However, it gets a little tricky since we're repeating a grouping of three notes on 2...
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2:11 Redemption - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Have fun with the backing track! You'll hear a couple added guitars in the background. If you ever record yourself playing along to the backing track, be sure to post it in the forum!
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1:22 Time Constraint - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome folks! In this tutorial, we're going to focus on metal rhythm playing as we learn a song called "Time Constraint". Once you've watched the video above, head on over to the next page for Exercise 1. Have fun!
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2:10 Time Constraint - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal To start the piece, we have an interesting rhythmic intro. The idea was to play something simple that sounded somewhat like a beeping alarm clock. Throughout this piece, you'll notice many "X" symbols on the strings. That symbol represents a dead no...
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1:45 Time Constraint - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 2, we'll start out by playing an F octave chord on the A and G strings. Notice the "X" symbol on the D string? That simply means you'll be muting the D string while you strum the octave chords. Make sure your strumming stays relaxed as y...
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1:16 Time Constraint - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this exercise, we have a fast, eastern sounding legato lick. Accuracy is key here, so make sure you practice this part note by note. If you play it fast and some notes don't sound properly, slow it down. Only increase your speed as you gain more ...
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1:48 Time Constraint - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This last part has a bit of a funky feel to it. In bars 24 through 27, you'll be playing an octave riff that somewhat plays off of the drum beat. Be mindul of the many 8th note rests as well. Make sure those rests are super clean so your rhythm sound...
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1:22 Time Constraint - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Ready to play along to the backing track? Excellent. Be sure to warm up and stretch before you get started. If you ever record yourself playing along to the track, be sure to post it in the forums so we can all hear your skills!
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1:18 Blues Cruise - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues I hope you've packed your suitcase, because we're about to leave on the Blues Cruise! Okay maybe not, but let's learn a cool blues song while we're here. :) I was in a bluesy mood the other day so I decided to write this little tune. I hope you have...
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1:22 Blues Cruise - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Before we start, make sure you have a grasp on the song's underlying rhythm. If you haven't already figured it out, this tune has a very heavy triplet feel. So make sure you listen for that triplet pulse throughout the riffs in this tutorial. In thi...
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0:50 Blues Cruise - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the beginning of this exercise, we'll immediately notice more of the fingerpicking that we discussed in the last lesson. In this case, we'll be plucking octave notes with our picking hand fingers. In the last two bars, we'll close out the exercis...
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0:46 Blues Cruise - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In exercise 3, we're going to start things out by playing a smooth A minor arpeggio. I'd recommend practicing this arpeggio by itself before moving on to the rest of the exercise. In bar 11, we'll be playing some nice bends on the 17th fret. As it i...
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0:34 Blues Cruise - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues To start off exercise 4, we'll be playing a blues lick similar to the one I did in this lesson. Practice it very slowly at first. And it may sound silly, but really try to feel the blues "attitude" in this riff. Give that thing some tasty bending and...
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0:51 Blues Cruise - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Out of all the exercises, this last one has the most bends. Keep those bends in tune! And on a sidenote, if you are a guitarist that isn't very used to bending, make sure you pace yourself and your fingers when getting used to it. You don't want to s...
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2:32 Blues Cruise - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues I went ahead and looped this backing track a few times, so feel free to jam to your heart's content. You can either play the actual piece I wrote, or you can also practice your own improvisation in the key of A minor. The pentatonic and blues scales ...
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1:43 Trusting a Hope - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome my friends! In this song tutorial, we're going to learn a rock piece called "Trusting a Hope". The majority of this piece is at an intermediate level, but we'll also be mixing in some advanced techniques here and there. Once you've checked ...
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1:25 Trusting a Hope - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock To start the piece, we'll be using alternate picking to play a riff spanning over strings 3 through 6. We'll be playing sixteenth notes exclusively. Also, when you look at the tablature, be sure to observe the palm mutes throughout. You'll be palm m...
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1:08 Trusting a Hope - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have a short breakdown for the piece where the drums fade out. I'd recommend using all downstrokes here. Any idea why? Well, if you look at all the D string notes, you'll see that they're palm muted. So since that's the case, I'd prefer to u...
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1:02 Trusting a Hope - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is where the song starts to get kicking! We're primarily going to be using power chords here. First we'll start out playing an E chord in bar 13. Then in bar 14 we'll play a G. At the end of bar 14 and the beginning of bar 15, you'll notice we'...
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1:28 Trusting a Hope - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have another 16th note pattern, and we'll again be using only downstrokes to help our picking attack. When you practice this riff to the backing track, you'll hear guitar harmonies playing along with you. Let those harmonies guide you with yo...
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0:49 Trusting a Hope - Exercise 5 (Solo part 1) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock On to the solo! When you look at the tablature, the first thing you might notice are those wavy lines throughout. Those lines simply mean to give vibrato to the notes. Anytime you have a note with significant duration, be sure to give it some tasty ...
