Black Friday is still months away, but no-one’s told Guitar Tricks who just dropped a mega online lessons offer for guitar players that they’re calling ‘Summer Black Friday’ – and the price is the lowest I’ve seen all year: get a full access 12-month subscription for only $99; that works out as $8.25 per month and is a massive $861 saving on the full price. This deal runs until 7 August.

At its core, Guitar Tricks is home to well over 11,000 technique, style and song lessons, presented by expert teachers. But this Summer Black Friday bundle doesn’t stop there. For your $99 investment you also get personalised learning plans, Bootcamp sessions, and e-books designed to help players make genuine progress. As part of this deal, beginners will also get their hands on the Ultimate Beginner Bundle, loaded with newbie-friendly material such as power drills, the 100 Essential Licks Series, a guitar goal planner and more.

If you’ve been looking to make strides with your playing, or pick up the guitar for the first time, this is your ideal time, and considering this works out at $8.25 per month, there’s no cheaper way to access so much quality, curated guitar tuition. Guitar Tricks is also our number one online guitar lessons pick for most players. You can read our 5-star Guitar Tricks review here.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what’s included for your cash. These are the highlights:

Annual Full Access was $359 now $99Laying the foundations of this plan is Guitar Tricks’ 12-month annual full access to the entire learning platform. Whether you need the structured Core Learning system that can provide human feedback or are sharpening up your technique, there are over 11,000 tutorial videos to dive into. To put this into perspective, annual full access typically costs $359; that saving is worth the package alone.

Premium Bootcamp Access was $79 now freeIdeal for intermediate players, GT’s Premium Bootcamp comes completely free with this bundle, usually priced at $79. This unlocks one full bootcamp course to help refine your technique or deepen your understanding of a specific area. If there’s a skill you’ve been meaning to master, like fingerpicking or alternate picking, you can enroll in a bootcamp dedicated to it. These long-form lessons are a great way to dig deeper into your playing and finally conquer a technique that’s been holding you back.

100 Licks Series was $79 now freeTypically priced at $79, you will get full access to this video series that introduces 100 different licks that are a must-know for any guitarist. Split across genres, from blues to rock and metal, this is a fantastic module for expanding your lick library.

Ultimate Beginner Guide E-Book was $29 now freeGT’s Beginner Guide e-book is also included for free, down from $29. It’s an incredibly useful reference tool for new players, highlighting common pitfalls and offering structured practice routines that help build solid technique. Whether you’re just starting out or brushing up on the basics, this guide makes tackling those tricky chords a whole lot smoother.

Guitar Setup Guide E-Book was $29 now freeAn often overlooked part of learning is guitar maintenance, so I’m stoked to see Guitar Tricks include its Setup Guide e-book with this bundle for free. Instead of falling into common mistakes, this shows you how to handle the fundamentals: string changes, truss rod adjustments, and cleaning practices to keep your guitar in tip-top shape.

Bonus Gifts was $196 now freeFor the cherry on top, there’s a bunch of bonus gifts included for free that would usually set you back $196. I’m talking backing tracks, chord theory lessons, and blues and rock jam tracks, to name just a few. There’s more than enough content here to keep you learning for the full year of your subscription.

Don't fear the tab. Tab is here to make reading music simple and, while at first glance it may SEEM just as confusing and fiddly as conventional music scoring, it's actually a WAY simpler way to explain which notes to play (and where to put your fingers).

Plus there's a whole bunch of picking and bending instruction - essential for modern playing - that old-fashioned music notation simply doesn't provide.

Tab is short for tablature, and it basically shows where notes should be played on your guitar's fretboard. i.e. Rather than being a list of notes you need to play (and letting you figure out the realities of how to do that) it's literally a map of where to put your fingers.

Tab often appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top.

It's like this so that if you sit with your guitar in your lap and look down at it, the tab on the page (or on the screen) will match the strings on your guitar neck.

Thick low E closest to you (at the bottom of the tap)… Top E furthest away (at the top of the tab). Simple.

On these lines, numbers represent the frets where you should place your fingers. As per our example above, a D note on the 2nd string, 3rd fret will be shown as a number ‘3’ on the second line down on the tab.

Unfretted strings (or 'open' with no fingers on the fretboard) are shown with a ‘0’. i.e. No fret needed - just play the string.

The key and time signatures are shown in the traditional notation. A helpful timestamp may also tell you where in the actual audio track this bit of music appears. And a tempo marking is expressed in beats per minute.

Fret boxes: chords, scales and capo notation

Hand labelling

Of course, with tab telling you where to put each finger on the fretboard, you're going to have to know which finger it's talking about…

Here are the tab abbreviations. On your fretting hand that's 1, 2, 3, 4 and T for thumb

And on your picking hand that's p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (annular), c (little finger)

Chords mapped on the fretboard

This is a fretbox.

The fretbox diagram represents the guitar’s fretboard exactly, as seen in the photo. Now, by placing numbered 'fingers' on the fretbox it can be used to quickly show you where to put your fingers in order to play chords or a scale.

Playing a chord

This diagram shows you how to play a G chord. The ‘o’s are open strings, and a circled number is where to place your fretting hand finger. A black ‘o’ or circled number denotes the root note of the chord (here, G).

Simply place the right fingers where it says… And strum… Done!

Using a capo

If you see a blue line on the diagram that represents where to place a capo.

In our example above, for this A chord, the capo is placed at the 2nd fret. Note that capos – by effectively shortening the neck of the guitar – change the fret number ordering.

A capo on the 2nd fret moves everything two frets up. So here, the original 5th fret now becomes the 3rd fret. The 7th fret now 5th fret, and so on.

Basically the capo can be considered as being the 'nut' at the end of the neck and so all counting starts from there.

Capo notation

Here, the chord looks like a C in the tab, but the capo on the 2nd fret raises the pitch to make it a D. The 2nd fret capo’d notes are shown with a ‘0’ in the tab as if they were open strings.

Tab showing a scale

Here the fretbox diagram illustrates the fret hand fingering for the A major scale.

It's using black dots for root notes and red dots for other scale tones. Meanwhile the photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with the first, third and fourth fingers.

Guitar techniques: Picking

Down and up-picking

Tab does its absolute best to tell you as much information as possible – even down to how to pick notes.

Here symbols under the tab tell you the first note is to be down-picked and the second note is to be up-picked.

(Remember that '7' in our example is the fret number you need to hold down rather than being a seventh finger…)

Tremolo picking

There's even symbols for tremolo playing. Here each of the four notes are to be alternate-picked (down- and up-picked) very rapidly and continuously.

Palm muting

And here's the symbol for palm-musting notes. A palm-mute is acheived by resting the edge of your picking hand palm on the strings near the bridge saddles which stops them ringing so brightly and gives that distinctive 'muted' sound.

Pick rake

Here you've got to drag the pick across the strings shown with a single sweep. This is often used to augment a rake’s last note.

Arpeggiated chord

And here you have to play the notes of the chord by strumming across the relevant strings in the direction of the arrow head.

Fretting Hand

Hammer-on & pull-off

Let's get into some more techniques that tab can features.

For the hammer-on and pull-off here you must pick the first note then hammer down on the string for the second note. Pick the third note and pull-off for the fourth note.

Note trills

And for a trill, after picking the first note, rapidly alternate between the two notes shown in brackets using hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Slides (glissando)

A glissando (or slide) looks like this.

Pick the first note and then slide to the next. For the last two notes pick the first, slide to the next and then re-pick it (that's the 'RP' symbol).

Fret-hand tapping

Sound the notes marked with a square by hammering-on/tapping with your fret-hand fingers, instead of picking.

Fret-hand muting

Here, the X markings represent notes and strings that are muted by your fret hand when struck by your picking hand.

Bending and vibrato

Bend and release

Fret the first note (here, the 5th fret) and bend up to the pitch of the bracketed note, before releasing again.

Re-picked bend

Bend up to the pitch shown in the brackets, then re-pick the note while holding the bent note at the pitch shown.

Pre-bend

Silently bend the string up from the 5th fret (PB5) to the pitch of the 7th fret note, pick it and release to the 5th fret note.

Quarter-tone bend

Tab really has got everything… Here you have to pick the note then bend up a quarter-tone (a very small amount). This is sometimes referred to as a ‘blues curl’.

Vibrato

Vibrato is an essential playing technique and tab has got you covered.

Here it's telling you that your fretting hand should vibrate the string by small bend-ups and releases. You can then exaggerate this effect to create a ‘wide’ vibrato.

Harmonics

Natural harmonics

Pick the note while lightly touching the string directly over the fret indicated. Get your technique just right and you'll get a lovely chiming harmonic.

Artificial harmonics

Fret the note as shown, then lightly place your index finger directly over ‘x’ fret (AH ‘x’) and pick (with a pick, p or a).

Pinched harmonics

After fretting the note in the triangle, dig into the string with the side of your thumb as you sound it with the pick.

Tapped harmonics

Place your finger on the note as shown, but sound it with a quick pick hand tap at the fret shown (TH17) for a harmonic.

Touched harmonics

A previously sounded note is touched above the fret marked TCH (eg, TCH 9) for it to sound a harmonic.

Vibrato bar/whammy bar

Whammy bar bends

Here, the note is picked as shown, then the vibrato bar is raised and lowered to the pitches shown in brackets.

Scoop and doop

And you can even scoop and doop…

Scoop: depress the bar just before striking the note and release. Doop: lower the bar slightly after picking note.

Sustained note and divebomb

A note is sustained then the vibrato bar is depressed to slack. The square bracket indicates a further articulation.

Gargle

Sound the note and ‘flick’ the vibrato bar with your picking hand so it ‘quivers’. This results in a ‘gargling’ sound!

Whammy bar vibrato

Gently rock the whammy bar to repeatedly bend the pitch up and down. This sounds similar to fret hand vibrato.

Others

Pick scrape

The edge of the pick is dragged either down or up along the lower strings to produce a scraped sound.

Violining

Turn the volume control down, and play the note(s) with the volume off. This removes the initial 'pluck' from the sound. Then turn the volume up for a smooth 'pluck-less' fade in.

Finger numbering

The numbers in the traditional notation refer to the fingers required to play each note.

pima directions

Any kind of fingerpicking requirements are shown at the bottom of the tab notation.

Pick-hand tapping

Tap (hammer-on) with a finger of your picking hand onto the fret marked with a circle. Usually with ‘i’ or ‘m’.

And that's it!

Don't stress over some of those more advanced techniques. We've included them here for completeness and – chances are – you'll come across some of them only very rarely.

Spend time nailing the basics and practicing the tab on songs you're familair with.

Then, as your confidence grows you can tackle more complex tab and always come back to this guide to remind yourself of what some of those little squiggles really mean.

Want to learn more. With tab under your belt why not try learning a few open-position guitar chords?

Scales might sound daunting at first, especially with names like Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian – but don't be deterred. Follow along as we break down three essential scales into digestible bite-sized chunks that will help you play along to your favorite songs and save you in a jam scenario when your fellow bandmate says a song is in a particular key.

Scales usually revolve around a single chord shape. You then just add extra complementary notes around them to complete the scale – we'll show you how to do this below.

Once you've learnt all of the notes in the scale pattern, there are basically no wrong notes – this is perfect for jam situations, whether improvising over a song or just a few simple chords that you've looped together.

Practising scales for a few minutes every day will also hone your alternate picking technique, help make your fretting hand more accurate and - with the help of one of the best metronomes - improve your timing and stay in the pocket of a groove.

All of this will result in two things: your playing will be more accurate and professional sounding, and you will almost certainly become capable of playing faster.

It's important that you don't play scales just to get faster, though. Speed is a happy by-product of trying to play more accurately. Even if you don't fancy becoming the next über shredder, practising scales is still important.

Make sure your guitar is in standard EADGBE tuning – the scale won't sound quite right if one or more strings are out of tune, then let's jump in to clear up the confusion around those pesky scales and you'll be improvising brilliant solos in no time!

1. A major pentatonic 

Everyone knows the A chord. As you play it here, make sure it’s the cleanest A chord ever heard!

The major pentatonic scale is great for creating bright, melodic lead lines. It also contains the A chord.

The idea here is to see how the chord, scale and lick all relate to each other – the three shapes are pretty similar. Play the A chord with a first-finger barre. Your third finger should fall into place.

Play our first track to see how the scale could sound over the top of some basic chords, then when you're ready load up the second track and use the tab above to follow along using just the D, G and B strings.

Once you've got the hang of it why not experiment with other notes using the A major pentatonic scale diagram above – don't worry, there aren't any wrong notes to play so there's no incorrect way to play them – get creative!

2. A minor pentatonic 

Play each note one by one to check they’re ringing clearly – adjust your thumb position if needed.

Notice how the notes of the chord are found within the scale. It means they’ll sound good together.

Jimi Hendrix used to thicken his lead lines with doublestops. This lick shows how he might have combined them with a bluesy bend. Try branching out your ideas by using other notes from the chord and scale.

Rather than sliding your fretting hand up from the 5th fret to the 7th in this scale you could get creative and instead try bending the note at the 5th fret one whole step instead and this will give it more of a bluesy feel.

Alongside famously playing a right-handed Stratocaster upside down to suit his left-handed playing, Jimi was also know for playing bar chords with his thumb over the top of the neck to fret the low E string – experiment with this thumb over style and fretting the bar chord with your index finger to find which you find more comfortable.

3. Mixolydian 

Notice how the dominant 7th chord sounds unresolved, like it needs to move to another, more final chord.

Look closely! Once again the notes of the chord are found in the scale. Jam around the two together.

This laid-back melody is inspired by the North Mississippi Allstars’ softer moments. Once again, play close attention to the lick’s feel and try some more ideas with other scale and chord notes.

Learn more about the minor pentatonic

Take it further: Finesse your timing with a metronome

A metronome is a device used to give a steady, constant pulse for you to practise to. It is also referred to as a click track, especially in studios. Metronomes are fairly cheap (they're available for as little as £15), and if you're thinking of getting into guitar you should probably invest in one. If you like to record into a DAW on a computer they will have a click feature built in too, and you can experiment with how fast or slow it clicks.

To start off with, set your metronome to 100 beats per minute (bpm). Then, using a single note, try to play every time there's a click. The key is to anticipate when the click sounds and play at exactly the same time. It may take you a while to get this right - so don't feel bad if it takes you 100 attempts. Tapping your foot along to the beat can also help you keep a rhythm.

Once you feel comfortable playing one note per click, try playing two notes per click. Once you feel comfortable with that, try this example (the tempo here is slower as it's more difficult to play).

Open the 'Playing a minor pentatonic scale with a metronome' tab (Right-click to download)

Tip: Play two notes of the scale for each click of the metronome. Make sure the notes are evenly spaced. Remember to alternate pick - or else!

Read more: Best metronomes

Any wood that comes into regular contact with foreign bodies needs to be kept clean, conditioned and protected – your guitar's fingerboard is no different. But I've read some conflicting advice when it comes to the best ways to look after different types of fretboard for acoustic and electric guitars – including rosewood, laurel, maple, pau ferro and ebony. It's time to simplify and demystify this essential piece of guitar maintenance.

As with a lot of things in the world of guitars, there isn't one correct answer. But we need to understand what substances perform different functions for our fretboards before we can experience the satisfaction of seeing and feeling them at their best.

Firstly, there are two main types of fingerboard wood; finish and unfinished. An unfinished fretboard has no protective lacquer over the wood and examples include rosewood, pau ferro, laurel, walnut and ebony.

Finished fretboards tend to be maple – though unsealed maple 'boards do exist. The finished type will only need cleaning and no conditioning because they have a thin lacquer that acts as the protective layer to keep things like sweat from seeping into the wood.

So before you condition a guitar's unfinished fingerboard, you need to clean it first. And a seemingly unlikely substance is good as a starting point.

1. Naphtha is a cleanser

Guitar techs first recommended Naphtha (petroleum distillate and most commonly referred to as lighter fluid) to me and I was initially confused. Surely a flammable substance and wood are a hazardous pairing?

It can clean finger oils out of your wood by breaking them down before it evaporates. This process will often make your unfinished dark fretboard wood look dry and even slightly opaque after application to work its magic. Don't worry – it's not a conditioner and this is supposed to happen. It's simply removing the foreign bodies in your 'board before you use an oil conditioner to rehydrate it.

It's also a safe body cleaner for nitrocellulose finishes when used sparingly – and like rubbing alcohol, it's good for removing residue from stickers that you might have regretted customising your guitar with.

2. Lemon oil isn't what you might think it is

Lemon oil is what comes up most frequently when the subject of fretboard care is mentioned. Some people even advise against using it. But if you are using it, is it a cleaner or a conditioner? Taylor Guitars co-founder Bob Taylor suggests it's both.

"I’d have no worries about using lemon oil on my fretboard," he stated in a Taylor Q&A with regards to acoustic guitars. "It’s safe. Use it only on the unfinished wood like the fretboard and bridge. The wood can dry out over time, and an oil like this, or linseed oil, or even mineral oil, can protect the wood and beautify it as well.

"Don’t overdo it," added Taylor. "Once a fretboard has been oiled a few times, you can slow down the frequency. The nice thing about lemon oil is that it cleans while it oils, so it won’t build up as easily, but be sparing. I don’t think your fretboard will need oiling more than twice a year, and eventually, once a year."

But a lot of the confusion around guitar lemon oil is due to assumptions about what it actually is. Despite the name, most guitar lemon oil is actualy often more mineral oil with less actual lemon oil than you'd expect. It's more for scent.

So it's actually mineral oil that's the more effective conditioner. This helps to break up the kind of unwanted oils from our hands, for the cloth to wipe away.

I like to do a clean, then add a little more on a second sweep over for a little conditioning – removing any excess with the cloth. And if you notice a guitar lemon oil that's actually yellow coloured, it's because artificial colouring has been used. This can actually help enhance your fretboard's "warm tone", as Gibson Master Luthier Jim DeCola points out in the video above.

3. Other alternatives are available for cleaning and conditioning

Aside from lemon oil, some of the big names in guitar accessories have their own takes on the ideal recipe for fretboard conditioner. MusicNomad F-One Oil is a cleaner and conditioner to be used on unfinished fretboards. It uses natural seed and tree oils and it smells nice too, I have to say!

Elsewhere, Daddario, Taylor, PRS and Dunlop all have their own takes on fretboard conditioning oil too.

4. Pick the right cloth for the job

In my article on how to clean your guitar, I pointed out why two different types of cloth are good for specific jobs when it comes to applying polishes and creams to the guitar. And this idea extends to the fretboard.

You only need a small dab of oil on each fret, then use a microfibre short pile lint-free cloth to move it around the surface of the fretboard without the cloth absorbing too much, too soon and before the oil can seep into the unfinished wood. Then use a different part of the cloth to remove any excess oil after a couple of minutes.

5. Don't forget your toothbrush!

Using your cloth to get into the edges of the frets and clean where grime can gather usually does the job, but for fingerboards that have been neglected for a while (and might be due a fret polish as the next step in a proper spring clean), a clean toothbrush can help with a little oil applied to it.

6. Maple needs love too

Finished (sealed) maple fingerboards don't need conditioning but are still due a clean every free months. Use your clean microfibre cloth with guitar cleaner to wipe away any grime from the 'board that may shorten the life of your strings.

I like to use MusicNomad's Guitar Detailer, because it can also be used on satin and matte body finishes too, plus its anti-static formula helps to repel dust and is has UV protectants to help sun damage for those summer days when your guitar is sitting on the stand.

• For more information on MusicNomad guitar maintenance and cleaning products, check out musicnomadcare.com, Thomann and Sweetwater.

Among Rage Against the Machine’s punchiest and most thrilling moments on record, the band’s 1996 single Bulls on Parade motored through a range of unpredictable arrangement choices.

It came in like a freight train, with its pulverising syncopated opening riff, before switching gears into the menacing hip-hop of its verse - bridged by a pace-setting wah-wah pedal motif (the almost comical-sounding ‘wah-wah-wicky-wah-wah’ bit).

But, it was its spotlight solo - a signature focus-pulling moment from guitarist Tom Morello - that was quite unlike anything that had been heard on a rock record prior.

The sound coming out of Morello's guitar was something that nobody had ever tried to emulate before. It was nigh-on indistinguishable from a DJ, scratching a vinyl record rhythmically.

Many didn't even realise that the sound they were in hearing was in fact, just one man and his electric guitar.

Rage's self-titled 1992 debut album had already struck a decisive deal between the distinct universes of hip-hop and metal, via the interplay of lyricist and rapper Zack de la Rocha’s incendiary bars with Morello’s towering, percussive riffs. Not to mention the sometimes-funky, sometimes-powerhouse rhythm section of Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk on bass and drums respectively.

