Courses

Songwriting with Plini

Songwriting with Plini is an in-depth masterclass in musical composition and modern progressive songwriting, straight from the mind of one of Australia’s most innovative and legendary musicians, Plini. Best known for his work as an instrumental guitarist and songwriter, Plini...

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Courses

PROGRESSIVE PICKING with Stephen Taranto

The quintessential guide to modern picking techniques as taught by Stephen Taranto. "The purpose is to shed some light on how I traverse the strings, while keeping things as clean and as fast as possible.”

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Courses

Scar Guitar

Scar Guitar is a detailed journey into the modern playing styles of Per Nilsson, one of the world's finest guitarists. Best known for his work with Swedish melodic death metal group Scar Symmetry and progressive metal titans Meshuggah, Per offers...

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Courses

THUMP! - Tosin Abasi's Guitar Instructional

THUMP! is an in-depth exploration of the modern playing techniques of Tosin Abasi. This course focuses primarily on his approaches to the thumping technique, and also explores several other key techniques that offer insight into his music. Included are detailed...

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Courses

The Madness of Javier Reyes

Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders and Mestis breaks down some of his key techniques and offers close-up demonstrations of four compositions. All lessons & performances are presented in crystal clear 4k video, with multiple angles covering all the action....

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Courses

Fingerpicking Foundations

Javier Reyes of Animals As Leaders and Mestis builds on fingerpicking technique basics introduced in the Madness of Javier Reyes series. The goal of this course is to develop a strong foundation for the fingerpicking technique. The program includes 5...

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Courses

The Madness of Tosin Abasi

This set of lessons offers an in-depth look at the Animals As Leaders tracks BACKPFEIFENGESICHT and THE GLASS BRIDGE. Featuring 4k video, detailed transcriptions, and downloadable Guitar Pro files, Tosin gives insight into some of the playing and writing techniques...

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Courses

Songwriting with Plini

Songwriting with Plini is an in-depth masterclass in musical composition and modern progressive songwriting, straight from the mind of one of Australia’s most innovative and legendary musicians, Plini. Best known for his work as an instrumental guitarist and songwriter, Plini offers a comprehensive look into his unique methods for crafting memorable, inspiring songs.

THUMP! - Tosin Abasi's Guitar Instructional

THUMP! is an in-depth exploration of the modern playing techniques of Tosin Abasi. This course focuses primarily on his approaches to the thumping technique, and also explores several other key techniques that offer insight into his music. Included are detailed transcriptions, as well as backing tracks for select songs. The course is not limited to 8-string guitarists. All concepts can be applied to 6 and 7-string guitar.

Fingerpicking Foundations

Javier Reyes of Animals As Leaders and Mestis builds on fingerpicking technique basics introduced in the Madness of Javier Reyes series. The goal of this course is to develop a strong foundation for the fingerpicking technique. The program includes 5 etudes, offering a musical, fun path to synchronizing both hands and developing right-hand finger dexterity. A perfect course for beginner to intermediate guitarists looking to dive into the world of fingerpicking.

PROGRESSIVE PICKING with Stephen Taranto

The quintessential guide to modern picking techniques as taught by Stephen Taranto. "The purpose is to shed some light on how I traverse the strings, while keeping things as clean and as fast as possible.”

Scar Guitar

Scar Guitar is a detailed journey into the modern playing styles of Per Nilsson, one of the world's finest guitarists. Best known for his work with Swedish melodic death metal group Scar Symmetry and progressive metal titans Meshuggah, Per offers a close-up personal look at his unique approaches to music and the guitar. This course includes over 2 hours of lessons and performances, in-depth interviews, & bonus materials.

The Madness of Javier Reyes

Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders and Mestis breaks down some of his key techniques and offers close-up demonstrations of four compositions. All lessons & performances are presented in crystal clear 4k video, with multiple angles covering all the action. Each example is transcribed in great detail and can be looped, slowed down, sped up, transposed - all on the same page. Each example is also available for download in Guitar Pro format.

The Madness of Tosin Abasi

This set of lessons offers an in-depth look at the Animals As Leaders tracks BACKPFEIFENGESICHT and THE GLASS BRIDGE. Featuring 4k video, detailed transcriptions, and downloadable Guitar Pro files, Tosin gives insight into some of the playing and writing techniques that are highlighted in the tracks: Thumping, Selective Picking & Sweeping in Riffs, Hammer-On-From-Nowhere Riffing, Songwriting & Arrangement Techniques.

