Here's a "just for fun breakdown" of 20 guitar player situations that I'm sure many of you guitar players out there can relate to. In this light-hearted video, I cover everything from crazy gear issues, to people who drive you nuts, plus I've included ideas about practice, guitarist life issues and gig nightmares... 


WATCH THE VIDEO:




1). BIG GIG TONIGHT:
A guitar string needs to be replaced, but you don't have the right string gauge anywhere. This happens once in awhile and it really stinks. That's why it's always a great idea to keep a few extra packs of strings handy at all times!


2). TUNING MADNESS:
Ever have an issue with your guitar in where, no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get your guitar in tune. Is it old strings? Poor intonation? Who knows, but that puppy won't tune no matter what! Tune to take it in for a once over from your favorite guitar tech.


3). DEAD AMPS:
Ever just get your amp repaired at the shop, and then you take it to a gig, only to be plagued by further issues? It happens, and it sucks when it does.

Repairing amps is always a roll of the dice, that's why I generally don't bother anymore. If an amp starts having serious issues I generally retire it and just move on. The costs of repair shop fees are just too high to risk bothering with repeat trips to "try" and correct problems.




4). THE SHOW MUST GO ON:
Tonight's the big night. That gig you've been waiting for is really happening. Too bad you're going to have to do it sick because you just came down with the flu. Guard your health people.

Take excellent care of yourself. You probably can't stop yourself from ever becoming sick again, but you can take steps toward peak daily living so as to prevent it.


5). STUCK IN TRAFFIC:
The gig starts in 15 min. and you're stuck in traffic across town. This does not need to happen. Leave early, get to your bookings way ahead of time. Sit around and wait if you have to, just be there ready to play when the clock strikes at your start-time. You'll feel more relaxed and the people who booked you will appreciate your dedication.


6). MISTAKES SUCK:
How come when we play a mistake it seems to get programmed in there just as easy (maybe even easier) than as when we play the correct notes? In fact, it seems as though mistakes get rooted even deeper in our minds than when we play ideas properly. It's a crazy thing about playing, but it's something that we for sure have to live with!


7). IT WORKED:
Have you ever had that experience in where you practice something, maybe it's a lick or your barre chords, practiced over weeks and weeks but you don't seem to get any better? It's awful, but this is how it goes. You can play a guitar idea for days and weeks and months without seeing progress, however one day - boom - there it is!


8). OUT OF STOCK:
I really think that this is one of the worst. This is all to do with when a piece of your integral gear dies, (like a main amp, mixer or mic), but then when you try buying a replacement, your local music center doesn't have it in stock.

Now, you have to order it and you're out of business for a few days. This is awful, but I'm seeing it happen more and more these days. Not sure why stores are keeping inventory so low, but it sure sucks when you need a piece of gear and it's days away!




9). JUST WING IT:
Okay you've been hired to sub in a band on a weeked that you had no gigs - great! Sounds like easy money, the band's leader will be emailing you the set-list and all the MP3's for the music they do. This is fantastic.

The only problem is that days go by and there's no email. You call, you text you email them and nothing. What's going on here? They forgot, or just didn't bother, or it was all a lie, (there are no MP3's and charts - there never was). Looks like you're going to have to "wing it."

10). ROLL-BACK:
You were asked to do a gig for $90 but they were really slow in getting back to you on confirming any of the details. Then, you're asked to play a gig that pays a $100. And, the communication is great, there's even (evidently) a "contract." You decide to drop that $90 gig and run with the higher-pay. Right on...

But wait, at the end of the night, your singer comes up to everybody in the band and says, "guys, there was a little bit of a mix-up about the pay, are you all okay with $80 instead of $100?" Yeah, this happens more than you think (for a million different reasons). It sucks, but you just got taken by a "roll-back" scheme. No more gigs with that singer!


11). NO WAY DUDE:
In every local music scene (at different periods along the way), there are musicians who seem to be performing on all of the bigger studio and live projects. They're busy players in the local scene and the impression is that, if you hire them to work on your project, what they'll provide will be totally awesome.

In a lot of cases (not in all - but in a lot), these people will not live up to the expectations that you will have of them. They'll often show up unprepared and sometimes they will even act uninterested. It's awful when it happens to your project... on many levels, but just keep in mind that the "top-guns" in your local music scene may not live up to their stature once you hire them for your project.


