Guitar 101! Here you'll pick up all the tools you need to become the complete guitarist.

Guitar Skills

### Fly up and down the fretboard

Welcome to our Lead Guitar Intermediate Level One course! Our primary goal in this course is to give you the confidence to **play and improvise effortlessly across the entire fretboard**. We do this by dividing the neck into the five pentatonic shapes. If you've explored our beginner courses, you'll already be familiar with the first two shapes. However, if you're jumping straight into this level, fear not - we'll provide a quick recap of those shapes before moving on to the new ones.


Lead Guitar Intermediates Level 1

Learn to play like the greats with our in-depth studies of legendary players.

Player Studies

### The guitar player's guitar player

Welcome to the Steve Lukather Player Study, a comprehensive exploration of the iconic guitarist's style. Steve Lukather, renowned for his contributions to Toto and his prolific session work, epitomizes the term "virtuoso." We kick things off with a captivating pop solo that showcases Steve's ability to infuse intricate and theoretical guitar lines seamlessly into popular music—a remarkable feat.

Steve Lukather

## The Hitmaker!

In the world of pop and funk music, Nile Rodgers is best known as the “hitmaker” (plus, his guitar is called that too!), and if you take one listen to his guitar parts you will hear why! Famed for his uniquely simple tone of a Strat plugged into a recording desk, he’s played with David Bowie, Chic, Sister Sledge, Daft Punk and so many more. Diving a little deeper, his sound is based around his **incredible rhythm chops, chord vocabulary and his ability to craft perfect parts for his songs.** Combining small chord voicings with wicked 16th note grooves and beautiful melody parts, he effortlessly creates some of the most memorable guitar sounds in history, and we’ll explore exactly how he does it! 


Nile Rodgers

### Get Comfortable

Welcome to the David Gilmour Player Study. The perfect course for all Pink Floyd fans! Learn how to seamlessly incorporate Dave Gilmour's style into your own playing. Including full breakdowns of two awesome solos, the **key techniques and theory behind Gilmour's playing**, and a look at exactly what gear you need to match his tone, this course is ideal for all fans of classic rock music. decipher the scales, techniques, and arpeggios that define his genius. 



David Gilmour

### Revolutionise your playing

Welcome to the Eddie Van Halen Player Study! As guitarists, when we think of finger tapping, we think of Eddie Van Halen! He was a **true pioneer of rock finger tapping** and a true master of the style. In this course we will be taking you through a finger tapping masterclass as well as analysing all the other techniques and tricks that EVH uses in his playing

Eddie Van Halen

### Enter a Wonderland of guitar skill

Learn to play with John Mayer's unique flair in a course that covers every distinctive facet of his playing style. Encompassing acoustic grooves evocative of "Room For Squares", the awesome blues of "Trio" and the commanding lead playing of "Continuum", our John Mayer player study is a challenging course that will push any advanced player to new heights.



John Mayer

### Turn up the gain and get heavy

Welcome to the Metal Essentials Level One course, a comprehensive venture into the world of metal guitar, expertly guided by YGA tutor Dion. This course is for anyone wanting to get into the genre's theory and techniques. It's not just for metal lovers; it's for anyone looking to **develop exciting guitar skills**. Throughout the course, your technique, speed, and endurance will be dialed up. You'll explore new modes and scales applicable that just sound perfect for metal. This course is an essential journey for all guitarists, enhancing your skills, no matter your preferred genre.

Metal Essentials

### Beautiful display of skill

Welcome to the Dimebag Darrell Player Study! This comprehensive course is your ticket to mastering the lead, rhythm, and tricks needed to play like the legendary Dimebag Darrell. Known as one of the original and most influential heavy metal guitarists, Dimebag's style embodies speed, intensity, and metal mayhem. If you aspire to master heavy metal guitar inspired by one of the greatest players of all time, this course is your golden opportunity. Join us on this musical journey and unleash your inner metal maestro!

Dimebag Darrell

### A fusion of jazz and pop

Welcome to the George Benson Player Study! George is an absolute master of the guitar, and his fusion of jazz and pop makes him **one of the most incredible guitar players in the world**. We kick off the player study by learning an awesome solo that combines chromatics, bluesy runs, jazzy octaves, a variety of scales, arpeggios, as well as some seriously quick guitar playing.

George Benson

### Time to get it Wong

Welcome to our Cory Wong player study! We're excited to bring you this 4 Unit masterclass in funky grooves... Cory Wong style. During the course, we'll be exploring Cory's very **unique right and left-hand technique**, covering everything that makes Cory such a unique player. Cory Wong is a true **master of rhythmical playing** and we will guide you through the key elements of his technique, trick bag and theory, building up to an epic Wong style track at the end of the course. So, when you're ready, pick up your guitars and let's get started!

