Hot Electric Guitar How-Tos

How To: Play "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC on electric guitar

This is a great instructional video on how to play thunderstruck by AC/DC on electric guitar. Thunderstruck is played mainly on B string. It is the second string as you may be aware of. First you should start with 12th fret and hit that note. Then move to 10th fret and 9th fret. Then go back to 10fret and back to 9th fret. Then you have to go 7 and then again 9 and then 5. Now go to 7th fret and then to 4 and 5. Then to 4 and 5 and again 4 and 5 and finally to 4. You can write down on these n...

How To: Use a multimeter to check connectivity on a guitar

The first thing you need to get is a multimeter this will help you test it. There might be a function on the meter that will give you the amount of voltage in that particular area. Then you have to put foil tape on all of the inside of the guitar to test it. You need to get two wires from the meter and then put them both on the foil tape on the guitar. If you don't hear a beep then you add more tape in that area where there is no activity. You can also test this on the ground.

How To: Transpose triad chord progressions

"I was wondering if you could take the triad Harmonic Analysis lesson you had done a step further and cover the concept of Transposing chord progressions into other keys?" Before you begin you do have to know some background information about your key signatures, knowing major, minor and diminished steps in triad analysis, and seventh chord harmony. The idea of transposing is that your take a set of notes and change they key it is originally played in. Andrew will walk you through all the ste...

How To: Tune your guitar, for beginners

This video shows you how to tune your guitar, for beginners. A step by step video tutorial for beginner guitar players that will teach you everything you need to know to tune your guitar properly. Andrew Wasson responds to viewers request to make a video for beginners that will properly teach them the steps to guitar tuning. Andrew addresses the fact that many similar videos about tuning completely skip the topic of "intervals". He explains with simple instructions how to tune your guitar to ...

How To: Train your ear by memorizing intervals

In this video a question is asked by a viewer. What is perfect pitch and what is relative pitch? Perfect pitch is something that is developed at a young age and comes easily. When a note or tone is made, the person listening can tell what specific note is being played. Relative pitch is being able to hear the difference from one note to the next note. The next step is how to develop your ear for relative pitch. In a 'G' major scale, listen to the intervals between each note. Certain common so...

How To: Incorporate fingerstyle into your guitar playing

This video shows how to incorporate fingerstyle into your playing. A step by step video tutorial for guitar players that have little to no experience with the fingerstyle approach. It teaches you the basics of the technique. Andrew Wasson will help you get familiar with your plucking hand at the strings and will give you a couple of exercises to get you started. He goes on to show you the letters associated with the different fingers as written in musical literature. Andrew also shows you var...

How To: Improve your dexterity for guitar playing w/ exercises

If you are just starting guitar or are trying to improve your skills then this is the video for you. In this video Andrew from Creative Guitar Studio will teach and show you, stretch and dexterity exercises to improve you guitar skills. You will also see left and right hand coordination exercises. The video starts with an add 2 chord and then follows up with 8 other exercises to improve you guitar skills. Some of these include timing, finger independence, chromatic string exercises, and finge...

How To: Improvise on guitar

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to improvise on the guitar. This video lesson will cover how you can make a study of the fretboard layout of notes and then move on to applying scale patterns on top of, "octave templates," to gain a better working knowledge of the guitar neck. Soloing skills have a lot to do with having a great connection between left and right hand techniques. This means that phrasing devices are of the utmost importance. Learning to phrase lines can help you achiev...

How To: Study chords & practice playing harmonized scales

This is a video guitar lesson brought to you by andrewwasson.com, and is Part 1 in the series "Harmonized Moveable Chord Shapes". This video lesson covers how to study chords on the guitar neck, and how to practice playing harmonized scales using both triad and seventh chord qualities. The idea taught here works well, because the harmonized major scale gives you most of the popular chords in today's music. These include: the Major Triad & Major Seventh, the Minor Triad & Minor Seventh, the Di...

How To: Tighten the cable input jack on a Stratocaster

This is a step-by-step video tutorial on how to keep up your guitar maintenance by tightening your cable input jack, a very simple but extremely important maintenance routine for your guitar. If you let the cable input jack loosen, it could end up costing you quite a bit for repair. First, you are going to need a 1/2" socket and a Phillips head screwdriver. You will need to unscrew the cable input jack. Next, use the 1/2" socket to tighten the nut on your input jack. Then screw the cable inpu...