Articles

Richie Kotzen Interview

Richie Kotzen is one of today’s most intriguing guitarists. He arrived on the music scene in the late 80’s through Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records and...

Paul Masvidal Interview – Cynic (2014): Part 3

In the third installment of our interview series with Paul Masvidal, we discussed what Paul does to keep his hands busy when he’s not working on...

Francesco Artusato & Roy Lev-Ari (Hiss of Atrocities)

Hiss of Atrocities have established themselves as a band capable of delivering a brutal onslaught of complex rhythms, dark harmonies, and calculated aggression. Their particular...

Jarle H. Olsen Interview

Hailing from Norway, Jarle H. Olsen is one of today’s finest guitarists and composers of melodic progressive metal. His full-length debut album, Quadrasonic, showcases his...

Michael Keene Interview – The Faceless: Part 1

Michael Keene is the mastermind behind California’s progressive death metal band, The Faceless. They first broke onto the worldwide stage with the 2006 debut release...

Paul Gilbert Interview

Paul Gilbert is best known for his work in the greatly successful band Mr. Big. However, Gilbert is also one of the leading guitar virtuosos...

Devin Townsend Interview

Following Devin Townsend’s career has been a diverse musical journey through the many facets of his compelling personality. First introduced to the world as Steve...

Steve Morse Interview

Arguably, Steve embarked upon his career in the 10th grade, after being expelled from school for refusing to cut his hair. It makes sense then,...

Michael Romeo Interview – Symphony X (2007)

Michael Romeo is the founder and leader of power/progressive metal band Symphony X. This is a band that has been able to create their own...

Derek Trucks Interview

Derek Trucks is a virtuoso blues artist and is also known as one of the greatest slide guitarists. In addition to leading the Derek Trucks...

John Petrucci Interview (2007)

John Petrucci is one of the founding members of Dream Theater, arguably today’s biggest progressive metal band. He has come to be known as one...

Paul Masvidal Interview – Cynic (2014): Part 4

  Having covered the ins and outs of his musical past, present, and future in parts I-III of our interview series, Paul Masvidal now opens...

Lessons

Guide Tones: The Bare Essentials

Very often, "less is more" is a good policy to adopt when playing jazz. Overplaying usually gets both players and listeners pissed off because you're...

Steve Morse Masterclass

Electric guitar luminary Steve Morse welcomes you with a stunning solo, runs through his warm-up routine and teaches you to play harp harmonics using Deep...

2-1-2 Arpeggio Permutations

Welcome to my fourth column/lesson. This time I would like to talk about a component of guitar playing that has always fascinated me: arpeggio permutations/fragments....

Francesco Artusato (Devil You Know) – Gear

Devil You Know’s Francesco Artusato walks us through his arsenal of Ibanez guitars that he’s currently using on the Revolver Golden Gods tour with Black...

Tapping In Harmony

Hello Guitar Messenger readers! Today’s lesson focuses on spicing up chords by actively engaging both hands on the fretboard. Don’t be fooled by all the...

Artist Lick: Steve Morse

Guitar legend Steve Morse demonstrates his burning take on the blues, in an Artist Lick taken from the Dixie Dregs’ 'Rock & Roll Park' from...

The Safety Fire: Derya ‘Dez’ Nagle – The Ghosts That Wait For Spring & Glass Crush

 [Dez’s custom Wirebird guitar is tuned down to an Amin7 open chord: A A C G A E.] The Ghosts That Wait For Spring Chorus...

Opeth: Bonus – Mikael Åkerfeldt’s Gear

Take a backstage gear tour as Coty Allinson, Opeth's guitar technician, walks us through frontman and mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt's live guitar rig....

Create Marketing Tools

Creating marketing tools (A.K.A “Merch”—T-shirts, hats, and stickers that bear your name, logo or slogan) help to increase your exposure, strengthen your brand name, and...

Altered Dimensions: The Altered Dominant Chord

The Altered Scale. Sound scary? Well it is. It’s a 20 story tall, fire-breathing beast with enough tension in it to break the entire universe...

Periphery: Misha Mansoor Masterclass (Part 1)

Periphery's Misha Mansoor talks djent, demonstrates his favorite chord voicings and teaches exceprts from 'Buttersnips!'...

The Faceless: Wes Hauch Masterclass

[Wes’ guitar is tuned down a whole step for all examples in this Masterclass: D G C F A D]  E Minor Lick In this...

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