Cory Wong

### This is the real life

Welcome to the Brian May Player Study, an exciting and in-depth exploration of Brian May's legendary guitar style. Presented by the talented the talented Dion, this course offers five comprehensive units that dissect the essence of Brian May's sound. Dive into Brian's technique, mastering his **vibrato, bends, and trills**, and discover **how to achieve his iconic tone** (without resorting to using a coin as a pick!). Explore scales, arpeggios, and chord clusters, empowering you to effortlessly navigate major and minor chord changes. **Unlock the secrets of Brian May's epic harmonies** and learn how to create your own. Each new concept you grasp is immediately applied to new solos, riffs, or chord progressions, ensuring practical integration into your guitar playing.

Brian May

### Blues and beyond

Welcome to our Joe Bonamassa course, a 28-lesson journey that will provide profound insights into the artistry of one of the greatest blues-rock musicians of our time. Throughout these five units, we'll unravel the secrets behind Bonamassa's **mesmerizing solos and captivating riffs**. From the subtle bluesy tones inspired by legends of old to the blistering speed of pentatonic runs, we leave no stone unturned. Dive into the essence of Bonamassa's style, and you'll possess the tools, skills, and understanding to play like a true maestro.

Joe Bonamassa

### The primer

Even Jimi Hendrix had to begin somewhere, and for all you budding first-time guitarists, our basics course will get you off to a perfect start! We quickly take you through how to hold the guitar and plectrum, essential gear you need to get started, the string names and a few other important bits and pieces. It shouldn't take long to digest, and you'll soon be ready to move on to the beginners courses!

The Basics

### Whole Lotta Angus!

Welcome to the Angus Young Player Study! Angus Young is undeniably one of the **most influential rock guitarists in history.** In this course, we delve into what makes his style so captivating and teach you how to play like the legend himself. If you're a lifelong AC/DC fan like we are, you'll appreciate that one word defines Angus Young's playing: "**groove**." His rhythmic lead guitar style gives even the most complex rock tracks with an infectious groove that's impossible to resist. In this course you'll learn how to incorporate that into your own playing!

Angus Young

### Lay the best foundations

Welcome to our Electric Beginners Level One course! **If you're just starting out with an electric guitar then this is the course you need**. We'll take you step by step through the key aspects you need to lay the foundations of your guitar playing and this is where we lose any bad habits and really focus on building good habits and good techniques. We focus on this from the very start to set you up to progress as quickly and efficiently through this and future courses as possible!

Electric Beginners Level 1

### Time to get creative

Welcome to our Acoustic Beginners Level 2 course! This course picks up where the level 1 course left off, and starts to focus on injecting more creativity into your playing, and even start writing your own songs! We assume you've got a good grasp on the basics from the previous course, and start building on those foundations. We introduce a new type of chord that can really help with songwriting, and add a new dimension to your playing with fingerstyle Travis Picking.

Acoustic Beginners Level 2

### Master Barre chords

Welcome to our Electric beginner Level 3 course! **This course is the bridge between you and intermediate guitar playing** so it's an important course to master! The focus of the course is all about barre chords! These chord shapes will open up the neck completely for you and allow you to actually play every single major and minor chord. No more looking through chord charts and ignoring the F sharps or the D flat chords! By the end of this course you'll be able to confidently play all of them! We take you through not only the theory behind barre chords but also the practicality of playing these shapes. 

Electric Beginners Level 3

### Expand your chord knowledge

This course follows immediately on from **Electric Beginners (Level 3)**. Our first intermediate electric course will help you expand your knowledge of chords to include all CAGED shapes across the neck, dramatically improving your versatility. 



Electric Intermediates Level 1

### Make it sing

Welcome to the Lead Guitar Beginners Level 2 course! This course is the natural progression from Level 1, building on that foundation. Our primary focus in this course is to enhance your lead guitar abilities by expanding on the pentatonic shape introduced in the previous level. One of the key highlights is learning the art of vibrato, a crucial technique that adds a vocal quality to your guitar playing, **making your leads truly sing!**

Lead Guitar Beginners Level 2

### Lead riffin'

Welcome to our Lead Guitar Intermediates Level 2 course! In the previous course, we delved into the art of improvisation and soloing. In this exciting new journey, **we shift our focus to the world of guitar riffs**. But here's the twist: riffs aren't limited to just rock. They find their place in genres like funk, blues, jazz, pop, indie, and more. Throughout this course, we'll take all your scale knowledge and apply it to crafting riffs across a diverse range of genres. From Muse-inspired rock riffs to Nile Rodgers and Chic-inspired funk grooves, Howlin' Wolf-style to Arctic Monkeys, you'll explore different keys, scale shapes, and techniques. 

