So what is the best way to become really good at playing slide guitar? Well, one way is to learn the best slide guitar songs from your favorite players.  This will no doubt include the magnificent slide guitar songs from the Allman Brothers Band, played by Duane Allman.

Duane Allman is perhaps the most recognized electric slide guitar player that has ever lived.  In the Allman Brothers Band he created the most memorable and challenging, slide guitar solos ever created.  Listen to “One Way Out”, “Statesboro Blues”, “Done Somebody Wrong”, and “Don’t Keep Me Wondering”, and you’ll understand why he is considered the greatest slide guitar player of all time.

So what makes him so special?

To me, it is his creative use of rhythmic and melodic develoment.  He’s not too flashy, but everything he plays just seems to be the perfect part for the song.  In slide guitar you have to be careful not to play too many notes, or your playing will lose the feeling.  Duane Allman always knew which notes to put where in many of his legendary solos.

So what scale is Duane using?

Duane Allman  creatively blends the pentatonic minor and major, along with the blues scale to create some truly masterful slide guitar solos.

Here are these 3 scales in open E tuning.

Minor Pentatonic

Major Pentatonic

Blues Scale

By creatively blending these 3 scales when playing slide guitar, you will be able to play many of Duane’s infamous licks.  I’ve recently put together some video tutorials on how to play like Duane Allman on my website.  I specifically show you how to play “One Way Out”, “Done Somebody Wrong“, and “Statesboro Blues”.

If you’re interested in learning any of these songs please check out www.learningguitarnow.com

Sign up for my guitar lessons newsletter and get a 7 part FREE video tutorial on how to play like Duane Allman.

John W. Tuggle is a recommended instructor by Gibson.com,  on how to play like Duane Allman.

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Have you ever wanted to play slide guitar licks that sound like “”Dreams from the Allman Brothers, or maybe “Soul Serenade” from the Derek Trucks band?  If you said yes, then the Mixolydian Scale is the scale you need to learn.

So what is the mixolydian scale?  Well, this scale is exactly like the major scale except for one note, the b7th.  This one note makes a drastic change from the sound of the major scale, and you’ll hear this sound in many types of music including blues,  R&B, Funk, and Jazz.  Bass players use this scale to play all the funky bass lines you’ve heard including, “We Want the Funk” from Parliament.

So why should I learn this scale?  Put simply, the mixolydian scale will open up a whole new world of sounds for you.  It’s kinda like the Major scale but not as pretty sounding.  Hear are the notes contained in the mixolydian scale.

Major 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Mixolydian 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

If you already know the Major Scale you just have to change one note to be able to learn this scale.  It’s not really that hard, but you have to get a feel for what this scale sounds like so you can understand how to use it.

Play each note of the Major scale and sing the note as you play it.  Now do the same with the Mixolydian scale and take note how the b7th changes the sound of the scale.  Memorize this sound in your head.

Here is how you play the Mixolydian scale in Open E Tuning.

Here is a slide guitar lick in Open E Tuning using the Mixolydian Scale.

This Scale sounds great when played over a C to Bb chord progression.

I’ve recently released a Slide Guitar DVD that explains the Mixolydian scale on more detail.  This scale is a must learn if you want to take your slide guitar playing to the next level.

For more info on slide guitar check out my website as well as all of my slide guitar DVDs.

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Does your blues guitar playing suffer from a lack or soul or feeling? In today’s blues guitar lesson, I’m going to tell you how to develop a good blues guitar vibrato by practicing a few different techniques.

So why should you learn how to vibrato? Put simply, vibrato is a way to create your signature sound. Developing a good vibrato will allow you to play less notes with more feeling. Listen to some of the great blues guitar players, and you will notice that their finger vibrato is a key element of their sound. SRV, Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Buddy Guy, BB King and a number of other blues guitar players have trademark finger vibrato that gives them a unique sound.

So how do you develop your own vibrato style? You must practice vibrato everyday, in different ways, to learn this technique. This is how I practiced my vibrato when I was learning the guitar.

1. Vibrato with your index finger on the 5th fret on every string. Now do the same with your middle, ring, and pinky if you want to use it. A lot of blues guitar players never use their pinky, but for some things it may be good to use it for. Concentrate on feeling the note and vibrato it up and down moving your wrist in an even motion. Ideally, you want to practice on as many different frets as possible, because they are all going to feel different. The frets get smaller as you go up the neck, so how far your wrist moves will change.
2. Practice your finger vibrato to some blues music at different tempos. Your vibrato will change due to the tempo of a song. When you vibrato make sure your shaking motion is in time with the song. A slower song will need a a slower vibrato, as a fast song will need a faster vibrato. Practice different tempos everyday and your vibrato will see much improvement.

Vibrato is just as important as learning scales. You will separate yourself from everyone else by developing your own unique vibrato style. It will take time, so don’t get frustrated. It will get there. There is no magical potion to drink to develop your vibrato overnight. You will have to practice. OH NO!

In the next blues guitar lesson, I will take about bend vibrato, which is a whole other animal in itself. Until then keep practicing!