12). NOT ON TIME:
You are signed and sealed for a Saturday night at the hottest club in town. A dream come true for your band... This is a big deal, you made it in the front door of the club that is THE most happening in town.

Only thing is that on the big night  - your piano player and singer show up late! You were supposed to start at 10:00 PM, but it's 10:20 PM and the dynamic duo are nowhere in sight.

When they do show up, they are stoned and they act like idiots and the club manager is noticeably pissed off. When this happens it's usually death for the band. And, the players who screwed up won't be playing in the local scene much longer.

The bottom line is show up way before stage-time and start the gig early or "right on time." The manager of the club will really respect that and hire you back in a heart-beat.




13). NAILED IT:
Playing a guitar solo can be a tough thing to master. There's a lot going on and it's much more than just learning to apply a few licks and scales.

That's why you need to keep doing it day after day and night after night. After hours and hours are in on the neck and you get down your feel for timing and for holding a groove, you start having more and more soloing success.

But, there will come a break-point. A point at where the solo just "happens" and you fly through your ideas on the guitar neck. Everything just clicks and you play a killer lead guitar passage. One day when you least expect it - you just simply NAIL it.


14). WHERE (am I supposed to play)?
Unfortunately, most of the private functions we end up playing at are not booked out by professionals. Also, I've learned that many so called "professionals" are nothing of the sort. Their directions and ability to make sure the musical talent hired show up at the correct area can be terrible.

You might be hired to play at a function where they say "just show up and play at the garden path." Sounds simple doesn't it. Then, when you show up, you have no clue where this "garden path" area is.

When you ask the mangers on-site about where the "function" is being held, they look at you like you're from another planet. Make sure you get good directions and maybe even scope out the place that you're playing at prior to event day. Call ahead and clarify things in advance. It will make for a far less stressful ordeal on gig day!


15). WRONG CLOTHES:
Sounds crazy but it's actually quite common that a venue does not clarify what they would like to see the band wearing on the day of the function. Many country clubs and private clubs won't even allow you in the front entrance if you're not wearing dress pants, dress-shirt and a tie.

If you're not properly dressed, you might find yourself driving back home to dig out the correct attire, so be sure to clarify exactly what you're supposed to wear. If there's formal wear (like a Tux and Bow-tie), make sure you ask way ahead of time. Never assume anything when it comes to dress codes.




16). COMPUTER NIGHTMARES:
Nowadays, I make it a point of always having 3 computers and a lap-top with the same software that runs my company. You never know when a computers primary hard-drive may pack it in (and they tend to do it at the worst of times too).

My computers are on all day (and most of the night too), so I make sure that when I'm working on a big project my files are always backed up to a separate drive and to a cloud server as well. Today's musician needs confidence in their digital hard-ware, soft-ware, and all of their critical working files. Nothing can be left to chance on just one computer any longer. Not in this era.


17). GUITAR TECH LUNATIC:
If you work in a mid-size music scene, every few years you'll start hearing about some, "new guitar repair" GURU, who's supposedly just amazing!

The stories will float around about how fantastic they are at doing this and that, but in all honesty until you've had your guitar in to someone for a repair, you really don't know what they're going to be like. Some are really good, some are really awful - sadly some are LUNATICS... Most never live up to all the hype you'll hear about them.


18). METRONOME MAGIC:
You've heard all the stories and from all the teachers in your past who've harped on and on about practicing with a metronome. But, have you done any metronome practice? Have you ever turned on a metronome? Have you perfected playing to a "click-track?"

Amazing things happen when you turn on the "magic of the metronome." It's a powerful tool in your musical and rhythmic arsenal. And, until you learn of it's magic power (to perfect your time and technical skill), you'll never know what amazing groove skills and phrasing abilities that may lie ahead in your musical future.


19). VINTAGE GEAR (Will it Work?):
I can't tell you how many times I've been told to "leave your amp at home," because, "I've got a piece of amazing vintage gear that's going to blow you away!"

Well, I've been fooled enough by these people, so I always pack my amp in the trunk when I head out to a session - no matter what people tell me.

