FINGERSTYLE GUITAR LESSONS

Hey guys Marco here! Welcome back to another guitar lesson. Today, I picked up the electric guitar again! 

I want to talk to you about one of the most amazing guitar players in history and how he was able to influence millions of guitar players with one of his unique technique. 

For you who don’t know, Jimi Hendrix was an American guitar player and singer-songwriter. He is one of the most influential guitar players ever existed and rightfully labeled as “The greatest instrumentalist in the history of the Rock music.”

Too bad, his mainstream career only lasted for four years. Alcohol, drugs, and depression took over his passion for music, and lead him to premature death. 

I found it incredible that Hendrix was able to influence entire generations of guitar players in the short four years of his career. And we are indeed pretty lucky that he did! 

I don’t listen to his music, but some of his techniques influenced me a lot. One of them, the “Rock&Roll” thumb technique is the one I use the most. 

In this technique, the left-hand thumb plays the bass note of the chord. So you want to roll the thumb on top of the neck and play the bass note. 

This technique is excellent for two reasons.  

• Number 1. Keeps your fingers free to play whatever they want. 
• Number 2. It makes it easier to noodle around with the notes of the chords. 

The thumb technique works for all the chords that have the bass note on the low E string. 

In this lesson, I am going to show you how to use this technique over a chord progression that is closer to the music style I like, but you can feel free to also experiment with other chords. 

Good luck!

Have you ever heard someone saying the word”Jazzy chords” or ” Can you make this chords jazzier?” Well, if a jazz player is in the room, you know he is gonna play something cool! 

Jazz players have such an amazing understanding of music theory and chord functions. Almost everything they play sounds beautiful, complex, and impossible to play.

So, what are the elements that we have to master to make our chords “Jazzy?”

Before we get into this, let me tell you something right away, guys! We don’t have to become Jazz players to play a few jazzy chords. 

I am saying this because I know that many guitar players feel intimidated by anything that is labeled as Jazz music. And even though it is true that Jazz music can be extremely complex, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way to grasp a few ideas here and there and use them in our playing. 

I am not a Jazz player. But I learned the chords that I always wanted to learn. The ones that inspired me the most, and I am happy this way because I am not forcing myself into trying to learn all the Jazz rules that are way too complex for the type of music I play.

 Here are a few elements that make your chords Jazzier.

• Subdominant and dominant chords.
• Extended chords.
• The phrasing. 
• The chromatic approach.

In this lesson, I am going to combine these elements in one chord progression, and I am going to break down the chords and notes choice so that you can understand the process I use. 

We are going to be using quite popular Jazzy chords such as Min7, Dominant 13, and Maj9 chords. 

The chord progression is this one. 

|A | Em7 A13 | Dmaj9 | Dm G13 |

| Cmaj9 | Bm7b5 E7 | Am | Dm Fmaj7|

| G11 | Amaj7|

Now, as you can see from the chart, there is always a bar with one chord followed by a bar with two chords. 

The bar with one chord gives you the Tonic chord, which is the chord that establishes the key or the tonal center. It’s the chord built on the I degree of the major or minor key. 

The bar with two chords gives you the subdominant and dominant chord, which are the chords that set up tension that needs to resolve.   

The subdominant is the chord built on the II degree of the major key; the Dominant chord is built on the fifth degree. 

I made a video where I talk about chord functions, which explains in detail the role of the subdominant and dominant chords. I recommend that you check it out if you want to know more about this type of chords.

So, now you realize that this chord progression is a bunch of II V I in different keys. 

After the first chord A, we play a II V I in D major key. Then a II V I in C major key followed by a ii V i in A minor key. And the last II V I that resolve on a different tonic chord. 

As always guys, take it step-by-step.

Enjoy this lesson.

Hey guys, welcome back to Just Play Along, the guitar course that shows you how to put scales into practice. In this module, we are going to play along a beautiful backing track in E minor. The solo is smooth and simple to play, and it focuses on the concept called “Target notes.”

