anyonecanplayguitar

Animal Nitrate by Suede

A lot of people have asked me to take a look at this one. And I understand why: it's a 1990s classic featuring some beautiful guitar work from the mighty Bernard Butler. There's plenty to dig into here - memorable and quirky rhythm parts and a fan...

Nice Lick 23 Backing Track

Here's the backing. Use it to practice the lick, variations on the lick or anything else you like in the key of Bb major. 

Nice Lick 23

This week, I'm continuing the Nice Lick series with an arpeggio-based idea that works over major or major 7th chords.

I've tabbed out the lick below along with the full piece that I play at the start of the video. The backing track will be i...

Aurora Borealis by Meat Puppets Backing Track

Here's my backing. The arrangement is like the original. Main riff X5, bridge, main riff X4, bridge, main riff 1 and a half times, end on E minor.

Hope you enjoy playing along!

Aurora Borealis by Meat Puppets

This week a slightly obscure, but thoroughly gorgeous track from the band Meat Puppets. I've been listening to the album Meat Puppets II quite a bit lately and just had to sit down and figure this one out and turn it into a video. 

I've...

Goofin' Around by Franny Beecher

This week, an incredible, virtuosic bit of rock n roll from Franny Beecher. For those of you who don't know the name, he was Bill Haley's guitar player. Before that, he was a member of Benny Goodman's band (like Charlie Christian before him), and ...

Chord Tone Soloing Backing Track

Here's the backing. Enjoy playing along!

Chord Tone Soloing Secrets

Hello all! This week, I'm discussing how I think about playing over chord changes, an approach sometimes referred to as chord tone soloing, or playing the changes. 

If you want to move beyond just noodling about in a scale, this approac...

Wild Child Backing Track

Here's the backing. This was a fun one to put together. I do love a bit of fuzz bass, and it sounds even better with reverb on it. 

Enjoy playing along!

Wild Child by The Ventures

This week I'm looking at a great 1966 track from the Ventures. There's a heavy, Louie Louie style backing, and over the top we have some lovely country-ish guitar licks.

I've tabbed everything out below. The tab is transcribed directly from ...

Stormy Monday Backing Track

This is the backing that I play over at the start of the video. The exact chord changes I'm using are shown in the tab, but it's very similar to the Bobby Bland harmony. 

It's a nice backing to play over - you can use it to work on both...

Stormy Monday: an in-depth guide to a blues classic

Blues this week, and a much-requested lesson on the standard Stormy Monday. This is an essential blues tune, and one that can be approached in a lot of different ways. In this video I go through some of the options, by taking a look at the evoluti...

Music reading for guitar: any point?

Something a little different this week. I'm occasionally asked whether it's any longer worthwhile learning to read traditional music notation on the guitar. This video is my attempt at answering that question. (In short, I think it is a useful ski...

Jennifer's Veil Backing Track

Here's the backing track. This is an abbreviated arrangement, as I play it at the start of the video - intro, verse 1 and chorus 1. 

Enjoy playing along. 

Jennifer's Veil by The Birthday Party

This week I'm looking at the track Jennifer's Veil by The Birthday Party. (For those of you unfamiliar with the band, The Birthday Party were an Australian band fronted by Nick Cave and featuring guitar from the incredible Rowland S Howard.)

All-keys Triad Workout Backing Track

Here's the backing. It's very basic, but I hope it makes practising the exercise just a little bit more FUN. If you find it too fast, you might like to use some kind of app to take the tempo down to something more manageable initially. And for tho...

A challenging all-keys triad workout

This week, I'm returning to one of my favourite topics: triads. For me, they're one of the main ways I understand and navigate the fretboard, and are incredibly useful in all kinds of musical situations.

In the video I'm breaking down one of...

Can: exploring the guitar work of Michael Karoli

I've been meaning to make a video on the band Can for years, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. Their music is so complex and magical that it's not really possible for me to cover one of their songs and break it down into learnable parts. S...

Nice Lick 22 Backing Track

Here's the backing. Use it to work on the licks I demonstrate in the video, some variations of your own, or just just have fun with the G minor pentatonic or G blues scale. 

Nice Lick 22: Dorian sounds with a simple triad trick

Hello all. In today's video I'm continuing my occasional Nice Lick series. This lick is all about using a simple triad embellishment idea to give you a dorian mode flavour. If you already know a few basic triad shapes then this concept is a really...

Learning a Charlie Parker tune

Today we're going to learn a couple of Charlie Parker tunes - something I highly recommend all of you try, whether you're particularly into jazz or not.

CP was of course a legendary jazz sax virtuoso, and there's so much we can take from try...

Made of Stone Backing Track

Here's my backing. Tempting though it was to spend a week trying to recreate the majesty of the original production, I opted to keep it quite simple with this one: just bass and drums following the arrangement of the original recording. There's a ...

Made of Stone by The Stone Roses

Hi everyone. This week, a Stone Roses classic. This one has been requested by a number of people. I'd half learned the track a few years ago, but it was good to revisit it and fix a few things that I'd been getting wrong. 

I've tabbed i...

Patreon Q&A

As promised I've made a Q&A video. I didn't prepare any answers in advance so what you're getting is an unedited, ramble-y, stream of consciousness kind of video. But I hope it contains some interesting information. Thanks to all of you for th...

Patreon Q and A

Hello all,

After last month's studio tour video I want to continue to do the occasional Patreon-only video and either this week or next I'm planning some kind of Q and A session. 

So just let me know your questions below and I'll ...

Tasty + beautiful soul guitar parts backing track

Here's the backing track to accompany the soul fills lesson. You can use it to practice my piece, but it would also be a good idea to see if you can come up with some similar ideas of your own. Have fun!

How to craft tasty, beautiful soul guitar parts

This week, some soul/r&b style guitar, and an easy way to create nice fills and solo ideas.

The basic concept is to create double stops using the major or minor pentatonic scales. You can just play the scale that fits the key and use you...

Reggae Backing Track 4

The final backing track is once again a G to Amin progression, but with a slightly different feel to the first one. In the video I use this one to demonstrate the embellishments to the basic rhythm part. 

Reggae Backing Track 3

This one has a G to F chord pattern with a swing feel. Good for practising that swung double chop rhythm part. 

Reggae Backing Track 2

This one is a 4 bar cycle in A minor: Am Em Dm Am.