In the days long-before nu-metal and rap-rock became ubiquitous, Rage were blazing entirely new ground, pulling in listeners from far across the factionalised genre aisles. Uniting them against bigger, common enemies.

On their 1996 follow-up, Evil Empire, this alliance of genres was locked in gear more firmly via some extraordinary sonic innovation, all of which was wrought from the traditional rock band instrument set-up of guitar, bass and drums.

“Tipping over the apple carts of the powers that be was always at the forefront of everything Rage did,” Morello told us back in 2011. “At the same time, when we got down to the very serious business of making music, we were hellbent on making equally strong statements. To that end, I decided to rail against the accepted rules of ‘shred’ guitar, which in my opinion were making every six-stringer around sound the same. One night, I decided to be the DJ in Rage Against the Machine, but I was going to do it all on the guitar. Discovering how to ‘scratch’ on the guitar and how to work the toggle switch like two turntables was key.”

Keen on breaking free from the fixed rules of the game, Morello looked on the guitar as not just a riff-and-lead generator, but a far wider-reaching sonic tool than many of his more firmly rock-rooted contemporaries could possibly imagine.

But this audacious attitude was largely borne out of limitation.

Initially leaning on just a Gibson Explorer, Morello recognised the curious potential of the instrument’s toggle switch early.

“Everyone else had those really cool Eddie Van Halen guitars with only one knob,” Morello told our sister website, Guitar World. “So I thought, I might as well make use of these knobs, since I can’t afford a different guitar right now. That was when I stumbled on the toggle switch. I combined it with a wah-wah pedal, and all of a sudden there was a noise that I had never heard a guitar player make. It sounded more like a sort of synthesizer.”

There’s many examples of Morello’s expressive sounds on Rage's debut, Rippling, synth-like textures, the gargles of what sounds like a living creature, haunting, howling volume swells and octave-shifted, frequency-stretching tones were as common as the Jimmy Page-nodding, blues-adjacent riffs. All of which worked to back-up and accentuate Zack de la Rocha’s urgently delivered words.

With his custom-made partscaster (famously emblazoned with the legend, ‘Arm the Homeless’), and his drop D-tuned Fender Telecaster, Morello was keen to upturn the fixed idea of just what a guitarist’s role in a rock band was, whilst still being able to maximise the heaviness when required.

A good example of Tom's balance between innovative wizardry and mosh pit-inducing heft is Know Your Enemy.

“I found that by embracing limitations and going, ‘This is my gear, the only variable is going to be my imagination and creativity’, I was much more creative,” Morello told Ultimate Guitar. “Rather than buying some rack gear that is going to make me sound like X, Y, or Z, I’m just, like, ‘This is all I got, so what can I do?’ Well, I can rub the Allen wrench on the string or I can unplug the jack and use that as an instrument or I can use the toggle switch in unconventional ways.”

The focus-pulling moment that fully crystallised Morello as an inventive, sonically-curious guitarist’s guitarist, was that jaw-dropping Bulls on Parade scratch breakdown.

This arrangement was the culmination of that volume cut-off technique previously deployed across the debut, but harnessed here to meet a specific objective - to sound like a DJ.

To achieve it, Morello turned the rhythm pickup volume all the way down, and the treble pickup to its highest. Then, Morello rode the toggle switch - alternating between, effectively, an on-and-off state.

Performed rhythmically, Tom gradually caressed the bottom of the neck, rubbing all six strings in tandem.

His Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah pedal was compressed fully, which added a higher-frequency edge to the base tone.

The result - outputted through Morello’s staple Marshall 50-watt 2205 and Peavey 4x12 cabinet - built on the essence of the gangster rap-leaning backdrop of the song's verse (which took influence from the iconic Geto Boys).

A fascinating audio/visual deconstruction of the riff from our (much missed!) sister magazine Total Guitar can be viewed below.

Lyrically, Bulls on Parade was a typically pointed diatribe, this time aimed at the US arms industry.

De la Rocha pointed to the nefarious methods - and dubious morality - used to maintain the profit margins of arms dealers and the military industrial complex. The undercurrent of threat was musically articulated by Morello's thorny backing riff which ran repetitively through the verse.

It was an arrangement that framed the track’s hypocrisy-spotlighting anger inside the aesthetics of a street-based revolution. It was a DIY revolt wherein the people - from metal-heads to gangster rappers - took on these imperceptible global powers together.

The song was recorded swiftly with the legendary AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen producer Brendan O’Brien. “We realised quickly that it was a most potent piece of music,” Tom told us back in 2011.

“We recorded cassette demos as we wrote and jammed, and Brendan didn’t want to lose any energy as we worked. Our method of working was pretty much ‘jam, roll the cassette tape, then cut the real track’. Not a lot of time for overthinking and over-tinkering.”

The legacy of Morello’s questing philosophy continues to serve as a reminder of the true flexibility of an instrument like the guitar - and just how attitude and risk-taking can turn limitations to a creative advantage.

And, the unique sounds Tom would continue to extract from his instrument in service of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage, with Bruce Springsteen or as The Nightwatchman, would go on to heavily influence subsequent generations of players. Just ask Muse’s Matt Bellamy…

As Morello told Total Guitar in 2021, “Once I had the blinders off and realised the parameters of rock and roll guitar playing were not just Chuck Berry to Eddie Van Halen, I started practicing sounds - whether that was DJ scratching or wild boars rutting at the zoo or the helicopters overhead.”

“Even if I couldn’t exactly mimic those sounds, practicing non-guitar noises led my playing in an entirely different direction. It felt like that lane was open. There was no-one else in it."

Guitar Tricks has just launched one of the biggest early Black Friday guitar deals we’ve seen so far as its one-year full access plan has dropped from $899 to just $99. That’s a massive $800 saving on one of the most comprehensive online guitar learning platforms available today, and works out at just $8.25 per month for access to our pick of the best online guitar lessons.

This early access deal runs until 28 November, giving you plenty of time to jump in. Inside, you’ll find over 11,000 video lessons, personalised learning plans, Bootcamp sessions, and e-books designed to help beginners and intermediate players make genuine progress.

With the nights drawing in and more time spent indoors, now is the perfect opportunity to start playing, or return to it after a break. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to learn guitar, this is your cue. I’ve created a comprehensive list of what is included, highlighting all of the money you will be saving during this mega sale. Let’s take a look.

Annual Full Access was $359 now $99
Laying the foundations of this plan is Guitar Tricks’ 12-month annual full access to the entire learning platform. Whether you need the structured Core Learning system that can provide human feedback or are sharpening up your technique, there are over 11,000 tutorial videos to dive into. To put this into perspective, annual full access typically costs $359; that saving is worth the package alone.

Custom Lesson Plan was $99 now free
If the thought of 11,000-plus video lessons feels a little overwhelming, you’ll probably appreciate GT’s Custom Lesson Plan, which is included for free in this bundle. After answering a few quick questions, a GT instructor will review your responses and build a personalized lesson path to help you hit your goals faster. Normally priced at $99, it’s included free this Black Friday.

Premium Bootcamp Access was $79 now free
Ideal for intermediate players, GT’s Premium Bootcamp comes completely free with this bundle, usually priced at $79. This unlocks one full bootcamp course to help refine your technique or deepen your understanding of a specific area. If there’s a skill you’ve been meaning to master, like fingerpicking or alternate picking, you can enroll in a bootcamp dedicated to it. These long-form lessons are a great way to dig deeper into your playing and finally conquer a technique that’s been holding you back.

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The freebies keep coming, including the 100 Licks Series module. Typically priced at $79, you will get full access to this video series that introduces 100 different licks that are a must-know for any guitarist. Split across genres, from blues to rock and metal, this is a fantastic module for expanding your lick library.

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GT’s Beginner Guide e-book is also included for free, down from $29. It’s an incredibly useful reference tool for new players, highlighting common pitfalls and offering structured practice routines that help build solid technique. Whether you’re just starting out or brushing up on the basics, this guide makes tackling those tricky chords a whole lot smoother.

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An often overlooked part of learning is guitar maintenance, so I was very pleased to see Guitar Tricks include its Setup Guide e-book with this bundle for free. Instead of falling into common mistakes, this shows you how to handle the fundamentals: string changes, truss rod adjustments, and cleaning practices to keep your guitar in tip-top shape.

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This e-book is perfect for intermediate players looking to add a few more soloing chops to their arsenal. It outlines useful soloing building blocks that guitarists can develop and improvise with, supported by tablature and audio samples to help you get started and stay inspired.

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For the cherry on top, there’s a bunch of bonus gifts included for free that would usually set you back $196. I’m talking backing tracks, chord theory lessons, and blues and rock jam tracks, to name just a few. There’s more than enough content here to keep you learning for the full year of your subscription.

Whether you’re picking up a guitar for the first time, getting back into it after a break, or just looking for a structured refresher, this is the perfect time to dive in.

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TrueFire's online guitar lessons are some of the best around. With comprehensive, clear tuition delivered by some of the industry's most impressive names, TrueFire has helped make learning the guitar the fun, rewarding challenge we've always wanted it to be. And with over 84,000 lessons inside, there’s no argument against the value you get with a subscription. For their 4th of July sale, TrueFire has sweetened the deal even further by dropping their annual subscription price from $249 to just $99 for a very limited time.

We’ve busted out our calculator and crunched some numbers – $99 works out as $8.25 per month, or just 27 cents per day. You can’t get much for that little these days.

Whether you're looking to work on a certain playing style or technique, or fully learn from scratch, TrueFire has courses for everyone. Obviously, there's no shortage of electric guitar lessons on the internet these days – but putting all of your faith into a random YouTube tutor? That's brave. TrueFire's list of star educators is essentially a who's who of huge names in the industry – Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Andy Timmons, Ariel Posen – the list goes on.

Their guitar tuition syllabuses cover myriad different styles, including blues, rock, country, funk, rockabilly, metal and jazz, among others – and with TrueFire's All-Access subscription gaining you access to tens of thousands of lessons, there's plenty of guitar-playing knowledge for you to absorb.

Still not sure if TrueFire's online guitar lessons are for you? Take a look at our TrueFire review to see what we thought about it.

If you’re not ready to fully commit to a year of lessons, TrueFire is also offering up to 50% off a range of its courses, including Tommy Emmanuel, Yngwie Malmsteen and Eric Johnson.

• Looking for more ways to save? Here’s our pick of this year’s best Prime Day music deals

Finding the causes of fret buzz on your guitar or bass is often a process of elimination – nut slots, neck relief, bridge saddle snags and even troublesome strings can all play their part. I focus on some of these in my guitar setup tutorial but uneven frets can often be another culprit – and that's not such a straightforward issue to tackle at home. Or is it?

Wood and metal move, especially over time and under the tension of playing and strings. You'll never have absolutely perfectly levelled frets as a result, but you can isolate trouble spots, file them level and then crown and polish them up again for a much improved playing experience.

This has understandably been a job for experienced techs and repair people over the years, and for good reason. It requires patience, methodical skills and the knowledge to know when not to go too far. For those reasons I'd always advise going to a professional for fret work as the first port of call, but if you do feel like investing in the tools to do some of this work yourselves, MusicNomad has been busy developing tools to make it easier for players to work on their frets, and maybe save some money in the longer term.

I was intrigued to check them out myself and the US company sent three key products from its range for me to try.

Diagnosing high frets

Before you can solve a problem, you need to prove its existence and isolate it; for us that means finding out what frets on our guitar are uneven. For this you need to play - thoroughly up and down the fretboard, with the kind of picking force you'd usually play with. Make a note of any buzz - the string and fret it's happening on. Then you'll need a steel fret rocker – a decent one like this MusicNomad Precision Fret Rocker shown below, with flat edges that can go across three frets at a time.

This one can also be used to measure string height when we're changing a guitar's action. Each side is a different length to allow us to do the three-fret test as we go further up the neck where the frets are closer together.

Take your time, make sure that the rocker is flat across three frets with the buzzing culprit in the middle, gently put pressure down to see if it rocks on either side. We're feeling for quite obvious tilting. Then move up and down a fret to confirm which fret is higher or lower than the other two. But just because it's high or low in the spot we're checking, it's doesn't mean the whole fret is, so it's worth checking across the fret to confirm. If it's just one part it can be better to spot file it, which we'll look at later.

How do we know if a fret is uneven enough to need filing? You'll need a feeler gauge. It's a similar idea to what we talked about when it comes to checking neck relief and adjusting your guitar's truss rod, but this time it's height of frets and requires different gauge thicknesses. The MusicNomad Precision Fret Gauge can also measure the size of frets – we'll get to that later too. The gauge is available with the Precision Fret Rocker as a set from MusicNomad.

The feeler gauge is used to measure if there is a gap of 1.5-thousandths of an inch or less under the fret rocker, and if it's higher than that, it's above tolerance and it will need filing. A 4-thousandths gauge can also be used to determine if your fret is seated properly in the fretboard – this can also cause leveling issues but is less common.

When I find a fret or area of a fret that is above the tolerance, I make a note of it and mark the area with a coloured marker pen. It means I know exactly where on the fretboard I'll need to work on later.

Levelling all the frets at once

MusicNomad's range of fret tools offers different options for various needs, and it's a brand trusted by pro techs on the road, in guitar factories and in repair shops around the world. I'm looking at three different products here but each has different strengths by design.

The first is the Fret Leveler L-Beam, available in three different sizes depending on your instrument and needs. The idea with the 17.6" option for guitar is it can cover all your frets at once so they are all levelled at the same time via the abrasive strips it comes with. There are 2 x 240 grit strips and a 400 grit included.

Better suited to guitars with numerous high frets, the 7" option can be used for more isolated 'spot levelling', while the 24" is ideal for bass necks. The top and bottom edges are precision ground to a flat accuracy tolerance of +/-.00125 and you use the L-Beam side to side as you level – as shown in the video above. The edges are also radiused to avoid the L-Beam colliding with high frets.

Levelling frets with the strings still on

If you've only got a couple of high spots, why have a whole string change to deal with them? MusicNomad's U-File kit allows you to focus on individual frets and works underneath the strings – clever!

There are three sizes (1.5", 2" and 3") in the kit for different areas of the fretboard, each with a diamond-coated file to lower the fret and allow you to hone in and monitor the area you've already marked with the pen. Like the rocker, you lay it across three frets and the high fret needs to be in the middle. You can then work it up and down or side to side depending on the high area.

Remember, for the above filing tools and approaches, you'll still need to crown and polish the file afterwards. And MusicNomad has thought of that in a rather ingenious way…

A failsafe fret crowning file? Meet the S-File

Filing down frets can be nerve-wracking – you can't undo it if it goes wrong. And the crowning part that comes next can be daunting too. This is where you're working the filed down fret back into a curved shape that's finger-friendly.

Understandably players are wary of doing it themselves and they're right to be, but MusicNomad's latest crowning tool aims to take a lot of the risk out of the equation. And it's called the Safe Zone S-File. The idea is you can't really go wrong with this tool.

We have to hand it to MusicNomad's design team in Sonoma, California, this is a really impressive tool. It's not like a traditional file – with this you can feel when it's done the job. You can hear it too.

The design prevents you from overfilling the fret because at the top of the concave file there's a small strip where there are no diamonds, so once the sides are rounded enough, the file will slide across the fret as you move back and forth on it with the S-File – you'll feel and hear it skate smoothly across the fret.

It's the simplest fret crowning solution I've tried yet and there are two sides that you use depending on your fret size; narrow-medium or wide-jumbo frets. And remember I said the MusicNomad fret gauge tool also includes a size measurer (see pic above). That's to confirm what size of fret you're working with before filing.

I like that the S-File is reassuringly weighty and the silicon handle makes it comfortable to use too.

You'll notice the nose area on each side – this is for spot fret crowning when you don't need to reshape the whole fret. A line on the side marks where you're coming into contact with the fret so you can make sure you're accurate.

Now all that's left to do is learn how to polish your guitar frets.

For more on using these MusicNomad tools to deal with fret buzz, check out the in-depth tutorial video from the brand above.

You can buy MusicNomad maintenance tools and cleaning products at Thomann, Sweetwater and Amazon, as well as from MusicNomad directly.

Despite tensions that would see John Lennon leaving and the band’s eventual split a few months later, the recording sessions for 1969’s Abbey Road saw The Beatles at a creative peak. A mix of rock, pop, blues and prog, the album’s musical influences are diverse and there’s inspiration aplenty for all budding guitarists even now, 50 years on.

George Harrison’s lead work on Come Together and Something is considered some of his most expressive and melodic playing, and Sun King takes influence from Brit blues legend Peter Green’s instrumental work in Fleetwood Mac’s classic Albatross.

George’s Leslie-driven Telecaster tones on Something are without doubt a major part of Abbey Road’s sonic trademark as are the double-tracked arpeggios on I Want You (She’s So Heavy).

All of this means there’s plenty of material for us guitarists to learn from - and ‘less is more’ is the overriding lesson. Aim for understated lead lines that could stand on their own as vocal melodies and you’ll be on the right track.

We’re also looking at a cool Beatles chord trick below, but it’s also worth thinking about how to solo over parallel changes - we recommend targeting notes from the chords. For example, if you’re changing from D to Dm, the only note that changes is F# in the D chord and F in the Dm, so make sure to land on these in your leads.

1 Parallel chords

2. Arpeggios with modulation effect 

Simple arpeggios like these can be heard throughout Abbey Road, notably on tracks like Something, Sun King and Octopus’s Garden. The line in bar 1 could easily be developed into a lead idea – it’s almost the same shape as the C# minor pentatonic scale after all. The altered chord at the end is pure Beatles!

3. Melodic lead 

Abbey Road features some of George Harrison’s finest playing and songwriting. This lick focuses on his use of the major pentatonic scale to create cool melodies and motifs. The finger slide between notes is a handy way to move from the 5th position up as high as the 17th fret. A neck pickup and spring reverb give authentic ambience.

• How to play like John Lennon: 4 key guitar lessons from the early Beatles era

It's ok if you put it off – I've done it too, but sooner or later you will need to clean and polish your guitar frets. You owe your guitar the chance to be its best, and grimy oxidised frets are not going to get there.

Even the cleanest hands shed material when playing guitar and it doesn't just end up on your strings; oils and sweat tarnish the frets underneath too. So the next time you change your strings, use it as an excuse for a fret polish – and I'd like to introduce you to two different ways to get great results and perhaps even less of a chore, both with different needs in mind.

MusicNomad has provided us with the products to illustrate both here – the US company never stops coming up with tools and solutions to make maintenance easier for players and its products are used by pro techs and guitar companies around the world. I tried both and have broken down the processes involved below.

Cleaning and polishing with Frine

MusicNomad has been producing its five-piece Frine Fret Polishing Kit for a while now and it's tried and true for results. In addition to 30ml of the petroleum and silicone-free Frine formula, three different-sized curved fretboard guards and a microfiber suede cloth for application. I think it's $19.99 well spent for the results it gets (it's also available to buy separately), and it's much less messy than using steel wool. Something I don't particularly like near the wood of my fretboards.

The fret guards come in small, medium and jumbo sizes and protect your fretboard from any wayward Frine solution (I wrote about how to condition and clean your fretboard in a previous article). But if you do get any Frine on the fretboard it can be wiped straight off.

Try the guards over your guitar's frets until you find the one that is the best fit.

The next step is to apply the Frine (also available to buy separately) with the microfibre cloth while holding the guard in place. You only need a small petit pois-sized amount (so not a full garden pea!) on the cloth then work back and forth. You'll soon soon see the difference and it cleans the grime and oxidation off, resulting in a shinier fret.

As you can see below, it lifted a noticeable amount of grime off our studio PRS SE Hollowbody guitar. If you're frets have been especially neglected you may want to have another pass with the Frine.

The Frine kit isn't MusicNomad's only option for fret cleaning and polishing. More recently the company has developed the Tracers Fret Finishing Kit. This is aimed for players looking to polish their frets after doing any crowning, beveling and fret dressing work.

It uses grades of Micro-Mesh as 'loops' to clean and polish the frets, and the kit's innovative handle can even be used to polish fret ends after addressing fret sprout issues.

I'm a big fan of Micro-Mesh and had already been been using myself in pad form for a few years to polish guitar frets. It's a polyester mesh fabric that can be viewed as a far less abrasive sandpaper, and is especially popular for work with jewelry. It comes in a variety of grades with the higher the number, the finer grade. MusicNomad simply number the four grits it uses as with the Tracers kit 1-4 (1,000, 3,600, 6,000 and 12,000 grit) so you know what order to work in.

While you can buy fret guards to add protection to your fingerboard (or MusicNomad's Fret Shields that can cover the whole neck and leave the frets exposed to work on), you could also use masking tape either side of the frets.

After loading a Micro-Mesh loop onto the spring-loaded Tracers handle, you can use the radiused edge to work on a fret. It's double-sided too. After you've worn a part of the loop down, you can simply turn it to get a fresh piece as a you work along the frets. Start with the first loop and work back and forth along each fret.