For more Information on learning blues guitar please visit www.learningguitarnow.com

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There is a new Learning Guitar Now video podcast up, and you can subscribe in itunes now if you’re not already. In this week’s Guitar Lessons podcast, I show you how to play a 12 bar blues progression in the style of the late Johnny Cash. If you don’t know the chords I’m playing, simply sign up for my newsletter and receive a FREE Chord chart, as well as FREE video guitar lessons.

I think the video podcasts are coming along well. They are actually easier to do than the audio ones, but I may still do some audio podcasts in the future.

What do you think?

Who likes the video better than the audio?

I think I probably already know the answer to that one!

Until next time and keep practicing!

For more information about learning guitar please check out www.LearningGuitarNow.com

So you’re a beginner guitar player and have learned all your open position chords, and are looking to learn some barre chords. Maybe you’ve tried in the past and failed, but this time you’re going to learn how to play them. So why should you learn barre chords? Simply put, barre chords will allow you to take the same chord position, and just move it up and down the fretboard to make new chords. This is powerful knowledge to have when learning guitar.

For example, you want to play an A# Major chord, but you don’t know the chord. If you know how to play the Major barre chord with the Root note on the E string,(see below) then simply take the same shape and move it to the 6th fret, which is an A# note. That’s it. Now you will be able to move that barre chord shape and move it up and down the neck to form many different chords. It all depends on what note you are barring.

You now need to memorize all the notes on the Low E String. If you do, you will be able to play any chord within seconds! Think of how fast you will start playing new chords. After you have done this, memorize the notes on the A String, and now you will know how to play barre chords with the root note on 2 different strings. This is awesome!

If you fail to see the significance of this, reread this blog or contact me. You need to learn this to continue to move forward with your guitar playing.

So how do you play these barre chords? Well, below is how to play a Major barre chord with the root on the E string. The 5 on the right tells you that it is to be played on the 5th fret, which is an A note, thus an A chord.

This chord is used in many popular songs including Stairway to Heaven, All Along the Watchtower, Ramblin Man, and many more.

If you want a FREE Barre Chord chart, simply sign up for my newsletter at the top left here, and receive a FREE Barre Chord chart along with 3 video guitar lessons. If you would like more in depth information on how to play Barre Chords or beginner guitar, please check out my ebook Guitar Method Beginner Book 1.

For more information about learning guitar please visit www.LearningGuitarNow.com

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Do you want to know my secrets to playing the guitar like you’ve always wanted to? Do you want to be able to play all your favorite songs with , with ease? If you said yes to these questions, then you are reading the right blog. If you said no, then stop reading right now. This is only for guitar players who are serious about learning the guitar.

Now I’m going to tell you exactly how to play anything on the guitar. There is no secret formula, and it will not be easy, but it will be rewarding, challenging, and you WILL SEE RESULTS I GUARANTEE!

Here are 3 things that you MUST do to get any better on guitar.

1. Write down your goals as a guitar player. It may be as simple as learn D, and G today, or maybe learn the Pentatonic scale. Folks this stuff is easy to do. If you do not set goals for your guitar playing, you will simply not get anywhere. Think about it. It you want to play blues lead guitar, and you don’t know the path to get there, then you will NEVER get there. SET GOALS STARTING TODAY OR YOU WILL NOT GET ANY BETTER!
2. After you set your goals and achieve them, write down new goals. You should have new goals being set every week, month, year. If you do this you will get a hundred times better in a year. Whatever it is just do it. Sounds simple, but everyday I see kids and adults not being able to play what they want simple because they don’t even know what they want to learn. You can’t just say I want to learn guitar. There are many styles of guitar and by not figuring out what you want to learn, you will not learn anything.
3. Turn off your TV. People the TV is a bad thing. Am I mad you say? Don’t get me wrong, I like watching TV shows just like everyone else, but I watch them when I want, and set times that I’ll watch TV. For example, the typical person will watch his or her favorite show, and when it’s over, they’ll keep flipping that remonte controlfor hours watching nothing, losing all the time they could have been practicing. You get the picture. I don’t even have cable TV anymore. The TV will eat your time away like nothing else, so stop watching and start practicing.

Well that’s my 3 tips that will have you playing guitar better in 30 days I guarantee. “Now you can put that in your pipe and smoke it.” -Zig Ziglar

For more information on learning guitar vist www.learningguitarnow.com.

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Are you a beginner guitar player that is looking for an easy blues song to play? Or maybe you’re totally new to learning guitar and are looking to learn how to play anything on the guitar.

Well in today’s guitar lesson, I’m going to teach you “how to play the blues” for beginner guitar players.

To play an easy blues guitar riff, you will only need to use 2 fingers. Yes it is that easy. This blues guitar riff has been used in thousands of songs including “Johnny B. Goode,” “Pride and Joy”, “Keep your hands to Yourself”, and “Rock and Roll”. Is that an impressive enough list for you?

Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s learn one of the most used guitar riffs in history. Below is how to play this blues riff in the key of A.

When playing this blues guitar riff, use your 1st finger on the 2nd fret, and your 3rd finger on the 4th fret. Always keep your 1st finger down on the fret, even when you play the note located on the 4th fret. By doing this, you will be able to play faster and cleaner, due to less motion of your hand.