Lead Guitar Intermediates Level 2

### More than the top hat

Slash is the quintessential "guitar hero", but there's more to his playing than the long hair and top hat! This course offers an in-depth look at his lead playing, including complete breakdowns of two custom-written solos in the style of his biggest Guns N' Roses hits. We'll cover the scales and techniques involved, such as the harmonic minor, pentatonic and full scales, and work on how you can easily apply them to your own improvising. You'll also learn how Slash helped define the rock sound of the 80s and how you can use his skills in your own songwriting.

Slash

### Get the grounding to master the modes

Welcome to the first course in our epic septology of modal courses where we'll be teaching you how to use each of the individual modes practically and creatively. We believe that you need to study each mode individually to get the absolute deepest understanding of the scale and how to use it. In this first course, we tackle the first mode: Ionian. We commonly refer to this mode as the major scale, and although most of us "know" the major scale, it is essential that we approach it within the context of it being an individual mode. Understanding this mode properly provides the foundation and grounding that we need to master every other mode of the major scale. When it comes to songwriting this mode is essential. We'll walk you through everything from ground up, constructing the mode and demonstrating exactly how to use it.  

Practical Modes Ionian

### Complete your blues journey

Welcome to Blues Essentials Level 3! This course marks the final stage in our Blues Essentials trinity. Before diving into this course, ensure you've mastered Blues Essentials Levels 1 and 2. Here, **we delve deeper into the essence of blues**, emphasizing that it's not confined to a 12-bar structure; it's a feeling, a style of playing that transcends boundaries. Level 3 covers four different types of blues – **funky, modern, eight-bar, and soul blues** – exploring dominant chord theory and major-minor crossovers without the traditional 12-bar framework. Join us on this exciting journey towards blues mastery!

Electric Blues Essentials Level 3

### Master slow blues

Welcome to the second installment of our Blues Guitar Essentials course. In this course we continue where we left off in level one and we bring you **new arpeggios, new concepts new theory and loads of new bluesy gold!** The main focus that ties this entire course together is the mastery of slow blues. We'll show you all the secrets, tips, and theory behind the style as well as give you incredible practical examples to learn and master them.

Electric Blues Essentials Level 2

### Huge tone, huge feel

SRV's unique brand of Texas blues is a must-learn for any blues guitarist, this course will guide you through it. You'll be tackling his quick lead playing and his dynamic slow blues, as well as his rhythm and chord techniques! We'll also show you how to bring these elements together alongside a variety of blues backing tracks. Our SRV course is perfect for deepening your understanding of blues guitar.



Stevie Ray Vaughan

### Hit the gym

Welcome to our Master Your Fingers Guitar Gym Course! This course targets four core practice elements: **finger twisters, pentatonic scales, three and four string scales, and arpeggios**. For each of these elements, we have created exercises and workouts so you can improve your speed, accuracy, synchronization, and overall guitar technique. At the end of each unit, we consolidate all the exercises into a challenging mega-workout, that you can **play along with the tutor!** Think of this course as a **workout video for your guitar playing!**


Master Your Fingers

### Five notes, infinite possibilities

Welcome to the Pentatonic Mastery Guitar Gym Course, where all our Pentatonic Guitar Gym sessions converge into the ultimate pentatonic guitar experience. Whether your musical heart beats for blues, rock, soul, funk, metal, or any genre imaginable, **you'll find the magic of pentatonic scales at the core**. From crafting beautiful melodies to shredding epic guitar solos and everything in between, these scales are the cornerstone of any guitarist's toolkit. Here at YGA we ensure you master them thoroughly - **Our approach to the guitar gym is hands-on, sweat-inducing, and goal-orientated!**

Pentatonic Mastery

### A modern guitar master

Tom Misch is hands down one of the most talented guitar players of the modern-day, and his unique brand of soul, jazz, pop and funk has really accelerated him to guitar stardom! In this in-depth player study, we take a look at every aspect of his playing, and really work out what makes his style so distinctive. Not only that, but we show YOU exactly how you can learn this style and add it to your own playing. 

Tom Misch

### The tools to rock!

Welcome to our Rock Essentials Level 1 course! In this course, we welcome our fantastic tutor, Claire, to walk you through the **core techniques, skills, and concepts of rock guitar playing**. We look at the way great rock stars blend pentatonic riffs, cool darker notes, and a range of rock chords that combine to make "heavy riffs!" And as for lead, we tackle the scales at work in rock music, revolving licks, sequences, speed development, rock techniques (such as vibrato, rock bends etc) and even how to phrase and build your solos correctly.