How To: Do country & bluegrass chord strumming

How to do country and bluegrass chord strumming. A step by step video tutorial that will help you to develop your ability to do bluegrass strumming. Andrew Wasson of CreativeGuitarStudio responds to a viewers request to give a beginners lesson on learning a variety of strumming techniques. Andrew guides you through a short 12-bar country rhythm guitar part that keeps the rhythm simple. This style of music is centered on a consistent push on the feel. He focuses on rhythm. He begins by giving ...

How To: Build riffs while playing progressive metal

This step-by-step video tutorial will have you building metal riffs in no time! Andrew Wasson of CreativeGuitarStudio has written a short two-part riff using the harmony from a popular scale out of the style called Phrygian dominant. For the riff, Andrew uses a series of open strings, eighth note triplets, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. Because a lot of progressive metal utilizes different time signatures, Andrew changes the time signature for the last measure of the riff. Don't forget to downloa...

How To: Adjust the neck on an electric guitar

Step by step tutorial video on adjusting the neck of your guitar. First you need to remove the truss rod cover to gain access to the truss rod. Make sure you have the correct Allen key when adjusting your truss rod. If your guitar came with it's own Allen key make sure you use that one. Put a capo on the first fret. To increase the tension on the truss rod turn the Allen key to the right. To decrease the tension turn it to the left. Always check the gap between the frets and the strings.

How To: Practice scales on your guitar

This video starts with a little guitar riff and goes on to show you how to practice scales. Scales are key to learning your fretboard and making it easy to sight read. As a preface the presenter talks about cage chord theory and which scales go with it. The second question is about moveable scales and how to make the best use of scales to improvise. First, make a five day scale practice plan. Then memorize the scale shape. After that, use a metronome to practice with. Then move between the sc...

How To: Re-string a Floyd Rose guitar

In this lesson he shows the way to restring a Floyd Rose tremolo style system. You will need some Allen wrenches. Use an Allen wrench to take off the bolts at the nut area of the guitar which is located at the top. Next, loosen all the strings. You can simply cut the strings with a pair of wire clippers. The next step is to remove in strings from the tremolo. Use the Allen wrench again to loosen the screws holding the strings. There is a screw for every string. Once all of the old strings hav...

How To: Get started playing slide guitar

A step-by-step video tutorial presented by Andrew Wasson shows the basics of playing the slide guitar for beginners. First, choose what kind of slide you want. Metal slides are known for their high-end treble sound, while glass slides are a little warmer sounding. Andrew goes on to teach you what gauge of strings are best suited for slide playing, as well as how to pick which finger to use your slide on.

How To: Apply pitch axis theory & modal harmony on the guitar

Learn how to apply pitch axis theory and modal harmony on the guitar. A step by step video tutorial that will teach you everything you need to know to play the guitar under one droning pitch with more than one scale type. Andrew Wasson of CreativeGuitarStudio explains the principles of pitch axis. He shows us how to stay under one pitch and use a series of other chords that will influence harmony in one way or another. In this lesson, Andrew will show you how to play a progression using a D p...

How To: Use two-note chords when playing rhythm guitar

This explains how to use two-note chords when playing rhythm guitar. A step by step video tutorial that will show you how to mix two note melodic ideas with double stops and throwing in a single note melody. Andrew Wasson from Creative Guitar Studio put together a melodic phrase and a minus one track that will be available to download from his site. Andrew goes over all the techniques you need to help you learn this phrase and teaches them to you with simple instructions. These double stop an...

How To: Set intonation on a "Gibson Style" fixed bridge

How To Set Intonation on a "Gibson Style" Fixed Bridge. A step by step video tutorial that will teach you how to change the strings on a fixed bridge guitar and also set the intonation. Andrew Wasson walks you through a series of instructions that include cutting the strings off your guitar, tightening the bolts on your tuners, polishing frets and fret board and more. He then goes on to show you how to put strings on your guitar, tune the guitar with a tuner, set the bridge saddle, and settin...