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1:44 Trusting a Hope - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Awesome, you're ready for the backing track. Have fun! You'll hear a few guitar parts accompany you as you play throughout the track. If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum!
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2:32 Pedal Tone Legato: Rock Application - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Even though Pedal Tone Legato has a classical feel by default, that doesn't mean it can only be applied to classical styles. So in this lesson, let's apply it to a rock song. One thing to note, is that we're now going to be playing in even 8th notes...
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1:08 Pedal Tone Legato: Rock Application - Backing Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Great job! You're ready for the backing track. If you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum so we can hear your skills!
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1:57 Metal Madness - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome everyone! In this song tutorial, we're going to learn some intense metal riffs and ideas. Please note that this song is in Drop D tuning. If you aren't exactly sure what that is, go ahead and click here. Once you've checked out the video ab...
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0:48 Metal Madness - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This first riff has somewhat of a Pantera influence. Dimebag Darrell had a knack for playing chunky sounding riffs with a good amount of dissonance. We have a lot of Drop D power chords played throughout this riff. Let's examine some of the other th...
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1:11 Metal Madness - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In bars 9 through 12 of Exercise 2, we have a build-up where just the guitar and bass are prompting the drums to start playing so to speak. The most important part of this section is the use of rests. Make sure the rests are extremely tight sounding,...
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0:42 Metal Madness - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 3, we have some fun 3-string sweep arpeggios. We'll be playing them as 16th notes. And make sure you follow the pick strokes very closely in the tab below. Since we're sweeping, don't individualize each pick stroke, make sure your hand gl...
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0:57 Metal Madness - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In Exercise 4, we'll be playing a neat little trick using open strings and legato. The whole pattern of this riff will be a grouping of 3 notes. First you'll play the open B string, then you'll hammer-on a B string note, then you'll hammer-on "from ...
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0:51 Metal Madness - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This exercise is probably the most straightforward part of the song. We're basically just going to be doing a palm muted build on the 6th string. There are a select few non-palm muted notes though, so make sure you examine the tab closely. And lastl...
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1:07 Metal Madness - Exercise 6 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This last exercise involves some intense speed picking and is a bit tricky. On the 2nd beat of each bar, do you see how we'll be playing 16th note triplets? Make sure you keep alternate picking throughout. Now, look at the very first note of the 3r...
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1:41 Metal Madness - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have those riffs nailed? Great job! Make sure you don't headbang too hard when you play them though. :) If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along to the backing track, be sure to post it in the forum!
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1:33 "Latin Groove" - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Welcome! In this tutorial, we're going to delve into some Latin styles. If you enjoy guitarists like Al Di Meola and Steve Oliver, this will be right up your alley. And if you haven't heard of those guitarists, go check them out! :) Once you've wat...
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1:01 "Latin Groove" - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Here we have the main theme of the song. It has a bit of a sexy, smooth jazz feel to it. First thing to observe, is the first two notes played at the very start. This is called a "pick up", where a single note or group of notes are played before the...
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0:49 "Latin Groove" - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin This section mainly contains 16th notes and 32nd notes. We'll also be inserting multiple 16th note rests throughout. Be careful with your picking as well. I primarily used alternate picking for this part, but there are a few instances (especially wh...
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0:41 "Latin Groove" - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin This is the part where we'll be playing along to a second guitar's harmonies. It mainly builds with ascending patterns on the G string, then moves to the B string at the end of the build. In bars 15 and 17 you'll encounter 32nd notes among the 16th ...
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0:46 "Latin Groove" - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin In this riff, we'll be incorporating Major and minor 3rd harmonies on the B and High E strings. Also, if you watch my picking hand in the video, you'll notice that I'm fingerpicking this section, rather than using an actual pick. I'd recommend using...
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1:37 "Latin Groove" - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Latin Have all the parts down? Then get your groove on with the backing track! As always, if you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums. We'd love to hear you play!
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1:42 String Skipping Etude - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Welcome! In this song tutorial, I wanted to write an etude that focuses on string skipping. String skipping occurs when you play a note on any given string, then skip a string to play a following note. This technique is essential for every guitarist...
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0:42 Time Signatures: 4/4 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock You'll notice in the example videos, I count the time signature out loud at the beginning. I strongly recommend you count out loud during these exercises if possible. If you can count out loud as you play, that will help develop your sense of rhythm ...
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0:32 Time Signatures: 4/4 - Example 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here we have a more advanced example in a blues-rock-funk style. So we'll just call it a "Fusion" style. :) There's a lot going on within each bar, so learn it very slowly. And really listen for that 4/4 pulse. Since there's a lot happening with the...
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0:30 Time Signatures: 3/4 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This 3/4 example is pretty straightforward. Be sure to count "One Two Three" out loud while you play.
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0:56 Time Signatures: 5/4 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Since 5/4 has an extra quarter note beat, it's going to have a somewhat "extended" feel to it. In this particular example, we're going to be strumming some basic chords to the 5/4 time signature. For the first four beats, we're just going to strum q...
