Just spotted on Twitter, Mike Outram, has just posted not one not two but twenty-nine short guitar lessons for FREE!

Each lesson comes with audio, transcriptions and analysis of the ideas used:

The Jewel Box Vol.1 is a free, downloadable collection of 29 short guitar lessons, complete with audio, notation, tab and a brief explanation and analysis of the ideas presented along with suggestions for developing the ideas in your own way.

Dive right in and download the whole thing from here for absolutely free by clicking the ‘download’ link on the music player below. All the notation/tab etc., is included in the download.

The lessons range from simple to complex, so for an example of what’s included, here are two of the 29 PDFs included in the download: a simple one [listen] featuring some laid-back, funky comping, and a more complex one [listen] featuring a syncopated, chromatic fusiony solo. And, if you want, all the audio can be previewed in the player below.

Feel free to share it and pass it along. That would make me very happy

Mike Outram

Table of Contents:

4 Ways To Target Chord IV
4 Ways To Approach The Turnaround
How To Solo Using Triplet Groupings
Jazz Fusion Solo & Miscellaneous Bending Techniques
Jimi’s Chords, Wes’s Octaves, Metheny’s Phrasing And The Tri-Tone Substitution
4 Burning Lydian Dominant Licks
Unlocking The Super Locrian
Mixing Major And Minor Pentatonics Ala BB King And Rhythmic Scale Exercises
Making The Changes: Using Triads 1
Making The Changes: Using Triads 2
Making The Changes: Using Triads 3
Making The Changes: Using Triads 4
Making The Changes: Using Triads 5
Making The Changes: Using Triads 6
How To Use Octaves And Chords In The Style Of Wes Montgomery
Double-Time Soloing In The Style Of Wes Montgomery
Simple Funky Comping Using 3rds & 7ths
Funky Soloing In The Style Of Grant Green
Four-To-The-Bar Comping Using Inversions And Passing Chords
Spacious And Simple Comping On A Laid-Back Funky Minor Blues
Phrasing Expansion: Inflections And Articulation
A Documentary About Cuddly Pets And Their Owners
Suspended Harmony – Focusing On The 4th
4ths, Consecutive 4ths, Damnation And Pain
Contrasting Simple And Extended Minor Harmony
A Rhythm Gtr Part Using Sextuplets In 12/8 Phrased In Groups Of Five
Anticipation, Chromaticism, MelodicUppyDownyism, Syncopation And Sleepless Nights
Fingerstyle Constant Bass With Improvised Upper Part [exercises]
Fingerstyle Constant Bass With Improvised Upper Part [solo example]

You can never have too many backing tracks.

Stopping short of actually playing with other musicians, they are the best way to help evolve your playing. Much like learning a language by moving to the country that speaks it!

I recently came across the great guitarplayback.com website from David Wallimann and Dan Davies which provides a great range of high quality backing tracks in a variety of styles and levels to suit beginner to advanced players.

The Internet is covered with websites designed to provide you with backing tracks to your favourite songs, so that you can jam to any song by any band that you can think of. We didn’t want to be another one of those websites. Guitar Playback was created to help guitar players develop their musical ability by offering very high quality, custom-made backing tracks at an affordable price. Each track is written to help you master a specific musical concept suggested in its description.

Beginner backing tracks are all written using a single scale. This collection of tracks is perfect for guitarists who want to develop their musical vocabulary by learning new scales and patterns.

Intermediate backing tracks are written in two different keys. These backing tracks require the user to have a good knowledge of the keys involved, and whilst they are a bit more challenging than the beginner tracks, the modulations offer a very interesting educational value.

Advanced backing tracks contain at least three different keys. This section requires the user to have a good understanding of music theory as at least two modulations are involved. The content found here will force you to think about what you are playing, which is key to good improvisational skills.

dirtbox.net has returned with a cool new look!

How often have you heard a couple of cool overdrive pedals on youtube or somehwere and then had to go searching around several websites in order to find more information about it? Lots of times, exactly. Welcome to Dirt Box.

