JFRocks.com free online Guitar Lesson of the week

The technique lessons featured on this page are designed to be for Electric guitar. Most of the lessons covered here however will transfer to acoustic without any issue. This lesson page will be updated as often as possible. The other pages on JFRocks and JFRocks UNplugged keep me rather busy and I try to keep all technique lessons to CD ROM. What this page will do a lot of the time is expand upon lessons covered on various CD ROMs. If this is the case the Category below will state which CD ROM the lesson is expanding on. I hope you enjoy these mini lessons as I call them and remember all lessons from the past are located on the Lesson Archives page.

*Remember Effect suggestions are my suggestions for the home player. Usually suggestions are geared for a low budget.

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The song track

The Jam along track

The Video Guitar Lesson

Lesson MP3 song track

JAm TRack for this lesson - Drums only

JAm TRack for this lesson - Drums + Bass

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This Lesson's difficulty level 1-10 scale

This week we're going to look at sort of a combination Sun Sand and Surf part 2 and Alternative Rock Power chord riffing.

In the 90's and even today these Alternative rock guys took the Surf Beat to a new level and incorporate power chords around it. Usually these power chord patterns noodle around a Mixolydian scale built around a regular Major or minor scale. I've done my share of hired work for local singers of this kind of music. It's actually kind of fun to play. You can really take any scale you want and noodle around with it a bit and get some cool chord patterns out of it.

This lesson specifically looks at the Beat or Groove of some of this stuff as well as a simple chord pattern build off of root notes taken from the E Major scale. Fairly simple but a good starting point for beginners to start messing around with this sort of stuff and using scales to create chord patterns. The Surf beat is a very big thing in a lot of this 90's era music. It also makes for some great kick ins which are part of what makes this music. The Call from the Foo Fighters is a great example. Great kick in, and great use of a Surf music feel. The surf beat is ideal for riffing around power chord patterns and it can be altered as well into a more straight forward beat or all kinds of off beat intros and stuff like that. Which ever way you slice it a lot of this music from the 90's was basically surf music using power chords instead of scale patterns. Much like surf music you can also move outside traditional scales and pull power chord patterns out of 9 and 10 tone scales with chromatic sequences in them or even scales like Harmonic minor can be use. The chord combinations are really endless but it's a good idea to keep these songs simple in structure. This is not progressive rock it's just supposed to get some aggression out.

In the lesson below we're going to make up a basic power chord pattern and I'll give you some tips on how to scales you use as root notes to make up these patterns all day long. This type of music is what I call, 50 tunes an hour. Or 50 TPH. That means you can write 50 songs an hour if you put your mind to it. That simplicity though is part of what makes it fun, especially for beginner levels. Beginners will probably get the most out of this lesson but I suspect advanced level players will pull some ideas from it as well.

Above all just have fun with it. There will be a link to an mp3 of the lesson example here on the lessons page and also on the JFRocks MP3 page.

Root notes are tabbed out below. These are the root notes for the E Major scale that you can make basic power chord patterns out of.

E_______________________________________________
B_______________________________________________
G_______________________________________________
D_______________________________________________
A________________________________________________
E_0_2_4_5_7_8_11_12______________________________

E___________________________________________
B___________________________________________
G___________________________________________
D___________________________________________
A_0_2_4_5_7_9_11_12_________________________
E___________________________________________

E_______________________________________________
B_______________________________________________
G_______________________________________________
D__1_2_4_6_7_9_11_13_14_________________________
A_______________________________________________
E_______________________________________________

Three main shapes for power chords using our roots given above (6th string only for example purposes)

The first one is a Root , 5th combo, the 2nd one is a Root, 3rd combo, the 3rd one is a Root, minor 3rd combo, and the last one is a 5th, Root combo.

These are the most common shapes but you can reverse and twist these shapes into what ever you live and even add in random open strings or other strings. (see video for additional explanation)

E________________________________________________
B________________________________________________
G________________________________________________
D____________7___________________________________
A__7__4__3___7___________________________________
E__5__5__5_______________________________________

Another common element in this type of playing is the Octave double stop. Root and Root basically. You've seen these before in VH stuff and other music. A basic shape for this is below.