Vintage gear requires tricky high maintenance skill to make it perform. Remember that a lot of that "classic vintage gear," is actually as old as the hills. Just read some of Joe Bonamassa's Instagram posts to learn how finicky vintage gear can be. And, even though he's an expert on it, the issues vintage gear presents can be a session-ender in no time flat.

So, when some producer, or engineer, or studio owner tells you how totally absolutely "killer" their "1960 Fender amp" is, and how you can just leave your 2017 Mesa-Boogie at home, maybe you'd better think twice and pack that Mesa in the trunk of your car - just in case.




20). BAR FIGHTS:
If you play the club scene enough you'll experience the "fun" of dealing with a club lock-down by local Police because some idiot pulled out a knife or a gun during a fight.

Remember, it's a bar and these are creatures of the night for the most part. There's a lot of crazy people who visit bars. These are not average people, like your neighbor Jim who's generally in bed by 9:30 PM.

Bars attract the night-crawler crowd and they tend to like to play rough. These types enjoy hanging out in smelly rooms till 2:00 AM. They get drunk, they get stoned in the parking lot out back, and many have weapons.

So keep in mind, if a bar goes into "lock-down," generally you can escape through the kitchen. It's been an escape route I've used on more than one occasion! Sometimes escape is also possible through the "Beer Vender" too!

September 30, 2018:
GUITAR TECHNIQUE 014:
String Crossing and Skipping
 
 NEW  This unique Creative Guitar Studio course  explores exercises for increasing dexterity and coordination between the hands. The goal of the course is to increase awareness, mobility and control.


Lesson 014 of Guitar Technique studies how to perform string changing /switching techniques. These are referred to as "crossing" and "skipping."

String crossing is the technique of being able to play a musical passage between adjacent guitar strings. String skipping crosses over multiple strings, (2 or 3 strings) with melodic lines.

Developing each of these techniques will allow a guitarist to be able to play all types and manner of licks and guitar riffs in any location all along and across the entire guitar neck.

The exercises given throughout the lesson will help with building control over the use of string crossing and skipping in both ascending and descending directions along and across the fingerboard..
 
Paying members of the Creative Guitar website can watch both video lessons and download the PDF handout...




Join the member's area to download the PDF handout and start study of these exercises. Study all of the examples with full access to both video lessons...

Watch the Part One Video FREE on YouTube:

One of the most important areas that a musician needs to develop is their sense of rhythm. Without great feel and solid groove music is weak and meaningless. It is common knowledge that a guitarist cannot play in a group (in a band) if they have bad timing. Master these three studies to build a solid rhythmic foundation...




If a guitarist cannot record against a click-track or a drum loop, if they have a rotten sense of time and if they have a terrible sense of feel they're pretty much done as a musician. Nobody will want to work with them.

In fact, even if you want to be a soloist / a singer-songwriter you’re going to lose your audience if you have a poor sense for time and groove. It's just as bad as not being able to carry a melody.

In this lesson I’m going to give you three rhythms that you need to start with and nail down 100% in order to continue your studies and move onward and learn to develop more complex rhythms.

We’ll study the three best rhythm builders to learn early on. And, once you have these rhythms, moving onward to other more complex rhythm patterns will feel a lot easier.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



RHYTHM PATTERN #1).
The first rhythm pattern involves what I will refer to as the; Steady Quarter-Note Pulse. This rhythm feel is very popular and it will show up in; pop music, folk songs, country western pieces, rock tunes, soul numbers and Motown almost every style of music.

The feel and strumming is simple because it’s based on the quarter-note beat. You can play it with all down-strokes. A famous song that applies this is the Beatles piece “In My Life.”

The groove (when performed) looks like this…





RHYTHM PATTERN #2).
The next important rhythm pattern I want to run through is going to simply add an eighth-note into the groove that we just learned how to play. On the beats of; 2 and 4, we’re going to add in the eighth-note feel.

This creates a groove that guitar teachers will often call the “Down – Down /Up” strum pattern.

A song that you can look up and go and practice this groove into is the famous Don Willams piece, “I Believe in You.”

To help you understand how to strum this rhythm feel,the pattern is shown below...