Practice this guitar riff everyday until you can play it perfectly in time with the beat. In my ebook for beginner guitar players, I’ll show you how to do the entire 12 bar blues progression by playing this pattern.

For more on learning the guitar please visit www.LearningGuitarNow.com

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Do you want to know how to sound like a pro when playing blues slide guitar? Or maybe you’re only interested in playing the blues. Regardless, there are certain things to keep in mind when learning how to play the blues on slide guitar.

I think there are at least 3 things that will dramatically improve your skills when playing the slide guitar in blues.

Here are my top 3 tips on playing the blues on slide guitar.

1. Feel it. This may be obvious, but are you really doing it? I’m talking about when you sit down and every note you play is drenched in emotion. This is how you sound good when playing blues slide guitar. The slide guitar is a vocal like instrument, so make it weep. You can conjure so many types of moods with the slide guitar, but you have to mean it when you play it. Don’t think about scales, don’t think about keys, and don’t worry if it sounds perfect. Make it emotional and that will make up for the technique.
2. Don’t be too flashy. To be honest, slide guitar sounds best when you play less notes. No one wants to hear a jumbled mess of notes that are out of tune. Listen to Derek Trucks, he plays a lot of simple notes. He does throw in some technical stuff, but he does it with taste, and executes it flawlessly. There is nothing worse than listen to somebody trying to play above their skill level. Slow it down, and make every note count.
3. Use Repetition. To build up the intensity level when playing blues, repeating a lick or phrase over and over again will create a sense of tension to build up to a next part in a solo. Use repeated licks to create this drama. It sounds great and everyone from Derek Trucks to Bonnie Raitt, and Lowell George use this technique to create excitement when playing slide guitar.  Check out my video on playing reapeating licks on Gibson.com.  I show you how repeating licks actually sound.

Well those are my 3 tips to help you start playing the blues slide guitar like a pro. If you are interested in more information on playing slide guitar I have DVDs available that will show you how to become a pro slide player. It does take some practice, but if you do learn this style of guitar playing, you will become an in demand player in the blues scene. There’s just nothing quite like the slide guitar in blues!

For more information on other types of guitar lessons please visit LearningGuitarNow.com 

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Everybody learns how to play the guitar in different ways, and in this series of blog posts I’m going to tell you “my story” of how I learned how to play the guitar. I think it’s good to hear how others began, and also see that everyone starts off learning the guitar in the same way. So this is part 1 of an ongoing series of blog posts about my experience playing and learning the guitar.

When I was 16 years old, back in 1990 I think, I was watching Quantam Leap, a show that was really popular at the time, and the episode had a sequence where the main charactar, “Sam”, sat down and played “Imagine” by John Lennon. What an emotional experience! After I heard that, I knew I wanted to be able to take an acoustic guitar, and produce that kind of magic through the instrument. Also, after hearing Led Zeppelin III, I realized that I must learn the greatest instrument of all time, the guitar!

Well after that, I saved up some money and purchased a Kay electric guitar and a small Peavey amp. As soon as I plugged it in and pressed the saturation button, I hit the Low E string on the guitar and thought , WOW this is cool, I am a guitar player!

I soon began to take private lessons from a small music store in Mobile, Alabama where I learned my first song,”If” by Bread. I practiced everyday after school, until I could at least change through some open chords. I remember thinking, “If I only could change from G to C and D then I would be awesome!” Those chord changes seemed almost impossible, and forget about lead guitar. I had been given this thing called the Pentatonic scale to practice, and man was it hard. I did practice my chords and the scale for about an hour everyday after High School. I kept thinking that someday I might actually be able to play a song in front of someone, but that day seemed so far away.

Eventually I learned how to play some chords and a couple of easy lead riffs, such as Johnny B Goode. I thought I was awesome now! So I asked my friend to come over and check out what I had learned. He arrived and I sat down and proceeded to play the intro to Johnny B. Goode. I knew I was awesome! When I had finished I asked him if he knew what song that was, he replied “Uh, I have no idea.” I said, “You know, the song in Back to the Future.” He was like “I don’t think what you played sounded like that, but yeah it sounds good.” with a smirk. I knew that he was not impressed. Oh well, I guess I needed more practice.

In part 2 of this series I’ll tell about my first live performance. Until next time.

For information on how you can learn how to play the guitar please visit www.learningguitarnow.com

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In the first installment of the Learning Guitar Now video podcast, I go into detail about choosing the proper slide when learning slide guitar, and also how to play some cool major scale slide guitar licks in Open E Tuning.

This is the first episode with video, so this is a new thing for me. Hopefully there will be no problems, but we’ll see. If you’re not already subscribed to the podcast, you can subscribe here with itunes, or here in your favorite reader.

I want to put out some more video podcasts in the future, and I would love to hear any feedback about the show, and what you would like to see in particular. Feel free to contact me about any questions about any of this.

If you liked the podcast sign up for my free guitar lessons newsletter to receive more free guitar videos, or check out www.LearningGuitarNow.com for Guitar Lesson DVDs and Guitar Lesson Downloads.

See you in the next Podcast!

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