E_________________________________________
B_________________________________________
G______4B_________________________________
D__7A_____________________________________
A______2B_________________________________
E__5A_____________________________________

** The key thing to remember with power chord riffing is that you only have to know the notes on your 6th and 5th string for the most part. The shapes of the power chords don't change, they simply slide around. So if you know the notes in what ever scale you're dealing with and you have the notes on your 6th and 5th string memorized, then you have all the tools needed to be a power chord riff writing monster.

In the lesson example below I will put together a simple power chord riffing example out of chords taken from the E Major scale. Specifically, E, B, G#, C#, F#, and "A" power chords. These chords were chosen for no other reason than they sound good together. This is a pretty common pattern for this type of music though, "Weezer" likes this chord pattern a lot. I like "Weezer" good band. Great use of the Surf music back beat too on a lot of their songs.

For this exercise I will be using a Surf back beat. Boom, Bap bap, bap. <That's JFRocks Drum tab lol>

** If you use one of the JAm TRax to practice the intro below. Be sure to pay close attention to the timing of when the accent hits come in.

E________________________________________________________________
B________________________________________________________________
G_____________________4---6________________________________________
D______6___________ _____________ 2____________________ 4_4________
A__2___4______4___2___2---4____4__0_>let ring>till kick in>>__ 2_2_4______
E__0______5_4_2___0________0x_2_________________________ __ 2______

Real basic but it has nice flow to it and that's what you go for with this type of stuff. Good Back beat ( of which surf music is perfect) and good chord flow. Nothing too weird sounding.

You can do many different things with this chord pattern, you can either hit it in feel with the beat, or you can strum it as I have below, or you can just hit it one time per measure. There are a lot of mainstay strumming patterns in this type of music. I've chosen one of the more popular ones below. It's a total of 8 hits between 2 chords. 3 hits on the first chord and 5 hits on the 2nd chord.

ALL DOWN STROKES !! no alternate picking. You want the lowest string in the power chord to be the most prominent.

E____________________________________________________
B____________________________________________________
G___________________________________________________
D____________________9_9_9__6_6_6_6_6_______________
A_6_6_6__7_7_7_7_7___7_7_7__4_4_4_4_4_______________
E_4_4_4__5_5_5_5_5__________________________________

E_________________________________________
B_________________________________________
G__________________________________2______
D____________________________2___2_2______
A_6_6_6__7_7_7_7_7___4_4_4___0___0_0______
E_4_4_4__5_5_5_5_5___2_2_2________________

E_____________________________________________________________
B_____________________________________________________________
G_____________________________________________________________
D_________________2___2_2_2_2__2______4_4_____________________
A_4_4_4_4_4_4_4___0___0_0_0_0__0______2_2_4___________________
E_2_2_2_2_2_2_2___________________________2___________________

E___________________________________________________________________
B___________________________________________________________________
G_____4---6_____________________ 4---6_________________________________
D_______________2___4_____________________2___4__________4_4________
A__2__2---4__ __4_0___2__4____2__2---4_____4_0___2_4__2_____2_2_4______
E__0_______0x_ 2________2____0________0x_ 2_______2__0_________2______

E___________________________________________________
B___________________________________________________
G___________________________________________________
D____________________9_9_9__6_6_6_6_6_______________
A_6_6_6__7_7_7_7_7___7_7_7__4_4_4_4_4_______________
E_4_4_4__5_5_5_5_5__________________________________

E____________________________________________0_________________________
B____________________________________________0_________________________
G____________________________________________0_________________________
D_________________2___2_2_2_2__2______4_4____0_>let chord ring and feedback if possible__
A_4_4_4_4_4_4_4___0___0_0_0_0__0______2_2_4__x_________________________
E_2_2_2_2_2_2_2___________________________2__2_________________________