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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Articles

Martin Henriksson & Niklas Sundin Interview (Dark Tranquillity)

Few bands are as committed to crafting quality melodic death metal as Gothenburg, Sweden’s Dark Tranquillity. Since their formation in 1989, the band’s music has...

Joe Stump Interview

Shredlord Joe Stump is a professor at Berklee College of Music and is the head of the department of metal. GuitarOne Magazine rated him as...

Francesco Artusato Interview (Devil You Know): Part 1

Known for his explosive, harmonically-laden guitar fireworks, solo artist and All Shall Perish axe-slinger Francesco Artusato has fired off a new chapter with his supergroup,...

Misha Mansoor Interview – Periphery (2015)

The past five years of Misha Mansoor’s career with progressive metal pioneers Periphery have been filled with exciting landmarks: tours with  legendary bands like Dream Theater and Deftones,...

Pierre Bensusan Interview

Musical nomad Pierre Bensusan discovered the guitar in his early teens, and it wasn’t long before his home-crafted skills earned him critical acclaim at the...

NAMM 2014: Ola Englund Interview – Part 2

In PART ONE of our interview with Ola, he opened up about building his own brand as a high-gain amp expert, playing with bands like The...

James Smith & Timothy McTague Interview (Underoath)

Throughout their decade-long journey, Tampa, Florida’s Underoath have crafted a unique and ever-evolving style, securing them as one of the premier acts in today’s heavy...

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...

Mark Tremonti Interview (Alter Bridge, Creed)

Mark Tremonti is a renowned guitarist and leader of rock powerhouse Alter Bridge, who just released their second album, Blackbird, in October 2007. The new...

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...

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...

John Wesley Interview (Porcupine Tree)

A multi-faceted guitarist, singer, and songwriter, John Wesley is best known for his work as touring guitarist and backing vocalist for British progressive rock luminaries...

Lessons

Artist Lick: Carl Verheyen

Renowned session pro, solo artist, and Supertramp guitarist Carl Verheyen presents his Guitar Messenger Artist Lick. This C minor lick is a great example of...

Rehearsal Tips From The Stars

It can be said that the key ingredient for a successful career in the music business is 5 percent inspiration and 95 percent perspiration. Whether...

Animals As Leaders: Tosin Abasi Masterclass (Part 1)

In this first part of his masterclass for Guitar Messenger, Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders demonstrates his distinctive approach to tapping using a new...

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...

5 Tech Tools to Maximize Your Practice

  The metronome, invented in 1812, sounded the first four even beats of a new era for music technology. Since the onset of the digital...

Jason Richardson – Thought: Main Theme Tabs

 We’re happy to announce that we’re working together with Jason Richardson on an upcoming lesson series. In the meantime, we wanted to share the...

Devin Townsend Masterclass

I think that the instrument that you first become proficient with ultimately defines the way in which you write music. I do play an equal...

Ignition Part 1: Listening

Now, I know that since this is a recording column, naturally everyone wants to know what gear is good and what they should buy and...

Team Players

If you’re a member of a band, set ground rules early in your relationship to prevent legal and financial problems down the road. Being a...

Metal Foundations Lesson 1: Rhythm Guitar Development

What’s that? You want to learn some metal guitar? You’re a beginner, too? No way! You came to the right place, my friend. Welcome to...

Minor Scale Harmony

In the last column, we talked about harmonizing the Major Scale in 3rds so that we could find all diatonic chords for that scale from...

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...

Guitar Messenger is dedicated to in-depth courses, lessons, and interviews with today’s leading guitarists.

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