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0:35 Time Signatures: 5/4 - Example 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the second 5/4 example, we're going to play an intense metal riff. As always, make sure you practice counting along with the riff before you start to physically learn it.
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0:39 Time Signatures: 6/8 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this 6/8 example, we're going to use a few power chords along with the open G and B strings. Be sure to use alternate picking throughout.
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0:35 Time Signatures: 7/8 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the first 7/8 example, we're going to play a subtle yet dynamic palm-muted riff. As always, count along with the riff before learning it.
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0:26 Time Signatures: 7/8 - Example 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This 7/8 example has a bit of a "celtic metal" feel to it. It's also quite a bit more advanced than the previous example. Be sure to get the count down first, then practice the riff very slowly.
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0:40 Time Signatures: 9/8 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Now, we're going to delve into a bit of blues as we explore the 9/8 time signature. This riff will consist primarily of eighth notes. As always, do your best to count along as you play.
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0:30 Time Signatures: 9/8 - Example 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this 9/8 example, we're going to utilize a lot of silence between quick bursts of notes. This will require some very tight rhythm playing, so make sure your mutes are executed cleanly. And as always, analyze and count along to the riff before you...
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0:44 Time Signatures: 15/16 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this 15/16 example, we'll be using 16th notes exclusively as we play a few arpeggios. I'd recommend using alternate picking while you play this, and also starting on a downstroke with each measure. However, watch out for the last note in each mea...
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0:33 Time Signatures: 19/16 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock With the first 19/16 example, we're going to play a short bar chord riff. You'll primarily be playing 8th notes as you strum. However, at the end of each measure we'll be strumming three 16th notes.
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0:36 Time Signatures: 19/16 - Example 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the last 19/16 time signature, we're going to use a good amount of legato. Practice the legato sections slowly at first and make sure the notes are equal in volume.
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0:46 Time Signatures: Mixing Them Together Ex. 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is our first example where we'll be using more than one kind of time signature. In this particular exercise, we're going to use 6/8, 5/8, and 4/4. Now that we're mixing time signatures, it's especially important that you count the time signature...
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1:00 Time Signatures: Mixing Them Together Ex. 2 (Advanced) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock We're now going to be mixing the following time signatures: 7/8, 4/4, 15/16, and 19/16. This passage has a bit of a Joe Satriani vibe to it. The most difficult parts you'll face with this are the 15/16 and the 19/16 sections. The transition from one...
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0:41 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 4/4 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock I strongly recommend you count out loud during these exercises if possible. If you can count out loud as you play, that will help develop your sense of rhythm immensely. In this example, we're going to be playing a few simple chords using eighth not...
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0:31 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 4/4 Ex. 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Fusion Here we have a more advanced example in a blues-rock-funk style. So we'll just call it a "Fusion" style. :) There's a lot going on within each bar, so learn it very slowly. And really listen for that 4/4 pulse. Since there's a lot happening with the...
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0:28 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 3/4 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This 3/4 example is pretty straightforward. Be sure to count "One Two Three" out loud while you play.
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0:54 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 5/4 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Since 5/4 has an extra quarter note beat, it's going to have a somewhat "extended" feel to it. In this particular example, we're going to be strumming some basic chords to the 5/4 time signature. For the first four beats, we're just going to strum q...
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0:35 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 5/4 Ex. 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the second 5/4 example, we're going to play an intense metal riff. As always, make sure you practice counting along with the riff before you start to physically learn it.
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0:39 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 6/8 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this 6/8 example, we're going to use a few power chords along with the open G and B strings. Be sure to use alternate picking throughout.
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0:34 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 7/8 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the first 7/8 example, we're going to play a subtle yet dynamic palm-muted riff. As always, count along with the riff before learning it.
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0:26 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 7/8 Ex. 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This 7/8 example has a bit of a "celtic metal" feel to it. It's also quite a bit more advanced than the previous example. Be sure to get the count down first, then practice the riff very slowly.
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0:39 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 9/8 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Now, we're going to delve into a bit of blues as we explore the 9/8 time signature. This riff will consist primarily of eighth notes. As always, do your best to count along as you play.
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0:30 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 9/8 Ex. 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this 9/8 example, we're going to utilize a lot of silence between quick bursts of notes. This will require some very tight rhythm playing, so make sure your mutes are executed cleanly.
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0:44 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 15/16 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In this 15/16 example, we'll be using 16th notes exclusively as we play a few arpeggios. I'd recommend using alternate picking while you play this, and also starting on a downstroke with each measure. However, watch out for the last note in each mea...
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0:33 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 19/16 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock With the first 19/16 example, we're going to play a short bar chord riff. You'll primarily be playing 8th notes as you strum. However, at the end of each measure we'll be strumming three 16th notes.
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0:36 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 19/16 Ex. 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In the last 19/16 time signature, we're going to use a good amount of legato. Practice the legato sections slowly at first and make sure the notes are equal in volume.
