Jody Worrell has a new two part lesson that will teach you an electric guitar solo over a rocking progression of A7, D7, and E7. In a break from using the Minor Pentatonic Scale, these solos follow the chord progression pretty closely. There are also parts of the solo where Jody will mimic and embellish the bass line from the track. The solos are taught in detail and then demonstrated along with the rhythm track. Each download includes a Quicktime video, a .pdf of the tabs, and four .mp3s to practice along with. Check out the Rockin 12 Bar Solo in A page for more information or just view the demos below.
Guitar Player has a good article on five insights into Roy Buchanan’s guitar style. It’s a collection of quotes from Roy, tips by the author, and a listening guide. An excerpt:
Roy Nichols once asked Buchanan, “Where’d you get them bird sounds, Roy?” Guitar lore has it that Buchanan recorded the first pick harmonic (Buchanan called ’em “whistlers”) on “Potato Peeler,” a 1962 single he cut with Philly-based drummer Bobby Gregg. (True story: An unsuccessful online search for a reissue of the full song finally located an excerpt of the legendary moment … as a ringtone!!) Buchanan chalked up the prehistoric event to a happy accident in several of his GP interviews: “How I first did that harmonic thing was actually a mistake, and I only did it once so you have to really listen for it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was trying to hit one of those high notes that R&B sax players like Junior Walker and Plas Johnson would always hit. I thought we were going to have to do another take, but everybody was digging that one thing, so I just figured out what I did and I’ve been doing it ever since. You have to have a lot of treble to do it. As you pick the string, you let a little bit of the skin from the thumb touch the string with the pick. You’ve got to do it with pressure— you can’t do it easy—and it works best on the thinner strings.” (For the scientific lowdown on pick harmonics, see “Demystifying Harmonics,” in the May 2008 GP).
Our own Roger “Hurricane” Wilson has a three part series on playing like Roy Buchanan. The videos touch on both Roy’s country and blues sides. Check out a demo for lesson 3 from the series below
Premier Guitar has a new Albert King style lesson called Bendin the Blues. It covers six different licks that showcase some of the different types of bends that Albert used. Below I’ve included the audio and tab for lick 4 from that lesson. If you want to learn more about Albert King’s bending licks and would like some video instruction, check out Guy Fenocchi’s In the Style of Albert King premium lesson.
Fender released their Wayne Kramer Signature Strat recently. Wayne Kramer was the founder of MC5 and supposedly used the flag painted Strat on their “Kick Out the Jams” among other tracks. Unfortunately I can’t find video of him actually playing guitar, though the video below contains several pictures and Wayne discussing the guitar.
My real question though, is how many of these guitars will Fender sell? Going at $1,000 how many guitar playing hard core MC5 fans are out there who are looking to add another guitar? Or will this guitar sell based on it’s American flag artwork to people who don’t know who Kramer or the MC5 are? It certainly possible. A friend’s wife once sent me an email trying to track down a guitar as a gift. Her husband had always wanted a flying v guitar with an American flag on it. I finally figured out it was the Dave Mustaine “Jackson Y2KV Flag” model. And I happen to know the guy isn’t a huge Megadeth fan.
Would you buy this guitar? Or more to the point, would you buy a replica of one of your favorite guitarist’s guitars?
This a video review and demonstration by Guy Fenocchi of Wampler’s Nirvana Chorus Pedal. Guy will show you how the tone, level, rate, and depth knobs and also the vibrato and intensity switches affect the resulting sound. If you’re looking for a more general overview of when and why you would use a chorus pedal, you can check out our Using a Chorus Pedal lesson.