Simply put, target notes are notes that we choose to play over a particular chord. If we play an E minor chord, we can target one of the three notes of the E minor chord. We could, for example, decide to start the melody with the note E (the root note) or the note G (the minor 3rd), or the note B (the perfect 5th).

Using the target notes approach allows you to write melodies and solos that are pertinent to the chords. However, you will have to know the chord progression and the notes of the chords you are playing. In this lesson, I will show you how to use target notes over four chords.

The chord progression we are using today goes as follows: Em | C | G | D |.

We will break down the solo into four different sections. In section one and two, we will work on the target notes. In section three and four, we will develop a much more musical melody that doesn’t necessarily rely on target notes.

You can use this course along with Scales, Arpeggios, & Musical Ideas. You can learn the E minor scale by checking out the module one of Scales, Arpeggios, & Musical Ideas.

Enojy this module.

The major scale is one of the most popular scales in music. Some of us spend hours practicing and playing around with the notes of the major scale.

The major scale is more than just seven notes. The entire music theory gravitates around this scale. It’s up to us to decide how we want to use it.

For some of us, playing the scale up and down isn’t enough. We want to know more about it. Use it. Create something with it.

If this is you, I suggest that you stick around. In this video, we’ll learn how to visualize the major scale using the Root note of the scale and also how to play along with a backing track to make music.

One of the exciting aspects of the major scale is that we can change its sound by interpreting the notes differently. Now, to do that, we have to be able to visualize the scale in vertical positions. This approach allows you to organize the scale within a defined position of the neck.

I broke down this video into five levels so that we can take a look at all the most important aspects of learning, memorizing, and using the major scale.

• Level 1. Learn the scale structure.
• Level 2. Visualize the root note.
• Level 3. Move that root note.
• Level 4. Add the notes of the chord.
• Level 5. Connect the positions.

Enjoy this lesson.

Pushing things to the extreme is always a quite interesting practice, whether you are trying to make things extremely difficult or extremely simple. There is always a lesson to learn from pushing things to a limit.

In either way, you will discover something exciting about the things that you can play on the guitar. Things that we can’t recognize if we follow the usual learning system.

In this video, we are going to simplify some chords so that they can be played with just one finger (nothing more extreme than that). The goal is to come up with a beautiful chord progression with the least amount of effort using just one finger.

The purpose of this lesson is also to show you the “Why” and “How” we can come up with such simple chords. We will analyze the chords,

If you are a beginner, you will enjoy these chords quite a lot as they sound beautiful. They can only be played with the fingerpicking technique, but I kept that as simple as possible too.

Enjoy this lesson.

 

In this first module, you will learn how to play a simple melody in C major. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the C major scale and play along with the backing track. 

You can learn how to play the C major scale by checking out my Patreon program Scales, Arpeggios, and Musical Ideas. The C major scale is available in Module 1. 

The backing track is essentially a musical accompaniment that guitar players use to play along with. 

In Module 1, we will be using a backing track in C major. 

Below, you can find the key, scale, and chords analysis. 

All the media files (Tab, backing track, and lesson), are available on my Patreon page. 

The C Major Key/Scale

This melody is in C major key. 

In this key, we can use all the notes from the C major scale: C D E F G A B. 

This rule applies to any other key. If, for example, you are playing in G major key, use all the notes from the G major scale to write an awesome melody.

 

• Quick Tip: With a backing track in C major, use all the notes from the C major scale.  

 

I suggest that you learn how to play the C major scale. If you are supporting me on my Patreon page, go to the program Scales, Arpeggios, and Musical Ideas and learn the C major scale in Module 1. 

The Chords

The backing track is played with the following chords: 

C | G | Am | F | C|  G | F |

It’s important that you learn the chords and the notes of each chord. With that information, you will be able to write a melody over the chords rather than randomly noodling around.  

 

• Knowing the chords allows you to write a melody that resonates with the harmony of the backing track. In this example, the first note of the melody is always played with one of the notes of the chord (Pretty safe, and mistake-free).