Rock Essentials Level 1

### Create the perfect practice space

Welcome to our Home Studio course! You're about to embark on a journey to create your **dream home music space**. The course is all about cultivating a practice space that's not just functional but inspiring. Whether you're aiming to set up a dedicated practice corner or a full-fledged home studio, this course has you covered. It's a departure from the usual guitar exercises, focusing instead on creating a space that encourages you to **pick up your guitar and practice every day.**

Home Studio Guide

### Christmas songs with a twist

Welcome to our festive Christmas Special course! In this course we have taken some classic Christmas songs and arranged them in the style of some **classic genres and legendary players**. Ever wanted to know how it would sound if SRV played Jingle Bells, or if David Gilmour played We Wish You A Merry Christmas? Well now you can! **This mini-course is all about having fun!** Choose the songs you want to learn, and perhaps get them ready to perform for your family this Christmas!

The 12 Songs of Christmas

### Complete the epic journey

Welcome to our Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 3 course! Thomas is back to take you on the final leg of our epic journey to fingerstyle greatness. With the completion of Level 1 & 2 you will have the core concepts truly under your belt, and this course is where we really start to dive into the fun stuff! Travis picking, chord melody, groove, going beyond the basic chords and so much more. 

Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 3

### Truly unlock the fretboard

Welcome to the Unlocking Major CAGED Course. If you've ever wondered about the **power of the CAGED chord system**, this course is the place to start. At Your Guitar Academy, we firmly believe that the CAGED system is the gateway to playing in any key, using any scale, chord, or arpeggio across the neck. **Imagine effortlessly playing smooth lead lines** that seamlessly navigate through any backing track's chords. This course lays essential foundations for mastering the CAGED system, providing daily exercises and practice routines in a guitar gym-style format to make this knowledge second nature, with an additional focus on using it musically!

Unlocking Major CAGED

Our 5 day courses are designed to drill home specific ideas and points, challenging you to achieve something each day for 5 days. 

Challenges

### Build speed quickly

As a beginner lead guitar player, you may have already found that one of the key elements that is currently holding you back is speed! Your fingers quite simply can't move fast enough to play your favourite solos or riffs. As you continue on your journey, and work through our lead guitar courses, **being able to build your speed effectively is going to be absolutely crucial**. Our aim, therefore, with this course, is to give you the tools and understanding you need to know exactly how to build speed efficiently, and essentially, how to actually achieve the speed of the lead parts you are trying to play! 



Beginners Speed Building

### A lick in each shape... 

Welcome to our Blues Lick Challenge course! Our aim in this challenge is to guide you through the process of taking a single blues lick, and making it work over a variety of backing tracks, in any key. We do this by showing you **5 incredible new blues licks**, that are perfect examples of how we can crossover the major and minor pentatonic scales in the blues, and then challenge you to work them into other jams. 

Blues Licks

### Get the most out of every lick

One of the most common mistakes I see guitar students making is not spending enough time with guitar licks. Within a single, top quality guitar lick, you can find an **incredible amount of knowledge, skill, theory and phrasing**; we just need to learn how to get the most out of it.

How To Learn Licks

Take some time to open the hood and understand what's going on in the musical engine! 

Theory Lab

Welcome to the theory section of our site. This is where we make sense of all the chords, scales and general guitar skills! Ever wondered why the G major is like it is, or what we actually mean when we talk about being in 'key'. We cover all this essential theory in a fun and easy to follow method that allows you to understand the inner workings of music and practically apply it to the guitar.

Essential Theory

### Really appreciate the beauty of open chords

As a beginner guitar player, open chords are a necessity and a great friend as you start your guitar journey. However, in our rush to progress past these chords, the depth and beauty of them are too often overlooked. I mean, let's be honest, if we took away the open chords, we'd probably lose a rather large percentage of the best music ever written! So, in this course, we challenge you to take a deeper look at open chords, and in these five lessons will explore the theory, chord shapes and exercises you can use to start unlocking your creativity.  



Open Chords

### You're in the right place

Welcome to the YGA Club! Let me start by saying thank you for making the initial jump and signing up to be a Club member. With so many guitar lessons and guitar companies out there, I am so grateful that you have found us and are now about to **start your incredible guitar journey** with us as your guide. We are honoured to be able to help you and we know we have all the tools and experience to help you achieve your guitar goal and dreams!


Start Here

If you've ever learnt a Clapton solo, or from any blues/rock players, you will have played the pentatonic scale! Now it's time to understand the scale, in a theoretical setting. In this course we shed some light on why this scale is so commonly used, and why it sounds so good over a variety of chord progressions!

