Courses

Singing Slide Guitar with Stanly Bactian

“Singing Slide Guitar with Stanly Bactian” is an in-depth masterclass in making the guitar sing. Stanly breaks down his expressive, vocal-inspired approach to slide guitar, starting with intonation, muting, and vibrato before moving into riffs and runs, dynamics, call and...

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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...

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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

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.

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.

Singing Slide Guitar with Stanly Bactian

“Singing Slide Guitar with Stanly Bactian” is an in-depth masterclass in making the guitar sing. Stanly breaks down his expressive, vocal-inspired approach to slide guitar, starting with intonation, muting, and vibrato before moving into riffs and runs, dynamics, call and response, motifs, and solo construction. Across more than 2 hours of lessons and bonus material, he shows how these techniques can transform simple melodic ideas into expressive phrases and complete performances.

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.

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.”

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.

Articles

Joel Stroetzel Interview (Killswitch Engage)

Joel Stroetzel is best known for being one of the axe-slingers for Massachusetts-based Metalcore pioneers Killswitch Engage. In June 2009 the band released the self-titled Killswitch...

NAMM 2014: Jake Bowen Interview @ Ibanez (Periphery)

  It would be difficult to overstate Periphery’s impact on modern metal, and guitarist Jake Bowen’s contributions as a composer and riffmaster have been an...

Robert Cray Interview

We’ve all heard a variation of the phrase “he can say more with one note than others can say with a million notes.” This one...

Jason Becker Interview

Jason Becker was born on July 22, 1969 and started playing the guitar at the age of 5. By the time Jason was only 16...

Michael Angelo Batio Interview

Shred virtuoso Michael Angelo Batio was rated by Guitar World magazine to be one of the “Top 100 Greatest Metal Guitar Players of All Time,”...

Slash Interview

Slash is more than an extraordinary musician – he’s a cultural icon. The top hat-wielding and Les Paul-slinging axeman’s instantly identifiable sound has helped to...

Tommy Emmanuel Interview

Australian virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel is going on five decades of professional guitar playing. At an age when most of us were occupied with learning our...

Paul Masvidal Interview – Cynic (2014): Part 1

When the ‘prog’ label is invoked, does it imply a ‘progressive’ take on broader musical traditions, or rather, can it refer to an individual band’s...

Misha Mansoor Interview – Periphery (2012)

Since their influential debut album release in 2010, Periphery have morphed from a fledgling young group with an eclectic blend of styles into a modern...

Marc Okubo Interview – Veil Of Maya (2012)

Since their inception in 2004, Chicago’s Veil Of Maya have established themselves as one of the premier bands in today’s modern metal scene. With the...

Dave Martone Interview

Dave Martone hails from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), though he’s originally from outer space, where he devised his unique brand of modern progressive fusion. His...

Herman Li Interview (Dragonforce)

Over the last few years Dragonforce have established themselves as one of the premier bands in today’s metal scene. Their latest release, Inhuman Rampage, is...

Lessons

Scale The Summit: Chris Letchford & Travis LeVrier Masterclass

Learn ‘The Levitated’ Part One CL: This first part is the intro that I play by myself in the beginning. What I’m doing is starting...

Artist Riff: Alex Bois of Periphery Plays ‘Frak The Gods’

Periphery's Alex Bois demonstrates some of his favorite riffs from the devastating Battlestar Galactica-inspired 'Frak The Gods' off the band's Icarus EP. 'We play with...

Opeth: Mikael Åkerfeldt Masterclass

In this Masterclass, progressive death metal legend Mikael Åkerfeldt discusses and demonstrates several songs from Opeth's Watershed, Still Life and the melancholy Damnation....

Allan Holdsworth’s “Day of the Dead” Solo

Welcome to my second column/lesson! This month I’d like to talk about one of my favorite players of all time – Allan Holdsworth. He’s been...

Using a Metronome Effectively Part 4: Being One With the Tick

So you’ve got your metronome – (Part 1) – check. You understand the basics of rhythmic notation – (Part 2) – check. And now you’ve...

Tony MacAlpine Masterclass

[Tony's 7-string Ibanez guitar is tuned to Standard Tuning for all examples in this Masterclass: B E A D G B E]. Tony likes to...

Opeth: Fredrik Åkesson Masterclass

[Fredrik’s Paul Reed Smith Signature Model guitar is in Standard Tuning: E A D G B E]  String-Skipping / Tapping Lick This lick utilizes both...

Jakub Żytecki – Living Mirrors: A Lesson In Songwriting & Arrangements

Welcome to my lesson at Guitar Messenger! Today, I’m going to talk about my approaches to songwriting and arrangements. I’ve taken a few examples from...

Down in the Basement: Constructing Bass Lines on Guitar

As guitarists, our primary role in a jazz setting is to play chords, and very often we also play melody and/or solos. Because of our...

Sweeping Harmony

I’m going to break down a segment of my song ‘Event Horizon,’ from my album Quadrasonic, for you to check out and study. For me,...

Artist Lick: Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage

Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage presents his screaming, guitar tech-thrilling Guitar Messenger Artist Lick. Joel is tuned to Drop-C [C G C F A D]...

Stepping Out: A Guide To Playing Outside (Part 2)

In part 1 of the Stepping Out: A Guide To Playing Outside series, we looked at the use of side stepping (moving a motif, scale,...

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