Once all the frets are done with one grit, you can fit loop 2 and carry on until finishing with loop 4 and hopefully a mirror finish on your frets. But be careful not to use much pressure when working with Micro-Mesh – let it do the work.

Cleaning with the first grits takes longer in my experience, and by the time you get to loops marked 3 and 4, the process is much quicker as you work through the frets.

The Tracers Kit also comes with a second handle for working on the ends of frets too – one side can polish the bevels and the other can polish the fret corners. As you wear down the Micro-Mesh loops you can buy replacements for the handles too.

• To find out more about the Frine and Tracers kits visit MusicNomad, Thomann and Sweetwater.

When it comes to lists of the greatest guitar players of all time, one player you can guarantee will always get a mention will be Led Zeppelin’s very own Jimmy Page.

An icon in the world of guitar, Page was one of the first major guitar heroes, playing a huge part in the invention of heavy rock, and developing recording techniques that we all still use to this very day. While he himself once claimed “There’s so much that can be done on the guitar. I’ve only done a few bits and pieces", it’s pretty safe to say that all guitarists can learn something from him.

In this lesson we’re going to be looking at five Jimmy Page-style concepts you can take away and add to your own guitar playing right away to give it that Page flavour.

1. Over-bending

From Page's behind-the-nut bends in Heartbreaker to his more expressive soloing in Since I've Been Loving You, wide-interval bends (aka over-bends) are a major feature in Led Zeppelin's discography. In our lick you’ll be taking the 15th fret D on the second string and bending it to meet the pitch of the 18th fret F – a bII interval and a note from outside the key of E minor and sure to create musical tension. Alternatively, if you treat the 12th fret B as your root note, playing in B minor instead of E minor, you'll be bending to a bV interval – another tense sound.

2. Triplet pull-off licks

This lick is made up of a simple three-note phrase that you can throw into any guitar solo for a Page-style burst of speed. You’ll be playing a triplet on each beat of the bar – that's three notes for every beat. The pattern is a pull-off on the first string from the 15th to the 12th fret, before playing the 12th fret on the second string, which is repeated until the final string bend. Although this lick is simple, it can be easily moved to any pentatonic shape and any string pairing to add some fast passages to your solos.

3. Simple repetition

Jimmy Page was a great lover of improvisation and would often stretch out live solos to great lengths. One of his best-used approaches is the use of repeating licks inside a solo. Our example is a simple four-note idea that you can loop for as long as you want to. One thing to note here is how the phrase locks in rhythmically. It is not played as a straight lick. There is some movement to the rhythm. The phrase lasts one and a half beats, causing each repeat to land on different points in the bar. Do it long enough and you'll start on beat 1 again. Regardless, this rhythmic displacement keeps a simple lick sounding interesting.

4. Six-note groupings

This lick is something we’ve seen in a bunch of Page solos, most notably the opening lick from Stairway to Heaven’s guitar solo. Though based on straight 16th notes (that's four notes per beat), unusually, the lick is arranged in groups of six notes at a time. Just like the previous lick then, this means the rhythm is displaced with each repeat. Spend time understanding this six-note pattern and focus on alternate picking every single note. Once you’ve got the rhythm locked in and you’re playing cleanly you can start to increase the speed.

5. Fast legato bursts

The final idea we’re going to check out is Jimmy's approach to short, fast bursts of legato combined into a longer lick with repeated phrasing ideas and an over-bend. This lick will give you some great Page habits across a few techniques at once. This lick is a great lick to throw into the middle of a guitar solo to buy you some time to think about where you’re going to move next.. The repeated phrase can also be moved around different shapes of the Minor Pentatonic scale inside of the same key.

If you work with other musicians, you may well have been confronted by the scenario where you need to quickly establish the chords of your song and relay the information to other musicians or band members. Thankfully, there’s a simple language just for this purpose. It’s time to embrace the chord symbol.

Your experience with chord symbols will likely be informed by the instrument that you play.

Notable devotees include guitarists, who sometimes use a symbol format known as ‘tab’ (an abbreviation for tablature.) These symbols are designed to inform a guitarist where to place their fingers on a fretboard. Tab is unique to guitar-based instruments.

This is not our topic du jour, so we are keeping our brief wider, working with symbols that can be useful to all instrumentalists playing a harmonic instrument, particularly in a band or song context.

One of the wonderful things about the chord symbol, is that you can just scribble it on a piece of paper - tah-dah - instant song form!

But in the context of written music, with a melody, the symbol is usually written above the musical stave. You can also write more than one chord per bar, writing the symbol above the point in the bar where you want the chord to change.

So let’s begin by discussing major and minor chords, or triads.

If you see a single letter, such as A or C, this would indicate a straight chord of A major, or C major respectively. However, placing a small ‘m’ after the chord name, denotes a switch to a minor chord. Hence Am or Cm becomes A minor or C minor.

Due to this simplistic concept, there is a drawback; there is no indication of which register to place the chord, so the voicing is left to the individual musician, to place their playing marque upon the chords within a song. At the very least, chord symbols act as a useful memory jogger.

Chord symbols can then be further expanded by adding extensions, such as a 7th.

In the context of a symbol, such as C7, the default extended note would be one tone below the chord name. In this case, C7 would consist of the triad of C, with a Bb included.

This is a hark-back to the days of jazz and blues, where the sound of this flattened 7th became standard. This also explains why we have to differentiate between this chord type, and the chord described as a major 7th.

When you see the symbol C maj7, the ‘maj7’ element is telling you to play the 7th which is one semitone below the chord name, which in this case is a B natural.

It’s so named because it’s the 7th from a major scale, and not the more usual flattened variety, associated with the blues.

This becomes slightly more complicated with a chord such as Cm Maj7; the basic triad here would be a chord of C minor, however we are also being instructed to add the Maj7, or the note B.

You can continue to add chord extensions as liberally as you like, although many of the more elaborate extensions tend to be rarely used in rock or pop. You’re less likely to see 9ths, 11ths or even 13ths!

One device that can be indispensable, especially for the bass player in your unit, is the indication of the note required in the bass. Adding this information to a chord symbol is very simple, but it does take some practice to quickly understand while playing, particularly if you're reading a chord chart for the first time.

A symbol such as C/G can be broken down into two elements; the first symbol ‘C’ relates to the required chord, in the usual way. The addition of the ‘/G’ element, tells us that we want a chord of C, but with a bass note of G. We verbally describe this as ‘C over G’.

While we are providing what could be described as a bluffers-guide-to-chord-symbols, it's worth noting that our literal translations here are regarded as the most common examples of their usage.

As is so often the case with music, the language can slightly alter, depending on the style of musician you are working with.

If you find yourself working with musicians who lean more towards jazz, the same rules apply, but the visual descriptions can sometimes be a little different.

The rock derivation of chord symbol is arguably the most common, being at the more simplistic end of chordal business, so here are a few other iconographic examples that you might come across.

If you see a symbol such as C- this does not relate to a bad school report!

The minus sign is often used by jazz musicians to indicate a minor chord, so this would be a chord of C minor. On rare occasions, jazz musicians might use lowercase lettering to indicate minor keys as well, although this can lead to complications and confusion, depending on how big the chord font is!

Another common example relates to the description of a maj7th. This I can be indicated via the use of a triangle symbol. 'C∆' indicates C maj7, in a far more concise format.

Writing out a simple chord chart doesn't have to be complicated, but writing out guitar tablature can be more difficult, particularly for non-guitarists. Many score packages, such as Sibelius, will recognise a chord being used, from the notes in your music, and can even create guitar tab too! Exceptionally useful, if your guitarist prefers to talk ‘tab’!

The pentatonic scale is one of main building blocks of any guitar player’s vocabulary. From rock and jazz to funk and blues, the five-note scale crops up everywhere and is one of the first things many of us learn once we’ve got the basic chords down. But it’s very easy to get stuck in a couple of the familiar, basic pentatonic “boxes” on the fretboard, stifling creativity and limiting our ability to express ourselves.

In this short video tutorial, Elixir Strings artist Cameron Cooper shows how to use the good ol’ pentatonic in new and exciting ways, in the style of John Petrucci, Andy James etc. By moving outside of the basic boxes, employing string skipping and wide intervals, Cameron demonstrates how you can increase your vocabulary by using a scale you probably already know inside out. At speed it’s a pretty advanced lick, but the concepts can be used by intermediate players – so take it slow and enjoy incorporating it into your own solos!

Explaining why he’s a fan of Elixir Strings on his electric guitars, Cameron says, “Elixir® Strings feel great, last for months without rusting and rarely break. I would rather use them than anything else.”

Every guitarist needs to know their chords – whether you're learning favourite songs or writing your own this is a great place to start with it all

We're breaking 22 essential chords into three areas – beginner guitar chords, folk and blues. There's plenty of inspiration here for any style and skill level though, plus audio for every chord. Let's get strumming!

Start with these 10 chords 

These are the 10 must-learn chords that every guitarist uses all the time. If you don’t know these chords, learn them right now. The dots tell you where to put your fingers. The numbers tell you which of your four fingers to use. Black dots are root notes.

Check out the audio examples of how they should sound below the chord boxes too.

Essential folk chords 

Get a folk vibe to your playing with these chords, which are more colourful and interesting than the simple open major chords you may already know. each shape uses open strings – this is a great way of adding intervals that would be impossible to stretch to. Try experimenting with moving the shapes up and down the neck to create new sounds.

Essential blues chords

The general theme with these shapes is the dominant 7th sound, which is essentially a major chord plus a b7th. This is a great way of injecting some ‘blues’ flavour into your chord progressions. You can also add 9th and 11th intervals for more colourful sounds a well as a #9 interval for that classic Hendrix sound.

• 10 of the best songs for beginner guitar players to learn

If there’s one thing you can do to take your songwriting to the next level, it’s getting to grips with new chords.

Use our acoustic guitar chord charts - from basic open chords to the daddy of altered tunings and many points between - to build your musical vocabulary and hone your own voice on the acoustic guitar.

Open chords

If you've recently starting playing guitar you’ve probably already tried some of the most common open chords (so called because they include un-fretted or ‘open’ strings), such as C, A and Em.

If you’ve got the basics covered, the variations shown here should inspire you with some new sounds without being too much of a challenge to play. Em7 and Cadd9 are widely used, Em9 and A6sus2 are rarer - and both have a lush, bittersweet sound.

We've worked all four chords into a simple strummed sequence for you, but we recommend experimenting with using them in your own chord progressions.

Sus chords

The two most important chord types in music are major and minor: generally, major chords sound bright and happy; minor chords sound dark and sad.

Sus chords are a special kind of chord that are neither major nor minor and, with their neutral character, they can inject sparkle and movement into otherwise simple chord progressions.

Have a go at these shapes and try alternating between the sus chords and more basic major and minor chords.

Sus chords nearly always sound good when played before a major or minor chord that uses the same root note, Bsus4 to B, or Asus4 to A, for example.

Blues chords

In blues ‘dominant’ 7 chords (A7 or D7 for example) are more common than basic major, minor and sus chords.

The A7, D7 and E9 shapes shown here are all you need for a 12-bar blues improv in the key of A. A13 and E7#9 have an edgier sound and work in jazz just as well as blues.

Bm7 is just the ticket for a moody minor blues; if you improvise around this chord, try using the D7 shape four frets higher to create a Bm7 and F#7 progression.

We've played this blues line fingerstyle and added in a few single notes and string mutes (marked X) between the chords for a sparse bluesy feel.

Mid-neck open chords

You already know your open chords, right? We’re talking about C, A, G, E, D and their minor variants at the headstock end of the fretboard.

Well, adapting and moving those shapes around the neck with one, two or even more strings kept open is a great way to create new chords and new sounds. Try out the chords we’ve chosen for you and then experiment by moving the shapes around the fretboard.

The rich sounds here are the effect of droning open strings and the wide intervals between fretted notes and open strings. There’s a lot of mileage in this simple approach. Experiment by moving these shapes around the fretboard.

DADGAD tuning

It's the daddy of altered tunings, favoured by singer-songwriters and folky fingerpickers alike.

Sure, new tunings can be a challenge as you learn the relationships between the ‘repositioned’ notes. But it also means you’ll be surprised, and hopefully inspired, by what you play, and DADGAD is surely unrivalled for its sheer user-friendliness.

The chords shown here should be enough to get you started, but experimentation is the name of the game.

It's good to experiment with arpeggios and explore other notes around the chords you know. This fingerstyle arpeggio idea is essentially just a D and G chord sequence.

CGCGCD tuning

A staple Celtic tuning, open Csus2 tuning (CGCGCD) is the lesser known cousin of the Dsus4 tuning of DADGAD.

Providing excellent scope for drone-like strumming and deep, resonant bass notes, we struggle to see why this tuning doesn’t share the popularity of DADGAD (although you may need a set of heavy-gauge strings to reach those lower notes). Try moving the C chord around the fretboard for instant, rich chord-melody ideas.

The shape we’ve used in bars 1 and 2 can be moved up and down the fretboard and it sounds great in nearly every position. If you only learn one shape in CGCGCD, make it this one.

Check out more guitar lessons

When you start your guitar journey, it’s very easy to imagine that you’d need to learn hundreds of different things before you can master a song or two. The good news is, that isn’t entirely true.

There are loads of great songs out there from across the decades that are often a lot simpler to play than you might think. You can learn hundreds of songs with just a few easy chords and some basic rhythm playing chops, and before you know it you’ll have an arsenal of fully formed songs under your fingertips.

In this lesson we’re going to be checking out five well known songs that use just four chords.

1. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

This Green Day song has become a staple in countless acoustic guitar players' repertoires. It’s a fun and simple song with a simple strumming pattern that repeats throughout the whole track.

The chords are G, Cadd9, D and Em

With this being quite a loose feeling song, you have some artistic licence to add a little variation should the need arise – so you don’t have to rigidly stick to a single rhythm.

Inside the strumming pattern, the only major challenge is skipping over beats 2 and 4 to come back in on the second 16th note (the 'e' if you're counting each beat as '1 e & a'). At these points of the rhythm you’ll actually be doing two upstrokes back to back.

Song structure:

Intro

Verse

Chorus

Interlude (Same as Intro)

Verse

Chorus

Instrumental (Intro and Verse together)

Chorus

Interlude (Same as Intro)

Chorus

Outro (Same as Intro, end on G)

2. Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight

This 90s classic is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. If you pull this one out at a small gig or a party, it always gets people singing. It's super-easy, with just one chord progression and one rhythm running all the way from start to finish.

The chords are Am, F, C and G

The rhythm sounds a lot harder than it is. If you imagine it as being straight eighth notes, you then only have to focus on adding some additional strums into the bar.

The additional strums occur on the 'a' of beat 2 (2 e & a), the 'e' of 3 (3 e & a) and the 'a' of 4 (you get the idea!). Note that on the original studio recording all the notes other than the downbeats on 2 and 4 are played with a slight palm mute.

This rhythm stays the same throughout the entire song and each bar contains two chords found on beats 1 and 3. Bar 1 is Am to F and bar 2 is C to G.

Song structure:

Am-F-C-G throughout

3. The Cranberries - Zombie

Another song that leans heavily on a single progression (for the most part) is Zombie by The Cranberries. This song holds the same progression until after the second chorus where it adds a slight variation.

The chords are Em, C, G and D/F#

Rhythmically, it's very straightforward, using straight eighth notes with an additional strum on the 'a' of beats 2 and 4. Each chord is played for a whole bar.

The main change for this song occurs after the second chorus in the instrumental breakdown, you maintain the same rhythm but only move between Em and C until the guitar solo starts, at which point you go back to the main progression.

The outro of the song once again returns to alternating between Em and C.

Song structure:

Intro

Verse

Chorus

Instrumental

Verse

Chorus

Instrumental (Em to C)

Guitar Solo

Outro (Em to C)

4. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

You’ll need a capo on the 3rd fret to play along with the studio recording of this early noughties classic. The original has a distinctive fingerpicked guitar figure that leads the song, but we’re going to emulate that with strumming here.

The chord shapes are Am, G, C and F

Thanks to the capo, the actual pitch of those chords is Cm, Bb, Eb and Ab

One of the trickiest aspects of this song is the rhythm that you’ll be using for the intro and verses. Our strummed part is going to simulate the rhythm of the fingerpicked guitar part.

This rhythm falls across two bars. In bar 1 you start with the Am, strumming on the '1 2 & 3 &' beats. On the '&' of beat 4 switch to the G. This change may feel a little rushed because it’s slightly ahead of beat 1 which is where we would expect to change chords.

Then we’re sticking to the '&' strums only for the two beats of bar 2 before playing '& 4 &' at the end of the bar. These offbeat strums are best played with upstrokes to keep the strumming hand flowing.

Once you hit the chorus, the rhythm straightens out and feels a little more predictable. At this point you switch to playing a downstroke on each beat and an upstroke on the '&' of beats 3 and 4. This is the same rhythm used for the bridge.

Song structure:

Intro

Verse

Chorus

Verse

Chorus

Bridge

Break (Same as Intro)

Chorus

Outro (Same as Chorus)

5. Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

The final song we’re going to check out is I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. While this is a four-chord song for the most part, there is also an additional fifth chord that gets played a very small number of times throughout the song. Note also that the song features a capo on the 2nd fret.

The chord shapes are A, E, F#m, D and B7

The capo raises the pitch of the chords by a tone to B, F#, G#m, E and C#7

The first two strums of each beat (the lower notes) are slightly palm muted and the second pair of pick strokes (the higher notes) are played so that the strings ring out. The main rhythm has a blues shuffle feel. You’ll be playing four notes per beat (16th notes), but they should be swung.

This is a hard feel to count if you’re new to rhythm so listen carefully to the play-through in the video and try to emulate the rhythm by sound rather than lose too much time counting it at this stage.

The majority of the song follows a simple progression of this rhythm and the chords A, E, F#m and D, all played for a bar each.

The first time the B7 chord appears is as a single strum at the end of the second verse before going into the chorus. It’s very obvious when you listen to the song where this is as there is a clear stop.

The only rhythm change is during the bridge where the rhythm becomes straighter and you play two chords per bar over the first two bars (A and E to F#m and E), before a bar of D and a bar of B7. On the second repeat of the Bridge you will be playing the B7 as a build up, gradually getting louder.

Song structure:

Intro

Verse

Chorus

Verse (With B7 at the end)

Chorus

Bridge

Verse

Chorus (B7 on last repeat)

Outro (Same as intro progression)

Everything starts with tuning; and if you're a guitarist it's a burden you have to accept. Pianists? They have it easy! Set and forget. But every time you pick your guitar up to play you'll need to check it's in tune. So invest in a decent headstock tuner and pedal tuner. But what if your acoustic or electric guitar won't stay in tune for long?

It's a very common issue and there's no one answer because guitars are all about variables. But there are definite factors and issues that can cause and even combine to make keeping your guitar in tune more challenging that it should be.

It's not necessarily a case of replacing your guitar's tuners either – smoother action doesn't equate to stable tuning. The issues may well lie elsewhere, and often do in my experience.

I'm going to look at some of the ways you can minimise tuning issues on your guitar, and even get ahead of them. Because if your guitar isn't in tune you'll never sound good.

Loose machine heads

We're starting with something that might not seem to be an obvious cause of unstable tuning but should always be on your check list. If the nuts that secure your tuner posts loosen over time, or the screws that some tuning buttons have get too loose, the hold on the string is compromised. The former can also contribute to unwelcome rattling when you play.

Checking and tightening your tuner nuts whenever you do a guitar string change is always a good routine to fall into. The handle of MusicNomad's GRIP Guitar String Peg Winder I'm using above also features a 10mm hex wrench for this very reason.

But the subject of string changes brings me to the next factor that can threaten your tuning stability…

String winding and stretching

How we fit new strings affects string tension and in turn this does have a bearing on tuning stability. The way you wind your new strings to the posts is important – and if not done correctly you'll soon find you guitar going out of tune in the first few bends.

There are numerous approaches to string winding – and a lot of them will do the job well. But you don't need to tie any knots in your strings – tuners are designed to hold the strings in place. It's all about slack and winds here. Don't go beyond three to four wraps around the post on the wound strings (low E, A, D) or around five-six on the unwound (G, B, high E).

One good way to keep things consistent is to pull the string through the peg tight, then pull it back to the first fret to measure the right amount of slack needed for the wound strings and for the plain strings, pull them back to the guitar's second fret.

Stretching new strings is also important to get them staying in tune faster once fitted. A couple of pulls upwards at about the halfway point on the fretboard when you're in playing position after the new string is fitted will really help strings to settle in.