RHYTHM PATTERN #3).
For our final rhythm pattern, we’re going to replace the quarter notes that were used in our last rhythm strumming idea (on those beats of 1 and 3), by adding more eighth-notes to create a steady eighth-note strumming pattern.

This pattern is extremely popular, especially in rock songs, but you’ll also find it applied within a lot of folk and country-western songs as well.

If you want to hear a strum pattern like this, have a listen to Steve Goodmans folk song called, the “City of New Orleans.” Specifically the version that was covered by Willie Nelson - where the strum pattern was altered to reflect this, “Steady Eighth’s” feel.

Below is an example of what this rhythm pattern looks like...





CONCLUSION:
It’s important to understand that Strumming and Chording technique are the foundation of guitar playing. And, because we mostly play rhythm on the guitar, these skills need to be available to us at a very high level.

In fact, learning to perfect chording and strumming is the very first level that we’ll learn when it comes to having good skillful hand coordination. And, these skills are what also helps us to be able to move further along and get better as guitar players.

Once our rhythm and chording ability is well developed, we’ll be able to have both of our hands working together and complement each other. Plus, once the basic rhythms and chords are developed, we’ll be able to go onward from there to learn more complex chords and rhythm strum patterns to help us play in more styles and musical situations.




VISIT THE WEB-SITE:
Hey, thanks for joining me, If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be. I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find.

The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense.

I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...As always, if you enjoyed this lesson, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe for more, until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next video. Bye for now!

Arpeggios are not only performed as blistering stacked runs of a flurry of tapped or sweep picked notes. There's another "easy" approach to the use of arpeggios and it's called "Arpeggiating" chords...




In this video, I’m going to teach you how to instantly perform arpeggios! This is incredibly easy to do and in seconds you’ll be playing arpeggios without cheating or compromising anything across your technique whatsoever.

What we’re going to do is not complicated. It’s very simple. But, it will require you to build up some strength in your fretting-hand so that you can support the grip of a few shapes that’ll be important when you’re learning this.


WATCH THE VIDEO:



Let’s get started with learning a fingering shape that I’m going to have you work out off of the sixth guitar string. This is a shape that you can slide anyplace along the neck laterally.

Where you place it will generate different chords (of course), but if you’re just starting out, and you don’t understand a lot about neck theory, just move this shape around and have fun with it.

Again, there’s no rules to this other than just having fun with the sound by moving the shape around the neck.



SHAPE #1).
6th STRING - MAJOR QUALITY
Here’s our first fingering shape. It is built from the sixth string and contains fretted intervals from; a root note, a perfect 5th and a Major third. Overall this shapes harmony is Major.

What’s going to make this a lot more fun is that we’re going to include an open 4th string “D” in this shape at all times.


At certain points along the reach of the neck, this shape's open 4th string is going to sound great. But, then at other positions, it won’t be very good because we’ll end up with clashing intervals.




THE ARPEGGIATED SOUND:
When performing arpeggiated sounds from a fingering layout (as in the shape shown above), we can use a picking concept that either drop-picks across the chords shape, or we'll use a picking pattern.

These ideas when applied, will come across as sounding like finger-picked parts. And, it's important to state that playing the arpeggiated shape using finger-style is an option.

Learn the arpeggiated riff shown below.

Example:
Arpeggiated Riff #1).



SHAPE RE-LOCATION:
The next thing I want to run through with you is a naturally occurring idea of how the guitar neck works, and how intervals end up sitting on the neck.

Now that you already know about this fingering shape off of the 6th string, we’re going to simply re-locate this pattern based off of the guitars’ 5th string. We’re also going to take things a step further by altering one of the tones to change the shapes quality.

Let's start by learning what both of these 5th string shapes look like on the neck…


SHAPE #2). 
5th-STRING - MINOR QUALITY
Our second shape contains intervals of a “Root,” a Perfect 5th and a “Minor 3rd,” making it a, “Minor” quality.

Think of that open string as a bit of a wild-card note. It’ll either generate a really terrible interval, or possibly a really cool extension depending upon where the shape is located along the span of the neck.



Our next shape is the same interval structure, as the 1st, but its quality is that of a “Major” chord.




