Truefire's Guitabulary

Recently, our ongoing modal journey has drawn us into the land of harmony. In the previous Back Track installment (Dorian Grooves, Sept. ’00 GP), we saw how notes from the Dorian mode can be combined to create Im, IV, Vm, and bVII triads; we also discovered that progressions built from these chords will support improvised Dorian lines. The trick is to play the Dorian mode starting from the Im’s root. We’ve explored a similar relationship between the Mixolydian mode and chords built from its notes (Digging Modal Harmony, Aug. ’00 GP). In that lesson, we set up a progression using Mixolydian’s native I, IV, Vm, and bVII triads and then soloed over the chord sequence. Now it’s time to investigate Aeolian harmony. This lesson includes Power Tab and is featured on the following CD compilations: BLUES U, ACOUSTIC U. Get more videos, notation and tab for this guitar lesson on TrueFire TV (http://truefiretv.com/)

The queen of Delta blues guitar sits in and serves up a lesson on authentic country blues strumming. If you want to get next to the concepts laid down by Tommy Johnson, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Skip James, and Willie Brown, you'll find this lesson a watershed. Rory uses Tommy Johnson's classic "Big Road Blues" as a foundation for teaching a series of techniques: bass notes followed by one or two strums; strumming sixteenth notes; pounding (hitting your guitar top in conjunction with a strum) and snapping (pulling a string away from the fretboard for an enticing percussive effect). As a bonus, Rory ties it all together by playing her own version of "Big Road Blues." This lesson includes Power Tab and is featured on the following CD compilations: HOW TO PLAY GUITAR: Anthology , BLUES U, ACOUSTIC U. Get more videos, notation and tab for this guitar lesson on TrueFire TV (www.truefiretv.com)

If you can play a blues, funk, reggae, or swing-jazz shuffle, you’re familiar with 12/8 time. You may even understand the mechanics of 12/8 after all, it’s simply 4/4 time with three eighth-notes per downbeat instead of just two. But do you have 12/8 truly nailed? One way to find out and become more groove literate in the process is to learn the Agbekor bell pattern. This must-know African rhythm shows up everywhere, including Cuban and Caribbean music, and in western pop, funk, and jazz. Let Tom show you the way! This lesson includes Power Tab and is featured on the following CD compilations: BLUES U, ACOUSTIC U.

From Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," to the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post, to Zappa to Rush, odd time signatures pop up occasionally in American music. In other lands, like Turkey or Armenia, they're quite common. Tim submits four distinctive picking patterns that will get you familiar with subdivisions of the beat in odd meter, and get your picking hand moving fluidly. Try 7/8, 9/8, 11/16 and 10/16, with cool chords and licks. (once you get comfortable with the picking, substitute your own changes. After awhile, these rhythms won't seem that odd at all. This lesson includes Power Tab and is featured on the following CD compilations: ACOUSTIC U.

Since the early 60's fingerpicking has been synonymous with American folk music, the steelstring flat-top guitar, and the coffeehouse scene. But you don't have to be a folkie-or even play acoustic guitar-to benefit from pattern-based picking. There's plenty of opportunity to adapt fingerpicking's supple, rhythmic energy to contemporary music. The trick is to mate traditional picking-hand moves with modern voicings and timbres. In this two-part lesson, we'll do just that. This lesson includes Power Tab and is featured on the following CD compilations: ACOUSTIC U, TWANG U.

If you're an acoustic player, Chet is one of the godheads. In this beefy 10-part lesson, get into the legend's style of using the thumb to keep a steady bass line while letting the fingers take care of the melody and the rest of the accompaniment. "Work to get your thumb on automatic pilot", Chet encourages. Also, try out Chet's boom-chick style and dig his take on arpeggios. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1646 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

Travis picking never grows old. It sounds as hip today as on '50s Elvis sides like "Mystery Train" and "That's Alright Mama." Steve's lesson is a 24-bar blues that includes four must-know Travis licks. Remember, the foundation for this technique is the strong, alternating quarter-note bass line, played with flatpicked downstrokes. This blues will get you into the finer points of the Travis picking thang. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1189 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

Travis picking, a thumb-and-finger style that changed the guitar world - is an essential technique. Playing country without it is like driving a pickup with three wheels. It starts with alternating bass fingerpicking - boom-chuck-boom-chuck - and factors in all sorts of other maneuvers. Through the years, Merle's thing has been built upon. Mark examines the development of the style. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1889 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

