Here are the details of these important techniques and why they're so vital for every guitarist. RHYTHM GUITAR FUNDAMENTALS BARRING This technique literally opens up the entire music spectrum on your guitar allowing you to play many different chords using the same fingering! One of the key ingredients to understanding everything on the fretboard! MULTI-STRING ALTERNATE PICKING This is an absolute necessity for rhythm playing. Your chords come to life when you can separate which strings are being sounded. This is one method guitarists use to play different chord voicings. PALM MUFFLING This essential technique allows you to create dynamics in your playing. There is a noticeable difference in the sound of the note when you play it open and muffled. If you don't muffle correctly, you totally kill your notes. STRING SILENCING This is when you *do* want to kill your notes! Again... dynamics. You must know how to totally silence your guitar whether it's during or at the end of a song... and do it in time with the music. CHORD PICKING This technique allows you to play individual notes of chords using a pick and has endless possibilities. It's been used on literally a million songs. STRING SCRAPES Another dynamic technique that, when used properly and "in time" lets listeners know that you are a *rock machine*! STRING SLIDES Can you slide from the 6th string, 3rd fret to the 6th string 15th fret in time with an average tempo? Sliding is only part of it. You have to stay in time with your music and land on your target note with authority. LEAD GUITAR FUNDAMENTALS: HAMMER-ONS and PULL-OFFS To me, these two techniques are the very essence and foundation of stylistic guitar playing. I equate it to a baby learning to crawl. Without the development of crawling, then standing up, walking, running, balancing on one foot or becoming a professional athlete is impossible down the road. TRILLS I consider this an advanced technique. The best guitarists execute extremely fast trills and *always* stay in time with the music. Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower come to mind as "trill masters". RIGHT HAND TAPPING When I hear the word "tapping", I always think of Eddie Van Halen. Although he didn't actually invent this technique, he greatly expanded on it, turned it into an art form and thus creating a new standard technique for the guitar. Once you understand the fundamentals, you can take your playing where it's never been before! STRING BENDS This is another technique that has the equivalent of crawling then walking. Bending notes on guitar is one of the most used techniques for self expression and cultivating a guitarist's individual style. GHOST BENDS A creative variation of standard string bending for even more dynamic guitar playing. COMBINING BENDS AND TAPS A lot of players don't realize that combining techniques yields POWERFUL results! This is the incubator of creative playing in action! NATURAL HARMONICS You may already know that you can play natural harmonics at the 5th fret... maybe not... but did you know that there are other frets too? Do you know what the actual notes of these harmonics are so you can use them correctly in music? Do you know how to attack them properly to get the best possible sound? ARTIFICIAL HARMONICS Also known as pinch harmonics, this techniques lets you play the squealing harmonic of any note you choose. I can't stress enough how important this is for every guitarist... especially rockers! I'm reminded of an email I received from a student asking how Zakk Wylde created those killer squeals on the tune "No More Tears"... artificial harmonics baby! SINGLE STRING ALTERNATE PICKING This is it man! It took me way too long to master this technique. I didn't really know how to practice it. That's why I included it in this course... so you can get there faster than I did! Mastering this technique sets you apart from most guitarists. VIBRATO Vibrato is so necessary that without it, your playing is simply lifeless. This technique ranks right up there with hammer-ons and pull-offs as being the most important skill to develop. You see masters of any stringed instrument using vibrato to breath life into the notes being played. VOLUME SWELLS Another technique that sets you apart from other players. Volume swells are used to create haunting melodies and powerful chord surges. Most guitarists don't use this technique... which is one of the reasons *I do*. This post though a lot helpful is on Neo's demand for new threads.