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

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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 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

Eric Johnson Interview

Eric Johnson is a remarkable artist who makes no compromises with any aspect of his music – from the well-crafted songwriting that spans various styles,...

B.B. King Interview

[Editor’s Note: Very special thanks to Phillip-Michael for contributing this unique and intimate discussion with his uncle, the King, to Guitar Messenger.] Noble, Legendary, Dignified;...

James Byrd Interview

James Byrd is perhaps one of the most underrated guitarists out there today. In fact, Guitar One Magazine named him one of “The 10 Best...

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...

Matt Heafy Interview (Trivium)

Matt Heafy was born on January 26, 1986 in Iwakuni, Japan and is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Orlando, Florida...

Lee McKinney & Jason Richardson Interview (Born Of Osiris)

As those of you into the metal scene are probably aware, all the rage about Born Of Osiris’s new album turned their March release into...

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...

Joe Satriani Interview

Legendary guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani is one of the most widely respected musicians in the business and an inspiration to many other guitarists. In addition...

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...

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...

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...

Mårten Hagström Interview (Meshuggah)

Meshuggah is a band that truly stands in a musical category of its own. Over the past two decades, the Swedish experimental metal group has...

Lessons

Artist Lick: Adam D of Killswitch Engage

Adam D of Killswitch Engage introduces the world to the almighty VERTIGO SQUEAL. Consult your physician before attempting to play this lick....

20 Tips: How To Choose Your Next Record Producer

The most important thing to a musician is the music that you create. You spend years developing a distinctive sound and style before finally getting...

Scar Symmetry: Per Nilsson Masterclass (Part 1)

The nimble Per Nilsson of progressive metal band Scar Symmetry demonstrates licks from 'Ghost Prototype Part 1' and 'Ascension Chamber,' and breaks down the devious...

The Faceless: Michael Keene Masterclass

[Michael’s guitar is tuned down to Drop-C for all examples in this Masterclass: C G C F A D]  The Ancient Covenant (0:01 – 0:07) Michael’s...

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...

Stepping Out: A Guide To Playing Outside (Part 1)

Playing ‘outside’ is a term synonymous with jazz rock/fusion guitar players. Within traditional forms of jazz this term is replaced by ‘using chromaticism.’ In blues,...

Tour Survival 101

I remember it perfectly. It was 19 weeks ago that I arrived in Manhattan, guitar in hand, frantically looking for Chelsea Studios. Chelsea is one...

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...

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...

Putting Jazz In Metal With Ever Forthright

Welcome to Guitar Messenger! I’m Nick from the band Ever Forthright. Today we’re going to use excerpts from two of our recent songs, ‘The Counter...

Fusion Licks That Rock

Hi, my name is Murilo Romano. It's a great pleasure to be here with you! Today I’ll be using the solo from my song ‘Nostradamus’...

Extended Range Composition

Hey everyone! I’m David – guitar player, composer and producer for the band Destiny Potato. In this lesson I will show you the tuning that...

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

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