You can't really be bluesy without getting slurry and slide-y. That's where double-stops come in. They work great as chordal indicators, harmonized solos, turnarounds and more. In this lesson, Dave concentrates on double-stops in sixths. Ex. 3 lays out the absolutely crucial sliding 9th' lick from blues standards like 'Stormy Monday.' Dave tosses in a bonus jam at the end, incorporating Robert Johnson's signature dominant/diminished chord turnaround. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1062 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

Okay, time to head out to the country. You don't become a C&W picker without mastering Travis picking, where your thumb plays a steady rhythmic bass, while your index and middle fingers play the melody notes on the high strings. Off-beat treble notes create a syncopation that lends the style its signature. Happy serves up a basic version of the traditional "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains," and then gussies the tune up with some slides, hammers, pulls and, ultimately, twang. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1681 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

From secret uses of the pentatonic scale to bluegrass, bebop blues, free jazz, and chord melody, Jimmy Herring—with a heaping helping of Southern hospitality—is about to share with you several inspiring musical examples. Hopefully, they’ll take your soloing as well as your entire concept of improvisation to new dimensions. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=4007 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

EVH opens the article by fessin' up about how much he stole, note for note, from Eric Clapton. Here's your chance to rip off Edward. This lesson runs you through blues progression, hammer-ons, pull-offs. slides, bends and a few of Ed's key licks, harmonics and tapping. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1157 (log-in to access streaming audio and files)

Proto-metalist Blackmore, who bridged the gap between blues-drenched rockers of the '60s and the lightning-fingered shredders of today. His band, Deep Purple, helped pioneer the heavy power chord thing. This 13-part lesson gives you some keen insights on how to temper the shred a tad and still play in the hard-rock zone. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1083 (log-in to access streaming audio and files

A master of many blues styles, Duke Robillard garners particular acclaim for his jump and swing playing. When he recently performed at a San Francisco music festival, Andy Ellis seized the opportunity to take a lesson in uptown blues. Robillard's music is full of jazzy turnarounds and sneaky substitutions, so he was asked to explain how he transforms a typical I-IV-V, 12-bar progression into something with more harmonic pizzazz. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=2143 (log-in to access streaming audio and files

You can trace rockabilly back to Merle Travis. In themid ’50s, when rockabilly pioneers such as Scotty Moore, Paul Burlison, Cliff Gallup, Joe Maphis, and Carl Perkins hot-rodded the basic Travis fingerpicking pattern, all hell broke loose. Thanks to the Stray Cats, rockabilly made a resurgence in the early ’80s.The riffs, chords, turnarounds, and endings in this lesson will give you a firm grasp of rockabilly basics.. Practice diligently, and before you know it, you’ll be ready to rock the joint all night long. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=4968 (log-in to access streaming audio and files

Most guitarists recognize the E minor pentatonic scale - and with good reason. After all, it is the world’s most popular launching pad for rock solos and blues leads in the key of E. More advanced players know that the same notes also spell the G major pentatonic scale — G being the relative major of E minor. But if you take this scale and “fill in the blanks” with passing tones you’ll open up a world of melodic possibility. And without ever stepping out of this twelfth position “box,” you’ll have access to some of the most swingin’ guitar lines ever — namely, those played by the great Wes Montgomery. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=4376 (log-in to access streaming audio and files

More than 60 years after its recording, Blind Blake’s rambunctious Diddie Wa Diddie, a double-entendre ragtime blues, still stands as a fingerpicking classic. Blake's musical vocabulary is prodigious, and his improvisational flair has seldom been matched. Each of the tune's stanzas features a distinctively different accompaniment, and each of the three instrumental breaks is a minor masterpiece in itself. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1701 (log-in to access streaming audio and files).

Is there anything more seductively rootsy than metallic slide musings on a glimmering National steel guitar? In this two-part lesson, Brozman, one of the foremost authorities on the instrument, takes you on an exciting journey that demystifies a lot of slide techniques. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1161 (log-in to access streaming audio and files).

Eric Johnson has a deep bag but this lesson concentrates on his aggressive combinations of single-note and chords, which, he says, adds a "potent yin-yang tension". Plenty of yin and yang in this 19-example lesson. Tab, notation and Power Tab files available at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=audio_lessons&item=1160 (log-in to access streaming audio and files).

Before you dig in, a quick announcement ... We just launched a new video podcast on iTunes that we call Guitar Sherpa. We've already stoked it up with some of our favorite vids including this performance of Billie's Bounce from young Swedish jazz master Andreas Oberg. You can check out Guitar Sherpa on iTunes at: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=289090432 Yes, we'll keep these audio podcast coming as well and there's tons more on its way to your earbud. Now dig this performance ... Practice smart, play hard!