The Guitarist Blog

Here is the main melody to the song "Pipeline" arranged for two acoustic guitars. Guitar One is playing the melody.  The melody comes in after guitar two plays the main riff four times. Guitar Two is playing the main riff to the song.

Here is a very simple version to the folk song "Scarborough Fair."   Guitar One is playing the melody.  Most of the notes are played at the first three frets.  Use finger one, two and three on frets one, two and three respectively.  Use the third finger on the notes played at the fifth fret as well.  Just slide between the third and fifth frets with your third finger. Guitar Two is strumming the chords.  The chords used for the accompaniment are Am, Em, D and G. the strumming pattern goes like this - Bass - Strum - Strum.  The Bass note is the lowest note for each chord.

Here is a simple duet version to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."  Guitar one is playing the main melody.  It is only using the notes on the first two strings.  In fact, the only notes are C, D, E, F and G.  Notice how the first finger plays the notes on the first fret and the third finger plays the notes on the third fret. Guitar two is playing the harmony part.  It is a little more involved.  It starts by playing notes very close to the melody and then moves to playing a bass line on the second half of the song. Have a friend play along!

Here is an acoustic version of the solo to Tom Petty's "Breakdown." The first two measures of the solo repeats the main riff to the song.  You will hear this intro, here in the solo, and again at the end of song as the song fades. The riff is followed by two guitar licks.  The first lick is played in the A minor pentatonic scale at the fifth fret.  I am playing a quick slide from fret 7 to 8, and then back to fret 8 instead of playing a bend like you hear in the Tom Petty recording.  The slide is a little easier than bending on the acoustic. The final climactic lick is played starting with a slide from fret three to five.  I am playing double stops (two strings at a time).  The rhythm is all triplets.  This lick ends with a few slides along the second string alternating with the open first string.

Here is an acoustic cover of the main parts to "Socha Hai"  from the Bollywood Movie 'Rock On!" This song is played on electric guitar, but I decided to play the parts on an acoustic.  The chord progression is D - G - Bm - A.  I am playing simple two string power chords.   The progression is the same throughout the video. For the lead parts, I am first playing the opening riff, then going to the main intro melody (which comes back at the end of the guitar solo), and then I am playing the guitar solo. At the beginning of the video I forgot to put the song title.  Oh well, you know what song it is!