Listening

Lesson 6/97 | Study Time: 5 Min

Course: Beginner Electric Guitar

Listening

Apart from books, your most important source of information will be recordings. Listen to the guitarists on your favorite albums. You are sure to hear note bending, slides, grace notes, power chords, arpeggio picking and all the other techniques which make Electric guitar such a great sound. It is important to listen to different styles of music. Even though you may have a favorite style, the best players in any style have influences which come from other styles. Don't just listen to current players. Go back and listen to the earlier players who invented and developed the sounds and techniques of the electric guitar, particularly Blues players such as B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Gatemouth Brown, Magic Sam, Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins, Debbie Davies, Peter Green, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and Ronnie Earl.

Some Rock players and bands to listen to are Jimi Hendrix (a major innovator), Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd (featuring three guitars skillfully arranged), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May (Queen), Gary Moore, Lita Ford, Jennifer Batten, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and also James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.

For great rhythm ideas, listen to Funk players such as Prince, Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) Nile Rogers (Chic) and the various guitarists who have played with James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic. For skillful use of effects, listen to Andy Summers of the Police and Edge from U2. For more complex playing listen to Jazz/Rock Fusion players like John Scofield, Frank Gambale, Larry Carlton and Scott Henderson. You could also go right back through the history of Jazz and find a wealth of great players, from Charlie Christian to Wes Montgomery.

When you are listening to albums, try to sing along with the solos and visualize which strings and frets you would play and the techniques you would use to achieve the sounds you are hearing. This helps you absorb the music and before long, it starts to come out in your own playing. It is also valuable to play along with albums, sometimes imitating what you are hearing and other times improvising. This is very good ear training and is also a lot of fun.

For more books and recordings by Peter Gelling, visit: www.petergelling.com

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Peter Gelling

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Class Sessions

1- Using the Whole Fretboard 2- Notes on the First String 3- The 12-Bar Blues 4- The Eighth Note 5- The Triplet 6- Notes on the Fourth String 7- Sixteenth Notes 8- Playing Two Strings Together 9- The Minor Pentatonic Scale 10- Chords 11- INTRODUCTION 12- The Half Bar 13- Rests 14- Ties And Syncopation 15- Using the Guitar Pickups 16- Minor Chords 17- The Major Scale 18- Arpeggios 19- Learning All the Notes 20- Using Guitar Effects 21- Vibrato 22- How to Read Music 23- Scale Degrees 24- Moving to Different Keys 25- Slurs 26- The Trail Off 27- Five Forms of the Pentatonic 28- The Release Bend 29- Moving Between Forms 30- Getting Your Hands Moving 31- Bending Notes 32- The Slide 33- The Trill 34- Analyzing What You Play 35- Reverb 36- C Major Scale in Open Position 37- Sliding Pattern 2 38- Electric Guitars 39- Identifying Scale Patterns 40- The Lead-in 41- The Full Bar 42- Notes on the Sixth String 43- Vibrato With Bent Notes 44- Sixteenth Note Groupings 45- Slight Bends 46- Swing Rhythms 47- Chords I IV and V in all Keys 48- Tones and Semitones 49- Right Hand Technique 50- Overdrive and Distortion 51- Alternate Picking 52- Notes on the Fifth String 53- Power Chords 54- Chord Symbols 55- Tablature 56- Rests With Chord Playing 57- Playing Two Strings With the First Finger 58- Pickup Selector Switches 59- Visualizing 60- The G Major Scale 61- Picking the Open Strings 62- Pentatonic Blues Solo 63- Notes on the Second String 64- The Shuffle 65- The Chromatic Scale 66- Delay 67- Notes on the Sixth String 68- The Symbols 8va and loco 69- Music Notation 70- Harmonizing Scales With Power Chords 71- Movable Power Chords 72- Left Hand Technique 73- Rhythm Notation 74- Riffs 75- Electric Guitar Pickups 76- Learning the Notes on the Staff 77- Jam Along Progressions 78- Amplifiers 79- Notes on the Third String 80- Left Hand Technique 81- Chorus 82- Learning the Whole Fretboard 83- Strumming 84- Keys and Key Signatures 85- The Open Position 86- Listening 87- The Open Strings of the Guitar 88- Notes on the Guitar Fretboard 89- Flanger 90- Types of Amplifiers 91- Major Chord Formations 92- More titles by LearnToPlayMusic.com 93- Understanding the Control Knobs 94- Bar Lines 95- Strings 96- Time Signatures 97- Chord Symbols

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