Rock guitar lessons are among the most popular today. Rock music was created by the guitar and when most people think “guitar”, they think “rock”. Rock music evolved from traditional blues music which is also guitar oriented. The origins of rock were on electric and acoustic, but rock belongs to the electric guitar. This article will cover some of the things you can expect to learn in rock guitar lessons.
*Chords: Major, minor, 7th, minor 7th, and “power chords” are all used in rock guitar, in both open and bar chord format.
*Scales: Rock guitar is all about the guitar solo. Rock guitar solos are sometimes played using the Major scale and Natural minor scale, but mostly is done with the pentatonic minor scale. The use of Chromatic scales is also common in rock guitar.
*Left hand techniques: The left hand, or fretting hand, plays a big part in the sound and style of rock guitar. You rock guitar lessons could cover; bending, sliding, hammer-on & pull-offs, and muting.
*Right hand techniques: Finger picking is sometimes used in rock guitar, but usually is done with a guitar pick. Rock guitar lessons could cover; alternate picking, raking, pick slides, and palm muting. Techniques of the right hand are a very intricate part of the sound of rock guitar because of the use of “distortion” or “overdrive” on the guitar amplifier. Having good right hand technique will make you or break you in rock guitar. Rock guitar lessons will focus greatly on right hand technique. Another staple of rock guitar is “taping”. This technique is where the first or second finger of the right hand frets a note by taping or hammering down on the fret board. This technique was made popular by Eddie Van Halen in the late 70’s on his famous track “Eruption”.
Rock guitar lessons could cover learning songs from the original players that brought a signature sound to rock guitar. Some examples are; Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode”, Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” or “Blue Suede Shoes”, and many works of The Beatles. Rock guitar continues to evolve to today by innovative players over the years like Jimi Hendrix and bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Kinks.
Rock guitar also evolved into later genres of heavy metal which has many sub-genres that will be covered in another article. Rock guitar lessons are among the most popular lessons of today. Even though styles and genres change and evolve, the roots that were started in 1950’s are still the foundation of the genre and are still taught in modern rock guitar lessons and studied by beginner rock guitar students.
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