Pentatonic Theory

During this course, we complete our collection of 7th chords by tackling the Diminished 7th and Minor 7th flat 5 chord. These chords are commonly seen in jazz and can be used to create tension that resolves to a variety of chords. We then move on to harmonising an entire scale with 7th chords, which gives us a new set of chords to play with!

Diminished Chords

Ever wondered what people meant when they say "we're playing in the key of A" for example? Well, in this course we will take you through everything you need to understand how to construct a key using scale harmonisation. To understand this fully, you need to have learnt the previous essentials course as the chord construction and scale construction topics will be at the base of this new piece of theory.

Scale Harmonisation

The term 'triad' in a musical setting simply means 3 note chord. In previous courses, we have tackled the major, minor and diminished triad chords, which are the most commonly used. However, there are many more triad chords in the theory world, including suspended and augmented chords, which we tackle in this course.

Triad Construction

### Complete your knowledge

Welcome to the Unlocking Minor CAGED course, the perfect follow-up to the "Unlocking Major CAGED" course. This intermediate guitar course comprises seven units that will **complete your grasp of the versatile CAGED system**. Contrary to common belief, this system isn't limited to chord shapes; it's the key to unlocking the entire fretboard with scales too! In this course, **we seamlessly blend theory with practical application**. Building upon the major CAGED system. We guide you through every position, covering chords, arpeggios, pentatonic and diatonic scales. Our structured daily exercises ensure this knowledge becomes second nature, enabling you to **effortlessly navigate the fretboard**.

Unlocking Minor CAGED

The modes of the major scale are a complex but essential topic for guitarists. This two-part series delves into them, taking a detailed look at the Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian modes in part one. Understanding modes is a fundamental aspect of music theory, and it involves learning scale formulas. By the end of this course, these first four modes become comprehensible.

Part two continues with the Mixolydian mode and covers all seven modal scales. It also discusses how to apply these scales practically on the guitar. The key concept is grouping the scales into major and minor families, reflecting their real-world usage. 

The Modes

### Blues like BB

If you've heard of the blues then you've heard of B.B. King. With his **incredible feel, tone, bending and vibrato** he truly is **The King of the Blues**. In this course, Dan passionately takes you through the key aspects of B.B.King's style to allow you to bring some of it into your own blues playing. He'll guide you through two solos in the style of 'The Thrill is Gone' and 'Three O Clock Blues', and take an in depth look at B.B. King's note choice over each chord in a blues. If you've always wanted to play the blues like The King this is the course for you!

B.B.King

When it comes to blues, we all love the idea of ripping into a face melting, 36 bar solo, taking the audience on a journey through time and space... But... without an absolutely locked down rhythm section, it would all fall apart! That’s the purpose of this course. I want to remind you guys that the blues is all about rhythm. Being able to grab a guitar, plug in, start tapping your foot and laying down a rock solid groove that the audience can’t help but move to, well, there’s your magic, baby! Everything else is born and thrives from that initial groove, so let’s dig into how we can master some proper rhythms! 

Blues Rhythm

### Pure blues energy

Welcome to our Freddie King player study course! I'm personally absolutely delighted to be walking you through every aspect of Freddie's blues playing, especially as he's one of the most influential guitar players in my life. There's something quite magical about the way Freddie King commands the stage, taking total control over the band, both rhythmically and melodically. His guitar appears to simply be an extension of his body and soul, entwined with his soulful vocals and incredible awareness of the groove. Put simply, Freddie King is an absolute master of every aspect of the blues, and we have a lot to learn from him. 

Freddie King

9th chords take chord construction to the next level, as we potentially get into the world of 5 note chords. As you can imagine, with this many notes in a chord the sound starts to get a little crowded, and massively changes. In this course, we cover major 9th, minor 9th and dominant 9th chords. We discuss the effect of adding the 9th, how it makes the chord sounds, where they are used and how you don't have to play all 5 notes every time! This course is great for those of you looking to advance from basic 7th chord ideas and add even more chords to your repertoire.

9th Chords

### Historic tone, phrasing and songwriting

Eric Clapton will probably always be considered one of the greatest all-time guitar players if nothing else for his impressive career that has spanned over 50 years! We've put together an incredible 26 lesson course, taking a deep dive into Clapton's legendary time with Cream, including a range of awesome solos, rhythm tracks, theory and, above all, a real understanding of exactly how Clapton did what he did on the guitar, whilst he changed rock history with Cream! 


Eric Clapton

### Climb the Stairway

The Led Zeppelin axe man essentially spawned an entire generation of guitarists and songwriters by beautifully blending traditional blues music with the more progressive sounds and techniques of his day to create something new, exciting and special. In this course we'll study his lead and rhythm playing, tackle the scales and theory behind his sound, and examine how he used techniques such as major chord riffs and octave parts in his songwriting.