SHAPE #3). 
5th-STRING - MAJOR QUALITY


5th STRING APPLICATION:
Learn the riff below. It is based upon using shapes number two and three off of the 5th-string. Notice the altered arpeggiated picking pattern from chord to chord.

Example:
Arpeggiated Riff #2).


CONCLUSION:
As you can tell, it is just as easy to slide these 5th string shapes around the guitar fingerboard as it is to slide around those 6th string shapes. It's also easy to learn how to play really cool sounding arpeggiated lines with them.

I know this is so simple that it probably feels like we’re 'cheating' somehow, but all that’s going on here is the shapes are acting like templates that work out to not only give us arpeggio qualities (like major and minor), but they also give us really cool extensions - due to that open string ringing out in between the fretted tones.

It’s safe to say that Arpeggiating fretted patterns (like we’ve done in this lesson), is pretty much in almost all cases the very first introduction that nearly every guitar player will have to the world of arpeggios.

The patterns - that I’ve organized here - are not just really easy to perform, but they’re also going to be a real motivator for you to keep on experimenting with other shapes across your guitar neck that are quite similar to these ones we practiced here.

What’s really cool with this is that you can almost just dream up any fingering shape and test it out with this process that I’ve covered here.

Plus, if you’re okay with understanding intervals, you’ll also be able to plot out what the arpeggio qualities are, (whether they’re major or minor).

It’s really a lot of fun doing this, it’s creative, and the best part is that you can make up arpeggio riffs literally in seconds with this arpeggio method.



VISIT THE WEB-SITE:
Hey, thanks for joining me, If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be.

I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find. The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense.

I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com

As always, if you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more, until next time, keep jammin' and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!

A lot of beginner guitar students hope and dream of one day being able to play a guitar solo. Is that You? Are you struggling to find a good shape or pattern on the neck that will help you with playing lead guitar? If that's so, then this guitar lesson will be fantastic! Let me introduce you to the, "Scale of Your Dreams"




To help my students with their quest in learning how to solo, I like to introduce a scale shape that even a total beginner can start into quickly. The scale I like to show them is a perfect fit to popular styles like Rock or Blues.

This neck pattern is very easy to remember on the guitar neck and it works fantastic for being able to quickly play over popular riffs in minor keys.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



DREAM SHAPE 1).
Our first shape is an outline of two rectangular boxes that organize notes from the Minor Pentatonic Scale. The scale tones include intervals of the Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th and P5th as well as the Minor 7th.

This shape is the first of two octaves of this pattern and when both regions are developed on the neck, they work great for Rock progressions, (or for any Minor Key jam). Here’s what this 1st pattern looks like, and how it’s played across the fingerboard…

NOTE: The "circled dots" are the roots. For example, if you lined up the circled dots on frets "7" and "9" you would have an "E Minor" style shape.






DREAM SHAPE 2).
Next, let’s run through the upper octave of this shape. It’s located on the highest three strings. Keep in mind that these are all the same scale tones as our first shape, but they’re simply re-located up into the next higher register of the neck.




DREAM SHAPE PRACTICE:
Now, it's time to apply these scale patterns into a key of “E” minor jam progression.

If you’re new to the whole idea of playing solos, try working at targeting into each ending phrase of your lead so that your resolutions either point toward the scales Root or to the scales 5th step.

In the case of our progression (from the key of “E” minor) our Root is “E” and our 5th step is the note of “B.” I’m going to jam over this riff right now and let you hear what this kind of chord tone targeting would sound like over an “E Minor” Jam-Track…







GOING FORWARD:
As you work further at developing these patterns you’ll also be able to start modifying them, so that they can work well over other keys and also for other music styles.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of music that you’re playing, as long as the chord harmony is from the color of a Minor key. As long as that’s the case, you’ll be able to use these shapes to be able to play over those kinds of chord changes.

The best part is that these shapes are easy to memorize on the neck and when you’re able to target your resolutions into the root notes and the scales 5th degree, your skill for phrasing melodic lines with them will start to feel easier and easier, (which also means that your solos will start sounding much better as you keep practicing). 




VISIT THE WEB-SITE:
Thanks for joining me, If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be.

I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find.

The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense. So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com 

And, as always, if you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more, until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next video. Bye for now!