Guitar Nine Columns: Guitar Technique

Guitarist Paul Kuntz is back with some thoughts on how to avoid that feeling of being `lost without a map`.

Kick-start your musical development with these essential tips from Curtis.

The beautiful part about the tempered music scale lies in it`s flexibility. One of Ken`s favorite tricks is to take one shape, and use it to move up or down the fretboard in a linear way. The similarities in chord shapes will allow you to do the same.

Guitarist Paul Kuntz is back with some fresh ideas on getting out of playing `in the box` and save untold wear and tear on your frets.

Instrumentalist Joe Bochar serves up a thinly disguised look at chromatics.

Jason Pruett offers his light-hearted yet insightful views on getting the most from your guitar and busting a playing rut.

If you`ve got the urge to explore jazz after a background in rock, you`ll need to understand the differences between the two styles. Guitarist Sean Gill gives you the keys to unlock the door to jazz.

Houston guitarist Rusty Cooley figures that with ten fingers, there`s got to be times when you can use over half of them to express your ideas.

Just can`t get enough info about modes, can you? Guitarist Tony Young relates modes to chord progressions.

New Jersey guitarist Paul Kuntz is back and aside from a ravenous appetite, he`s got plans to teach you all about tuplets and fitting the notes to the rhythm.

New Jersey guitarist Paul Kuntz takes time out from lunch to give you his assurance that there is life beyond the blues scale.

Don`t let your current concept of reality dominate your guitar playing.

Do you still think the Aeolian mode is a ship from Star Trek? Are you comfortable discussing Mixolydian and Phrygian modes in mixed company? Tony Young cuts to the heart of modes.

An original work (part one of two preludes) composed for solo electric guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

Stop practicing with boring scales and start testing your fingers with melodic 'riffs' from Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and more.

An original work composed for solo classical guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

An arrangement of the Tchaikovsky piece for solo guitar, in tabulature and standard notation.

Learn some substitutions for those tried and true barre chords. How the knowledge of triads can help you come up with original sounding guitar parts.

Some creative uses of digital delay when writing or recording.

Call-and-response practicing to enhance your phrasing and composing.

Stuck recycling the same licks and riffs? Dig yourself out of your guitar playing rut and rediscover the instrument you love.

Stop strumming those simple barre chords, and embellish your chordal work with licks and phrases that blur the distiction between rhythm and lead guitar playing.

Tips for playing arpeggiated chord progressions using string skipping.

Break free of your limiting beliefs about pentatonic scales.

More short lick ideas to kick-start your technique.

Emulating your heroes is fine, but consider how far should you take it.

Nowhere to go with ascending licks but up? Dan McAvinchey confronts the problem and gives you several ideas you can use today. Don't just take the easy way out and start descending either.

A number of short lick ideas designed to kick-start your technique.