Striking the right chord: theory ideas

Richard Barrett experiments with suspended and altered chords to bring a sense of suspense to your compositions

OVER THE LAST two columns, I’ve demonstrated a handful of what I consider to be essential “blues approved” licks that work well both as embellishments to rhythm parts or as phrases within a solo. Our

TODAY I'D LIKE to talk about downpicking — picking or strumming consecutive downstrokes — and why it can be so musically effective. This is something I learned from studying the riff-writing style of

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

I’VE COME FROM A VERY TECHNICAL BACKGROUND. When I started getting busier and time spent on artwork became much more precious, I began looking for ways to streamline the process without losing the pre

ERIC JOHNSON IS without doubt one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and, as I’ve stated, he has been a huge influence for me from the very first moment I heard him, way back in 1986. One of the