Play Leads with Major Scales
Like pentatonic scales, the patterns that make up major and minor scales can be found and repeated all over the fretboard.
These articles are excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine’s instructional book, Acoustic Rock Basics. Play in the styles of acoustic rock icons like the Beatles, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and more with these lessons on acoustic rock technique.
How to Play Easy, Movable Arpeggios that Work with Any Acoustic Guitar Chord Progression
Most guitarists start playing leads by learning to play scales. This is a great way to begin, but scales are just one way to play solo lines. Learn more with this excerpt from Acoustic Rock Basics.
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Fingerstyle Rock in Drop-D Tuning
Drop-D tuning has been popular among many influential folk and Celtic players
Acoustic Rock Basics: Creating Chordal Riffs
Learn to deconstruct simple chord shapes and progressions to create classic-sounding riffs with this lesson in the Acoustic Rock Basics series from Acoustic Guitar.
Play Leads with Major Scales
If you’ve explored my Acoustic Rock Basics lesson “Soloing with Pentatonic Scales,” you’ll notice that the major scale encompasses the major pentatonic and adds two more notes: the fourth and seventh of the key.
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Add Fingerpicking Fills to Melody Lines
The goal of good fingerpicking accompaniment is to support the song you’re playing the best you can.
Here’s How to Break Up Easy Chords to Create Rock Riffs
Many of the best licks and riffs by artists like the Beatles and Neil Young are really just made up of bits and pieces of easy chord shapes. You can use these same basic chord shapes to create cool riffs for your own songs.
Use Sus4 Chords in Your Acoustic Rock Compositions
A sus4 (or “suspended fourth”) chord substitutes the fourth note of the chord’s corresponding scale for that all-important third.