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0:46 Time Signatures: Backing Track - Mix 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This is our first example where we'll be using more than one kind of time signature. In this particular exercise, we're going to use 6/8, 5/8, and 4/4.
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1:00 Time Signatures: Backing Track - Mix 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock We're now going to be mixing the following time signatures: 7/8, 4/4, 15/16, and 19/16. This passage has a bit of a Joe Satriani vibe to it. The most difficult parts you'll face with this are the 15/16 and the 19/16 sections. The transition from one...
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1:31 "Wake of Souls" - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome! This tutorial is based on a snippet from a song I wrote called "Wake of Souls". We're going to be focusing primarily on tight rhythm playing with metal genres, particularly with progressive metal and metalcore. Also, please note that the so...
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0:50 "Wake of Souls" - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this exercise, we're going to use a lot of palm muting on the 5th and 6th strings mixed between some higher notes. The higher notes are all on the D and G strings, so we're naturally going to be using some string skipping as well. Since the palm ...
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0:30 "Wake of Souls" - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this riff, we'll be going back and forth between 32nd notes and 8th notes. There won't be any palm muting in this one, so be sure to let the strings ring out nice and clean. Also, give the 8th notes a good amount of vibrato as you can see me doing...
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1:32 "Wake of Souls" - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Have all the parts down? Great! Then it's time to practice with the backing track. If you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum so we can all hear your chops!
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0:52 Twangin' Country Lick Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Country Time to put your cowboy hats on, folks! It's time for a country twangin' lick. Be sure to use your bridge pickup to get a sharp, crisp sound for riffs like these. You can also try adding a hint of close delay to give your sound more texture. The ma...
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0:48 Melodic Metal Solo - Intro & Original Version Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hello all! In this tutorial we're going to explore a short solo from a song I wrote. And we're also going to learn an alternate version of the solo. In the video above, you'll hear the original version of the solo, then in the next video you'll hea...
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0:25 Melodic Metal Solo - Alternate Version Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, let's check out the alternate version! This one is a little more on the "shred" side. Once you've heard both solos, decide which one you'd like to learn and start learning! :) In the next lesson, we will start with the beginning of the origin...
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0:27 Melodic Metal Solo - Original Version: Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part is pretty straightforward. We have some sustaining melody notes and a good use of legato. You'll notice in the video how I use the whammy bar on the 3rd beat of the first measure. If you have a whammy bar, try it that way. If you don't hav...
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0:43 Melodic Metal Solo - Original Version: Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In the first part, we're going to use legato while playing a few 3-note-per-string patterns. Make sure all those notes stay equal in volume. At the end, we have a small sweeping pattern followed by a double bend/release. First, practice that sweep b...
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0:31 Melodic Metal Solo - Original Version: Part 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here, we have two fast sweeping/legato patterns. Learn each pattern individually before merging them together. You'll notice that we're going to tap a note at the end of each sweeping pattern. That makes things a little more difficult with the actua...
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0:25 Melodic Metal Solo - Original Version: Backing Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to the first backing track! This one is for the original solo. You'll hear the accompanying harmonies as well. If you'd like to learn the alternate version of the solo, head on over to the next lesson where we'll be tackling Part 1.
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0:46 Melodic Metal Solo - Alternate Version: Part 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal To start, we're going to be playing some fast thirty-second notes up the lydian mode in a 3-note-per-string pattern. In the full video for this solo, my note speed varies very slightly in this area to give it a bit of texture. At the end of the 32nd...
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0:50 Melodic Metal Solo - Alternate Version: Part 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal To start off Part 2, we're going to be playing one of my favorite kinds of arpeggio patterns. I just love the sweeping/tapping combinations. You'll start out by down-sweeping as you ascend in the A# Ionian mode. Then once you get to the G string, yo...
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0:25 Melodic Metal Solo - Alternate Version: Backing Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, here is the backing track for the alternate solo. There is a short section where you will hear harmonies. If you're ready to create your own solo, go to the next lesson for the empty backing track.
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0:25 Melodic Metal Solo - Empty Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal What I'd encourage you to do now, is write your own solo over this backing track. Be creative. Use some of the techniques you learned in this tutorial, and add other techniques and ideas if you wish. If you ever record your solo, be sure to post it ...
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1:05 Drop D Progressions - Exercise 5 (Acoustic Rock) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Okay! I threw this one in just for fun. It's kind of an acoustic/funk/rock progression. Lots of good rhythm elements going on as well. Please note that we are now back in normal Drop D Tuning for this lesson. We will be using the following chords: Dm...
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0:53 The Chase - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome! In this tutorial, we're going to learn a short metal piece called "The Chase". Once you've checked out the video, head on over to the next lesson so we can start learning those riffs!
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0:38 The Chase - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal The riff in this lesson is somewhat of a "build up" to the riff in the next lesson. It's primarily focused on the open Low E string as well as the E and F power chords on the A and D strings. Before playing the riff, be sure to study the rhythmic no...
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0:43 The Chase - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This riff is a great example of pure "groove metal". It just grooves! Just like in the last lesson, we're again focusing on using triplets. We have a good mix of both quarter and eighth note triplets. There is no palm muting here except for on the ...
