Guitar Command

Music Intervals And Ear Training

In this article we look at music intervals and ear training. We show you what musical intervals are and how to hear and play them on the guitar.

At the end of the article we provide several practical ear training exercises. If you make them part of your practice routine then your improvisation ability and all-round musicianship will quickly improve…

This week’s Guitar Chord Of The Week is a minor 6 chord. This chord will often sound good in place of a normal minor chord: it’s basically the same chord, but with a 6th note added. Learn the moveable chord shape, then try playing this chord in the example progression, provided at the end of the lesson…

Guitar Arpeggio Shapes

This is an introduction to arpeggio-based soloing. It is part of our How To Get Better At Guitar Series. Using guitar arpeggio shapes to improvise solos can help to add interest to your solos.

Guitar Arpeggios Title Image

Learn arpeggio shapes then use them to play the example solos. Improvise your own solos over the backing tracks provided.

Dominant 13th Flat 9 Chord Guitar

This week’s Guitar Chord Of The Week is a Dominant 13th Flat Nine (13b9) chord. What’s unusual about this particular shape is that it doesn’t contain a root note.

This chord has quite an strange sound when played on its own. However, when you play it as part of a chord progression, it can sound great.

Try it yourself in the example chord progression provided at the end of the lesson…

MoonJune Records Sampler Download Album

News of a bargain sampler album from MoonJune Records: 7 Hours of awesome progressive & experimental music for $2!

It’s easy to become disillusioned with the music business when you see what passes for ‘talent’ in the mainstream media. The same old faces on the front of magazines, doing the rounds when they’ve got new ‘product’ to sell.

However, dig a little deeper and you’ll find that there are still musicians experimenting, pushing the boundaries, playing gigs and releasing records to people who actively seek out new and interesting music.

Moonjune Records in New York realize this, and have been actively promoting experimental, progressive and jazz acts since 2001.

A hugely influential composer, guitarist and bandleader, Frank Zappa is an iconic figure whose music continues to inspire musicians all over the world.

This article is an introduction to Zappa’s life and work. We also suggest where a newcomer to Zappa’s music should start…

Add9 Chord E Shape Guitar Chord Of The Week

This week’s Guitar Chord Of The Week is a great-sounding add 9 chord.

Add 9 Chord Shape For Guitar – Play It In The Example Progression

This particular shape is quite a stretch and by the end of the article your hand may be a little bit bigger!

The add9 is a very nice sounding chord. You can use it to brighten up your own songs by using it in place of major chords.

You can also use it to create riffs by playing it as an arpeggio. At the end of the article we show you how…

Guitar Scale Exercises Position Changes

These guitar scale exercises can be used to practice changing position and combining scale shapes while improvising.

If you always stay in one position while soloing you may be restricting yourself. Your fingers will fall into the same old patterns and you’ll struggle to come up with anything new.

By learning scales all over the fretboard you can give your lead playing more freedom. Even if you are using the same notes but played in a different position you will find that new licks will present themselves.

This lesson will show you how to play 3 octave major scales, how to combine scale shapes while soloing and at the end gives you an extended position-changing study. It is part of the how to get better at guitar series.

Major 6th Guitar Chord Of The Week

This week’s Guitar Chord Of The Week is a useful major 6th shape. It probably won’t be the first major 6th chord shape you learn; check out this shape for a more common way of playing a 6 chord. However, this week’s chord is a good shape to have up your sleeve when you are writing songs or rhythm guitar parts.

At the end of the article there is an example chord progression that shows one way in which this shape could be used.

Alternate Picking Exercises For Guitar

Alternate picking is the main guitar picking technique. If you play with a pick you should get into the habit of alternate picking early on: a good picking technique will help you to play faster and more fluently.

In this lesson, we start by explaining what alternate picking is. We then provide several alternate picking exercises that you can use to develop your technique.

A special ‘bonus’ exercise is provided at the end of the lesson – it’s a challenging picking study that’s good for a bit of ‘guitar shop showing off’!