Here's an arrangement that Tommy put together back in 1990! It has since grown to include other songs but this is the original medley that was on The Journey Continues alb...

The PDF Handout & MP3 Jam-track for my latest YouTube Guitar Lesson, "Dominant 7th Pentatonic," ...is now available for download on my Blog-Site. Follow the link below to download the Handout and Jam-Track: http://www.andrewwasson.com/recent_posts/2013/06_june/june_2013.php#ju...

Chinese rock star Wang Hongbin has given some truly shocking performances in his time. When he's at his best, he has a pretty electrifying stage presence. Wang creates lightning with a Tesla Coil where he lives in Fuzhou in China's Fujian province and hooks himself up to it...

The guys over at Marshall Amplification's YouTube page have posted a brand-new video that demos the company's Joe Satriani Signature JVM410HJS model head. Check out the video, which features UK guitarist Chris George...

The opening piece for my June 28th, 2013 YouTube Guitar lesson,"Dominant 7th Pentatonic." I hope you enjoy the lesson on YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/creativeguitarstudio Donations keep the FREE lessons coming - Please consider!www.andrewwasson.com/donations.ph...

Published on Jun 26, 2013 After over 15 years of being a Metallica fan, and a campaign of epic proportions - I have finally had the chance to sit down with the legend, the king, the master of puppets himself, Mr James Hetfield! Thanks to the wonderful people who supported the 'Basel Meets Metallica' campaign for making this possible, this journey...

LEMMY INTERVIEW: The iconic Motorhead's bassist Lemmy has recently chatted with Artisan News at this year's Golden Gods Awards ceremony. During the interview, Lemmy spoke about the recent death of Slayer's Jeff Hanneman: "Obviously it's terrible. I don't know how you could say anything else. It's just awful. We toured with him a couple of times...

You probably never imagined Dave Mustaine from Megadeth teaming up with Kenny G (of all people) to make a comedy skit promoting the new Megadeth album "Super-Collider." Well, after you finish saying, "No Way," check out this crazy video... Megadeth Wearhouse from Dave Mustaine...

Ever wondered what it would be like if Phil Anselmo had his own cookery show? No? Honestly, neither did we. But the important thing is that someone did. Joey Siler from Pantera tribute band "Good Friends and a Bottle of Whiskey" has put up this video animation of what a Phil Anselmo cookery show might look (and sound like), and it's totally hil...

Harmony and Theory - Unit One CONTAINS: • Key Signatures Overview (PDF handout) • 6 page Course Handout (PDF), incl. all Written Assignments and Answer Key. • 9 min. MP3 Instructional Audio Course Component • Includes 15 min. free video lesson download (filmed in HD) SALE: $7.99 Digital Download Size: 4.3 MB The long awaited...

Zakk Wylde played a three-night stand at New York City's Iridium Jazz Club earlier this month, and some official video from his June 12 show has been posted on Wylde's YouTube page. Check out Wylde and his Black Label Society bandmate Nick Catanese performing a fully acoustic rendition of "The Blessed Hellride" below. "The Blessed Hellride" is the...

A three-piece band made entirely from robots plays guitar, drums and keyboard alongside Japanese pop singers in Tokyo on Monday. The trio, called Z-Machines, was designed by engineers and academics at Tokyo University, who hope to one day send them to play in space... The robots performed to a crowd of around 100 people and were accompanied by...

Premier Guitar interviews legendary Jazz guitarist John Scofield... taking us behind the scenes of his new album, "Überjam Deux," and dishes on everything from relic’d guitars to Dead tunes... You could make a case that John Scofield gets bored easily. “Maybe a little bit,” he says with a laugh. Even a cursory glance at his output from the last...

The June 23, 2013 GuitarBlog Update Video will be covering "Making The Diminished Scale Sound Bluesy" This week's GuitarBlog will cover how to use the Diminished Scale to create interesting Bluesy guitar licks. The methods explained will deal with both, 'Blending,' the Diminished...

Curious about metal veterans "Black Sabbath" but don't know where to start? Here's 10 tracks, selected by London's the Guardian news, to ease you into Sabbath fandom... 1. War Pigs Summed up by newschicken: "The song has it all - politics, state-sanctioned murder, power chords, heavy rifts and dirty funk." 2. The Wizard Bitwize wrote: "There...

Joe Bonamassa and George Benson Jazz and Blues Common Threads Musicians Friend caught up with American blues rock guitarist and singer, Joe Bonamassa and ten-time Grammy Award-winning musician and jazz guitarist, George Benson at the Comerica Theatre in Phoenix, AZ for this tremendeously rare and candid conversation about their respective influences...