 

Chord Analysis

In this section, you can learn the notes of the chords played on the backing track. You can use these notes at the beginning and the end of each phrase to avoid mistakes. 

Chord	Notes of the chord
C major chord	C E G
G major chord	G B D
A minor chord	A C E
F major chord	F A C

The Backing Track

There are four count-in before the backing track begins. The chords are played with a simple fingerpicking pattern and the drum kicks in on bar 5. 

The speed is 60Bpm. It’s a slow pace that allows you to practice the melody without challenging your technique. 

Listen to the track many times and learn the rhythm of each phrase. 

Questions? 

Get in touch on my Patreon page or email me at marcocirillo@blitzguitar.com

Good luck with this module! 

Hey guys, welcome back to another lesson. Today, I am going to talk to you about one of the most popular rhythmic techniques on the guitar. It’s called the thumb slap technique. 

I am sure you probably know how to use this technique, and many guitar players use it instinctively. However, there are a lot of guitar players who struggle to get it right, so in this video, I am going to break down the thumb slap technique and show you exactly how to use it. 

We call it thumb slap because it’s a technique performed with the thumb. We slap the strings with the side of the thumb so that they snap against the fretboard. 

There are three things you should follow to get the perfect slap sound. 

• 1. Strike the string with the side of the thumb, and not with the front. 
• 2. Always strike the string linked with the bass note. 
• 3. Keep the movement natural. It’s ok if you miss a few slaps. 

The primary purpose of the thumb slap is to reproduce the sound of a snare drum, which is, by the way, the most important part of the drum. 

Usually, the snare drum plays the second and fourth beat of a song, which are the beats responsible for the groove. For this reason, we have to perform this technique on the second and fourth beat. 

I did my best to keep things simple. However, this is a beginner technique. Take it step-by-step.

Enjoy the lesson.

Experimenting with alternate tuning is always a great way to find new chords and melodic alternatives.

Today, I am going to show you a beautiful musical idea played with an awesome alternate tuning. The tuning I am about to show you is the DADF#AE.

We all know the most common alternate tuning such as the Drop D tuning (DADGBE) and the Celtic tuning DADGAD, but the DADF#AE was a pretty much new tuning for me, and it took a while to master.

One of the things I do when I start experimenting with a new tuning is to figure which chord the tuning generates with the open strings. The DADF#AE is an what I call and open Dadd9 tuning.

The open strings have all the notes we need to build a D major chord plus the major 9th that adds a wonderful add9 flavor. The root note D (6th and 4th string), the major 3rd, F#(3rd string), and the perfect 5th, the A (5th and 2nd string). We also have the major 9th, E (1st string)

In this guitar lesson, I am going to show you a simple musical idea played in DADF#AE tuning. You can learn the chord shapes, and they use it to write your chord progressions and melodies.

Good luck!

 

There are a lot of chords that we don’t use. Not because we don’t know them but because they don’t feel natural.

If every time we quit something just because it doesn’t feel natural, then we will miss out on a lot of fantastic chord progressions. For this reason, I wrote a beautiful instrumental using these lovely chords so that you can practice them with a musical idea.

The chords I am referring to are the Drop 2.

But what’s a Drop 2 chord? A Drop 2 is a seventh chord played with a different interval structure than the typical root shape.

The seventh chords are built with the Root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th. When we bring the second note from the top (the 5th) one octave down, we are playing a Drop 2 chord. So, the Cmaj7 chord, which in its root shape is played with the notes C E G B, becomes a Drop 2 chord when it’s played with the notes G C E B. We can call this chord a Cmaj7/G or Cmaj7 with the 5th on the bass.

In this lesson, we are going to take a look at the Drop 2 chords played on the 6, 5, 4, and 3rd string. All these chords have the 5th on the bass.

The chord shapes are probably new to many of you. I recommend that you embrace them and try to implement them in your chord progressions.