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1:04 The Chase - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Now we come to the melodic lead riff. We have a lot of legato here. Plenty of hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Since most of the notes are generated using legato, make sure your legato playing is smooth and the notes are clear. Also, make sure the...
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0:52 The Chase - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal It's time to rock out to the backing track! Don't forget to turn your amp up to eleven. :) As always, if you make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums!
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2:22 Heavy Metal Riffing - Full Video Instructor: Pavel Denisjuk Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey guys! Sometimes we get tired of practicing and just want to have fun on guitar. What is better than a couple of groovy riffs! In this short piece you'll get a chance to have fun with some heavy metal riffs and get to know some tricks which may s...
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0:33 Heavy Metal Riffing - Backing Track Instructor: Pavel Denisjuk Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Ready to rock? Hit the play button and enjoy riffing with the backing track. If you feel like recording, record this piece and post it on our forum - we'll be glad to listen and comment. :) Have fun and stay tuned for more cool riffs!
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2:17 "Solace" - Acoustic Fingerpicking Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic In this lesson we'll be learning a short acoustic piece called "Solace". When I compose, I really enjoy taking chord structures and incorporating open-string themes throughout a passage. So in this lesson, be sure to observe how we take simple Major ...
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0:35 Fahrenheit - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is a little piece called "Fahrenheit". You'll be playing some Yngwie Malmsteen sweeps along with a few other cool techniques. Once you've seen the full video, head on over to the first exercise so we can start nailing these riffs!
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0:42 Fahrenheit - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal With this first riff, we're going to be repeating it in a few different ways, mixing around the picking execution as well as the octaves. We'll also be using sixteenth notes exclusively. To start, check out the first 4 measures. Notice how the notes...
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0:37 Fahrenheit - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Got the whole piece down? Then get rockin' with the backing track! You'll hear the accompanying guitars in the background as well. If you record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums so everyone can hear your skills!
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0:44 Fast Blues Bending Lick - John Petrucci Style Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Although John Petrucci isn't a straight "blues player", he definitely has some cool blues ideas that convey serious attitude. And hey, attitude is what blues is all about right? :) This particular riff was inspired from some of Petrucci's phrasing in...
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1:35 "Blackout" - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to the "Blackout" tutorial! With this song, we're going to look at some ideas focusing primarily on metal and Eastern styles. Also, note that this song is in Drop D tuning. If you aren't exactly sure what that is, click here. Once you check...
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0:52 "Blackout" - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is my favorite riff in the tutorial. I love the atmospheric Eastern vibe it conveys. This riff has a time signature of 7/8. So that means we have seven 8th notes accounted for in each measure. If you wanted to count the measure out loud, you co...
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0:45 "Blackout" - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here, we continue the Eastern vibe with a more rhythmic and staccato approach. It's also an excellent exercise to help develop finger control. First thing to notice are the rests. You'll encounter 8th note rests as well as 16th note rests. Make thos...
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0:51 "Blackout" - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This exercise utilizes the open 6th string as well as octave chords. In bars 10-13, we'll be playing the 6th string ringing out, but then be sure to palm mute that string starting on bar 14. While you play the octave chords, make sure your fret-han...
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0:55 "Blackout" - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Just as in Exercise 2, we're going to be encountering some quick 16th note rests. When these rests occur, slap your fret-hand fingers down on the strings to ensure a solid mute. Watch closely how I do that in the video. In bars 18-21, the rhythm wil...
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1:34 "Blackout" - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, have fun with the backing track! If you record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums!
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1:18 Metal Breakdown 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to the "Metal Breakdowns" Tutorial! Throughout this tutorial, I'm going to add some random breakdowns that you can practice to work on your rhythm chops. If you're into hardcore or metalcore music, you've probably heard of the term "breakdown...
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0:28 Metal Breakdown 1 - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Got it down? Then let's rock out with the backing track! If you ever make a recording of yourself practicing with the backing track, be sure to post it in the forums for all to hear. Rock on!
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1:48 "Acoustic Synergy" - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Hey everyone! Here's a little acoustic piece I wrote called "Acoustic Synergy". Why did I call it "Acoustic Synergy"? Because it sounds cool! I hope you enjoy this short tutorial. Once you check out the full video above, head on over to the next le...
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0:51 "Acoustic Synergy" - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Alright, before we start the first exercise, we need to adjust our guitar tuning. From your Low E string to your High E string, the tuning will go as follows: D(6) A(5) D(4) E(3) A(2) D(1) Let's be sure to learn every part of this riff very slowly. ...
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0:54 "Acoustic Synergy" - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Now we'll learn the strumming section for "Acoustic Synergy". We're going to have the 1st and 2nd strings ringing out through the entirety of this riff. I love the sound it gives when we layer chord changes on top of underlying open-string notes. It ...