Nuts and contact points

Anywhere the string makes contact with the guitar can have an effect on tuning stability. What we want is unencumbered travel and string vibration – not restrictive debris and sharp edges. So the guitar's nut often comes into focus as a possible culprit for both tuning and string buzzing woes.

If the nut's slots are cut too narrow or low for the strings it can cause issues. In my experience, if you suspect your nut may have issues it's well worth taking it to a pro – a custom carved bone nut is money well spent and can also improve the guitar's acoustic resonance. Especially with an acoustic guitar. But there are ways you can improve the situation if things aren't as drastic as a replacement.

Every time I change my electric and acoustic guitars' strings, I take the opportunity to lubricate the hardware contact points. These are the string trees, nut slots and even the bridge saddle grooves. There are a few options on the market, including Big Bends Nut Sauce, but I use MusicNomad's TUNE-IT Nut & Saddle Lubricant, which comes with applicators to make sure nothing is wasted and a tube lasts a long time. You'll only need to apply small amounts.

In helping to reduce friction wherever there's movement between the guitar and the strings, it can reduce string breakage as well as tuning issues.

Intonation

Ever tuned your electric guitar and played up and down the neck but it still just doesn't sound tuned when you play notes in some positions? Then you tune it again and it's still not right? It's probably because it's not properly intonated. This is something you need to check and set regularly.

This is something I talked about before when we looked at how to adjust your guitar string action. When an electric guitar is properly intonated, every note on the fretboard will sound in its correct pitch. Adjusting the intonation of your guitar involves using its adjustable saddles at the bridge to lengthen or shorten the string lengths on your guitar. These adjustments will be very small but they can make a big difference on how in tune your guitar sounds.

To check and improve your guitar's intonation play an in-tune open note on each string while plugged into a pedal tuner (for improved accuracy over a headstock tuner) and then compare it on each string when fretted at the 12th fret.

If the pitch of the note is too high at the 12th fret you need to move the saddle back towards the bridge by adjusting with a screwdriver. If the fretted note is flat you need to adjust the saddle to move it forward towards the headstock.

Make very small adjustments and take your time, checking with the tuner each time. Absolutely perfect intonation is never possible because of the variables involved in guitars (minor differences between frets etc), but aim to get that tuner arrow to stay in the green for open and fretted 12th notes on each string. It's worth the effort!

• For more information about MusicNomad guitar maintenance and cleaning products visit MusicNomad, Thomann and Sweetwater.

Spotify Wrapped and its ilk may have told us what the world has been listening to in 2024, but which songs have guitarists and pianists been learning to play? Muse Group - owner of both Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore, popular repositories of guitar tab and piano notation respectively - has now given us a good idea by revealing some of its key year-end stats.

In terms of songs released in 2024, it turns out that the clear winners are Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, whose Die With a Smile topped the rankings on both websites. Billie Eilish’s Birds Of A Feather and Wildflower also feature in both top 10s, as do Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe! and Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things.

It’s also noteworthy that Gracie Abrams has attracted the attention of budding guitarists - they’re keen to learn both I Love You, I’m Sorry and That’s So True - while K-Pop star IU’s Love Wins All lands at an impressive second place in the MuseScore chart.

The most surprising entry, though (for us, anyway), is Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song, a track that completely passed us by but became a TikTok sensation and reached number 1 in the UK singles chart. It was the second most popular song on Ultimate Guitar and number 5 on MuseScore.

If you factor in songs from across musical history, of course, the charts look very different. Guitarists are still very keen to learn The Eagles’ Hotel California and Radiohead’s Creep, for example.

Less predictably, JVKE and Joe Hisaishi top the MuseScore chart with Golden Hour and Merry-Go-Round of Life respectively, with Kanye West (Runaway) and Patrick Watson (Je Te Laisserai Des Mots) landing at numbers 3 and 4. Who knew?

Filter the guitar tab down to just pop music, though, and Ed Sheeran is a clear winner, filling numbers 1, 2 and 4 in the chart with Perfect, Photograph and Thinking Out Loud. It’s a very ballad-heavy list, in fact, with Bruno Mars, James Arthur and Adele also riding high.

None of the aforementioned artists, though, is the most viewed on MuseScore. Here, good old Ludvig van Beethoven reigns supreme, with Hans Zimmer coming an impressive second.

Spare a thought for Mozart, though, who only creeps into the top 10 behind the likes of Coldplay, Toby Fox and JVKE. Tough crowd.

The complete charts from Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore are below.

Top 10 tabs and scores of songs released in 2024

Ultimate Guitar

1. Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
2. Gigi Perez – Sailor Song
3. Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
4. Hozier – Too Sweet
5. Billie Eilish – Wildflower
6. Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
7. Benson Boone – Beautiful Things
8. Gracie Abrams – I Love You, I’m Sorry
9. Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please
10. Gracie Abrams – That’s So True

MuseScore

1. Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
2. IU – Love Wins All
3. Benson Boone – Beautiful Things
4. Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
5. Gigi Perez – Sailor Song
6. Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
7. Hazbin Hotel – Stayed Gone
8. ROSÉ, Bruno Mars – APT.
9. HOYO-MiX – If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
10. Billie Eilish – Wildflower

Top 10 tabs and scores of songs released from throughout history

Ultimate Guitar

1. Eagles – Hotel California
2. Radiohead – Creep
3. Ed Sheeran – Perfect
4. John Denver – Take Me Home, Country Roads
5. Elvis Presley – Can’t Help Falling in Love
6. Oasis – Wonderwall
7. Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
8. Coldplay – Yellow
9. Vance Joy – Riptide
10. The Cranberries – Linger

MuseScore

1. JVKE – Golden Hour
2. Joe Hisaishi – Merry-Go-Round of Life
3. Kanye West – Runaway
4. Patrick Watson – Je Te Laisserai Des Mots
5. Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For?
6. Laufey – From The Start
7. Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
8. Dmitri Shostakovich – Waltz From The First Echelon, Op. 99
9. Tom Odell – Another Love
10. Stefano Landi – Passacaglia Della Vita

Ultimate Guitar top 10 pop tabs

1. Ed Sheeran – Perfect
2. Ed Sheeran – Photograph
3. Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man
4. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
5. James Arthur – Say You Won’t Let Go
6. Adele – Make You Feel My Love
7. ABBA – Slipping Through My Fingers
8. One Direction – Night Changes
9. Conan Gray – Heather
10. Bee Gees – How Deep Is Your Love

MuseScore most-viewed artists

1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Hans Zimmer
3. Joe Hisaishi
4. Coldplay
5. Johann Sebastian Bach
6. Toby Fox
7. Koji Kondo
8. Frédéric Chopin
9. JVKE
10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Rory Gallagher is the guitar player's guitar player. Though held in legendary status by so many, his name is not one that you often find at the sharp end of the countless “best guitarists of all time” lists. Despite his great success, he still remains a relatively underrated gem in the world of blues-rock.

Rory's dynamic playing style includes elements of folk, classic rock, blues and even Celtic music thrown in for good measure. Inside this unique melting pot of styles there are many things to learn and add to your own playing to supercharge your existing vocabulary.

The licks in this lesson are not direct copies of anything Rory played, but overarching concepts and approaches that he employed and that you can use as building blocks in your own style.

Hybrid picking

Our first example is a country-inspired idea, but still within the hard blues style that Rory Gallagher's ear was so acutely attuned to. The lick uses an open string as a pedal tone plus a pull-off after each fretted note.

The open fourth string is played with the pick and the fretted notes on the third string are played with the middle finger of the picking hand – a technique known as hybrid picking.

It's an approach to picking that can be used in many different ways. Here, your main aim is to get your picking finger under the string to really give it some snap. Once each fretted note sounds, pull off to an open third string G note.

Double-stop bends and melodic lines

Rory's style is highly melodic and he'd often use double-stops to thicken up his sound and create pedal-steel sounding licks. It's a great way to create memorable hooks and passages and take your playing beyond basic pentatonics.

The double-stop idea shown in the video shares similarities to the intro from Rory's classic track Bad Penny, and a section of the solo in Shadow Play. We're in the key of D minor here, using notes from the D natural minor scale.

The lick starts with an ascending hammer-on phrase, before going into the double-stops. For these, place your fourth finger on the 13th fret of the second string and bend the third string – but only the third – as both strings ring out. Our lick ends with a simple trill between the 9th and 10th frets of the third string before landing back on the root note at the 12th fret, fourth string.

Celtic-style phrasing

Despite Rory's own misgivings about his ability to play traditional Irish jigs and reels, there's a strong Celtic influence in his playing. This can also be heard in the styles of players like Gary Moore, who was heavily influenced by Gallagher, and Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy.

Celtic phrasing, in this example, combines shapes 1 and 2 of the A minor pentatonic scale with the natural minor scale with an added major 6th note for a momentary pull towards a major feel in certain passages.

There is a strong triplet feel to this style of phrasing. When you are starting out, get used to playing in triplet groupings then try out short trill flurries or extended notes.

The presence of a well-crafted and performed chord progression can often be the glue that gels the song together. If executed well, it should support your melody and lyric, while grabbing listeners on an emotional level.

Before we dig into harmony too deeply, we must address a musical elephant in the room; chord progressions are arguably more essential for songwriters, than they might be for artists or producers working in some styles of electronically generated music or production.

Many of the most successful house/dance/EDM tracks don’t employ a significant sequence of chords. This is nothing new! It’s a concept that harks back hundreds of years to the chanting of plainsong. It was also made fashionable in the 60s, though a form of music known as 'minimalism'.

A lot of the electronically-produced music that we hear today could be regarded as fairly static in harmonic construction, relying on builds through rhythm and texture to generate structure.

Having said that, there is no doubt that any form of harmonic progression can offer something to just about all musical styles, so it’s worth considering, regardless of your chosen genre.

To get us underway, we’re going to concentrate on the construction of a verse or chorus’s harmonic structure; the two are interchangeable, depending on the way you want to use them, and in some instances, can actually be the same!

The chances are, you’ll be sitting with a guitar or keyboard in front of you, and playing a few chords to get you going, so start by choosing a key.

The most important decision at this stage could be whether you want to work in a major or minor key, depending on the outlook you want to portray.

Major keys will sound happier and brighter than minor keys, but that’s no use if you’re writing about the fact that you’ve just been jilted! Although, there are examples of reverse psychology. Think of CeeLo Green and Forget You, which is very major in key, but all about his ‘ex’ dumping him!

We’re sticking with C major - a nice keyboard key!

Old favourites

When creating a harmonic progression, particularly for a song, we are looking to create a sequence of chords which may repeat as the song progresses. The harmony is fundamental in setting the song’s tone and feel.

Part of the process involves crafting a balance in the structure that’s pleasing to the listener, as well as feeling nice to play or sing along with.

We can learn a lot from existing material, so let’s start by examining one of the most used and longest established chord sequences in existence.

Try the following, played as a chord per bar:

C major - G major - A minor - F major

This can also be described as the following chords:

I - V - VI - IV (or 1 - 5 - 6 - 4)

If you play this sequence through, it probably sounds overwhelmingly familiar. That's because it has been used by everyone, from The Beatles, U2, James Blunt, Black Eyed Peas, Spice Girls, A-ha, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Blink 182… you get the picture!

It’s important to note that, as demonstrated by this selection of artists, this sequence crosses all genre and musical boundaries, proving the point that a well-crafted sequence is successful wherever you may wish to use it.

Let’s unpick why this harmonic sequence works so well. When working in a major key, chords or triads are based upon different degrees of the scale, reflecting a major or minor tonality at the individual chord level.

Chords I, IV & V are all major, whereas chords II, III and VI are minor. Chord VII is diminished, so we don’t tend to us it very often, particularly as the notes are not that dissimilar to chord V, which we tend to use instead.

This successful sequence of chords is overtly major, with a singular minor chord thrown in (VI) to create a sense of contrast and balance. The last chord in the sequence is also major, and leads nicely back to chord I.

Note that the chord of A minor (VI) is the 3rd chord of the sequence, which is a strong bar, subservient only to the 1st bar.

If we re-order these same chords, we can hear another popular sequence:

C major - A minor - F major - G major

I - VI - IV - V

This also sounds very familiar, but we could play around further and change the third chord to D minor. This will place a minor chord on the 3rd bar, creating equal weighting, as we now have two major and two minor chords.

Ultimately, we are looking to take our existing structure but swap chords to create a more desirable or different effect. This process could ultimately mean that we create an 8-bar sequence, which might look something like this:

C major - A minor - E minor - F major

C major - A minor - F major - G major

Dominant chords and the chorus

One chord which we have to take a moment to examine, is chord V, which we also describe as the 'dominant' chord. In our key of C major, this is a chord of G major.

Dominant chords are really useful, as they create a perfect pivot for heading back to our home chord of C major, but they also have another exceptionally useful trick up their sleeve; they are excellent for building tension.

If we consider our eight bar structure, which finishes with a chord of G major, we could extend that chord by a couple of bars or more, and use it as a device for leading into a new section, such as a chorus. The buildup will be perfect, as the accompanying sense of anticipation is in place, before we move back to our chord of C major.

By the nature of the song-shaped-beast, you will probably want to save your best or catchiest chord progression, hook or melody for your chorus, but there is nothing to stop you using the same chords, or better still, play around by swapping-out chords for alternatives, or ‘substitutions’ as they are referred to.

One important point to be aware of though, is that harmonic content is not an element of a song that can be copyrighted. There are only so many chords, and they can only be reordered so many times, which also explains why so many songs share the same harmonic characteristics.

There have however been many examples of songs being sued, where the similarity extends beyond the harmony, so be sure to mix things up so that you’re not trampling on another well-known tune. You wouldn’t want to end up on court, fighting over four chords would you?

Read the previous instalments in our ongoing theory series below

- The pillars of music theory made simple
- How to become a master of melodies
- A quick guide to reading music
- How to understand rhythm when reading music
- Understanding scale theory
- How to use triads
- How to use suspended chords

Triads are incredibly useful for creating quick and easy harmonies, but altering the middle note of a triad can completely change your production’s character, and inject real interest into your harmonic narrative.

The one note in a triad that confirms whether we are in a major or a minor key, is the third. As the moniker suggests, the third of a triad is also the third degree of either a major or minor scale, and in a root position triad, resides in the middle of the triad/chord.

Sometimes, we might want to write a piece of music which is more nebulous in character, neither hinting at a major or a minor tonality. This is an effect that is exceptionally easy to achieve, merely by moving the third of the triad.

If we take the example of a C major triad, we’ll use the notes C, E and G. The E is the third of the chord, and the singular note that invokes the major tonality.

Raise this note to an F, and we create a triad which is often referred to as a 'sus4'. The ‘sus’ abbreviation refers to ‘suspended’, which is a hark-back to techniques drawn from harmony used in classical music.

However, the sus4 is exceptionally useful for building tension, when you don't want to suggest that you are in a major or a minor key.

You can also try dropping the E of your C major triad, to the note D instead. This creates another form of suspended chord, known as a sus2.

As you may have worked out already, the number that we use while describing a sus4 or sus2, refers to the note that we have moved, and its position in a scale.

In the case of our sus4, the note F is the 4th degree of either C major or the minor scale, while D is the 2nd degree of our C scale, as used in a sus2.

In musical circles, musicians may just refer to a chord as a ‘sus’ chord; this always refers to a sus4 by default, so if you want a sus2, you’ll need to say so!

When to use a suspended chord

In its original classical incarnation, the suspended note of a sus4 chord, would often resolve to the third of the triad, an adoption that has been been around for literally hundreds of years.

Bringing us more up to date, there have been some very obvious placements of the suspended chord in commercial and pop music, across all ages and genre.

A classic example of a sus4 chord, resolving to a major chord, placed in a rhythmic cycle, would be the opening two chords to the classic track Pinball Wizard by The Who. The acoustic, rhythm guitar riff alternates between the two chords through the entire introduction, extending into the initial part of the 1st verse of the song.

The suspended chord is also a favourite of far more contemporary artists, such as Jon Hopkins. Much of his piano playing features the use of suspended chords, which in turn draws influence from film composers, such as Thomas Newman - another huge user of the sus!

What we really enjoy about suspended chords is their slightly ambiguous nature. Sometimes you don't want to be overtly happy or sad, by using a major or a minor key, and the use of a suspended chord strikes that perfect balance between the two, without ever giving the game away. Give it a try and add some jeopardy to your harmonies!

Read the previous instalments in our ongoing theory series below

- The pillars of music theory made simple
- How to become a master of melodies
- A quick guide to reading music
- How to understand rhythm when reading music
- Understanding scale theory
- How to use triads

It's unbelievable to me now but for the first few years I played guitar, I had absolutely no idea what a truss rod was – let alone how to adjust it. Blame it on being self-taught and knowing few other budding guitar players at the time but I didn't know just how hard I was making it. I just thought my Marlin Slammer was really hard to play because that's how beginner electric guitars were.

If I'd known even the basics of how to set up a guitar – or even knew it needed setting up so I could take it to a guitar tech, I'd have had a very different playing experience. So after talking about how to lower or heighten guitar string action, it's time to talk truss rods for electric and acoustic guitars. And we better begin with what they are, and what they actually do.

What is a truss rod ?

The truss rod is a metal bar that runs down inside the length of a guitar's neck to help keep it straight under the constant and relatively intense tension of the strings. Conditions like string gauge, tuning and temperature changes can affect your guitar's neck shape and the truss rod is made to be adjustable in a tight cavity inside the neck's wood so you're able to help counteract these factors and keep your guitar playing comfortably for you.

If the truss rod is too loose it can cause neck bow (too concave and a high action) and if it's too tight the neck angle can be convex with back bend (action is too low in places).

You will probably need to adjust the truss rods of your guitars multiple times over time to keep your necks in good straight shape for playing, and if you approach adjustments carefully and follow our process, you'll soon become confident with it. It's when you aren't careful that the risk of damage to your guitar becomes an issue. But remember; truss rods are designed to be adjusted.

Types of truss rod

There are two main types of truss rod you'll encounter on guitars; single-action and dual-action. They affect the way the way you can adjust them.

A single-action truss rod can only be adjusted in a single direction; tightening to to straighten the neck and pull it into back bow. Looosing it means the tension of the strings will be pulling the neck into relief, not the truss rod itself. Needing to remove back bow is the rarer case with a guitar.

A dual-action truss rod can be adjusted in either direction; forcing the neck into a back bow. this type of truss rod tends to weigh a bit more and are more flexible to work with to fine-tune to your preference, because you're not so reliant on the string tension for the adjustment the opposite way.

It's important to check your guitar's specs online to understand what kind of truss rod you're working with.

Know when you need to adjust

The old method of looking down your guitar's neck to check it for bowing can give you an idea of the situation but isn't exactly foolproof – when it comes to adjustment I'm keen on process and measurement so I know exactly where I stand.

A straight edge is a great way to see how much bow or relief you have along your guitar's neck with the strings on – the Tri-Beam 3 'n 1 Dual Notched Straightedge, which has the bonus of being useful for checking your fret heights with the strings off too.

But the company also make something else that's great for the job of truss rod adjustment…

In my article on how to adjust your electric guitar string action I talked about what a great investment MusicNomad's six-piece MusicNomad Precision Setup Gauge Set is, and I'm going to prove it again here – this time when it comes to adjusting your truss rod.

You can also purchase the gauge and 'pick capo' from the set to measure your neck relief separately at retailers including Thomann and Sweetwater.

I use it constantly for checking and adjusting the truss rods on the guitars I review, which have often been exposed to changing temperatures of storage and transit before they reach me for testing. It's become one of my most used guitar accessories as a result, along with MusicNomad's Premium 26-piece Guitar Tech Screwdriver & Wrench Set and Premium Guitar Tech Truss Rod Wrench Set.

But for the steps I'm about to explain you can also use the truss rod that came with your guitar and source a gauge that suits your type of guitar and screwdriver for removing the truss rod cover if you have one.

Step 1: Getting access to your truss rod

Most truss rod's adjusted at the nut and with modern-style Fenders, the truss rod nut can be found at the headstock in the whole just near the guitar's nut above the first fret. For Gibson's it's in the same place but often under a truss rod cover.

The screws for this cover are more easily removed with a magnetic screwdriver so they don't get lost, and you'll see I'm being extra careful with a cloth in case I slip – I don't fancy relic'ing my headstock in that place!

While a lot of truss rod nuts for acoustic and electric guitars use a hex (allen) key for adjustment, Gibson electrics and Taylor acoustics use a nut wrench. The MusicNomad kit I'm using contains both types, but one should ship with your guitar and if you don't it, they are available widely to buy separately – 5/16" for Gibsons and 1/4" for Taylors.

Some guitar brands that don't have aesthetic traditions in the '70s – including Charvel – will place the truss rod adjustment as a 'wheel' at the bottom of the neck rather than the top. You can use anything solid that fits in the gap to turn it so they're pretty practical.