How To: Play "Sweater Song" by Weezer on electric guitar

Marty Schwartz leads you through the basic chords for Weezer's Sweater Song. If you are looking to learn how to play the electric guitar, he gives a simple, easy, effective lesson that anyone can follow. The tips are shown visually, making the lesson easy to comprehend. He goes on to play the chords taught during the lesson, giving an audio reference to how your playing should sound, something I found to be very helpful.

How To: Play "Molly's Chamber" by Kings Of Leon on guitar

This video, by JustinGuitar, starts off by giving a preview of the song that he is about to teach you. He explains that Molly's Chamber by Kings of Leon is a great song for learning to use your power chords. He says that you need to hit the string quite hard, but not to worry about breaking the strings when you do this. He says that you would hurt your fingers long before you were able to actually break a string. Watch this video to learn how to play this great Kings of Lean song.

How To: Play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana) on guitar

In this electric guitar video lesson, brought to you by GuitarJamz, host Marty Schwarz, will teach you how to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, from the Nevermind album. As you follow along with him, he teaches you the progression of the chords used in the song, breaking down each part of the song, teaching you the chords and explaining the strum pattern and picking of the guitar riffs. This is a great video for beginners who are looking to learn power chords and songs to play with t...

How To: Set your guitar's intonation

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to set a guitar's intonation. Studying the intonation of the guitar is making sure the guitar is in tune. To check intonation, it is recommended to use a guitar tuner. The video provides step-by-step instructions for viewers to properly check and set the guitar's intonation. Users need to check each string for equal pitch. This will benefit those viewers who play guitar and need to learn how to intone their guitar.

How To: Play "Come as You Are" by Nirvana on guitar

In this electric guitar video lesson, brought to you by GuitarJamz, host Marty Schwarz will teach you how to play "Come as You Are" by Nirvana. As you follow along with him, he teaches you the song, breaking it down slowly so that you can follow along with him. In this video you will learn how to play the B and D power chords, as he demonstrates a couple variations of the D chord used in the song, so you can choose which is easiest for you.

How To: Adjust strong height / action on an electric guitar

Using a Strat guitar since it has a basic type of string system, this demonstrator shows how to properly adjust the string height of a guitar. In order to do this, one must use an Allen wrench screw or a screwdriver for each saddle, a flathead screwdriver, and a 64th ruler. The viewer is given an example of a height that could be used for a solo guitar. It is important to measure the distance you want correctly by measuring from the top of the fret, not the fretboard to the string. This video...

How To: Adjust the truss rod on your guitar

The truss rod is a big metal bar that goes through the whole neck on your guitar and is used to control the amount of arch that the neck of your instrument gets. You will want the neck to be essentially straight, with a tiny bit of curve. Lots of things can cause your wood to arc..weather, storage, age.. and the truss rod is used to fix this and keep the neck straight allowing you to play your piece properly. All guitars come with a truss rod and they are easy to adjust if need be. This tutor...

How To: Fretboard finger tap on guitar

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo3tzkZLsWs] Bobbycrispy teaches you fingerboard tapping.[/url] Bobby crispy teaches you the basics of fretboard tapping. Learn through doing several basic exercises demonstrated by bobby at a learner's pace. Also pick up beginner's tips like where not to put your hands while tapping on the fret board to stop interruptions while tapping. Tabs are included to keep you on the level with bobby at all times from a musical point of view along with the video for ...

How To: Read music notes on the guitar

In this video, Andrew, from Creative Guitar Studio, explains how to translate sheet music, (not tablature), to notes on the guitar. You will learn how to finger the notes and chords you see in sheet music on the guitar fret board. Beginning guitarists, and experienced players alike will appreciate this lesson in music theory as it applies to their instrument. Andrew does a great job of explaining how to learn how to convert sheet music and demonstrates it all very well in this guitar lesson.

How To: Play "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin on electric

In this acoustic guitar video lesson, brought to you by RockGuitarPower, host Mike, will teach you how to play "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. As you follow along with him, he teaches you the progression of the chords used in the song, breaking down each part of the song, teaching you the chords and explaining the strum pattern and picking of the guitar riffs. This tutorial covers the intro, solo, and rhythm patterns used in the song, and illustrates the chords used in tab notation.