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

Backpfeifengesicht

This set of lessons offers an in-depth look at the Animals As Leaders track BACKPFEIFENGESICHT. 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...

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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 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.”

Backpfeifengesicht

This set of lessons offers an in-depth look at the Animals As Leaders track BACKPFEIFENGESICHT. 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 track: 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.

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.

Articles

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,...

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...

Tony MacAlpine Interview

Whether you know him as the young shredder who made 1986’s Edge of Insanity or as the architect of the heavy prog riffs for Planet...

George Bellas Interview 1

George Bellas is a guitar virtuoso and  one of the leaders of the neoclassical scene, with three solo albums released and a truly unique musical...

Oz Noy Interview

The first time I heard about Oz Noy was when I saw an advertisement for his first record in a guitar magazine.  The ad had...

Adam Dutkiewicz Interview (Killswitch Engage)

With a unique style, ferocious riffs, and great melodic sensibility, Killswitch Engage has morphed into one of today’s most successful acts in heavy music. 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...

Ryan Knight Interview – The Black Dahlia Murder: Part 1

As hard as it can be to stand out amidst the annual metal festival line-ups, The Black Dahlia Murder have managed to do so for...

NAMM 2014: Marty Friedman Interview

At this year’s winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, I had a chance to speak with guitar legend Marty Friedman, who is known for his...

NAMM 2014: Christoph Kemper Interview (Kemper Profiling Amplifier)

Guitar Messenger’s Ivan Chopik had a chance at this year’s NAMM to speak with Christoph Kemper, the mastermind behind the legendary Access Virus synthesizers, as well as...

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...

Mikael Åkerfeldt Interview (Opeth)

Opeth’s newest release, Watershed, marks the band’s ninth studio album since their formation in 1990 in Stockholm, Sweden. The band has always been known for...

Lessons

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’...

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....

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: Bobby Thompson of Job For A Cowboy

Bobby Thompson of Job For A Cowboy presents his Guitar Messenger Artist Lick - a dizzying flurry of diminished tapping, accompanied by an alternate-picked variation....

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...

Ola Englund Lesson – Downpicking

 [Ola’s signature Washburn Solar guitar is tuned down one step to D Standard: D G C F A D.] Ola On Downpicking A very common question I...

Scale The Summit: Chris Letchford Lesson – Atlas Novus

 [Chris’ Strandberg Boden CL7 signature 7-string guitar is in Standard Tuning: B E A D G B E.] Atlas Novus In this lesson, Chris Letchford...

Artist Management

Managing your career can be a daunting task. That’s why the artist management profession exists! If you actually break down what a manager does, you...

Jamming With Eric Krasno

Soulive's six-string soul maestro Eric Krasno demonstrates his dynamic style while improvising over two stellar grooves....

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]...

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...

Basic Blues Substitutions

Over the years I’ve found that while most guitarists have an easy time learning to comp and solo over the 12-bar blues, many people struggle...

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

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