Although the electric guitar originated with blues music, it is rock & roll that gave its popularity. With rock & roll music, the electric guitar became a incredibly expressive instrument. All guitar lessons usually touch on rock as well, but if you want to learn to play rock guitar, there are special modules you will want to take up. These modules focus exclusively on rock music.

The things you will be taught when you learn to play rock guitar can be roughly spread into three modules: first lessons, where you will learn the basics about playing the guitar, electric guitar improvisation and the power chords.

First Lessons

These lessons are mostly for beginners. If you have some knowledge about playing the guitar, you may skip some of these. This is up to your teacher to decide.

However, if you’re holding a guitar for the first time, this is where your teacher will usually start. You will be taught the fundamentals about playing a guitar in general and playing rock guitar in particular. You will learn the basics about rock lead guitar and power chords. After these first lessons, you will have some idea on how to play classic rock guitar. If you get these right, you are on your way to actually playing rock guitar.

Electric Guitar Improvisation

In the next lessons, you will probably be taught various rock techniques, such as sliding, string-bending, pull-offs, vibrato and hammer-ons. These tips will enable you to play some fairly good rock solos. You will also learn about scales and chords that will help you start making up your own music.
There might be a lot of blues references within these lessons. Going through all these will help you understand the relation between blues and rocks, which is essential if you want to learn to play rock guitar like a pro.

The Power Chords

The Power chords are two or three string distorted sounding chords used in many of the most popular rock songs of all times. You will learn to play several rock songs during the first few lessons of this module. Afterwards you will be very familiar with the fretboard and surprise yourself with the sounds you will be able to play.

If you seriously want to learn to play rock guitar, don’t get frustrated or discouraged if you’re not playing the way you would like to at the beginning. If you enjoy playing, the progress will come at some point. Find a guitar teacher you communicate well with, design a workable schedule to practice and, most importantly, try to have fun while you’re learning.

Wayne Henderson Inteview

by Rick Landers.
Modern Guitars had the good fortune to catch master bluegrass guitarist and guitar builder Wayne Henderson while at a gig in Maryland. Henderson has played all around the globe and getting an opportunity to see him in an intimate setting was something we didn’t want to miss. Bluegrass and guitar lovers sat quietly in a church, while Wayne and his long-time partner, Helen White, pulled out their instruments for a delightful set of bluegrass. Henderson guitars are superbly and painstakingly built by hand in Rugby, Virginia, a speck of a town in southern Virginia with a population of 7. Wayne’s lived in the Appalachian region his entire life, but his his guitars are considered masterpieces throughout the world. Guitar players lavish praise on their craftsmanship and tonal qualities and ache over the ten year wait to own one. Wayne’s guitar building craftsmanship gained worldwide interest in 2005 when Allen St. John’s book, Clapton’s Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument, was published…

Newsfeed display by CaRP