Vintage bolt-on necks – especially pre-1971 Fenders and some of its contemporary reissues of '50s and '60s models because fans of those guitars want the authenticity – make access to adjustment more difficult; a Phillips head at the base of the neck.

Sometimes you can access it by taking the scratchplate off (my battered and cherished 1992 Gordon Smith GS-1 is an example) but with Fenders, it can often involve slackening the strings substantially to take the neck off adjust using a Phillips screwdriver and then fit the strings again just to measure your adjustment. Not ideal. But there is something that can help that you might want to look into…

Where there is access at the base of the neck once you've taken the scratchplate off, Japanese brand Hosco has developed a Phillips-shaped wrench (shown above) to make things easier. You can get one from Thomann.

Martin acoustic guitars and some others will place the truss rod adjustment access nut inside the soundhole at the base of the neck. In this case you'll just need the right hex key – and no string removal is necessary. Yay!

Step 2: Diagnosing and adjusting your guitar's neck relief

Now we can get down to business! This is the part some players fear – the actual adjustment stage. There's no need to worry. Just follow these steps.

You'll need a metal 'feeler' gauge and a guitar pick, along with the truss rod adjustment tool for your specific guitar we've discussed. The MusicNomad six-piece MusicNomad Precision Setup Gauge Set includes three different metal gauges for electric guitar (.006"/.15mm), acoustic and bass guitar (.008"/.20mm) and classical guitar (.010"/.25mm). It also includes a pick.

• First, you need to tune your guitar.

• Secondly, use the pick to hold down the guitar's low E string at the first fret. Do this by sliding it under the A strong and on top of the low E and D strings.

• Thirdly comes the gauge stage…

Each gauge in the MusicNomad set is designed to be inserted under the low E string at the sixth fret while the string is being held down at the 12th fret by your finger (as well as the first by the capo).

Sliding the gauge under the low E string at the sixth fret, what do you notice? MusicNomad has a 'Touch Rule' to help you decide what to do next.

If the gauge is resting on the fret but isn't touching the underside of the low E string, you'll need to adjust the truss rod nut clockwise by a maximum of 1/8 of a turn max each time.

If it's a really tight fit for the gauge under the low E string and it's lifting it up when you slide the gauge under, you'll need to turn the truss rod nut anti-clockwise.

For the wheel type of truss rod adjustment at the base of the neck that I mentioned earlier, while looking from the bottom of the guitar body, rotate clockwise to add bow and flatten the relief, turn counterclockwise to add more relief.

After each 1/8 turn adjustment either way, check with the feeler guage again. The goal is for the gauge to lightly touch the underside of the low E string and allow it to slide in and out with ease.

After adjustment

Don't just take the feeler gauge reading's word for it – play your guitar when you feel the neck relief is right. If there is buzz when playing in the first three frets there might be a little too much bow, so check the gauge again. In fact, you'll need to check it around 24 hours later to see if the neck had moved again – this isn't uncommon, so it may need a little tweak.

This is especially common if you've gone up or down a string gauge because it changes the amount of tension on the neck with heavier strings increasing tension bow and lighter sometimes adding more relief. The bigger the change in gauge, the higher the possibility of a change in neck relief, so this is where confidence with truss rod adjustment is vital to allow your neck to adapt to the new strings and keep it playing well.

And if you ever pick up your guitar and notice the action feels a little higher or buzzier than you remember, checking the neck relief should be your first port of call. That's why having a feeler gauge as part of your essential guitar toolkit is so important – it's always useful.

• Check out MusicNomadcare.com, Thomann and Sweetwater for more on the MusicNomad range of guitar and instrument maintenance tools and cleaning products.

Guitar Tricks is going all in this Black Friday, offering its annual membership plus hundreds of dollars worth of extras for an incredible $99 - which works out at $8.25 per month. With savings totalling $800, this deal is designed to inspire everyone, from brand-new players picking up a guitar for the first time to more experienced players refining their craft. If you’ve attended the school of YouTube so far - much like I did - now is the perfect opportunity to introduce some structure and a fresh perspective from a wealth of tutors with years of experience. Guitar Tricks is one of our top-rated online guitar lessons platforms, too.

At the heart of this offer is Guitar Tricks’ highly-rated annual membership, typically priced at $359. This includes access to their Core Learning System, which guides beginners through essential skills and techniques before exploring advanced concepts. All of this is presented in a slick and attractive user interface that is a joy to use. It’s a proven path used by over 4 million players worldwide to transform their skills. With over 11,000 expertly crafted lessons spanning everything from blues to metal, the platform caters to every style and ambition.

If you’ve picked up one of the best electric guitars for beginners, the Ultimate Beginner Bundle provides tailored tools to help kick-start your journey. In my opinion, the standout feature is the custom lesson plan, where one of Guitar Tricks’ expert instructors builds a programme based on your interests and goals. This is complemented by three essential e-books: the Ultimate Beginner Guide, packed with chord charts and practice tips; the Guitar Set-Up Guide, which teaches basic maintenance; and the Guitar Soloing Guide, offering the building blocks of lead playing. Normally $29 each, these guides are included at no extra cost.

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Whether you’re a beginner eager to learn or a seasoned guitarist honing your craft, this Black Friday guitar deal offers everything you need to make 2025 your best year of playing yet. But act fast - this offer won’t be around for long.

If like me you’ve already got some playing under your belt, but you’ve hit a roadblock in terms of development, you should check out the online guitar lessons platform Til. Instead of plying you with static video content, Til pairs you with a professional guitar player for bespoke lessons centered around you. In an exclusive Black Friday music deal for MusicRadar readers, we’ve teamed up with Til to offer $20 off your first private guitar lesson.

Having used Til myself to take some lessons with guitar master Caitlin Caggiano, it made me realise that not only can you always learn something new, but that learning face-to-face with someone can be hugely beneficial. Whether it was asking questions, demonstrating techniques, or just asking for clarification on a particular term, the difference between a private lesson on Til and watching a YouTube video was staggering.

There were no online lessons when I first started playing guitar - face-to-face lessons were your only option. Often expensive and incurring additional travel costs, after the first few years I was unable to continue paying for them, and so I fell back on using the burgeoning online scene to learn new songs and techniques. It worked pretty well, but ultimately there was no way of verifying any of the information I was reading, and it wasn’t until I tried out private guitar lessons again as an adult I realized what a miss having that back-and-forth could be.

My Til private lessons managed to explain concepts far quicker and more precisely than any Google search or AI prompt, allowing me to fully harness music theory in my guitar playing going forward. Being paired with a professional guitar player not only gave me great, usable advice but also allowed me to dive into the aspects of my guitar playing that were important to me. Together with my guitar tutor we identified the gaps and were able to come up with a plan to action them.

Til doesn’t just have one-on-one tuition either, you can also take a group class which can be a great motivator. You’re encouraged to share your own playing with others for feedback, and everyone can share tips and tricks as and when they discover them. Learning this way may work better for those who need a little push, and each week you get new content to work on.

When we listen to any form of music, we listen for the elements that resonate with our personal emotions. While there are some that may choose to pay more attention to rhythm or harmony, the overwhelming majority of us music aficionados listen first and foremost to the melody

Music history is littered with all forms of musician, some of whom have a good understanding of music theory, and others who don’t. Either way, channelling some theoretical knowledge at a subconscious level will still yield success.

Paul McCartney clearly knows what he's doing when it comes to scribing a good tune, but by his own admission, he does not read the dots on the page. It’s a case in point, but the rules of music theory are there to be broken. However, you can only break the rules, if you know what the rules are!

Getting in key

Why is the key important to melody writing?

As we explained in our previous instalment, a melody is the term we use to describe combinations of notes which, when played or sang in rising and falling structures, will stand at the front and centre of your track, or could support the main (or additional) melody as a counter-melody.

One of the first decisions that you will need to take when approaching melody writing, is choice of key for your composition or song.

There are several factors that may influence this; as a guitarist, you may prefer to work in keys such as E or A major, whereas a keyboard player may prefer to work in C major. Of course, fluent instrumentalists can effectively play in any key without issue, but these keys will intrinsically affect the notes that you use.

As strange as it might sound, different keys can also sound either brighter or more melancholic, so it’s worth trying a few options before making a firm decision.

If you intend to sing your melody, the range needs to fit comfortably with your voice. If you are writing a melody in the instrumental domain, you may need to take account of the instrument that you are writing for.

For example, brass instruments prefer keys such as B-flat and E-flat major, whereas stringed instruments prefer sharp keys, much like a guitarist.

If you're unsure of the key you want to write in, just experiment! Start by identifying the chord that you are playing, and have a sing or a play, to find what suits.

What is a riff?

What is a riff?

The style of music that you are working in will also inform your next decision. A riff is a short musical/melodic fragment; if you are writing in a style such as EDM, your music may use a riff in a fairly repetitive way.

If you've got a good idea, why wouldn't you repeat it? But if you are working within the realm of a more conventional song-form, a melody may be comprised of a series of phrases. These are much like riffs, but normally slightly longer in makeup, and open to variation as a song develops.

If you have a strong riff or phrase, consider using this as part of your chorus. Think about the best choruses in history, and there will almost always be repetition. It could also be the melody that hooks in the listener, hence the term ‘hook’, which is often applied to catchy elements of a chorus.

In songwriting, a good starting point is to think in terms of creating 4 phrases to from your chorus. This is one of those rules that is there to be broken, but the 4-phrase rule should certainly get your melody underway. You can always refine your material later.

Try singing or writing notes in a step-wise motion. In musical terminology, step-wise motion is normally known as a scale. Think of the theme to the British TV show EastEnders where the first six notes of the theme are simply a major scale that moves up in steps. You may also notice that the second phrase from the same theme uses four notes of a scale going downwards.

This upward and downward motion creates a sense of phrase and equilibrium, and that's something that a listener will identify with subconsciously. Many of the strongest melodies ever written work on the principle of basic step wise motion.

If you've got an idea now, of what a core melody should be, now it's time to introduce different rhythmic note lengths. Rather than keep every note the same, make some of them longer or shorter, to add interest.

A good starting point will be to use longer notes at the beginning of a musical phrase, introducing shorter notes later.

Lyrics and melodies

How melody and lyrics work together

Many songwriters find influence from a lyric. Adding a melody and rhythm to an existing lyric is an art in itself.

As a composer or songwriter, it is important to go with your gut feeling. If something strikes a chord with you, go with that feeling. If you listen back to it the following day, and it's not as good as you thought it was, you can always adapt the melody, or simply start again.

By adding a lyrical content, you introduce another element to the melody-writing process, and one feature you might want to explore is 'word painting'. This is where you employ musical traits to endorse a lyric.

An obvious example would be to create a musical phrase which rises, as you use a lyric such as ‘reach for the sky’, or by a similar token, you might compose a phrase which moves downward in pitch, as you use words such as ‘falling.’

Word painting may also influence the key you find yourself using. Major keys are overtly uplifting, whereas minor keys can promote a feeling of sadness. If you are writing about a ‘beautiful day,’ it stands to reason that you would probably want to do so in a major key - if you’ve been jilted by your partner, well… it’s probably all about the minor key!

Structuring your melody

How to structure your melody

In much the same way that your chosen musical style will influence your melody writing, you may find yourself needing to compose more than one section.

Conventional songs contain a number of verses which are lyrically different each time, and choruses which, tend to repeat. You may also want to consider a bridge, which could appear before a chorus, or as an entirely different section after a couple of verses and choruses.

There’s great value in having a listen to music or songwriters that you admire, and make a note of the forms that you hear. You don't have to copy it, but it might act as a very useful starting point for creativity.

A prodigious talent from a young age, and now renowned as one of this generation’s most skilled jazz guitar players, Julian Lage is well equipped to dispense advice on how to improve on a theoretical approach to guitar. When speaking to the Broken Record Podcast - recorded live at the Blue Note Club in New York - Lage was asked by hosts Justin Richmond and Don Was how he became such a dexterous player of both jazz and blues.

“I find great support in knowing that I'm far from the only person doing this. You know, it was here before me, and it’ll be here when I'm dead, so I'm just passing through, you know?" Lage said. “I [ultimately] wanted to be part of a creative project, and in order to do that and feel comfortable, I needed to deal with a lot of things that are really no one else's business. That's scales, that's theory and that's understanding guitar.”

Lage, whose recent twelfth album Speak to Me was met with wide acclaim from critics, went into greater detail on how his abilities developed from amateur player to virtuoso.

“[It comes down to] even knowing where the pitches are on the instrument - I've always felt like that's massively overlooked,” Julian said, “what I found though, is there are so many hurdles as guitar players we get into (I was there for a long time) that are attributed to [only] knowing 30% of the neck. That's a very simple example of kind of doing your homework. Just map it out - it takes a week.”

Julian, who once played on-stage with Carlos Santana at age 9, then went on to underline a method for dealing with progressively harder elements of learning guitar theory, orienting around simple touchstones;

“I remember, as a young person, thinking ‘despite all the things I know that I don't know - what is something I can do that I just feel I could do in my sleep. A really good example would be probably playing a C Major chord. The reason I say that is because I probably learned it really early on, and when I play it, I can talk and do it, I can breathe and play it. Now, to me, that's somewhat of a litmus test. That's a metric for what it's like to have a mastery over a little domain on the instrument.”

Lage explained that he’d progress to trying something a little less comfortable, and try to get into a zone where he felt more relaxed playing complicated parts. “I’d immediately ask ‘what has left me?’ - I can’t really breathe when I’m doing [this], I’m really anxious, my tone dipped. So, I would keep going back to the reset (that safe C Major chord), and I would keep going back to that touchstone. If you do it enough, you can get those difficult things to feel good in a way I had faith in. It’s very hard to have faith that you’re good at something if you’re not used to that ‘good’ feeling.”

Lage credited his father with teaching him this relaxed way in to learning theory, “I think that's how my father looked at teaching me guitar, it’s all from him.”

To hear more of the interview, check out the full Broken Record Podcast and for more information on Julian Lage, head to his website

Oasis is a band that most of us don’t tend to lean into when we think of the great riff writing bands, but perhaps we should start doing that.

Oasis are known for their huge anthemic songs that defined the sound of the 1990s, but inside some of their songs that are actually some riffs that can rival the great riff writers of all time.

In this lesson we’re going to check out 5 classic Oasis riffs and one very underrated riff you also need to check out.

1. Cigarettes & Alcohol

Cigarettes & Alcohol starts with a riff that you’d be forgiven for mistaking for a T-Rex riff. This 12 bar blues style riff conjures up imagery of 1970s Glam Rock bands.

The riff combines some simple blues style patterns with single note walk downs and arpeggiated chords.

Overall, the riff is pretty easy to play through, but the final section can be tricky as you move into the F#11 chord. The finger movement into the first part of the chord needs to be accurate because once you start arpeggiating the chord, there is no room for error.

2. Some Might Say

The riff to Some Might Say starts in a very similar manner to Cigarettes & Alcohol, it starts with a very familiar 12 bar blues style riff.

This riff has some additional challenges when the chords kick in because you’ll be playing power chords, but also barring across the strings on both the B and G power chords to allow you to pick some higher notes.

The riff ends with a Keith Richards style riff which involves playing the A chord with a single finger barring the notes on the D, G and B strings which allows you to add additional notes.

This short riff covers a lot of changes in just 8 bars so when learning this be sure to break it down section by section and focus on getting every transition clean.

3. F*****' in the Bushes

This is one of Oasis’ more out and out rock riffs. This song kicks off with a single note picked riff that wouldn’t be out of place on some of our favourite classic rock records.

The riff is be played with alternate picking as it is mostly made up of 16^th notes. There are a few instances where you will skip a 16^th note, meaning you will pick the same direction twice, but overall, alternate picking will make this riff feel much smoother under the fingers.

There is a large position shift from the 3^rd fret to the 7^th so focus on getting from place to place a little slower at first. The picking hand should not have any break in rhythm at this point of the riff so timing is very important here.

4. Supersonic

Supersonic features one of the most iconic sounding Oasis chords, the F#m11. This chord will instantly make you think of this song.

The song is made up of a repeated, arpeggiated chord pattern which goes up the F#m11 before coming back down, but instead of finishing up on the 4^th fret of the A string, you will replace this with an open A string.

The riff then moves to a change between an A power chord and the lowest 3 notes of a B7 chord.

This riff is repeated 4 times, but on the final time a short bending phrase is added after the B7 chord.

5. Slide Away

Slide Away is a track that has puzzled many guitar players over the years. The hardest part about playing this track is hearing the different between the two guitar parts on the record. One one side you have an arpeggiated chord sequence, and the other side a strummed chord pattern.

These two parts blend together so well on record that it’s sometimes hard to work out which guitar is doing which part.

The overall progression being outlined is Am7, G, Fmaj7sus2.

On the guitar part playing the arpeggios, you will need to add the G note on the high E string also.

After the Am7 chord, there is a short run before going to the G (which is outlined with just a single note), before running up the Fmaj7sus2 chord. If you want to create a fuller sound for a single guitar arrangement, you can insert a full G chord instead of the single note that is a placeholder.

The Am7 chord changes rhythm slightly on the second repeat, starting with 2 small strums before playing the same run down but slightly delayed.

6. Cloudburst

This riff is easily one of the most underrated and under-appreciated riffs in the Oasis discography. The riff has a strong classic rock vibe, but also has a John Squire/Stone Roses style feel about it.

The riff in question starts about the 3:30 mark on the track. The first bar you hear is a pair of open low E notes, followed by a semi tone bend on the 6^th fret of the D, ending on the 7^th of the A.

This open low E phrase is only played on this first instance, this is replaced by a hammer on phrase from here on.

The riff then moves to a hammer on from the 5^th to the 7^th frets of the A then D strings, before hitting an open E string. Then the bending phrase is repeated, except this time the bend is on the 6^th of the G and you land on the 7^th of the D.

The riff jumps between two different starting points, one on the A string, one on the E. You then start the riff from the 5^th fret of the E and repeat the hammer on phrase from this string.

How many people reading this right now, can, hand-on-heart really explain what they’re doing when they make music? It might be the case that you’re an established artist with several albums, tours and hefty critical acclaim under your belt, but when it comes down to the rudiments of theory, you might find yourself at a loss to articulate how you slot your musical elements together. You might think it just feels ‘right’ when you hit upon a chord sequence, or melody that works. But why does it work? What makes music operate how it does?

Are we saying here that you need a formal theoretical knowledge? Absolutely not. In our view, music-making really should be more of an intuitive process, and several of the best songs in the history of popular music have been birthed purely through unstudied trial and error. But, to save your own time, and to get a clearer perspective on the mechanics of sound, songwriting, track-building and just why things work the way they do in music - picking up some music theory can go a long, long way.

For some, trying to find a way into the iceberg of music theory can be a daunting prospect. While many educators can quite quickly over-complicate matters by going too deep, too quick, our aim is to gradually deconstruct the elements of music theory that will demonstrably make your music better.

So, with that principle in mind, we’re going to begin in this first instalment by shining a light on the three core pillars of music theory.

The three pillars

The three pillars of music theory

Before any journey begins, it’s a good idea to have a top-down map of just where you’re going. And, for your first steps onto the branching pathways of music theory, it’s important to visualise three central pillars. These are:

- Melody
- Harmony
- Rhythm

Melody

What is melody?

The first of these pillars, melody, is - we’d argue - the most vital. After all it’s the element that remains in listeners’ heads, and the tune that they'll whistle on their way to work. It’s therefore been essential to the success of all pop music, ever.

When we talk about melody in this pillar-like context, we’re talking generally about combinations of notes which, when played/sang in rising and falling structures, will stand at the front and centre of your track, or might support the main melody as a counter-melody.

Think of some of the biggest ear-worms in pop: Lady Gaga’s Just Dance, ABBA’s Mamma Mia, Outkast’s Hey Ya, and… well, the list goes on. What you really go-to, when you think of these songs is, what we call, the topline melody. When was the last time you heard someone humming the underlying chord sequence or beatboxing the rhythm of a pop hit?

All these songs share excellently constructed topline melodies, these are (often) the lead vocal melodies that are designed to be those viral, can’t-get-it-out-of-my-head hooks that make you want to return to the song and hear it again. Melodies don’t have to be just sung however, melodies refer to any structured notational movement in your piece of music, and can be played on any instrument.

Think of the sweet, seductive riff of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N' Roses, or the stabby, austere synth part of New Order’s Blue Monday. Basically, if you can whistle it, you can think of it as a melody.

Repetition is key for melodies to get stuck within the listener’s heads, as well as underlining their importance to the composition. We’ll look at melody in greater detail in our next instalment

Harmony

What is harmony?

The second of these pillars, harmony relates to the foundations on which your melodies are built, as well as the overall structure and dynamic journey of your track. Chords and how they interlink are essential concepts to grasp when it comes to harmony.

