Introduction to the Guitar School

I don't pretend that this is a comprehensive course in lead guitar playing or anything like that. These exercises might originally have been the impetus for putting up the site to begin with, but I have never pretended that it is in any way focused or self-contained. Consider it a repository of stuff that I have amassed through the years: exercises, scale patterns, scattered pieces of wisdom, lessons learned the hard way. I also in no way claim authorship of any of this, as it consists of various different things that I've learned in guitar magazines, books and on websites.

My assumption about you is that you are an intermediate player looking to get just a little bit better. That is, you know your chords and some licks, and you're looking to take it to the next level. It might not make sense that my music theory section is for complete beginners whereas this stuff is a little bit more advanced. But I guess that I assume that it is more likely that the average guitar player knows their instrument but has little grasp of the theory, than vice versa.

Another reason is that I think that the very basics of guitar playing require a bit more hands-on approach: either that we sit down together with our guitars, or at least that I swallow my apprehension and—gasp—go on Youtube to teach guitar.

What you will not find anywhere on this site are licks, neither mine nor anyone else's. Studying the work of the great guitar players of the world is very instructive, but again I feel that that's something better suited to one-on-one instruction, where you can really get into the nuts and bolts. Besides, I encourage anyone to learn the theory and shapes, and get out there, walk onto the stage and make musical magic.

Generally, what I present in this section can be digested and enjoyed without the slightest knowledge about the theory involved. There is nothing wrong with just learning the various boxes for the Dorian mode and having a go at it; you don't need to know what it is or why it's called that. I also don't insist on staff notation for the purely guitar stuff; everything in here is written down in tablature or summarized in chord och scale boxes. Whether or not you want to learn the theory behind it all is entirely up to you. I have a section for that as well and you are free to peruse it.