Hopefully you've had chance to digest the last column and you're ready to get a little bit more outside. After the last article I received some really great feedback from some of the readers with suggestions of what they would like more to cover in the coming instalments.

One of the most popular questions was "What scales are used in bebop?" As with any style of music there's a lot more to it than that, in fact you may have opened a can of worms here, but I give you "The Bebop Dominant Scale"

As a guitar player, you may have come across the expression "2-5-1" before. If you're coming from a Jazz, or perhaps even Blues background, this phrase might sound familiar. If, however, you come from a more Rock oriented musical upbringing, this term might sound mysterious or confusing. This article should hopefully give you a decent understanding of what "2-5-1" means and how to incorporate it in your playing.

Bop 'n' Roll is the new series written by Live4Guitar team member Levi Clay. Over the coming months Levi will introduce you to various soloing concepts that will help bring a new twist to your playing - the swinging sounds of bebop.

There's no avoiding the fact that Jazz Fusion has made a solid comeback in recent years. Thanks to the rise of players like Guthrie Govan and Tom Quayle, mixed with the ease of communication and sharing via social networks like Youtube and Facebook - suddenly all of these sounds are just a few clicks away. Read on and i'll show you some full on bebop style licks.

Welcome to my Harmony and Theory Bible series.

These articles will aim to teach you how to approach theory and harmony in a fun and creative way. Here you will find everything from beginners' areas like intervals, chords, scale construction and modes, to more complex harmony analysis and soloing approaches. Whether you are total beginner or somebody looking to recap on some knowledge, this is the place for you.

In today’s article we are focusing on the 6th mode of the major scale – Aeolian mode.

Sweep picking (i.e. two or more pick strokes in the same direction on adjacent strings), is typically associated with arpeggios but can also be used to play scales more efficiently. This lesson will focus on sweep picking pentatonic scales but the process can be adapted to any scale. While this lesson will cover some initial steps, familiarity with sweep picking technique will help you to proces this material more quickly. If you're unfamiliar with sweep picking, Frank Gambale's books or DVDs may be a great place to start.

Welcome to my Harmony and Theory Bible series.

These articles will aim to teach you how to approach theory and harmony in a fun and creative way. Here you will find everything from beginners' areas like intervals, chords, scale construction and modes, to more complex harmony analysis and soloing approaches. Whether you are total beginner or somebody looking to recap on some knowledge, this is the place for you.

In today’s article we are focusing on the 5th mode of the major scale – Mixolydian mode

Welcome to my Harmony and Theory Bible series.

These articles will aim to teach you how to approach theory and harmony,in a fun and creative way. Here you will find everything from beginners' areas like intervals, chords, scale construction and modes, to more complex harmony analysis and soloing approaches. Whether you are total beginner or somebody looking to recap on some knowledge, this is the place for you.

In today’s article we are focusing on the 4th mode of the major scale – Lydian mode

In this article we will explain some ways to create a melody and to make harmonies using different intervals and also gain a general understanding of how to use this knowledge. We will have to understand first of all what an interval is, how many there are and how they sound. We will then pick a scale, harmonize it and build the chords found in the scale (triads & 7th chords). Finally, we will write a chord progression and follow some simple steps in order to create a simple melody and then expand it into what we want it to sound like. The 1st part will focus on how the intervals sound against a chord progression. Let’s start.

Yngwie Malmsteen is undoubtedly the most inspiring guitarist when it comes to the neoclassical style of guitar playing. I don't know any single neoclassical fan that doesn't put Yngwie at the top of their list. He was a huge inspiration to me when I was discovering this style of playing. After he released his first solo album, the new guitar revolution had started and guitar playing wasn't the same anymore. He introduced a kickass technique with arpeggios, picking and catchy melodies mixed into rock, metal and baroque style, all played extremely fast. Some guitarists inroduced similar playing before Yngwie but when he came onto the scene, everyone got addicted. I trully recommend his masterpieces: Rising Force, Odyssey, Trilogy, Seventh Sign... All these albums completely changed my way of playing guitar so I decided to show you some of my favorite Yngwie licks and I hope that neoclassical fans will find it useful.

Enjoy.

Alternate picking is arguably one of the most used right hand techniques on the guitar amongst sweep/economy picking and strumming. This technique is especially popular in shred (fast soloing) but you can use it in any style. In this article I will try to explain this technique from very basic examples to some real world examples where alternate picking works as a great solution.