Our new premium lesson, Black Sabbath Style Guitar Riffs, will teach you how to play some guitar licks in the style of the legendary Tony Iommi. In songs like The Mob Rules, Children of the Grave, Sweet Leaf, and Sympton of the Universe, Tony used distinctive power chord based riffs. These riffs contain a lot of power and helped shape the sound of metal guitar. Matthias Young will teach you how to play each of these licks in detail and then demonstrate it along with a rhythm track. The lesson includes video instruction, guitar tabs, and .mp3 jam tracks.

GuitarTeachingTips.com is a new website designed to help guitar teachers. Each month they provide a teacher with a new video tip covering topics like student retention, useful exercises, how to use technology (payment, scheduling, organizing materials, etc). The idea is to make your job easier. New teachers may learn about setting up a curriculum, expanding client size, and other helpful ideas for becoming a guitar teacher. Experienced teachers may be able to work on consistent problem areas either with student’s learning or on the business side of things. Hopefully, the site will one day become an area where teachers can both learn and share what works best.

The most recent tip is on using the Amazing Slow Downer software with your students so that you can loop audio, change pitch, and adjust the speed of practice tracks or actual recordings.

We’ve released a free ebook called “Blues Guitar Lessons” that is now available in the iTunes store. The book features five of our lessons by Jody Worrell (Stevie Ray Vaughan Style Lick, Eric Clapton Style Lick) and Peter Vogl (Am Pentatonic Licks, F Blues Licks, E Minor & Major Pentatonic Licks).

Each lesson includes written instruction, HD video, and guitar tab. The teachers will take you step by step through the material making sure you understand how to play it properly. This is a great way to move from just learning guitar scales to creating your own solos.

Downloading the ebook to your iPad or iPhone makes it easy for you to practice anywhere. You don’t have to worry about wi-fi access, data charges, or lugging around a book or dvd. It’s great for practicing your guitar playing outside or on vacation.

Two recent studies have shown that just holding a guitar makes men more attractive to women. Of course, if you’re an astronaut, you probably don’t need the help. But it never hurts to up the stakes by cranking out a Space Oddity cover from the international space station. But what if you’re the world’s most awkward and annoying boss? Let David Brent (Ricky Gervais) from The Office teach you the absolute essentials. “I’m not going to start be telling you all the chords, you won’t use half of them”

Having a classical music background alongside my love for rock and metal, the influence of Yngwie Malmsteen has been significant in my development as a guitarist and composer. Not only is he one of the world’s greatest guitarists, but his sound is extremely unique. In the many genres of Metal, much of the guitar tone becomes very thin and over-compressed, even with heavy detuning. Not that there is anything “wrong” with that, but the vintage-style tone of a Fender Stratocaster allows for great dynamics and clarity.

In my quest for killer tone, I wanted something similar to the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster (Model : 010711), but without the hefty price tag. Here’s what I did:

Modifications:

I started with a stock Fender Standard Stratocaster (Model : 014460). Rather than use a generic, aftermarket body, I opted for an official Fender body to ensure that the tone wood would be up to spec. The first modification I did was to replace the stock pickups for a set of Seymour Duncan YJM Fury Pickups. Stock pickups on Strats, while having clarity, tend to be very brittle. The YJM Fury pickups maintain their clarity while offering power and warmth to the sound.

Next, I replaced the stock neck with a scalloped Fender-licensed YJM neck manufactured by Mighty Mite. It has a vintage headstock, a 9.5 inch radius, and a 22nd fret as a bonus, making that high E just a little easier to bend. A scalloped neck allows for very easy string bending and thick vibrato. Having the wood carved out between the frets completely eliminates any friction between the fingers and the fretboard. While this sounds like it would make it easier to play, it does only if you have a very light technique. Muscling notes on a scalloped neck will only push them out of tune. I play with a light touch anyway, so the transition was not awkward at all.

Connecting the neck to the body was very easy, as was transferring the tuning machines. The string tree took a little longer, but proved to be relatively simple.

