Being a phenom lead player is all well and good, but it’s one’s rhythm chops that keep the phone ringing off the hook. Rhythm Mojo’s musical focus is in the swe...
Popularized by players like Doc Watson, Norman Blake and Tony Rice, flatpicking was developed by guitarists arranging old-time American fiddle tunes on the guit...
Years ago Steely Dan recorded Aja, and the opening song is called “Black Cow.” Larry Carlton is one of the guitarists featured on the record. The riff he used i...
Developing the requisite technical skills, mastering key expressive techniques, and learning how to perform songs are the rites of passage that every guitarist ...
In this study, we’ll be focusing on behind the nut bending phrases along with some lines using harmonics, while playing over the familiar progression of E, A7, ...
In this musical study, I’ll overview our target technique (bluesy double stops) over the rhythm track and then perform a solo designed to showcase them in a rea...
This tune is a 12-bar blues in the call-and-response vein and, instead of a slow blues, we’ve got a more up-tempo groove, in the jump blues vein. Jump blues was...
Jazz Rock fuses the tone, feel, bends, hammers and other rock-centric embellishments and expressions with the sophistication of jazz harmony and improvisation. ...
The first time I heard Kenny Wayne Shepherd was on his break-out record Deja Voodoo, and I’ve composed a solo around the changes and groove of the title track o...
This is the end progression for the song “Hummingbird” that BB solos over. It’s a very common progression that can offer some cool ways to use chord tone soloin...
In this solo study, we’ll look at the legendary Angus Young from AC/DC. Their appeal cuts across genres, with hits in 2 different decades. What’s interesting is...
Every bass player needs to know how to play walking bass lines. It’s THE foundation of jazz bass playing and dates back to the 1800’s when the sound was used by...
Probably the most recognized open tuning, DADGAD, has permeated Celtic, American roots, blues, and fingerstyle genres, just to name a few. Many trace the tuning...
All good guitar players have one thing in common – they make it look easy, in fact, they make it look effortless. That is because, for them, it is easy. But wha...
George Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me", written in 1924, is one of the greatest of all the Standards. In this chord melody arrangement you will notice diatonic m...
Hello TrueFire students and guitar fanatics! It’s been a while since my last Riff Journal lesson from the inaugural issue where we explored neo-classical style ...
I often get asked about picking when teaching a student a lick. As in “what is the best way to pick that?” Many times the answer is, “it depends.” I know that s...
I love heady, high-concept guitar lessons, but this isn’t one of them! I wanted to share some very cool and extremely useful blues turnarounds with you that I u...
The world of jazz is an interesting world comprised of a complex, dense musical language. For someone looking to start learning jazz it is often very hard to si...
Hey there everyone in TrueFire Land! I hope all is well and that you’ve been enjoying all of the great articles, lessons, interviews and podcasts provided in Tr...
Greetings from the Jersey Shore! Last time we met in Riff was the debut issue where I served up a lesson on some cool encounters with the 7#9 chord. All three e...
The spectrum of jazz-inspired blues guitar styles is pretty wide ranging. You’ve got classic blues artists like T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton and Lonnie Johnso...
Many of the world's most popular guitar players, such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, played in what is called a “power trio.”...
One of the reasons my recent TrueFire course, Chord Navigator: CAGED Triads, seems to have struck a chord (pun intended) is that we guitarists play rhythm most ...