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2:31 Rock On - Performance Instructor: Pavel Denisjuk Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Alright! Time for some metal riffing! What we'll do in this lesson is - we'll take a simple key of E but will turn it into a Locrian mode and apply such techniques as standard down stroke picking, a bit of slides, artificial harmonics and some heavy ...
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0:40 Rock On - Backing Track Instructor: Pavel Denisjuk Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Learned the riff? Start rocking with backing track! Don't forget to relax while playing. And if you feel like recording - record your playing and maybe add a solo to it and post at our forum! We are always glad to track our student's progress. Rock ...
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1:20 "Expiration Date" - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Hey all! This is a piece I wrote called "Expiration Date". It has a good mix of metal, progressive, and hardcore elements. Once you've checked out the video, head on over to the next lesson and let's learn it!
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0:38 "Expiration Date" - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock This first riff is pretty fun to play. The particular note choice coupled with legato gives this riff a subtle Asian sound. Keep in mind the use of legato throughout this riff. For example, check out the first 5 notes in the first measure. Then loo...
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0:36 "Expiration Date" - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here we have some tight rhythm playing along with the bass drum. I love this kind of metal riffing, where there are quick bursts of notes amidst short rests in between. The contrast of notes and silence can really add a lot of neat dynamic to your rh...
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0:44 "Expiration Date" - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This riff is pretty straightfoward. We'll be using all downstrokes as well. The picking in bars 19 and 20 might be a little tricky at first. We're basically switching a bass note melody from the 9th fret A string(F#) to the 7th fret Low E string(B),...
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0:27 "Expiration Date" - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This might be the most difficult rhythm section in this piece. We have a lot of fast sixteenth notes and we need to make sure the notes are played cleanly and that we avoid unwanted string noise. Play it slow. Don't sacrifice accuracy for speed. Be ...
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0:51 "Expiration Date" - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal And finally, we have the outro. The first 8 measures is a bit of a teaser for the following blast of metal madness. We're basically just playing the melody using quarter notes with all downstrokes. After that, we're going to play the same melody, e...
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1:18 "Expiration Date" - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal If you've learned the riffs, now it's time to play along with the backing track! Since the the first part of the song is just guitar, you'll just be playing along with the high hat counts. After 4 counts, you'll hear an open high hat. Right when you...
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2:33 Canon in D-sharp - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Hey folks! Welcome to Canon in D-sharp. If you've heard of Canon in D, then you're going to love Canon in D-sharp. It's just a lot sharper sounding than Canon in D. :-) Okay bad joke, I know. As said in the video, the rhythmic notes we'll be playin...
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0:41 Canon in D-sharp - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Have fun with the backing track! This backing track is double the length of the track I used in the main lesson. If you ever making a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum!
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1:34 Settle for Metal - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal "Settle for Metal!" That's what my great grandfather always used to tell me. Okay maybe not, but it sounds cool to say. Alright, in this short song tutorial, we're going to look at some intense rhythm playing in the metal vein. Before diving into t...
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0:37 Settle for Metal - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Got everything down? Excellent, try it with the backing track! Be sure to make sure you're stretched and warmed up. This has a lot of intense rhythm playing, so we need to make sure that we're ready and relaxed. As always, if you ever make a record...
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0:54 NeoBlues - Performance Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Greetings Guitar Slingers! In this tutorial, we will take a close look at an intro to one of my songs. This one is called NeoBlues, and is a track off of my FretDance (2003) album. We won't be covering the entire song for this tutorial (for a full ...
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0:35 NeoBlues - Part 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here is the first analysis part. We will begin by looking at the intro. Here we have an up-tempo, string skipping and finger tapping run in the G minor pentatonic scale. In the first part without tapping, you will encounter the note E added to the m...
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0:40 NeoBlues - Part 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here we have the second analysis part, which covers the interlude theme of the song. The pattern used on the triplets is exactly the same as in the intro, so that should not pose any significant challenge once you’ve nailed that. However, the s...
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0:33 NeoBlues - Part 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock And finally, here is the main riff. Isn’t it fun how the simplest things are often the most difficult? This is also true in this case. This one presents some challenges, especially if your hands are small or your reach is limited. As you can se...
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3:17 NeoBlues - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's the backing track for you to play along with. You'll hear added guitars and motifs to help you along. If you ever record yourself playing along to this backing track, be sure to post it in the forums!
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1:08 Funk in the Trunk - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Funk in the Trunk! Every once in a while, I get a crazy urge to play some funk music. This is a short piece I wrote that focuses on some fundamental funk guitar elements. So grab your guitar, break out the disco ball, and let's get going!
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0:26 Funk in the Trunk - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Now we get into the super funky part. This is actually very similar to the riff we played in Exercise 2, except we're adding in some key melodic notes at the end of each measure. Look at the end of each measure, and you'll see a quarter note. Those ...
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0:27 Funk in the Trunk - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Here, we have a bluesy melody line to finish up the piece. This riff revolves around the 1st and 5th modes of the E minor pentatonic scale. Be sure to notice how you won't be picking every single note in this riff. We have some good use of legato wi...
