Build the vehicle

LAST MONTH, I talked about how I devised the primary riffs in the title track to my 2023 album Hard Wired, which is played in drop D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). I’d now like to share some

WHEN I AM composing and arranging music, I like to think as an orchestrator. As the guitarist, I try to represent just about everything that’s in the arrangement — the drum syncopations, horn parts, k

IF ONLY HALF the rumors about him are true, Ozzy Osbourne should be dead. Yet, after 21 years of twisted public behavior, the man who brought you songs like “Paranoid,” “Bark at the Moon” and “Childre

AN ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL element in blues guitar is the turnaround. It is a basic function of blues music that the turnaround happens at the end of the progression and flips it over back to the beginni

Decorated with accolades from the Grammys to the Academy Of Country Music, the legendary Nashville sessioneer has played on over a thousand records. Here, he shares his go-to gear, why he surrendered to the metronome, and how “letting the emotion escape” is the key to nailing that first take

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