In this short (00:54) viral YouTube video guitar player, "Ben Lapps," plays guitar tapped-fingerstyle while bouncing a basketball - in time! Commentators within the YouTube video's comment section are debating 'whether or not' the video was shot in real-time - with the guitar mic'd live... Or, if perhaps, (due to the crystal clear audio quality),...

Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers a viewers question... Q: I play guitar with a pick. And, I liked that video you had on, "Demystifying Picking Direction," how we don't have to always use; down-strokes, up-strokes or alternate picking. But, my thing I have troubles with is just being a good overall picker. My troubles are coordinating...

The opening piece for my June 21st, 2013 YouTube Guitar lesson, "Creating Picking Exercises."  I hope you enjoy the lesson on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/creativeguitarstudio Donations keep the FREE lessons coming - Please consider! www.andrewwasson.com/donations....

Premier Guitar's Rebecca Dirks catches up with Living Colours' Vernon Reid at Park West in Chicago, IL, where she discusses the killer set-up used by Reid for his live dates during their 2013 U.S. tour. Vernon Reid's Guitar:   Vernon relies on a Parker "Vernon Reid Signature MaxxFly," with EMG SAX neck and middle pickups and an EMG 81X bridge...

Guitar World ranks the top-10 songs you should learn how to play - to SCORE! When you first started playing guitar, it was to get girls, right? Perhaps you were influenced by the party scene in Animal House where the collegiate folkster attracts a gaggle of swooning females by strumming his acoustic and singing “I Gave My Love a Cherry." Of course,...

In what is sure to be a heart-wrenching and eye-opening article, Guitar World will release an interview with Kathryn Hanneman in the publication’s August 2013 issue. The thrash icon’s wife starts from the very beginning, detailing the night when Hanneman contracted necrotizing...

Last night, the Rolling Stones performed at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, (the first of two shows in the US' former capital), with another special guest joining the legendary rockers on-stage during their ongoing, "50 and Counting Tour." Country guitar icon Brad Paisley, joined the band for "Dead Flowers," a country-flavored track from the...

In celebration of Rolling Stone's pot-centric new issue, they've presented this 'fully-baked' list of the 40 best stoner albums ever. Their picks range from 1970s black-light warhorses to keyboard-drenched, slow-toke faves from the 2000s, (with enough variety to soundtrack any kind of buzz. Their criteria?  "We wanted albums that were especially...

At the end of May, employees at Guitar Center’s flagship store in Manhattan overwhelmingly voted to form a union of its fifty-seven retail workers. The national Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) organized the win, marking what the union hoped would be the first of many such votes around New York City and the rest of the country. Brendon...

Spaceman Came Down | Learn Guitar With David Brent... Again, not much teaching going on, but this is David Brent so what do you expect? In this 5 min. spoof guitar lesson video comedian character (Created by Ricky Gervais), answers a few silly questions from his imaginary "students." Questions like, "Are you single," and "What is the fingering...

Just a few hours ago, the gang over at MetallicaTV posted a new video recap of Metallica's March 1, 2013, show in Melbourne, Australia. The first part of the 20-minute video shows Metallica in serious rehearsal mode. At around the 11:38 mark, we see the band on stage performing a 1991 Black Album track, "My Friend of Misery," which was written by...

Blackmore's Night released their new studio album, Dancer and the Moon, June 11 through Frontiers Records. Among the album's highlights is an instrumental track called "Carry On...Jon," which Ritchie Blackmore wrote as a tribute to his former Deep Purple bandmate Jon Lord, who died in 2012 at age 71. On the nearly six-minute-long minor-key track,...

Fender is excited to announce a brand new series release for the 2013 summer season. Dubbed as the Satin Series, it comes as a fresh and warm addition to an already potent Fender Guitar line-up. Through a whole new light, and wrapping in four remarkably beautiful satin urethane...

If you've ever caught yourself shredding on air guitar, we've got some news for you: The art of imaginary jamming might be getting a whole lot fancier — and maybe even a little less silly. Designer Eugene Wang has developed a concept for a wearable device that allows you to...

Today Ultimate Guitar released their, "Top 10 Wah Guitar Riffs," with Jimi Hendrix's, "Voodoo Chile" coming in at #1...  "This week we asked UG readers to nominate and vote for their favorite wah guitar riffs of all time. The wah pedal, (which in many cases is probably the award-winning Cry Baby by Dunlop), is one of the most original and easily...