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1:07 Funk in the Trunk - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Funk Now, it's time to play this funky tune for 5 hours straight and invite all your friends to your house for a dance party. Have fun! And if you make an audio or video recording of you playing along, be sure to post it in the "Your Playing" forum to sh...
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1:17 Soothing Acoustic Riff - "Revealed Essence" Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Acoustic Hey everybody! This is a little intro to a song I wrote called "Revealed Essence". It has a nice, soft jazzy feel. First thing to keep in mind, is how we need to keep our strumming hand constantly moving during the strumming parts. Besides a few bri...
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1:18 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 1 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Hey Guitarist's and Guitarete's. Here are the first 12 bars of our Chordal Blues. Aside from the novelty of having this broken up into manageable sections, I'll be laying out all the chords and substitutions being used in each part. I wont be going...
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1:23 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 2 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome back! Same deal as before. I have slowed down the next 12 bar segment for you and will post the chord changes below. Bar 1- Fm7 > E13 Bar 2- Eb9 > Bbdim Bar 3- Bb7 > F altered Bar 4- Fm9 > Bb7 Bar 5- Eb9 > Eb11 > Bbm7 Bar...
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1:30 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 3 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Continuing from the last chorus. Bar 1- following through with Bb9 into Fm7 to Bb13 >Bm7 Bar 2- Bm7 > Eb13 > B#9 Bar 3- Bb9 > Fm9 - Bb13 (B13 - Fm9) Bar 4- on beat 3 we have Bb13 > D9 Bar 5- Eb9 ( from here through the next few bars ...
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0:56 Pending Closure - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Alright! Welcome to the "Pending Closure" song tutorial. This is definitely one of my favorite tunes that I've written. What I'll be showing you in this tutorial is a segment taken from the song's mid-section. Ready? Buckle your seatbelts. This one ...
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0:32 Pending Closure - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this riff, we have a good mix of alternate picking, palm muting, and legato. First thing we should note, is how on every single pull-off you do, you'll be using a downstroke. Make sure you keep that pattern throughout so we can stay consistent wi...
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0:27 Pending Closure - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Like some of the other riffs in this song, we'll be palm muting the Low E string notes, while all other notes are played normally without palm muting. Also, if you want, some of the picking in this riff can be played a little differently than how I ...
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0:26 Pending Closure - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal In this riff, we're actually playing the harmonies to the previous lesson's riff. So it's pretty much the same thing as far as the rhythms and techniques go, just played on different notes. One key difference though is that the notes on the A string...
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0:54 Pending Closure - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, here's the backing track! You'll hear the guitar harmonies in the audio, but the main guitar parts are left out. Have fun and remember to be patient while you learn this piece. This is a fast song so if you have trouble, just take your time an...
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0:52 Metal Riffing with 16th Note Triplets - Snazzy Riff Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay now let's just play a snazzy riff! Before you try to play anything with the guitar, observe the notation below and recognize where the 16th note triplets are, as well as where the 8th notes are. Even though we're just learning a cool riff, do y...
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2:54 Super Continental - Full Song Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Greetings Guitar Slingers! In this lesson, we will take a close look a song I call Super Continental. Not only will this serve as a good insight into my playing style, but will also be a good challenge for you both technically, rhythmically and theo...
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1:03 Super Continental - Part 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Ok guitar slingers! Let’s start by looking closer at bar…1! (Well, actually the entire first page, containing the main theme of the song). The first thing to keep in mind throughout this song, is to keep your shuffle groove intact. All...
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0:29 Super Continental - Part 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In bar 11, you see some ghost notes, and semi-articulated notes. This is also a good weapon to have in your arsenal, and this type of dynamic development can spice up a lick or line and make it groovy. What you have to keep in mind here is that the ...
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0:32 Super Continental - Part 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Same thing as in bar 11 occurs in bar 13 (with ghost notes), but I'm also using the hybrid picking technique (playing with pick and fingers simultaneously). You will see the palm muted notes marked with "P.M", and the notes to be played with your ri...
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0:30 Super Continental - Part 4 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In bar 22, we encounter some precise bending. Bending (vibrato) is one of the most over-looked techniques among younger players. But to have precise control over bending really makes the difference between a seasoned, all-round player and an amateur...
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0:21 Super Continental - Part 5 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock In bar 23, you will come across one of the “hurdles” in this song. You might ask yourself “hey, I know tapping. Why should this be a problem?” Well, dear Sir or Madam, let me tell you... When looking closer at the tapping ru...
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0:18 Super Continental - Part 6 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock The same problems with note value alteration as in the 5th analysis, can be found in bar 35-36. Here I’m playing a long legato/tapping run, pretty much floating all over the place, but still keeping that 9-tuplet note value flowing. In this li...
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2:59 Super Continental - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Crazy! Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's the backing track, with some added harmony and main motif guitars to help you along.
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1:07 Blues - Intros & Endings Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Blues clichés, although sometimes boring and predictable, are a valuable asset to your musical vocabulary. Before you can break through the boundaries of pentatonic scales and repetitive 'over used' musical ideas, you need to have a good unde...