Jimmy Page

### Define your blues playing

Welcome to our Jack White & The White Stripes player study! From the moment the album Elephant was released back in 2003, Jack White was propelled to international guitar stardom. At his core, he is a blues guy, but with the White Stripes, he took the core teachings of this genre and turned it into something completely unique. The dynamics, the roughness, the energy & the simplicity all combine to give us this incredible music, that is still as fresh today as it was 20 years ago.

Jack White & The White Stripes

### Two hands are better than one!

What do you think about when you think of finger tapping? Well, for some it’s a bit of a gimmick, a party trick etc... but Claire has a very different point of view, and one we would be wise to acknowledge, for the good of our playing! Actually, **finger tapping can be an incredible tool for creativity and finding your own voice on the guitar**... Just look at players like Eddie Van Halen, or more modern day players like Tim Henson from Polyphia. As well as the incredible technical skill you need to build up to play in this way, you're also developing your showmanship! Especially in a rock setting, finger tapping has a certain theatrical element to it, and Claire loves nothing more than wowing her audience when playing live using this technique! 

Finger Tapping

### Underrated hero!

Welcome to our Kurt Cobain player study! It's fair to say that Kurt is not an obvious choice as the "guitar hero" that our player studies typically focus on, but trust me, he is a worthy inclusion. He is somewhat of the **"anti-guitar-hero"**, and for that alone, he deserves a place in our Player Study hall of fame. Kurt Cobain is one of the **most important influences** to so many great, modern rock guitarists. Across the years, so many have said that "Come As You Are" is the first song they ever learnt on a banged-up old acoustic guitar, and this includes our wonderful tutor Franco.

Kurt Cobain

### Breaking down barre-iers!

Firstly I want to congratulate you! If you’re looking at this course, and you’re either starting your barre chord journey or getting frustrated by how long they take to learn, that’s amazing news! It means you are no longer a beginner guitar player, and you’re crossing over to an intermediate skill set! Now don’t get me wrong, the crossing is a long bridge, with many hurdles, but we’re here to help you through it! **To conquer the barre chord, you need great tools in your practice belt, and you need to be a little bit stubborn.** In this course, we’ll give you the tools you need to master the barre chord, and help you with the mindset of learning them. 

Barre Chords

Ed Sheeran’s guitar playing is so much more than your standard singer songwriter strumming a few chords to accompany themself. Ed’s a real virtuoso in his specific style of groove based acoustic music, and we have a lot to learn from him. In fact, Thomas has broken his style down into four core techniques and ideas that we need to master. The slap technique, the chug technique, the flowing fingerstyle technique & the art of embellishing simple chord shapes. In this course, we cover all of these skills and ensure that you understand how to use them in your own playing. 

Ed Sheeran

## Master chord choice and melody

It's fair to say that Noel Gallagher is one of the major reasons a lot of students pick up the guitar in the first place, and the day we all learn how to strum Wonderwall as a student is a mega day indeed! Noel Gallagher is an incredible singer, songwriter and guitar player, and we have so much we can learn from him. He's a true master of melody, both in his chord choice as well as in his lead guitar playing. We don't need to be able to shred, we don't need a million new chord shapes, we simply need to learn how to take what we have, add a few choice extras, and make our playing come alive! 

Noel Gallagher

### The smoothest lead around

Welcome to the Carlos Santana Player Study! Santana has one of the most unique and recognizable guitar styles from the last 50 years. In this course, we look at how you can achieve that signature sound. For the lead playing, we use two custom riffs and solos based around two of his biggest hits to explain how he utilizes a range of cool techniques and licks. We also take an **in-depth look at the Dorian scale** as it plays a huge part in his style, both in the lead parts and in the rhythm parts. We also learn how to construct those Santana-style rhythm tracks by taking a closer look at the theory behind them and how to play those awesome Latin American style grooves.

Carlos Santana

### Learn the fretboard

The fretboard can be quite the mystery to students of all levels. Even after you know some chords, scales and licks, you’re probably still staring at that plank of wood with dots on it thinking **“what is this thing?!”**, and don’t worry, that’s very normal! Let us introduce you to the power of octaves. This simple concept, and beautiful word, will shine an enormous light of understanding over the whole fretboard. Understanding the octave will help you understand the instrument as a whole; the chords become easier, scales become easier, intervals, tuning and even the general build of the guitar all becomes understandable. Learning octaves is absolutely crucial! 

Octaves

### The musical blueprint

This course is unique, and will answer some of the biggest questions you’ve likely ever asked as a beginner or intermediate player. **“Why do these chords sound good together? Why can I play this chord here, and use that scale over the top?”**. We’ve all asked these questions before, and the answer lies in Harmony. We have all these chords, we have all these scales and pieces of theory fragmented across all of that, but how does all of that translate to actual music? Well, Franco is here to transform your guitar from something you practice, to something you create music with. And show you how you can use it to learn songs completely by ear.