Dirt Box is designed to gather all of that information for you and put it all in one place. We give our honest opinions of the pedals on show in our review sections and in the information area we try to give you an opinion based on what we know about the pedal, the company who designed it, the components inside of it, etc…etc…

There are literally thousands of Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz and Boost pedals out there and Dirt Box aims to track as many down as we can and provide as much information as possible on the pedals. We don’t just cover the ’boutique’ pedals either! At Dirt Box you will find information on EVERY pedal we find from copanies such as Boss, Modtone, and Behringer right up to the high-end custom made pedals by BK Butler, Analogman, and more!

Piece by piece, pedal by pedal we are building an exhaustive database of Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz, and Boost pedals of all kinds. Enjoy!

Musicradar has just posted up the results of its poll of readers for the best electric guitars under £1000:

Following The best electric guitars under £300 as voted for by MusicRadar’s axe-loving, GAS-infected community, we’ve upped the price range and the lust factor significantly. Ladies and gentlemen, here are finest electric guitars under £1000 in the world today.

Thanks for all your nominations. The results include an eclectic mix of classics from Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and PRS, pointy metal axes from the likes of Dean and Washburn, something British-made from Gordon-Smith and an eye-watering fluorescent Charvel in the mix too. In short, there’s a guitar here to suit every player and every style.

If you have a budget of up to £1000 (even if you haven’t, many of these instruments can be found for closer to the £500 mark on the street) be sure to click through the following pages and read the reviews before shelling out. Spent wisely, £1000 can buy you a killer axe that will give you years of pleasure.

In Alphabetical order the list reads:

BC Mockingbird ST
Charvel San Dimas Style 1
Dean Razorback Cemetary Gates
Epiphone “Inspired by John Lennon” Casino
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II
ESP LTD EC-1000VB
Fender American Special Series
Fender American Standard Series
Fender Classic Player Series
Fender Road Worn Series
G&L Tribute Series ASAT Classic Bluesboy Semi-Hollow
Gibson Les Paul Junior
Gibson Les Paul Studio
Gibson SG Special
Gordon-Smith GS2
Ibanez JS100
Ibanez RG1550M Prestige
PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow
PRS SE Singlecut Korina
Schecter C-1 Classic
Washburn WV40V Pro E
Yamaha SA503 Troy Van Leeuwen Signature

The busy bees at jamtrackcentral.com have been hard at work and have just released a new Guthrie Govan package looking at his solo over the ‘All Along The Tracks’ backing:

As usual the package includes:

Improvised solo in Film and Audio format
Backing track minus solo
Full totally accurate tab transcription
Bonus theory and technique secrets

Guitarist Magazine are currently reviewing the new Guthrie Govan set-neck signature Suhr guitar for next month’s magazine. AS a tease they have posted up some gallery images of the guitar.

As a BIG thankyou for the successful launch, the guys behind Martin Taylor’s Guitar Academy are offering a free lesson at the Academy:

Ta to Mr Clark for the heads up, new line of Pro Series guitars from Suhr for their Classic and Classic T models:

We have not forgotten the traditional or vintage-styling enthusiasts. The long-awaited Pro Series Classic and Classic T instruments are now shipping in volume

Check out the new Pro Series Price list for 2010.

New Custom solo up on jamtrackcentral.com of Guthrie Govan’s amazing improvisation over the Joe Satriani style backing track:

The guys from jamtrackcentral.com say:

As you may know, Guthrie recorded new solos over some of our backing tracks, exclusively for our Youtube channel.
In response to massive demand from all our friends, we decided to make full-quality jam track packages around these solos.
Some of them are already available, and the rest will be coming over the next few months.

Each package features:

Improvised solo in Film and Audio format
Extended backing track
Full totally accurate tab transcription
Bonus theory and technique secrets

The awesome guys over at jamtrackcentral.com have been giving away alot of free stuff recently and the latest package is a corker!

A new series of Special Guest Exclusives has just kicked off with a FREE Joe Satriani package called ‘Satch Dreams’.

The package contains an MP3 of Satch’s fab solo with TAB as well as Performance Notes and a MP3 backing track for you to have a noodle over too.

Looks like Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert are lined up for future Guest Exclusives as well!