Premier Guitar and Ibanez are teaming up to give you the chance to win an AVN1BS Acoustic ($524). This is a gorgeous parlor body guitar with a solid Sitka Spruce top, Mahogany back, sides, and neck, and a Rosewood bridge & fretboard. This giveaway is open to international entrants and runs through June 22, 2015. You can click here to fill our the survey and enter.
You may not have heard of Hello Music or Hagstrom Guitars, but I bet a great giveaway interests you just the same. You have a chance to get your hands on the semi-hollowbody Viking model in cherry red ($600). Hagstrom cites their truss rod design as being instrumental in earning their reputation as the world’s fastest playing guitar. Being a US resident and entering by June 30th, 2015 would be instrumental in your odd of winning this axe. Fill out this form to complete your entry.
Prince Guitar Lesson, How to Practice Licks, ZZ Top
Prince has been known to be protective of his material when it comes to Youtube. So even though Ben Eller goes out of his way not to mention it, I’ll let you know that this video lesson features the opening guitar lick from When Doves Cry. It’s a fast distorted lick that will turn heads.
One way to get to know a lick and your fretboard is to try moving the lick around. Robert Renman goes further in depth on this concept and shows you how to work this concept into your practice routine. You can also take a similar concept and apply to it rhythm guitar and different chord shapes around the neck. Check out our Moveable Blues lesson for more on that.
Jody Worrell has a new lesson out on learning a rocking blues lick in the style of ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. The lick is played of a backing track of G-F in 12/8 time. We’ll use the minor pentatonic scale while still stating the chord changes of the backing track with our note selection.
How to Practice New Chord Progressions & Strum Patterns
As you continue to learn new songs on your guitar, you’ll encounter chords or strum patterns you’ve never played before. In these videos, you’ll find Peter Vogl’s game plan for efficiently practicing new chord progressions. We use a basic strum and chords in these songs, but these exercises can be applied to any new song or advanced technique that you’re learning.
For our first session, we’re going to use Em and B7 as our chords in this example. We’ll start by learning how to play each chord correctly. Next, Peter will show you how to practice changing between these chords. Finally, we’ll start slow and gradually speed up the pace as you practice making the change along with Peter.
In the second session, we’ll learn a strum pattern to play over the same chords. We’ll start by focusing on just playing the pattern correctly and ignoring the left hand. Once we have that down, we’ll practice the pattern along with the chords at increasing speeds
By isolating the chords, changes, and pattern, you can really focus on your technique and make sure you’re playing everything correctly. Trying to jump into each piece of music at full speed can cause you to develop bad habits. This type of focused and detailed practice will allow you to identify trouble areas to work on and improve as a guitarist.
Win an Epiphone Casino Plus More Guitars & Pedals
Epiphone Guitars is giving away a Gary Clark Jr. autographed Blak & Blu Casino guitar with a trapeze tailpiece and a hard case. The stock guitar is valued at $1300 and the contest is open to residents of US, Canada, and Europe. Click here to enter the contest by May 31, 2015.
Chicago Music Exchange is offering an OPTION 5’s Destination Overdrive II pedal in their monthly giveaway. DESTINATION OVERDRIVE II. US residents who are 18 and over can enter the giveaway by May 22nd for a chance to win.
Guitarist Daily is hosting their first giveaway and you can win a Baby Taylor guitar. Hurry and put your name in the running by May 15th.
John Petrucci Music Man: Apparently Methane is a group taking place in the Vans Warped Tour Battle of the Bands. In a promotional effort for this, Ernie Ball is giving you the chance to win a set or their strings and an electric guitar. Go to the bottom left of this page to find the entry button.
Stevie Wonder Lesson | Classical and Bluegrass Exercises
Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster (Jammin’) has always been a personal favorite of mine. Stevie’s take on reggae has a combination of great horn parts over an unforgettable groove. Justin Sandercoe has created a guitar arrangement for the song that becomes a really fun lesson to play around with.
Bluegrass Speed: Learn how to utilize crosspicking to play up tempo flatpicking licks. Jake Stephens will show you how to pick through chord shapes using a down-down-up or alternate picking pattern.
Classical Guitar Exercises: Our first practice session on playing tremolos will teach the basics of this essential technique. By playing a note three times in a row on the same string, you can create a shimmering sound. In our follow up video, we’ll use a planting technique to develop more speed and control with tremolos.
Let us know if you saw any other great lessons around the web this week.