Harmony

A fundamental understanding of triad chords gives us a solid base, but as we expand the chord harmony we enter into a new world of sounds, many of which define certain genres of music! In this course, we learn how minor 7th, major 7th and dominant 7th chords are constructed, as well as get a deeper understanding of chord construction in general. If you love jazz, blues and funk music then this course will help you take a massive leap in understanding those genres.

7th Chords

### The **best** place to begin your journey

Welcome to our beginners 30 day challenge, and first up, let me say congrats for committing to your guitar playing and to this challenge. We will be showing you how to play guitar, from scratch, with our aim to install a habit of daily practice. It may seem obvious, but daily practice is the key to properly learning the guitar, so we will be setting you up with proper practice plans as the course develops.

30 Day Beginner Challenge

### Become the guitar player you want to be

Welcome to our level one Acoustic Beginners course. If you're a beginner with an acoustic guitar then this is where you need to start! We take you step by step through the key aspects you need to lay the foundations of your guitar playing, and start you on your journey to becoming the guitar player you want to be! This course will focus on building good habits (and losing bad ones) and a really solid technique that you'll be able to build on.

Acoustic Beginners Level 1

### The magic of fingerstyle

Fingerstyle is an extremely powerful technique. It has the ability to take all of those chords that you already play on a daily basis and **turn them into something truly magical**. When you put the pick down and start using your fingers, you open up a whole new world of sounds. You can play those same open chord shapes that you've been playing since the start of your guitar journey, but suddenly you can pick out individual notes, you can access specific melodies within the chords and create entirely fresh new compositions. **It really is exciting to see it come together**, and in this course we take you from ground up as a beginner to the technique.

Acoustic Fingerstyle  Level 1

### The is **the** sound...

Completed Fingerstyle level 1? It's time for level 2. This course really reminds me of when I first picked up my acoustic guitar and I was listening to guys like John Mayer. I became obsessed, because I just loved that percussive sound that he was able to make. It was like he was playing the same chords that I knew, and it all looked quite familiar, and yet something really cool was happening with right side of the guitar. There's this thumb hit and a slap and all of kind of percussive things. Thomas has kind of taken that style, and that percussive feeling, and actually put it into a into a structure that allows us to learn it properly, and quickly.

Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 2

### Take you speed and dexterity to the next level

Welcome to our Beginner Guitar Gym course! We're not worried about theory here, this course is all about giving you the technical skill to tackle even the toughest solos out there. We don't just write out the exercises either, **you'll be able to play along with Dan** to make sure you're keeping in time, and everything is sounding just right! If you want a course to work on every day to increase your speed and make your playing more enjoyable this is the one for you.

Beginner Gym

### Time to master those bends! 

The guitar has a real superpower, and that power is string bending. Bending a string from one note to the next gives you access to a more vocal-like quality, as well as a range of notes that are simply not available to us on an instrument like the piano. **The sound of your bend can almost act as a signature for your playing**. It dives a little more deeply into the soul of the player, and, once you have the technique down, you can use bends to make the guitar sing as you want it to sing. We can’t teach you the latter part, as that’s within you, but we can help you get it out by helping you master the technique you need to be confident playing bends on the guitar. 

Beginners Bends

### Time rock with power chords!

Welcome to our Electric Beginners Level Two course. In this course we really start to **take advantage of the capabilities of the electric guitar** over the acoustic - the biggest of all being the ability to plug into an amp and create distorted sounds! We therefore start by learning one of the most fundamental chords in guitar - Power Chords. These chords really do define rock, punk, indie and grunge music and you can hear them used everywhere from Green Day to Nirvana and Guns N' Roses! An indispensable weapon to have in your guitar arsenal. 

Electric Beginners Level 2

### Start the journey to blues mastery

Welcome to our first Intermediate Electric Blues Guitar course! In this course we'll take an incredibly detailed look at the world of blues guitar and guide you through **all the fundamentals that the great blues players use** and lay some truly epic foundations that will allow you to take your blues playing to a professional level. We'll tackle the fundamentals when it comes to rhythm and lead, including the 12 bar structure and the minor and major crossover, plus lots more! 

Electric Blues Essentials Level 1

### Chords and lead together!

Welcome to our Electric Intermediate Level 2 course! In this exciting journey through the world of music, we delve into the artistry of Jimi Hendrix and his mastery of both chords and lead guitar. But before we dive into that, we take a thrilling detour into the realm of rock and roll, drawing inspiration from the legendary Chuck Berry. As an intermediate guitarist, mastering the 12-bar rock-and-roll is essential, and we guide you through it with fun and flair.