Learning about harmony can reveal how various linked chords - or keys - relate to each other. This is why a bridge might naturally sound like it leads back into a chorus, or how you can make your chorus feel like it arises out of a calmer verse.

So, what is a chord anyway? It essentially consists of three or more notes which ring at the same time. The lowest note on in the chord is (typically) the one which determines the overall letter of a chord. So, in an E minor for example, the bass note of that chord (on a guitar, this would be an open E string) defines the starting point of the chord, while the higher notes add further weight and augmentation to that foundation.

How the various major and minor chords relate with each other is crucial to becoming a better songwriter and track-builder. We’ll be exploring chords, and harmonic interplay in forensic detail over the coming weeks.

Rhythm

What is rhythm?

The third core component we need to get a lock on is rhythm, which (as its name implies) relates to the beat as well as the pace and flow of a track. It stands to reason that drums and time signatures are important, but in a composition-context it dictates the groove and strumming pattern you might play your guitar, the amount of keys you hit on your keyboard/synth, the momentum of a bass-line or the intensity of the delivery of your lyrics/top-line.

While basic rhythm is typically the pulse defined by the drum beat or click-track (if you’re working in the DAW or for live work), it’s also a concept that helps us understand the fundamental principle that your track is an //event// that’s operating within a fixed time-limit at a set pace.

While we’ve mentioned various sections supporting and paving the way to upcoming sections in relation to harmony, it’s also really important when it comes to rhythm. Having a chorus that speeds up, or slows down for example, or a resigned lyrical delivery that contrasts a faster-paced instrumental arrangement (see: Billie Eilish) are both rhythmic considerations, as well as harmony.

Sometimes a rhythm is quite overt, and illustrated by a pounding drum machine or a drummer pummelling a drum-kit, but other times the rhythm is dictated by the speed at which chords transition, or how a vocal or top-line melody completes its note-cycle. While we’re in danger of getting too complex here, we’ll pull back at this stage and simply re-iterate that rhythm pertains to time and speed - both of which heavily dictate your entire approach to songwriting.

In our next instalment, we’ll dig deeper into the first pillar of music theory - melody, and explore some examples of melodies that have traditionally worked extremely well, and how you can build more effective melodies yourself.

It doesn't matter how well-honed your guitar chops are, the way your instrument is set up will have a huge effect on how challenging it is to play. And that's a very individual thing; many of us prefer a low action, or at least the idea of one. Others want the tonal response and sense of digging in that a higher action can offer. The good news is it really isn't difficult to lower or heighten the action of your guitar strings to experiment in finding the right setup for you.

But first we need to explain what 'guitar action' actually means and how it can affect your playing experience and tone.

Put simply, it's the height your strings are set from the guitar's frets. If the strings are higher, they become harder to push down with your fingers – and that means the guitar is harder to play. When the height (action) is lower, the strings are easier to fret (push down). So surely all players would want lower action – why make your guitar harder to play?

Because higher action doesn't just affect how hard your guitar is to play. If your action is low it can highlight uneven frets that can cause the dreaded fret buzz, or even choked notes where the combination of low action and and high point in the fret metal prevents the note from ringing out properly when you play it. But even if you don't have fret issues (and we'll be talking about how to solve those in a future how-to) there are other possible advantages for some players to having higher action.

Higher frets can allow the strings to ring out more with greater clarity as they have more space to vibrate, and be played more aggressively. It's a very personal thing, and when your string gauges are on the heavier side that also affects how physically harder it is to play. But it's certainly not a choice between high and low – there are all areas in between. Personally I like a low action, and I'll make sure my frets are even and well-polished to negate as many of the possible drawbacks as I can (we'll get to that). A lower action allows me to play faster, and encourages me to play with a lighter touch – and I just like that combination.

Whatever your preferences, or those you'll discover when you try different actions on your guitars, you can set them relatively easily by following a simple process and measuring your action and fretboard radius with the right tools. It could be a game-changer for a guitar you've never bonded with fully before – it may have simply been waiting for you to change the action.

Let's get started!

I don't say this lightly, but I think the six-piece MusicNomad Precision Setup Gauge Set shown above is one of the best investments you can make as a guitarist. It really is that useful. It has everything you need to set your guitar up – including finding out if your truss rod needs adjusting.

While the kinds of tools found in the kit are available separately elsewhere, I can vouch for the quality here from years of use setting up my own guitars. And the company's KISS system (Keep It Simple, Setup) outlined in the included booklet is a great, foolproof way to keep your guitars playing well. It will pay dividends.

Choosing a starting point

We're starting from the point of any required truss rod adjustment being done already (find out how to do that here). First, we'll consult the MusicNomad string height gauge / fret rocker's chart shown below to find out the kind of heights we need to aim for to achieve different actions. They refer to the heights of the low and high strings only – and I'll explain why soon.

If you're not sure how low or high you want to go with your string action, the low-medium or medium-high measurements are a good place to start. The MusicNomad gauge provides a scale from .02 - .14 of an inch to make it easier to get the height right by eye. You'll need to keep the gauge flat on the 12th fret and get down to eye level to check. But you'll also need to make sure of two other things too.

You'll need to hold down the low E at the first fret while you're taking the measurement at the 12th. MusicNomad provides a special guitar pick in the Precision Setup kit to do this but you can use your own, or even a finger or guitar capo to hold the string down. You'll need to do the same for the high E string when taking that reading and monitoring the changes too.

Remember to measure from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the E strings.

How you adjust your string heights will depend on the type of bridge fitted to your guitar.

Main types of guitar bridges and adjustment

For a Tune-O-Matic bridge, commonly found on Gibson guitars like our SG Special Faded above, you'll need to lower and heighten the low and high E string using the thumbwheels on the bridge posts.

Turning the thumbwheels counterclockwise raises the string action, and turning them clockwise will lower it. Take it slow and adjust in small increments, checking the gauge after each adjustment.

For the stoptail type bridge like the PRS guitar above you can adjust using a large flathead screwdriver or a coin like a quarter to turn the studs. I'd recommend you reduce the string tension a little when doing this by temporarily tuning down, and on the Gibson-style bridges too. It just makes it a little easier to adjust the hardware.

The individual saddles found on many Fender guitars like our old Squier Strat below require a small hex/allen key to adjust the string heights – usually included with the guitar when you buy it new. All six strings have two adjustable screws each, but we're just focussing on the low E and high E for now.

Remember, adjust in small increments and keep checking your measurements – and remember to make sure the string you're measuring the height of is fretted at the first fret with a capo, pick or finger. Then we have to think about the heights of the other strings…

Fretboard radius

This is where the concept of fretboard/fingerboard radius comes in; this is the curvature of the fretboard. The lower the number, the more curved it is. So a 16-inch radius acoustic fingerboard will feel flatter than a 7.25-inch vintage Fender. Our strings have to follow this curvature too or they're at odds with the fretboard and the wrong relative heights. They won't feel right if they don't reflect the guitar's radius, so this is when we need a radius gauge.

A radius gauge has two primary uses for us here; it allows us to confirm the correct radius of our guitar if we're not sure, and also set the correct heights of the other four strings in relation to the low and high E strings (once we've already set at those two strings at the height we want them).

Most manufacturers will state the fingerboard radius for each model guitar, so it will be easy enough to check online if you're not sure. The most common are 9.5", 12" and 10" but occasionally an inaccurate radius might be stated in a guitar's specs – it's rare but I've found it can happen when I've double-checked review guitars, especially with cheaper brands. To be sure, you need to test the gauge on the fingerboard when the guitar has had its strings removed.

The radius gauges from our MusicNomad set above are four-sided with each side having a different curvature gauge. Other manufacturers may produce individual gauges. Lay it flat on the fretboard and look for gaps – if the gauge is too curved you'll notice them appear between the wood and the bottom of the gauge. The gauge that matches will sit the flattest to the 'board.

Adjusting string heights to a radius gauge

To set our A,D,G,B string heights we're using the gauge when the strings fitted. I set the gauge around 1/2 inch ahead of the bridge and play each string to check if they're touching the bottom of the gauge. The low and high E should already be muted by the gauge touching them, you then need to adjust the other strings up or down to get the same result.

Trust the process – I can't emphasise this enough when it comes to anything regarding setting up a guitar. If you've got the right gauge for your radius, trust it to guide you.

If you find the action is still too high or low for your preferences after adjusting all the strings and playing for a while, you may want to change the height of your E strings again. That will mean you'll have to repeat the whole process again with the guage to keep everything relative and in line with the radius of your guitar. The more you do this process the more it will become like second nature – it certainly did for me.

Fret buzz

You will probably see the phrase 'fret buzz' mentioned a lot on guitar forums; it's an issue caused by the string vibrating physically against a fret when you play. Fret buzz can affect guitars and players in different ways – some of us can obsess over it, and it can be very frustrating for those players. It can also be massively dependent on how hard the individual player picks or fingers notes, which is why it can be difficult for a guitar tech to predict when they're asked to set someone's action low.

I like a very low action myself – some would say too low! – and I sometimes have to do my own fretwork to address the issues in my guitars that it exposes (high points frets are not uncommon). But I tend not to worry about minimal buzz too much these days unless it comes through the amp. The biggest challenge with buzz is finding the root cause as it can vary, but on the whole, lower action will usually result in a higher chance of fret buzz as your strings are vibrating closer to the frets.

Adjusting intonation

Once you have an action you're happy with, it's important to check and adjust the intonation of each string to allow for its individual scale length . Don't skip this part because If a guitar is not intonated it will not play in tune well – especially when you’re in the higher frets.

For this you'll need a guitar tuner and a screwdriver – preferably the higher accuracy of a pedal tuner but work with what you have. Focus on adjusting the intonation for each string before moving to the next. Tune the string, play it open and then fret the same string and play it at the 12th fret. They need to be the same reading on the tuner; staying in tune.

Always check a few times to achieve consistency. Depending on the reading you get on the tuner, you need to adjust the string saddle accordingly (some bridges don't allow you to adjust individual strings) in the following way:

• If the fretted note is reading as sharp on the tuner compared to the harmonic you need to move the saddle back towards the bridge by adjusting with a screwdriver.

• If the fretted note is flat you need to move it forward towards the headstock.

Take your time, recheck… and check again. Getting this right will result in a guitar that plays and sounds great.

• Thank you to MusicNomad for supplying the tools for this guide. You can find out more about its range of guitar maintenance tools and accessories at musicnomadcare.com, Thomann and Sweetwater

I will admit that unless it's a review guitar I'm polishing dust off ahead of it being photographed, I'm not the best at keeping my own instruments looking their best. I wager it's a job many of us guitarists and bassists put off – or even avoid entirely – but it's surprising how much of a difference it makes. When it's done right.

As part of a new guitar maintenance series, our friends at MusicNomad have provided us with some of their most popular products to try and we'll be putting them through their paces in our step-by-step guides. We've noticed on our travels that MusicNomad is a brand that's consistently popular with pro guitar techs, so that's a great recommendation in itself.

Let's get started with some guitar TLC!

• Set up your electric guitar: how to adjust action, truss rod, string height and radius, pickup height and clean your fingerboard and frets

The right kind of cloth for the job

A cloth is a cloth, right? When it comes to guitars it's a good idea to have two types on hand for most of the maintenance jobs we'll be doing in this series. Flannel-type clothes are often popular for cleaning but as they're usually cotton, the fibres can shed onto your guitar. Lint-free cloth is the best way to go and two different types can deal with two types of application.

Suede-type and higher pile microfibre cloths are what we're using here, available separately from MusicNomad or as part of its Premium Guitar Care System kit, alongside Guitar One maintenance spray, Guitar Polish and F-One oil for fretboards. The MusicNomad cloths are specially designed to minimise unwanted contact with your guitar and don't have stitching on the outside edge so only the soft material will touch your finish.

The suede lower pile cloth (dark grey) is best for applying conditioning – using it to apply a solution from the bottle to the body of the guitar. The material won't absorb too much of the solution before you can apply it. So, use for:

• Best for applying fretboard conditioning oils
• Also applying paste polishes to the guitar finish after cleaning the surface with the higher pile cloth.

The higher-pile microfibre cloth (blue) is best for dusting surfaces and removing unwanted material, as it can catch it within the thicker material better. It's also best for transferring spray cleaners.

• Good for applying liquid cleaners
• Use for removing dust from guitars before applying cleaner
• Ideal for final stage of a paste polish clean

Cleaning a high-gloss guitar finish

If you want to bring the shine back to your guitar's gloss finish, start by cleaning off the dust off the body with sweeps using the higher pile microfibre cloth. Dirt that can be picked up on the body is often the cause of small scratches and swirls, so it's important to remove that first.

There are a lot of guitar cleaning solutions available on the market and MusicNomad's Guitar One is a great option for a regular, easy-to-use spray cleaner because it's a cleaner, polish and a wax in one. It's also safe to use on nitrocellulose finishes, and it smells pretty good too! Either spray it onto your cloth or directly on the guitar, working the solution in and removing excess with the cloth until it's smear-free.

I've found the Guitar One to useful for sprucing up guitars every couple of weeks or so, but for a deeper clean with high-gloss finishes, a thicker polish that you rub in may be required. It's best to use the suede-type microfibre cloth to work this kind of polish in, then remove it and buff it out with the higher pile cloth for the last stage of the clean.

Cleaning satin finishes

Not everyone likes to shine, and for the stealthier satin finishes, there's a great option. The Guitar Detailer from MusicNomad is suitable for satin/matte bodies as well as gloss finish guitars and necks. So if you own a mixture of finishes in your collection, this offers good value. As well as removing fingerprints and dust, it also offers helps to repel further dust and offers some UV protection too.

Like some of MusicNomad's other cleaning products, it can also be used to clean guitar hardware, which we'll get to shortly.

Other uses for your cloths

Once you've invested in a set of tools for cleaning and maintaining your guitar, you can enlist some of them in double duty. Whenever you've got a metal tool near a guitar for a maintenance or repair job, always play it safe – one slip and your guitar could get scratched. I've done it, the sinking feeling and prolonged regret linger for a long time…

So now I'll always set my higher pile cloth down under where I'm working as a guitar protector – it offers some decent cushioning. It's just not worth the risk otherwise. Unless accidental DIY relic'ing is your thing!

Cleaning guitar hardware

If tarnished, oxidised pickups aren't your thing, you will want to include them and other hardware in your annual guitar deep clean. It's always best to tie this in with a fretboard or fret clean (we'll get to those in later episodes) as you'll need to take the strings off to really give your guitar the clean it deserves.

Hardware can be cleaned with the same cloth and polish we've already mentioned – ideally apply it with a suede-style cloth and buff it out with the higher pile cloth, taking care not to leave any polish in crevices.

Cleaning electronics

This isn't something most of us will need to do, but if you notice your volume, tone and pickup selector crackling when turn and switch them, it might help to give them a spray with electrical contact cleaner lubricant.

We're using a spray from the WD40 brand – not the famous multi-use lubricant but the electrical cleaner. It comes with a narrow stray to accuractelty spray the areas that need attention but first you'll need to unscrew the nuts securing the pots to the body so you can spray the electronics.

Again, your cloth could be useful for protecting the finish when you do this with a spanner but in the pic below, we're using the MusicNomad Premium Spanner Wrench that has a microfibre suede backing to help protect the guitar.

You need the contact cleaner to do its job on the inside part of the pot. For a rotary control you can gain access to the inside by spraying above the solder lugs. With a pickup selector, spray into the switch then move the selector back and forth to allow the cleaner access.

Cleaning your strings

The main factors that affect how fast our guitar strings corrode and deaden is the kind of materials they come into contact with – skin, sweat and dirt. Not matter how clean you are, it's inevitable you'll transfer these things to the strings when you play.

So ideally you'll wipe your strings down with a cloth regularly, and especially after a show or rehearsal where they may have been subject to more sweat than usual. Even if you use coated strings, it'll keep them fresh for even longer.

But there are other ways to freshen up your strings too…

You may have heard of products like GHS Fast Fret string lubricant and cleaner and Dunlop Ultraglide 65 that aim to protect and brighten the tone of your strings while making them feel slinkier. Above we're trying out MusicNomad's String Fuel that's a little different.

It comes with a microfibre cleaning cloth for wiping down your strings that can be stored in a handy compartment an applicator for the String Fuel itself. This is a blend of naturally occurring oils with 'premium quality mineral oils' that clean and protect your strings while helping to reduce finger noises – especially useful for recording with an acoustic guitar.

Dusting hard to reach parts

Guitar attract dust – especially if you don't keep yours in a case when not in use. And there are a few places where the dust will build. Between the tuners, pickups and under the area between the bridge and pickup especially. Running a microfibre cloth can pick up some of the unwanted debris, but that's especially awkward around the tuning pegs.

I'll be honest, I thought The Original Nomad Tool and The Nomad Slim set that MusicNomad sent might be a niche item at first. I was wrong about that – I kept using them on the guitars we were reviewing, and some of my own guitars. Because the dust nests on guitars relentlessly and these tools are just so easy to use so I kept them on hand.

The Nomad Tool even has a microfibre pad for cleaning guitar strings and under them too, plus a brush for cleaning around guitar controls. Meanwhile, the Nomad Slim is a perfect size for getting between those tuning pegs.

• For more information on the MusicNomad range of guitar tools, cleaning products and more check out musicnomadcare.com, Thomann and Sweetwater

About a Girl is one of Nirvana’s most beloved songs, a beautiful Beatles-recalling hymn to a fading relationship that stands in stark contrast to the muddy, nihilistic sonics found elsewhere on their 1989 debut, Bleach.

But when analysed further, the theory behind the song – which would become the opening track at the iconic MTV Unplugged show in 1994 – underlines Cobain’s gift for writing effective chord sequences instinctually.

On a Reddit thread in the r/musictheory SubReddit, user ’Nun-Much’ asked why the song – which orients its verse pattern around a rolling Em and G sequence – seems to imply an Em key, when the following ‘chorus’ section rolls through the chords C#, F#7, E5, A and C, which deviates from the chords that correspond with Em.

“How comes this sounds good? Like what’s the theory behind this that makes it sounds so good and unique? Is this a common phenomenon used in music? I really aim to understand this type of stuff so I can make unique progressions myself.” ‘Nun-Much’ asks.

Help is at hand, as other Reddit users pick apart both Cobain’s songwriting approach, and the psychological impact, that makes the song work. “C# and F# are part of E major, the chords droning back in forth in a heavy E minor pattern and then jumping directly a tritone root movement to a chord from the parallel major key has a kind of jarring sound but the relationship is not that distant so you still hear the context of the original,” points out user ‘Tangible_Slate’.

But, on the larger point of key-jumping being a fixed rule, LukeSniper opines: “Everything being diatonic is not some sort of requirement or restriction on things sounding good. Here we might just say that we've switched to C#. It's the three most basic chords in C#. The melody follows such a key change. Then we go back to E minor (but Kurt sings a G# over the E minor chord, because why not?) We're just describing what's happening. We wouldn't say ‘this sounds good because that's what it is.’ That's not really what music theory is.”

He goes on to say that, “The change to that C# is abrupt, but... that's kind of the point. It's surprising. That can be exciting and interesting. It ‘works’ because Kurt was a good songwriter and did it with confidence and conviction. Honestly, you can make pretty much anything ‘work’ if you do it with some conviction. Something super unusual might sound cool simply because it's unusual. I assure you that Kurt Cobain wasn't sitting there thinking "How do I use music theory to make this strange thing work?"

A further user response highlights the casual relationship we have with music theory by cultural osmosis, which may have underpinned Kurt’s thought process when writing the song. Reddit user Jongtr states: “If you regard classical music (and classical theory) as ‘proper grammar’, then rock music is a kind of ‘musical slang’. It's not so much ‘breaking rules’, as ignoring some rules (the irrelevant ones) and making up its own. Kurt Cobain, like all rock musicians, grew up around music using that language, so naturally he ‘spoke’ that language himself. Of course, he settled on one or two personal quirks here and there - his own ‘voice’ - but in terms of chord choice and chord sequence it's all pretty much standard.”

Originally written in 1988, and recorded as part of the six-day session that spawned in their abrasive debut, Bleach, About a Girl endures as the diamond in the rough – a glimmer of vulnerability amidst its chaotic album-mates, such as School, Blew and Love Buzz. The title stems from when Cobain was asked originally what the song was about in the studio; “It’s about a girl’ he replied.

Read and and engage with the discussion over on Reddit

When you think of Oasis’s songwriting approach, you would be forgiven for initially thinking that most of what you hear can be achieved with a few simple chords, and for some Oasis tracks, you will be able to do just that.

But, if you break through the top layer of the band's Noel Gallagher-penned mega hits, you’ll find that a lot more goes into their chord progression than G, C, Em7 and D. Underneath this later of anthems there is an array of interesting and unusual chords that make up some of the bands biggest songs.