The final modification was installing the brass nut. The advantage of this is that the metal has a much brighter sound than the stock nut, and it adds clarity to open strings and chords ring more clearly.

After my guitar was completed, I saved hundreds of dollars by modding a stock Stratocaster, and it plays and sounds great! \m/\m/

For my personal setup, I use Ernie Ball 9-46 Hybrid Slinky strings, detuned 1/2 step.

Parts purchased from:

Body: Fender Standard Stratocaster (Artic White) zZounds.com

Pickups: Seymour Duncan YJM Fury (Prewired w/ Pickguard) majorbrands4less (Ebay)

Neck: Fender-licensed YJM neck by Mighty Mite Shred Legacy USA (Ebay)

Brass Nut: Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Brass Nut einstein110877 (Ebay)

Manufacturers: Fender, Seymour Duncan, Mighty Mite, Ernie Ball

Matthias heads the guitar program at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, GA, and is the author of Metal Guitar Method.

Seymour Duncan has just published a handy guide on soldering guitar parts. It’ll walk you through using a soldering iron, how to protect your guitar during the process, and other useful tips. Learning how to solder is a cost saving way to upgrade your guitar (new pickups) or fixing it (loose wires). Check out the article for complete instruction and video tutorials.

Goodsell’s Super 17 guitar amp has gained a lot of acclaim over the years. Now there is an overdrive pedal to add to the experience. In this video, Richard Goodsell will start by explaining some of the core features of the Overdrive Pedal. Then it’s Jody’s turn to show you the pedal in action. You’ll be able to hear before (bypassed) and after (with the pedal) playing sections using both a Les Paul and a Strat. This should hopefully give you a feel for the clean boost and crunchy type tones you can create with the pedal. Learn more on the Goodsell Overdrive Pedal product page.

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Mick Mars’ guitar riffs created the core of many Mötley Crüe classics. Our new premium guitar lesson, Mötley Crüe Style, by Matthias Young will help you recreate some of those riffs along with a solo. Matthias will take you note by note through the music, pointing out the techniques and soloing ideas that helped Mick Mars develop his signature style. For convenience, we’ll use standard tuning for this lesson instead of tuning down a full step. Once you’ve learned the material, you can practice along with the included Girls, Girls, Girls inspired backing track. The lesson includes video instruction, a pdf of the tab, and a mp3 jam track.

TonePedia summoned their Facebook fans to comment with their favorite tips on how to improve your guitar playing and more. You can go to the article for the full list. Below I will post my favorite ones and provide links to lessons we have on the subject.

- Warm up properly before you play. 5 minutes going scales or chordal patterns will help gain finger strength. The one thing I’ve noticed as I’ve got older is that I need to warm up more and more. (Warm Ups & Drills)

- Remember to practice your timing, set aside some time to sit with metronome or a beat, pick a few chords or a riff you’re comfortable and familiar with and play. Its all very well being able shred like Marty Friedman but if you can’t do it in time, its all for nothing.

- Play along with backing tracks. Do it over and over again even if you dont sound grate at the beginning your improvisation will get better and better the more you practice this way, listen to your favorite players to get inspired before you start.

- Put the pick down once in awhile. There are nuances you can only get with your thumb and fingers. (Beginning hybrid picking lick)

- right angle (at the guitar) instrument cables last 20 times longer than the straight plugs…

- If something can fail, it will one day. Have spares, backup or at least a plan that will keep the show going if you have an equipment fail.

Our Jimi Hendrix Lesson Package features six downloadable video lessons that will teach you how to solo like this guitar legend. In addition to his all out rockers, Jimi also had a knack for bringing energetic solos to a ballad setting. Little Wing, Hey Joe, and The Wind Cries Mary are absolute classics and a thrill to play.

In this set of lessons, Jody will touch on Jimi’s approach to playing ballads as well as some techniques that Hendrix used throughout every playing situation. Using licks and solos, Jody will show you the bends, hammer ons, double stops, and note choices that Jimi used to create his distinctive tone. In each lesson, you’ll be able to use the step by step video instruction, included tabs, and included jam tracks to practice and really master this material. You can watch a demo of the whole package below.