Q: I'm a big fan of the Memphis Soul sound. Especially the classics by Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. Those weren't the days of guitar hero virtuosos, but guys like Steve Cropper had great feel with their riffs. Could you make a lesson on simple guitar ideas that, "Play to the Song?" I'm curious as to what your suggested approaches might be! Morris...

Guild Guitars has released a very cool video documenting their custom shop... “The Guild Custom Shop represents the very finest in pure Guild craftsmanship and well over half a century of heritage as a premier U.S. guitar maker. From the picturesque and pastoral environs of Guild’s traditional New England home to the peerless skills of its luthiers,...

The opening piece for my June 14th, 2013 YouTube Guitar lesson, "Playing for the Song (R&B Style)."  I hope you enjoy the lesson on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/creativeguitarstudio Donations keep the FREE lessons coming - Please consider! www.andrewwasson.com/donations.p...

Robert Cray has won Grammys, sold millions of records and achieved mainstream success with music that fuses blues, soul, rock 'n' roll and more. His most recent album Nothin But Love proves he's as energised and expressive as ever, underlining his position as an all-time great of the electric guitar. Hear what Robert had to say when he sat down...

A PREMIER GUITAR D.I.Y. TUTORIAL:  In this step-by-step tutorial, Nashville guitar tech John LeVan shows you how to convert a standard acoustic flattop into a high-strung guitar. He also offers valuable tips on checking neck relief and action, carving a bone string nut and filing nut slots, and carving and intonation a bone saddle. Bonus!...

Watch the entire 90-minute broadcast below... Jim Horton hosts the Live YouTube Streaming Hangout in New York with Black Sabbath. In celebration of the release of 13, (Black Sabbath's new album), Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler participated in a live Town Hall event that was broadcast on YouTube and Google+.  For the first time...

Today's average music festival goer prefers to get drunk and take drugs rather than watch the live bands... new poll 'discovers.' ...Poll also 'discovers' that 25% of people have had sex with a stranger while at a festival. According to the latest research, the average member...

TC Electronic has announced one of the biggest names on the TonePrint artist roster yet: Steve Vai. The guitarist has contributed a TonePrint for Hall Of Fame Reverb called Ocean Machine. Vai’s signature Ocean Machine TonePrint is FREE and it is available now through the tcelectronic.com apps page...  just go to: Apple iOS and the Android phones...

New Aristocrats album “Culture Clash” Out July 16, 2013  As you know by now, Culture Clash, the upcoming genre-defying full-length album by THE ARISTOCRATS, can be purchased as part of a deluxe package that contains a bonus DVD called, “Accept The Mystery: The Making Of The Aristocrats’ Culture Clash”, a 33-minute DVD documentary shot while...

Legendary electric blues /jazz guitarist shows his gorgeous vintage guitar 1960 Tele... Guitarist Magazine recently caught up with the legendary Robben Ford, who described the gorgeous vintage Tele that's all over his back catalogue: "It's a '60. I bought that in a guitar shop in San Francisco called Black Market Music. I really wasn't looking...

Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time... A few years back, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what they felt was the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time. The list, which has been quoted by; countless artists, websites and publications around the...

They may never buy your album, yet they'll live-stream you eating breakfast... It's the ever-changing, younger music fan of 2013, and the focus of a just-released report from MTV Research. Here are 7 attributes of this young, still-emerging, and radically different audience...

In March of this year, legendary Hollywood Sunset Strip music venue the Key Club, (formerly Gazzarri's), announced that it was closing it's doors for good. Few local Hollywood music fans were especially surprised. The venue had operated in various guises since the '60s — first...

Q). I really like the sound of small chords, especially in Funk & Reggae. But, I've heard these small chords used in lots of other styles. Last night, I was at a night-club and was watching the guitarist in the band. He only played small chords off of the top guitar strings. It sounded great! Andrew, can you make a lesson and describe some small...

 MusicRadar dishes the dirt on the 50 best; distortion, overdrive and fuzz pedals... Several audio clips are included demonstrating various settings for many of the pedals featured. Coming in at the #1 spot is the legendary: "Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-808." Read More...

The fact that rockstars can get away with a lot of things doesn't mean that they still don’t end up going overboard ...especially when it comes to style and outfits. Ever since the early days, rock music had a tendency to shock certain listeners. Sometimes, the shock factor was...

Alice Cooper doesn't seem to be too fond of the trends a lot of new bands are following, and he's not afraid to say it... What the singer can't understand is the fact that a great portion of upcoming musicians simply want to fit in with the crowd, lacking any interest whatsoever...