In this lesson we’re going to look at four unusual chords that have appeared in Oasis tracks.

E7/G# - Don’t Look Back in Anger

One of the most debated chords of the last 30 years is the E7/G# chord Noel Gallagher plays in the pre-chorus of Don’t Look Back in Anger. 

Many guitar players have played this as a regular E7 shape and used their little finger to reach up to the G# on the low E string. However, in 2023 Noel put an end to this debate by showing exactly how he plays this chord.

This is a fairly unusual voicing, he plays the G# on the 4th fret of the low E, and the 4th fret on the G. The other strings are all played open, except for the A which is muted by the underside of the finger playing the low E string. 

Asus2/G – Champagne Supernova

This particular chord is actually one of a few unusual chords in the same progression. The track Champagne Supernova starts with a progression based around an Asus2 chord. As the progression advances, the root note of the chord walks down from A to G to F# to E while maintaining the Asus2 throughout.

This creates the impression of a bassline moving underneath the chord and at times, can sound slightly dissonant. This is an interesting technique to give a single chord a different sound over multiple bars.

Esus2 – Little By Little

While an Esus2 might not be typically considered an unusual chord, what is different about this chord featured in the song Little By Little is the chord shape. You’re playing a B power chord on the A and D strings while letting the low and high E string, and the B string ring open.

Depending on the context of the song, and the key of the song, this chord could also be viewed as a Bsus2/E.

F#m11/C# - Supersonic

The song Supersonic contains a very unusual sounding chord in the into. This is an F#m11 chord, but in this instance, the low F# note is not played, it is rooted in a C# note. This chord is arpeggiated through the intro.

The m11 is quite a complex chord voicing, when strummed it can sound like there is a lot going on, but when broken up in this manner it creates an interesting, almost suspenseful, vibe.

• “No album in history has experienced such a swift and dramatic reversal of fortune": The great Oasis Be Here Now debate

You have heard the hype, the endorsements from legendary players such as Tommy Emmanuel, Joe Bonamassa and Steve Vai telling us that he is “the future” of guitar. We have all heard his debut album, The Journey, making good on both. But now you have the opportunity to play the guitar like Matteo Mancuso – and he is going to teach you.

Available now via Jam Track Central, the Matteo Mancuso Masterclass not for the fainthearted. If you've tried his 20 Next Level Fingerstyle Licks course this is the next step. 

But Mancuso’s first masterclass on the online guitar lessons platform unpacks everything behind his unique fingerstyle approach, with a syllabus that shows you how he applies classical techniques on electric guitar, the building blocks of his contemporary rock fusion sound, and the theory behind his note choices.

Zoom out and Mancuso’s songwriting follows a simple philosophy. Speaking to MusicRadar last year, he said he always contrasts the simple with the complex. 

“If I have a complex chord progression, I play a really simply theme on it, a really simple melody,” he explained. “It’s the same thing the opposite way round. If I have a really static chord progression, I try to write a complex melody to it. I always compose my songs in this way.”

And he typically uses the major tonalities as a launch pad. But where next? Well, that’s the sort of thing you will learn in his masterclass. Mancuso offers a grounding in his foundational techniques – “the nuances between Matteo’s ‘rest’ and ‘free’ strokes” – and how you can apply fingerstyle to legato, tremolo picking and arpeggios.

Jam Track Central says the lessons are aimed at players of all levels, with introductory lessons taking you though the basics. But a little music theory will go a long way. 

“Matteo’s harmonic approach is surprisingly simple,” reads the blurb. “He uses familiar rock and blues concepts, with a mild dusting of jazz-inspired chromaticism, meaning this Masterclass is perfect for anyone with a foundational knowledge of music theory.”

Theoretical elements of the course will expand your scalar knowledge in the Dorian, Lydian, Locrian, and Superlocrian (or dominant altered) modes, and old favourites such as the Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales.

You can pick up the Matteo Mancuso Masterclass as a standalone lessons package from Jam Track Central, priced £49.99, or add it to your JTC+ subscription.

Packages include a PDF study guide, 12 Lesson Videos, 20 exercise videos at fast and slow speeds, 20 lick videos and three solo videos – one of which, Crossing The Ford, you can check out above. Interactive tab comes as standard. 

Sign up for the masterclass before 30 August and you could win a set of DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary electric guitar pickups. For more details, head over to Jam Track Central.

Rusty Cooley, often known as the fastest guitar player in the world, and always regarded as a bona-fide shred god, recently sat down for a video interview-cum-guitar lesson for Dean Lamb’s YouTube channel and presented us with some invaluable insights in how we can develop speed in our playing.

First he explained some of the way in which he avoids solos sounding predictable. As Cooley admits, he is a player who likes to avoid the base pleasures of hammer-ons and pull-offs in his arpeggios. No thank you. And when it comes to note groupings, he is particularly choosey as to where his fretting hand lands.

At his demonstration of two five-note groupings along a scale, delivered at a tempo, never starting each grouping with the same note because Cooley “hates repeat notes,” Lamb collapses in laughter. 

“Every five, every five is coming at you from a different direction,” explains Cooley. “And the listener is getting hit with a barrage of notes. They don’t know what the hell is going on. That’s the way I like to keep it.”

There is method behind this madness. Think about it. Five-note groupings, six-note groupings, seven... when they’re all ascending, descending in regimented patterns, even at shred tempo they can sound predictable.

“People, when they hear me, I don’t want them to know what the hell I’m doing,” says Cooley.

He goes onto explain how he’ll mix things up further, alternating between groupings of five and seven notes. Again, his demonstration sends Lamb off again – and admittedly this is funny. Because, how are these chops even possible? Well, the answer is obvious: it’s practice, and lots of it. 

“I come from the Paul Gilbert school of practising picking,” says Cooley. “I grew up with Intense Rock 1 and I did everything Paul said. I didn’t even question it. Gilbert was one of my biggest guitar heroes.”

Over time, with practice, Cooley realised he was changing strings on an up-pick without even realising it. And this brings the pair onto the concept of “chunking” – which simply breaks down complex passages into more digestible chunks, which you learn down pat, then learn another, then you can put them together. This, says Cooley, came later. It was never part of his thinking when he was developing his technique. 

This is why this interview is essential for aspiring shredders, or anyone looking to drill down into a technique like this. 

Habits of the body, such as developing the manual dexterity to play shred guitar, begin with habits of the mind, and Cooley speaks of “deceiving” himself, so that he isn’t letting the brain get ahead of what he is trying to do on the fretboard. As Lamb says, thinking about each and individual notes is beyond the RAM of the human brain.

Cooley’s strategy for building speed is pretty clever. He approaches everything in five-minute increments. Be it legato, or alternate picking, or sweep picking exercises, Cooley would only practise one technical example at a time, and would do it for five minutes. 

“Five minutes of repetition on each idea,” he says. “Again, it’s kind of like being on a treadmill cycle. If it has a program, it starts you off walking, then fast walking, then jogging, sprinting, down to fast walking… It cycles you through it, right? So you don’t have to think about it too much you just have to keep up. 

“When you are doing this with the timer, you have to gauge yourself and make sure you don’t push so hard right out of the gate that you blow your arm out. The concept is five minutes of repetition of each example you are playing.”

How this helps you develop speed is by establishing the fastest tempo you can play the example cleanly, with no mistakes. When you do that, you push it until it breaks up, then bring the tempo down again until you get it clean. “It’s about five minutes of non-stop repetition but at some point you need to establish a fastest clean speed and start pushing it until it breaks up,” he says. 

So what are we waiting for? The weekend is just about to begin. Choose some exercises, grab an electric guitar, a timer (your phone will do), set it to five minutes and get on the drills. It doesn't even need to be shred because this approach will help with all kinds of styles. And don’t feel you need to go beyond the five minutes. 

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to students before and they’ve said, ‘Well I’ve practised this for an hour,’” says Cooley. “I’m like, ‘You practised one exercise for an hour? Are you nuts!? You could have have divided that hour into five-minute sections and practised all these other licks.’ Because each one of those alternate picking licks, or sweep picking licks, is going to help the next one. They all help each other and by doing 20 instead of one… your hands are doing much more. The object is to take your hands to a point where they are never confused by anything you present them.”

And check out the segment above because it has plenty of wisdom. Join the Dean Lamb YouTube channel to watch his full interview with Cooley. You can also sign up for lessons with Cooley at his website. See Rusty Cooley for more.

For a new guitar player, the idea of learning some classic songs might seem scary. We often think that the biggest and best songs in the world must be complicated works of art, but this isn’t always true.

In fact, many of the mega hits that have become the soundtrack to our lives are often simpler to play on the guitar than we might think. In this lesson we’re going to take four classic acoustic-driven songs and break them down. Each of the songs uses only a few chords so you will be able to strum your way through them in no time!

1. America – A Horse With No Name

This song is actually based around just two chords. The chords have names that make them sound complex, but don’t let the names put you off. The chords are relatively simple to get to grips with:

The EmAdd9 chord is actually just a regular E minor with the 2nd fret of the high E string added. You can add this with your third, or little finger, depending on what feels best. 

The D6 chord still holds that second fret of the high E, but the finger playing the 2nd on the D shifts down to the 2nd on the G.

If you want, you can also use your thumb to add the low F# note on the 2nd fret of the low E string, but this is not necessary.

Rhythm-wise, this track is played with a triplet shuffle feel. This means your upstrums will be moving slightly closer to the beat that follows them. Instead of playing it straight, you’re dividing each beat into 3 (This is our triplet – 1 & a), and playing a downstroke on the beat and an upstroke on the “a”.

In the EmAdd9 bar, you are skipping the downbeat on the 3rd and coming back in on the “a” and in the D6 bar you’ll be skipping the downbeat on the 2 and coming back in on the “a”. 

If you have never played a shuffle feel before, just listen to the rhythm in the video lesson at the top of the page and try to copy what you hear rather than trying to count it.

2. Johnny Cash - Hurt

Johnny Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails track Hurt was noy only the final track he ever released while alive, but it became one of his most notable hits. Cash really managed to convey the emotion in the lyrics in a new way.

Underpinning this is a very simple, and moody chord progression.

The arpeggiated intro and verse is made up of just three chords:

The chords are gently picked in a straight 8th note style pattern. Even though this is a straight feel, you can get away with being slightly loose when playing this to capture the songs emotion. While this song doesn’t have a pre-chorus, there is a single bar of G that is played prior to the chorus starting.

The chorus itself is also a straight feel, while alternating between strumming the full chord on the beat and the root of the chord on the off beat. The chorus uses the chords:

The chorus sticks on each chord for a full bar. The chord order changes slightly as the chorus goes on so check out the video to find the full structure you need for the chorus.

3. John Lennon – Working Class Hero

For this John Lennon classic, you’re going to moving away from 4/4 time and playing in 6/8 time. This means you’ll be dividing your bar of music up into 6 beats. You can count this as 1 2 3 4 5 6, or 1 2 3 2 2 3. 

For the rhythm of this track, think of the bar as being two groups of three notes. On the 1 beat, play the root of the chord, on the 2 & 3 &, strum the higher notes of the chord, repeat for the second half of the bar.

The song starts with an A minor chord:

If you want to play this exactly how Lennon played it, on the first half of the bar, play the A root, on the second half, play the open D string and hammer on to the 2nd fret, before going into the strumming.

In the verse you’ll be keeping the A minor going, but you’ll also be introducing a G chord. The G chord is played in 3/8 time, which means you’re just playing half of your 6/8 bar. Count it as 1 2 3, before going straight back into A minor.

The chorus of this song starts with a full repeat of one segment of the verse, even though the vocal change indicates we’ve changed section, before going into the final line. This line has three bars of 3/8, in these three bars you’ll be playing an Am, G and D, before moving back to the standard 6/8 form of A minor.

4. Credence Clearwater Revival – Have You Ever Seen The Rain

The final track we’re going to look at is the CCR song Have You Even Seen The Rain. This track is a very upbeat strum along that is great fun to get to grips with.

This song has three main parts, an intro, a verse and a chorus. The intro is made up of a 6 bar phrase. The chords used are: 

The rhythm for the intro is the same rhythm that you’ll use for most of the song. It’s straight 8th notes with an 8th note break on the 2nd beat. This happens all throughout the song, with the exception of the occasional bar where all 8th notes are played.

The verse consists of just C and G chords. 4 bars of C, 2 bars of G and 2 more of C before repeating the entire section again.

The chorus is where this gets interesting, you start with a bar of F and a bar of G, with the same rhythm you’d been using, before going to a walk down phrase. This walkdown phrase goes to straight 8th notes, but each bar will contain 2 chord changes. The chords used are:

This selection of chords creates the impression of a bassline walking down. You’re playing 2 beats on each chord which is 4 strums (2 per beat). This phrase is also repeated twice before going back to a bar of F, a bar of G and two bars of C.

When working on the walk down phrase, spend some time focusing on clean transitions between each chord because the straight feel of this part of the song means there is very little room for timing inconsistencies. 

• 10 of the best songs for beginner guitar players to learn

A lot of the guitarists I particularly admire are player / singers – and not just the more obvious choices like James Hetfield and Kurt Cobain but the musicians I consider to be unsung heroes of the field – Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World, Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, Jerry Cantrell and CCR man John Fogerty. It feels like both the most under-appreciated skill, while also seeming incredibly challenging to outsiders. But as with anything on guitar, it's about a process and building up muscle memory.

The Gibson Gazette has reminded us of that with its latest feature video from the Gibson App – a learning resource for iOS and Android that's full of great lessons, including specific classic songs taught by artists.

Gibson artist (and excellent teacher as it turns out) Celisse's tutorial is part of a new songwriting lesson series on the Gibson App and by her own admission playing and singing is "a subject that eludes many people", but thankfully her introductory lesson makes is approachable and logical. 

Celisse uses the example of her own song freedom and breaks down the vocal and guitar chords separately – this building block approach allows us to focus on rhythm while not getting overwhelmed. She actually starts with the vocal part, and no playing – making sure you know that before moving on to adding some simple chord strums.

"Don't try to put these things together until you feel super confident at what you're doing," Celisse advises. You need to know the two parts well before you can consider combining them.

Check out the full lesson and above and more Gibson content at the Gibson Gazette.   I also wrote a simple 9-step guide to how to start playing and singing guitar drawing on my own experiences – including some good songs to start out with. 

It's very, very easy to fall into habits as guitar players. Some of these give us the individuality as players that should always be celebrated, others might be bad habits holding us back. It's always good to take a moment and question if we're doing fundamental things as well as we could – because they might unlock a whole new level of playing to us.

Picking motion and our picking hand position is a big one – it's so fundamental that you may even wonder why our friends at the Gibson Gazette would bother highlighting it, but it raises a very important point, especially for beginners. Where your picking motion comes from is everything.

A lot of it is in the wrist, as this Gibson app video above highlights. Check it out above and find out more about the Gibson app's lesson on the Apple App Store and Google Play. 

Rob Arnold's YouTube channel is a great source of knowledge and experience from an underrated metal guitarist. The Chimaira member is getting ready for a reunion show with the Cleveland band at the Inkarceration Festival in Mansfield, Ohio on 19 July (and he's been talking about his streamlined rig including a Fender Tone Master in his other videos) but he's keeping up with his tutorial videos.

In his most recent lesson he's teaching a beginner-friendly run-through of classic metal riffs including Black Sabbath's Iron Man. We say beginner-friendly because Rob offers an alternate easier single-string way to play each riff which is really useful for players starting out but wanting to play songs they love. 

We hope Rob will continue making videos like this and we'd recommend you check out his YouTube channel for more.  

• Learn 10 essential guitar rock riffs for beginner players

Brian May, best known for his work with Queen, has many distinctive features. He has one of the most iconic haircuts in rock, he plays a guitar made from a fireplace, has an instantly recognisable guitar tone and pushes Vox AC30s to places that no other mortal has ever pushed them. But when it comes down to chords, we don’t often spend much time talking about Brian. Until now. 

In this lesson we’re going to check out four chords from some Queen classics and look at how Brian uses them, and hopefully inspire your own rhapsodies. 

A6sus4

This chord, features during the intro of the track Hammer to Fall. Brian alternates between the A major chord and the 6sus4 extension for a Keith Richards-style swagger to the intro.

The 6sus4 chord is a very melodic variation to any chord and works great when paired with the major chord (played in an A major form) and moved back and forth.

The easiest way to approach this is to play your A major chord as a first finger barre, then use your second and third fingers to extend the chord.

Play guitar like Queen's Brian May

Dsus4

A big part of the Queen guitar sound is their ability to make everything sound orchestrated. Inside this there is a sense of tension and resolve. Suspended chords are a great way to bring some tension and resolve into your own playing.

At the start of the track Crazy Little Thing Called Love, you hear a simple D chord vamp which alternates between a major and Dsus4 chord. 

This movement sounds melodic, but also creates a resolved sound when the major chord is returned to.

The 10 essential songs beginner guitar players can learn now

A5/E

This chord is a blink and you'll miss it moment in the track Another One Bites the Dust. It appears in the funky rhythm that underpins the verses. Brian hits this A5/E chord in passing between the Emin and Amin chords of this section.

This is an easily transposable shape so can be played anywhere on the guitar.

This is an A5 chord with the 5th (The E) added again in the bass.

A major

In most circumstances an A major chord isn’t all that exciting, but this A major taken from the track We Will Rock You is a little different. 

Instead of the notes of the chord being the Open A and the 2nd fret on the D, G and B strings, those fretted notes have been moved up an octave to the 14th fret. This gives the chord a completely new flavour.

On the track, it actually goes back and forth between A and A6sus4, so brush up on both those shapes!

• 5 songs guitarists need to hear by Brian May

Although Eric Clapton came to prominence as a lead guitar player through the 1960s, many of his biggest hits have featured some great chord work.

Clapton is a player who has proudly moved between different styles. His musical career has taken him from blues to pop, reggae, country and back again as we hone in four key chords from the career of old Slowhand himself to help you mine some inspiration for yourself.

D

Usually, there wouldn’t be much special about a D chord, but this D chord is a little different. This D chord is featured in the track Sunshine Of Your Love. It’s a D major triad, spread out over the E, A and G strings (With the D string muted). 

Think of this as a two string power chord with the major third added at the top. This is a great way to add a major flavour to a power chord riff without resorting to full barre chords.

E/G#

Inversions are a great way to unlock additional tones and voicings from chords that you might use everyday. This E/G# is one of the chords from the track Tears In Heaven that was a moving highlight of Clapton's iconic 1992 MTV Unplugged performance.

What we have here is just an E major triad, but the root is on the B string, the 5th on the G and the major third on the low E. This inversion, coupled with the pitch gap between the low G# and the other notes, gives this E major triad a new identity.

The 10 essential songs beginner guitar players can learn now

G 

Clapton has dabbled with some reggae stylings over the years, one of his most prominent ventures into this style was his cover of the Bob Dylan classic Knockin’ On Heaven's Door. 

This G Major triad is a great example of a shortened major barre chord that can be used in a reggae-style track. Although this is just a simple major triad, it’s use in this context is very effective. It also frees up sonic space in the spectrum for other instruments in the mix.

G6

This opening chord from the track Wonderful Tonight has a slightly jazzy undertone. We don’t tend to see the 6th interval added to major chords in most rock and pop music.

The G major triad is played on the D, G and B strings, as if you were taking it from a regular 6 string barre chord, and the 6 interval is added on top as the open high E string.

• Eric Clapton and the song he said he'd never play live again: “I got at least 150 letters a day directly from people who were dealing with their own grief... and not really having the tools to deal with it"

Bruce Springsteen knows a thing or two about writing an anthem. When you think of his tracks you think of epic storytelling, huge anthemic hooks and choruses you want to sing for days.

But what goes on under the hood? In this lesson we’re going to check out four key chords from some of Bruce’s biggest hits.

They don’t call him The Boss for nothing!

E5

An E5 is a chord you’ll probably have seen countless times. Typically, it’s just a regular E power chord right? 

In the Born In The USA track I’m On Fire, the arpeggiated guitar line plays the E5 power chord with an additional B note on the 4th fret of the G. While this extra note still maintains the name of E5 (Because the B note is the 5 interval in the chord), it makes for a nice melodic extension on a chord you probably use daily.

C#min

In the track Dancing In The Dark, the C#min chord in the verse is played in this manner. This is pretty much identical to how you’d usually play a C#min chord except instead of barring across all the string to sound the 4th fret of the high E, you play that string open.

This means the E note you’re playing on the 5th fret of the B is doubled, giving the top end of the chord a slight chorusing effect.

It’s a subtle detail but makes for interesting chord adaptations.

Fno5/A

This is quite an unusual chord, it’s the start of an F major chord, without the 5 interval, but with an additional A in the bass. The A is the major 3rd interval in an F chord, but in this instance, it’s holding the root as well.