Electric Intermediates Level 2

### The most important thing

As you progress through your guitar journey, your ability to play rhythmically is going to be the most important element of your playing. In fact, simply realising that **rhythm is the #1 most important aspect of your playing**, is going to be a huge step on your journey. It is very common to consider chords, scales or even the physicality of playing more important. It isn't. Rhythm is the boss, and needs as much, if not more attention than anything else. 

Beginners Rhythm

### Play that funky music

Welcome to Funk Essentials Level 1! In this course we'll be taking your funk playing from absolute scratch all the way up to confidently playing tracks in the style of James Brown to Bruno Mars! We'll learn to make your right hand the driving force, allowing you to groove effortlessly. As you progress, you'll delve into chords, lead lines, and ghost notes essential for any funk style.This course is a must for all intermediate guitarists, it will level up not only your funk but your pop, rock, blues and pretty much any other genre that you play!



Funk Essentials Level 1

### The scale is not your everything

Without a doubt, the hardest topic to teach and learn on the guitar is improvisation. There is a reason you can find millions of videos on learning the scales you can use to improvise, but very few on actually how to then improvise with them. That reason; **Improvisation is creative, personal and unique to everyone**. How do you teach something that is unique to everyone, especially online?! Well, we've been working for months to bring you the start of an incredible series of courses that focuses on helping you discover your ability to improvise, which is a skill that can be learnt and taught!

Improvisation Level 1

### Study the legend

Welcome to our Jimi Hendrix player study. We're studying everything that defines Hendrix as a guitar player. This includes his exceptional lead skills, rhythmic prowess, and chord mastery. We'll explore how he seamlessly combined all of these elements to create something **truly groundbreaking**. From full on fuzz-fuelled rock, to Jimi's trademark chords-with-lead style, Dan will take you through all the technique and theory so you'll be able to **create your own music in Hendrix's legendary style.**

Jimi Hendrix

### Take the lead!

Welcome to our Lead Guitar Beginners Level One course! If you're a beginner and love the idea of playing lead guitar then this is the course for you. Just as with all of our level one beginner courses, our primary focus is to **build the key foundations** that you can rapidly build on as you progress. We start from scratch with the key techniques that will allow you to build strength and accuracy with both hands whilst learning cool exercises that will help you monitor your progress and **increase your speed** and strength very quickly. 

Lead Guitar Beginners Level 1

### Red Hot guitar playing

Welcome to our John Frusciante player study! In this 20 lesson course, we will be guiding you through all the core skills and techniques you need to **deeply understand how John Frusciante plays**. This is not a simple case of learning a RHCP song and then moving on. We're learning by taking a proper look under the hood of John's style, breaking down the theory and applying it to our custom written Frusciante tracks. These tracks capture the essence of his playing... And what a player he is.



Courses

30 Day Beginner Challenge

Guitar Skills – Beginner

7th Chords

Theory Lab – Intermediate

9th Chords

Theory Lab – Intermediate

Acoustic Beginners Level 1

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Acoustic Beginners Level 2

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 1

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 2

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

Acoustic Fingerstyle Level 3

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

Angus Young

Player Studies – Intermediate

B.B.King

Player Studies – Intermediate

Barre Chords

Challenges – Beginner

Beginner Gym

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Beginners Bends

Challenges – Beginner

Beginners Rhythm

Challenges – Beginner

Beginners Speed Building

Challenges – Beginner

Blues Licks

Challenges – Intermediate

Blues Rhythm

Challenges – Intermediate

Brian May

Player Studies – Advanced

Carlos Santana

Player Studies – Advanced

Cory Wong

Player Studies – Advanced

David Gilmour

Player Studies – Intermediate

Dimebag Darrell

Player Studies – Advanced

Diminished Chords

Theory Lab – Intermediate

Ed Sheeran

Player Studies – Intermediate

Eddie Van Halen

Player Studies – Advanced

Electric Beginners Level 1

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Electric Beginners Level 2

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Electric Beginners Level 3

Guitar Skills – Beginner

Electric Blues Essentials Level 1

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

Electric Blues Essentials Level 2

Guitar Skills – Advanced

Electric Blues Essentials Level 3

Guitar Skills – Master

Electric Intermediates Level 1

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

Electric Intermediates Level 2

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

Eric Clapton

Player Studies – Intermediate

Essential Theory

Theory Lab – Beginner

Finger Tapping

Challenges – Intermediate

Freddie King

Player Studies – Intermediate

Funk Essentials Level 1

Guitar Skills – Intermediate

George Benson

Player Studies – Master

Harmony