Techniques & Concepts

This is more of a guitarists checklist - how many of these techniques have you mastered? How many concepts have you used in your playing so far?

For each technique and concept below I will explain briefly what it is and what it might be good for.

Techniques

- Legato picking - don't pick every note, use hammer-on and pull-offs to give musical shape to your scale runs. Good for playing faster and good for naturally adding dynamics to what you play.
- Alternate Picking - pick every note with predefined scheme alternating between upstroke and down strokes - good for practising scales and developing upstroke/downstroke independence
- Hammer On - sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off.
- Pull Off - Opposite to Hammer On - where you strike the string and while the note is still ringing, release the fretting finger.
- Bend up - Where you bend the string up to make a higher pitch - full bend is up one tone, half bend is up one semitone. Essential for rock, blues - good for all guitarists.
- Bend down - Same as bend up except you bend downward - this is easier and more convenient sometimes - more of a preference.
- Pre-bend - Where you bend the note up or down, before you strike it, so you only hear the note pitch down.
- Sweep Picking - Where you pick using only down-strokes or up-strokes. Useful to play arpeggios quickly and smoothly.
- Tapping - Where you use only Hammer-Ons and Pull-offs to strike the notes.
- Harmonics - Notes on the neck that are played by touching the strings above the fret wire - most strongly audible over 12th fret, 7th and 5th fret.

- Palm Muting - resting picking hand gently on the bride of the guitar so that it slightly mutes the strings stopping them from sustaining. Fundamental technique for all styles.
- Pick Muting -Using the pick and fingers holding the pick to mute the string that has just been picked. Useful for staccato phrasing and practising picking hand efficiency.
- Left hand Muting - Using fretting hand fingers to lay gently across the strings to stop them from sustaining. Fundamental technique for all styles.

Concepts

- Side Stepping - An improvising concept for creating strong tension that mimics the sounds of an Altered Dominant during a 11-V-1 movement.For example, playing a Bb major scale over an A7 chord to produce altered tension.
- Tri-tone Substitution - a V chord substitution used mostly in jazz where the dominant 7 chord is replaced by another dominant 7 chord 3 whole tones up, mostly good for creating extra tension before a cyclical resolution

- Cycle of 5ths (or 4ths) - Essential music theory for songwriters that illustrates the logical chord progression and relationships between the dominant 7 and it's harmonic key centre.

- Swing - musically represented as dotted eighth notes , swing feel is associated with Jazz, but its very useful for practising scales

Sus 2 vs Add 9 chords
Major 7 and Major 6 chords
Modes
Major
Minor
Dominant
Double Stops

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