You can hear this in the second verse of the track Thunder Road.

This very simple chord gives you the sound of an F major without needing to play all the notes, freeing up a lot of sonic space for the other instruments in the mix.

E5

Here’s another E5 variant, this time from the track Born In the USA.

This takes the form of what you’d see on paper as an E minor chord but upon closer inspection you’ll see the open G muted. The G note here is the minor 3rd of the E minor chord, If you remove this you are left with E notes and B notes, meaning although you’re hearing 5 strings rung out, you’re only hearing the notes that make up an E5 chord.

This extended E5 shape is great for hitting hard with a touch of overdrive and with a lot of Springsteen style voicings, frees up some sonic space for other instruments to hit the major 3rd.

• Four chords from classic Tom Petty songs to go into the Great Wide Open with 

Whether you’re just beginning your adventure into guitar playing or are an intermediate player hoping to improve your skills, the Gibson App delivers a fun and engaging learning experience that will take your playing to the next level. The app’s structured approach to guitar learning will guide you through the steps you need to take to refine your abilities, nail new techniques, and learn the songs you love.

The Gibson App is powered by state-of-the-art technology developed with the sole aim of helping you reach new heights quickly in your guitar playing - while staying motivated. The app’s ‘augmented audio reality’ technology listens to you play and provides dynamic feedback in real-time, helping you spot mistakes and identify key areas for improvement. No more guesswork or time-wasting; with the Gibson App, your practice sessions will be targeted with precision, just like learning with a real teacher.

Developed alongside expert teachers and advanced players, the Gibson App’s curriculum is suitable for both beginners and intermediate guitarists. Step-by-step lessons, interactive gameplay, and real-time feedback ensures that you stay motivated and engaged throughout your learning journey. Whether you’re learning your very first chords or taking on more advanced techniques, the Gibson App will guide you through everything you need to know. 

Users of the Gibson App have access to an extensive library of songs and skills taught by some of the world’s best guitarists. Lessons are packed with iconic riffs, solos, and techniques from some of the world’s most legendary musicians, helping you grow your repertoire with each lesson. 

iOS users can benefit from one of the app’s most revolutionary features: a built-in amplifier with acoustic and electric effects. Playing through a real amp as you learn will enhance your practice sessions with an authentic tone, and not only will it help you learn, it sounds great, too.

Offering far more than guitar learning, the Gibson App is a hub of support and inspiration for aspiring guitarists. Take advantage of handy features like a tuner and metronome, and experience original programming on Gibson TV featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with guitarists, producers, and craftspeople. The app even offers one-on-one tech consultations to ensure you have everything you need for the perfect set-up at home.

No matter what style of music you love or what brand of guitar you play, if you're serious about learning, the Gibson App is for you. Start your free trial today and put a guitar teacher in your pocket.

MusicRadar readers can enjoy an extended 30 day free trial of the app. On iOS, use the code MR24 or this link. On Android, you can redeem the offer here. You can cancel anytime during the trial without being charged. The offer is only available to new customers.

Bruno Mars might not be your typical guitar slinger, but his funk-inspired pop is full of fantastic chords and interesting voicings. In this lesson we’re going to break down a few funky chord choices from some of Bruno’s hits.

As well as his own guitar chops, some big-name players have contributed to Bruno’s work, both live and in the studio. You can expect to hear guitar tracks on record and live from Mateus Asato, Mark Ronson and Phredley Brown among others.

Let’s check out some chords from Bruno’s catalogue and get funky!

Fmin9

The Fmin9 chord is a fantastic funk chord. You can hear it all over the Bruno Mars track 24K Magic. It’s refreshing to hear interesting chords like a min9 across a mainstream track.

This makes a great substitute for any Minor or Minor 7 style chord, the 9 combined with the b3 makes for a dark but funky sound.

This shape can be a bit of a stretch when you play it from lower root notes, but it’s worth the stretch!

G#maj7

This G#maj7, as heard in Treasure, is an interesting take on the chord, because although this is technical a major 7, the major 3rd has been removed.

In funk, a lot of the time guitar players will remove notes from chords to free up space for other instruments in the mix. This is a great example of how an important note can be removed, but the chord can still function as intended. This contains just the 1, 5 and 7.

C#7

In the track Billionaire, which is a Travie McCoy track Bruno guested on (but he himself regularly plays on his own tours), starts with a laid-back acoustic loop. This loop contains a C#7 chord with the lowest 5th removed.

The root is handled with the thumb and the higher notes with the index finger and middle finger (Though the third finger will also work). This removal of duplicate intervals is a great way to free up some space in a chord and make it sound more “to the point”. 

B7#9

On the Silk Sonic track Fly Like Me, you can hear this great variation of the E7#9 'Hendrix' Chord. This is a chord that you don’t often see many players shift around but, in this track, there are a few James Brown-style stabs with this famous chord rooted from a B.

Mateus Asato handles guitar duties live for this project but it’s likely that the studio guitar was tracked by Mars himself.

• Learn 4 John Frusciante Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar chords

A power chord is nothing more than a two- or three-note chord, and they get their name from their punchy sound. Check out our quartet of quick tips to get yours recharged today.

1. Turn it upside down  

For a different take on the basic power chord shape, try ditching the root note and playing the 5th interval as the lowest note instead. 

You still need to play the root note, but it should be higher pitched than the 5th. This gives you a slightly thinner sound than the three-string voicing, but the benefit is that you can play the shape with just one finger, which makes for easy improvising. 

2. Add A♭2ND OR A♭5TH

Power chords sound solid, steady and, err, powerful thanks to the root note and the 5th being in ‘perfect’ harmony. You can adapt this safe-sounding chord and generate some nastier thrash metal-style dissonance by alternating the root note with a b2nd (a semitone higher than the root note). 

So, for example, with a G5 power chord you’d end up playing G5/G# (a G5 over a G# root note). Alternate the 5th note with a b5th (a semitone lower than the 5th interval) for a nice variation on the theme.

3. Add9

You’d better get that pesky, unruly pinky finger of yours in good shape quick sharp because you’ll need it here. You’re adding another note to the power chord formula this time around. 

First of all you have your root note and second note two frets up from that as before; but now you’re going to add a third two frets up again on the G string. 

This may seem like an awkward shape at first (practice by playing The Police’s Message In A Bottle – it’s all Add9 chords) but it’s worth it because it adds a majestic dimension to your riffs and rhythms.

4. Detune

The rise of progressive metal has seen guitarists hitting new lows in terms of the pitch they’re playing on seven- and eight-string guitars.

Power chords played on these guitars sound totally different to a standard tuned six-string. Even if you don’t own a guitar with an extra string, there’s nothing to stop you down-tuning your six string to B standard (B E A D F# B) for some serious low-end. If you want to go as low as an eight-string, you’ll need heavier gauge strings so you can tune to F# B E A C# F#.

• Are you getting the most out of your power chords? Tom Bukovac has a tip from the Rolling Stones guitar playbook

The guitar world is full of information that may seem obvious to one player, but could be revelatory to another. Assumed knowledge is dangerous because it can alienate us – and the more we can all share, the better. This Tom Bukovac tip on power chords is a case in point. 

The acclaimed Nashville session ace's YouTube Homeskoolin' series is probably the greatest source of guitar advice you'll find for free online – it's not just about playing, but the whole approach of being a successful musician.  Uncle Larry (Bukovac's nickname) is an endless well of advice and inspiration. And the subject of power chords is no exception.

After illustrating the popular Chuck Berry technique of alternating the fifth and sixth with your pinkie finger during a power chord, he introduces another way to spice up your chords that's overlooked by many. And it takes a leaf out of the Rolling Stones playbook.

"It's the oldest trick in the rock 'n' roll book but it's amazing how many people don't know that," notes Tom. It involves playing the root chord and then hammering on part of another chord – playing a G and then hammering on part of a C chord, as he illustrates in the video above. 

And there's more…

"If you want to get really cool you can do this kind of thing," says Tom as he hammers on an A and an F# and keeps the B root note. "It's another way of doing that sort of rock that you would do on the piano where you've got the four chord basically over the one."

So plenty for us to explore here – check it out in the video above to learn more, and dig into other ways to power up your power chords in our own lesson. 

Subscribe to Tom Bukovac's YouTube channel for more great insights. 

 Johnny Marr is one of the greatest guitarists the UK has produced – as a teenager he explored and honed a comprehensive and fresh style, drawing from post-punk and far beyond. Marr's rhythm work with The Smiths was so creatively dynamic he was often credited with taking influence from afrobeat – but this was actually just coincidental.   

As a result of his rapid evolution as a guitarist, Marr's chord choices from his five years with The Smiths reveal some inspirational examples. Here are four to try…  

Add9

This chord uses three open strings, creating a rich droning effect, heard in The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. 

Use fingers 2 and 3 to fret the 6th and 7th frets and keep your fingers arched to avoid any accidental string muting.

C/A

Johnny uses this chord in The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. The upper four strings are essentially a C triad ‘C E G’, but is voiced in an interesting way with the highest note on the 2nd string. The open A bass note gives the chord an Am7 sound.

Gmaj7/B

This chord from Cemetery Gates is paired with a regular G chord shape and is a neat way of adding a Maj7 in the open position G. Use fingers 2 and 3 to fret the chord and use your thumb over the top of the neck to help mute the 6th string.

Cmaj9

For The Headmaster Ritual, Johnny tunes to open E, which is E B E G# B E from low to high (basically tune your open strings to an E barre chord). 

Try starting with this chord shape on the 8th fret root, but discover more chords by moving the shape up and down the neck while letting the top two strings ring out.

You can also try taking a lesson on the song from the man himself below! 

• 5 songs guitarists need to hear by Johnny Marr

Phoebe Bridgers is making some serious waves in the Indie world. Her music is based around intricate acoustic folk ideas with layers of electronic elements, dreamy vocals and melancholic lyrical themes.

With folk being the heart of her writing style, most of her songs have a strong guitar theme throughout and included in this are some very interesting chords. In this lesson we’re going to look at some of those for inspiration.

Em6

The track Would You Rather features this really interesting Em6 chord. Min6 chords are not typically found in many mainstream songs. These chord types are usually found in Jazz.

In this song, the Em6 is one of the final chords you hear in the song. The m6 chord always feels unresolved and adds a sense of tension to a progression.

Gmaj7

In the chorus of the track ICU you will hear this arpeggiated Gmaj7 chord. This particular 4 string voicing of a maj7 chord has a somewhat haunting quality instead of the usual rich and melodic sound we expect from maj7 chords.

With this major7 voicing, all the notes are stacked in order from root to maj7.

G/B

This chord, found in the intro to the song Demi Moore, is a G major triad with a B in the bass. This is an interesting voicing because it can be used in two different ways.

This chord shape is a great way to use a triad as your chord with some alternate bass notes. This can be especially useful in a song with a moving bassline that moves around a single chord.

Dadd4

The Dadd4 chord that starts the track Garden Song is a really easy chord to play, but adds a very interesting substitution for a D chord to your arsenal. The studio version of the track is tuned down a full step to D standard tuning, but this chord also works in standard tuning.

The add4 note is different to the sus4 that you might usually add to a D. Instead of the tension of a sus4, we’re adding the 4 as an add4 alongside the existing major chord to give a very harmonically rich-sounding chord.

Some people love Taylor Swift, some people… they don't get it or care to. But love her or hate the furore around her, it’s hard to deny the impact she is having on the world as an artist, and its heart are her songs. 

Swift not only knows about writing a pop/country crossover mega-hit, but she is also influencing a new generation of budding musicians to get interested in and pick up instruments.

In this lesson we’re going to look at some common chords and chord progressions that Swift has used in some of her biggest hits. 

If you’re already writing songs, or you’re looking to start, you can use these proven progressions and ideas in your own playing and songwriting. Check out the chords and progressions, as well as the video below. 

Taylor Swift's go-to chords 

For the most part, the chords featured in the majority of Taylor Swift’s biggest songs are pretty standard. This is great news for guitar players of all ability levels, because even if you’re a complete beginner, there is something you can learn from this.

Her songs, having a strong country influence, will feature a lot of strummed open chords. Inside some of her biggest hits you’ll find chords like:

Alongside the usual open chords, you will find some barre chords including these:

You won’t find a lot of chords with more complex voicings in many of her songs, but occasionally you will find some chords like add9 or sus4 chords. There are few used in this lesson:

The chords listed here are not the only chords you’ll find in her songs, but as a general overview you’ll definitely need a good knowledge of all your regular open and barre chords, and then occasionally dropping into dom7, add9 or sus4 style chord extensions when the song calls for it. 

Chord progressions and what they mean

The next step in songwriting is to put the chords together in a chord progression. You can either strum chords and random and see what sounds/feels good, or you can approach it with a little music theory knowledge to help you plan what you want to play.

When it comes to Taylor Swift’s approach to chord progressions, one thing that sticks out is her use of very common progressions. From a listener’s perspective, this means that some of her songs might have a familiar sound or feel to the listener, even if you’ve never heard it before.

As songwriters, this feeling of familiarity is a useful songwriting tool. If we can write a song that feels or sounds familiar to a listener, it can serve as a way to grab someone’s attention because they can instantly feel a connection to the song upon hearing it for the first time.

We can utilise this with progressions of chords, or chord resolutions, that have been tried and tested in countless other big hits.

In this lesson all the chords will be coming from the major scale. Whatever key you are playing in, each note of the major scale for that key will have a different chord type associated with each note. The notes are given a numerical value known as intervals:

All the examples in this lesson are in the major key so we will be using this system. 

One thing that Taylor Swift leans into a lot are songs based around a 1 4 5 progression. This is the chord progression that blues music is based around and it has also been used for country, classic rock and so much more.

The 1 4 5 progression is instantly familiar to our ears as it is one of the most common progressions in Western music.

In most of the examples in this lesson, those three chords will be found together along with an additional chord. In most of these songs, Taylor will have added a minor chord to contrast the major 1, 4 and 5 chords used. 

As well as doing this, the order of the chords can also be changed up. This creates different feelings within the progression as you get different musical movements and resolutions between chords.

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – 4 1 5 6 progression

This song has the C chord substituted for a Cadd9 and the D substituted for a Dsus4. The chords are played in a 4 1 5 6 order:

This progression starts with a movement from the 4 chord to the 1 and is a type of chord movement that is often found in Western worship music at the end of traditional hymns. This sort of movement can create an uplifting feeling inside a progression.

The movement to the 5 chord is very common in rock and pop, we hear the 1 to 5 movement in so many songs. 

The contrast comes when the 6 chord comes in at the end which shifts the feeling a for a moment.

This chord progression is a great starting point if you want to write a song with an uplifting or anthemic feeling.

Anti-Hero – 4 1 5 6 progression

Anti-Hero actually follows the exact same progression as the previous song, but in the key of E. 

The chords used are:

Even though this song uses the exact same intervallic progression as the previous song, it highlights the importance of what you play in a progression that creates a different feeling. The first song has a little more space giving it what more anthemic feeling. This song is a little faster paced which gives it more of a driving pop feel.

The same progressions can be played in different tempos and styles to shift the mood of the song

Back to December – 1 6 4 5 progression

This song has is more of a ballad feeling progression and is in the key of D major:

The chords used in this progression from the verse of the song are:

The first thing you might notice is that this song uses the same four chords as the previous songs, but reshuffled to a different order. 

The first thing to notice is the movement from the 1 chord gives us the key, to the 6 chord which is a minor. This creates a very different feeling than what we heard in the previous movements. 

This movement, although the song is a major key, makes it feel a little more like a ballad-style progression. 

In the final bar of this progression there is also a return to the 1 chord briefly before going to the 5. When the progression ends on the 5 chord, it turns around back to the 1 again for the next bar. This is known as a perfect cadence and is used in countless mega-hits. 

This is one of the most familiar resolutions and also one of the most pleasing-sounding. It gives the listener a sense of closure and ending in a progression

Cruel Summer – 1 3 6 4 Progression 

The song Cruel Summer uses a slightly different progression which gives it more of a singer-songwriter feeling. This is in the key of G Major:

This chords used in this song are:

In this track, the 5 chord has been removed but this one also contains a 3 chord. The lack of the 5 chord in the progression means you don’t get that perfect cadence resolution, which means the progression will always have a slight tension or unresolved feel to it. This is great for setting the scene for a more moody song.

Even though the song doesn’t have that complete resolution we expect, it does end on a 4 chord which resolves back to the 1. This is known as a Plagal Cadence. It's the same movement featured in the first track we talked about, and is the technique used a lot in Western worship music to create that uplifting feel.

August – 1 4 2 5 progression

This final progression has a more country ballad-style feel and uses a 2 chord in place of a 6 chord from previous progressions. This one is in the key of D Major:

The chords used in this song are: 

This progression has a few interesting things to take note of. Inside this progression is the familiar 1 4 5 that we’ve talked about a few times, this is the blues progression, and can make a track sound and feel familiar to us.

The other thing is the use of the 2 chord instead of the 6. This minor chord on the 2 makes it feel less like a pop ballad progression and leans more into Taylors early country influences. The 2 chord was used a lot in Jazz and more traditional music styles. It’s not often found in mainstream pop songs.

This progression also ends on the 5 chord which means we get that complete resolution at the end with the perfect cadence that takes us back to the 1 and gives the progression a completed feel.

Key points to takeaway 

This lesson has raised a few points that are worth taking away and keeping in mind when you’re writing a song. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner guitar player trying to write your first song, or if you’re an advanced player looking to craft a chart-worthy pop hit, this approach will still be relevant.

The first major takeaway is that great songs don’t need to be jam-packed full of complex chords. Those chords have their place in music, but if you’re trying to write a catchy, pop song then sometimes sticking to the basics is better than overloading the song with harmonic information.

The other big lesson is that our chord progressions are very important. The choice of chords and the order you place them can play a big part in how that song feels. This means we can write songs that people feel are familiar or recognizable without even having heard them. If you break down the progressions of other big hits, you’ll probably find lots of similarities in their approaches to progressions too.

• Taylor Swift producer Jack Antonoff reveals his top 10 vocal plugins and recording techniques

In this episode of our signature artist chords series we're focussing on a player whose inventive approaches to rhythm work are sometimes overlooked, and we're delighted to see John Frusciante bringing that creativity back with the Red Hot Chili Peppers following his return to the band in 2019. 

G

John Frusciante’s chord style is heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix and one of the features of his playing is thumbing the 6th string root note. One cool benefit of this is that it frees up the fourth finger, which you can use to add melodic notes on the highest three strings.

Am add9

Here is a minor alternative to a thumbed root note chord. Here the fourth finger is adding a 9th interval to the Am triad, but you can experiment by moving that note to other tones in the minor pentatonic or Dorian mode.

E9

Also known as the James Brown chord, this funky shape brings to mind percussive playing in songs such as Suck My Kiss or By The Way. Experiment with changing the pressure on the strings to alternate between percussive mutes and the full chord.

Dmaj7

The Maj7 is a warm, rich sounding chord which crops up in Under The Bridge. Adding the Major 7 interval to the Major triad evokes classy jazz vibes. Make sure each note rings clean by keeping your fingers arched and out of the way of the adjacent string.

Four John Mayer chords to try 

Prolific songwriter, visionary and a gifted musician on numerous instruments, but it was with electric guitar that Prince used tp soar as high as his vocal register. He was simply one of the greatest players to ever pick up the instrument, bringing a producer and songwriter's ear to his parts and sounds that will continue to resonate through the ages. He was also quite a chordsman. 

Here are just four examples of Prince's use of voicings to enhance much-loved songs from his catalogue. Including one of the most iconic opening guitar chords of all time… 

E9

There are many ways of playing an E9, but this particular voicing is instantly recognisable as the opening chord from Kiss. The intervallic structure from low to high is: b7, 9, 5 and the root note is on the highest string. Mute the 5th and 6th string with your thumb over the top of the neck, so you can strum the chord without the open strings ringing out.

F7sus4

This funky F chord features in 1999 and is a variation on the regular F7, root 5th string shape. Use your 1st finger to barre across the 8th fret and your 4th finger to barre across strings 1 and 2. Keep your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck to keep your wrist and hand relaxed with this stretch.

Bbadd9

This lush, chord kicks off Purple Rain and is an inversion of a Bb add9, with the major 3rd of the chord in the bass, then the root, 9 and 5th on the highest 3 strings; all creating an iconic sound which instantly evokes Prince’s most loved anthem.

A7#9

The 7#9 chord is a staple of funk music and although this chord is more commonly played at the 12th fret root, in the ‘Hendrix’ shape, the Sexy MF guitar part occasionally hits a 5th interval on top, which is achieved up at the 17th fret, making for a cool and useful variation on the sound.

• Learn 4 John Mayer guitar chords