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1:17 Jazz Lines (Bossa #1) Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Jazz Bossa style lines. no.1, This one of the first lines I was ever proud to put my name to, It has since become a common tool in my improvisations. It is based on the first 8 bars of the tune ' Blue Bossa ' Analysis; ======== In bar one the line begi...
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1:30 Charlie Parker Blues Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome! Today we are looking at a Charlie Parker style approach to 12 bars of the blues. We are sticking to the more simplistic edge of his playing today but in the future ill be adding some of his more wild lines. In the Video I will play through...
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1:28 Internal Life - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to the "Internal Life" song tutorial. This is one of my heavier tunes and it focuses on having tight rhythm playing. Influential-wise, there's probably a little bit of Symphony X and Meshuggah in there. Also, note that this song is in Drop D...
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0:48 Internal Life - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I like this intro because it's pretty "in your face" and sudden. The main thing to concentrate on with this section is the silence and timing in between the passages. Notice how in the video I motion the counts with my picking hand? I did that to em...
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0:32 Internal Life - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, there's a lot of palm muting in this riff. Study the tablature below carefully to know which notes to palm mute and which notes to let ring out. If you look carefully, you can see that all the open string notes are palm muted, and the rest are ...
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0:34 Internal Life - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is where the song really gets pumping. Here, you'll mainly be playing 8th notes, but be aware of the quick bursts of 16th notes as well. Also notice the couple of slides on the A string that you'll be playing with your ring finger. Be sure to ...
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0:41 Internal Life - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This part has a lot of 16th note open notes on the Low E string. And mixed in between we'll have some 8th note rests and quarter note rests. Notice how my left hand is muting the strings again during rests? Be sure to always do that. When you play ...
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0:34 Internal Life - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal This is a section where we have a hint of lead playing amidst all the rhythm. It adds a tasty flavor to the tune. There's a little bit of string skipping in this as you'll see during the first few notes. Also, observe how the very first 3 notes are ...
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0:26 Internal Life - Exercise 6 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal I like this riff because it shows a neat contrast between higher and lower notes. It's kind of a like a "call and answer" riff, where the higher notes call, then the lower notes answer. Keep it clean and watch for the palm mutes.
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0:43 Internal Life - Exercise 7 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay, here's the last riff of the tutorial. As mentioned before, do your best to have your left hand fall on the strings during the rests. This definitely helps your rhythm playing to have a tighter sound. First, we build up the riff playing a D# d...
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1:24 Internal Life - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Okay all you metalheads, here's the backing track. Good luck! If you make an audio or video recording of you playing along, be sure to post it in the forum to show off your skills!
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1:15 Haste - Full Video Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome to the "Haste" song tutorial. This is kind of a progressive/hardcore/metal sounding tune. There's a lot of intense rhythm playing in this one. Influential-wise, this tune was inspired by bands such as August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying etc. Al...
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1:18 Haste - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Here's the backing track, have fun! If you make an audio or video recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forum to show off your skills!
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A Major 9 Arpeggio Instructor: Robert Mussatti Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Any Style In this tutorial, I am going to present you with a variety of licks that you can use within many styles of playing, be it jazz, blues, rock, metal, neo-classical, etc. That is why I am calling this tutorial "A Plethora of Licks" and to start off, th...
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G Major Sextuplet Lick Instructor: Robert Mussatti Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal Welcome! I bring you another lick to satisfy your pallet, and this one is not for the faint of heart. This one is going to be a simple G Major sextuplet run starting on the 3rd fret of the low E string, all the way up to the D note on the high E st...
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.ii-V-I Licks (Part 1) Instructor: Robert Mussatti Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Jazz I now bring you another installment of licks, and this time, this is going to focus on ii-V-I licks. I have divided this up into 2 parts, with this part focusing on the licks themselves, and part 2 showing a way of how you can put them to use within...
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.ii-V-I Licks (Part 2) Instructor: Robert Mussatti Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Jazz Now, we are going to put these to good use. One way is to take these and play them through ii-V-I's going thru the Circle Of Fifths (Cycle Of Fourths), the main premise is to make the smoothest transition between each progression, using the most app...
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0:34 Picking Inside - Across 3 Strings Variation Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Now we're going to play another riff very similar to the last one. Just like in the last lesson, we're going to be alternate picking across 3 strings while picking inside. In the first measure, you'll play a C power chord with your index finger on t...
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1:00 Picking Inside - Melodic Riff Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's a cool melodic rock riff we can apply the "picking inside" principle to. This riff will have a mix of both picking inside and picking outside techniques. This exercise is a bit awkward compared to the others when it comes to picking. With thi...
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0:25 Picking Inside - Melodic Riff: Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock Here's a cool melodic rock riff we can apply the "picking inside" principle to. This riff will have a mix of both picking inside and picking outside techniques. This exercise is a bit awkward compared to the others when it comes to picking. With thi...

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