Q: When it comes to improvising, I find that most all of the lines I play are pre-composed prior to any improvising. Does this make sense? I always thought that improvising was supposed to be 100% spontaneous stuff. I feel super-limited with this kind of creativity in my own playing. Can you make a lesson on Composing Vs. Improvising? Thanks! Alan...

Dream Theater have officially announced their new studio album — Dream Theater — which will be released September 24 by Roadrunner Records.  The album was recorded at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York, with guitarist John Petrucci producing and Richard Chycki (Aerosmith, Rush) engineering and mixing. The album is the band's first...

The opening piece for my June 7th, 2013 YouTube Guitar lesson, "Composition Meets Improvisation." I hope you enjoy the lesson on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/creativeguitarstudio Donations keep the FREE lessons coming - Please consider! www.andrewwasson.com/donations....

Guitar World contributor Askold Buk spent quite a lot of time assembling this hard-nosed list titled, "25 Things Every Guitarist Should Know." #1 on the list (for an instant reality check) is, " Nobody likes an asshole." Other tips include, "Be on time," (this one is so important...

"Today's music is, 'perfect,' to the point of being sterile. There is no, 'soul,' in the music that is generated today. In today's recordings, the instruments are put in separately with nobody playing and looking at each other. Then it is, 'tweaked,' by a computer, and then auto-tuned... Parts are then perfectly re-arranged, and the end-result is a...

VIDEO... Iron Maiden - Flight 666 Documentary Following the trend set by such heavy metal mainstays as Corey Taylor and Scott Ian, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is planning to undertake a spoken word show in Oslo, Norway in November of this year, Blabbermouth reports. Speaking to Norwegian newspaper VG, Dickinson had the following to say: "We...

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Marilyn Manson was interviewed by legendary broadcaster Larry King this week, where he talked about how the Columbine shootings "put my whole career on hold" and the real reason why he's out of touch with old friend Billy Corgan. Manson told King that the only reason he was connected to the Columbine shootings was because he had recently appeared...

Guitarist John McLaughlin is set to begin his first US tour in three years. The tour kicks off June 11 in Durham, North Carolina, and will hit Asheville, DC, Bethlehem and Boston. It also will include a three-night stand in New York City at the Blue Note before ending in Toronto June 23. McLaughlin and his 4th Dimension band also will make an appearance...

Anthrax axeman Scott Ian admitted that the only advice he could give to new bands would be on a creative level, seeing how drastically the music industry has changed since he entered it. As Ian himself put it, he doesn't "even know how the music business works anymore." "The business has changed so much now as compared to when we started," Ian told...

Gearphoria (Issue 4) is online now!  If you haven’t already already seen this excellent guitar publication... it is a free, yes free, online guitar magazine with brilliant content from some very talented contributors and it looks pretty darn awesome too. In Issue 4, Gearphoria...

Modern country guitar is an amalgam of traditional and not-so-traditional playing approaches borrowed from several related homegrown American styles. As such, it includes elements of blues, bluegrass, rock and roll, and even jazz, and it offers a tasty mix of expressive and challenging playing techniques. The key musical building blocks that form...

Joe Satriani has announced the complete itinerary for his upcoming North American tour, which will include his first-ever cross-Canada trek. The tour, which is in support of his Satriani's new album, Unstoppable Momentum, is set to launch August 29 in San Diego. It will crisscross its way across the US and visit many Canadian cities for the first...

Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers questions from off of his Guitar Blog website... http://www.andrewwasson.com/ Q). I ended up developing an interest in Jazz after watching your videos on Jazz Guitar at the Creative Guitar Studio website. I purchased a few books from Amazon, and now I've started to feel kind of stuck! The area that...

This is the second, 'Guitar Lesson,' with Ricky Gervais - this time about about; dreams, reality and traveling in this tutorial for the song, 'Ooh La La'. Much like his first, "Guitar Lesson," (from May 2013: Life On The Road | Learn Guitar With David Brent), it's not so much a real, "Guitar Lesson," as it is a comedy sketch with Ricky Gervais (AKA...

Premier guitar sat down with guitar legends Martin Taylor and Tommy Emmanuel this past week to discuss their project, "Duo De Swing," (video above of them performing their tune, "Heat Wave." live in Dublin from the 2013 Colonel and the Governor tour). Taylor and Emmanuel discuss the art of solo guitar, ’70s pop music, and why guitar education is...

This past week, Ultimate Guitar readers were asked to nominate and vote for their favorite guitar amp combo. Hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes later, the results are in. Which combo amps made it past the finish line and into their ultimate top 10?  ...First...