Woodshed
Woodshed features intermediate lessons of all styles. Whether you're an intermediate player looking for new skills or an advanced player looking to polish up your technique, this is the place where any guitarist can expand their horizons.

The most current lesson is featured at the top; scroll down for earlier issues.

February 2012: Building Bass Lines Learn to craft jazzy walking bass lines and work them into your solo fingerstyle accompaniment. With video and tab.

January 2012: Controlling Note Duration Learn to control the ringing of strings with your picking-hand fingers. With video and tab.

December 2011: Picking Hand Technique How to properly position your picking hand and use rest and free strokes for the best fingerstyle tone. With video and tab.

November 2011: Four-Part Seventh-Chords Lesson Learn six groups of seventh-chord voicings that jazz guitarists use to increase their chord vocabulary. With video and tab.

October 2011: Guide Tone Chords Lesson Learn how to build and understand these foundational jazz guitar chords. With video and tab.

September 2011: Jamming on the I, IV, and V Chords Lesson Learn how to spot progressions built around these three important chords, and put them to work at your next jam session. With audio and tab.

August 2011: Five-String Partial Capo Lesson Experiment with the possibilities of playing with just one uncapoed string. With video and tab.

July 2011: Bass Lines Lesson Learn how to use and embellish jazzy walking bass in your fingerstyle arrangements. With video, tab, and music to “Oh! Susanna.”

June 2011: Embellishing a Melody Add rhythmic and tonal variations to your lead lines. With video, tab, and music to “Poor Butterfly.”

May 2011: Adapting Piano Parts to the Guitar Use your guitar to emulate several popular piano backup patterns. With video and tab.

April 2011: Alternating Bass for Intermediate Guitarists Develop your Travis picking by playing up the neck and adding rhythmic flourishes. With video and tab.

March 2011: Must-Know Bluegrass Vocubulary A guide to practical licks every flatpicker should know. With video and tab.

February 2011: Sixth Chords Learn how to play and use this easy, expressive, and often overlooked family of chords. With video and tab.

January 2011: Three Paths to Fretboard Mastery Deepen your fretboard knowledge by exploring new approaches to practicing scales and arpeggios. With video and tab.

December 2010: Fingerstyle Picking-Hand Primer Develop a solid fingerstyle technique in your picking hand. With video and tab.

November 2010: Giuliani Studies Lesson Explore classical guitar master Mauro Giuliani’s legendary picking-hand exercises. With video and tab.

October 2010: Turn Your Scales Inside Out Gain a deeper understanding of familiar scale patterns by playing them in new and different ways. With video and tab.

September 2010: Ninth Chords Lesson Use the ninth note of the scale as a colorful extension for major-, minor-, and dominant-seventh chords. With audio and tab.

August 2010: Cross-Picking Lesson Learn the traditional cross-picking pattern and several variations useful for bringing melodies to life. With video and tab.

July 2010: Triplet Feel Lesson Learn how to loosen up your rhythm by playing with a swinging triplet feel. With video and tab.

June 2010: Combining Lead and Rhythm Learn to overcome the barrier between strumming chords and playing melodies. With video and tab.

May 2010: Reharmonize a Melody Learn how to change the voices underneath a melody for unique acoustic guitar arrangments. With audio and tab.

April 2010: Exploring 3/4 Time Use these great picking and strumming patterns to get your waltz on. With audio and tab.

March 2010: Blues Turnarounds Lesson Make your blues sing with these tasty turnaround ideas. With video and tab.

January 2010: Build Your Playing Speed Develop a routine for finding—and increasing—your maximum picking speed for up-tempo pieces. With audio and tab.

December 2009: Mixolydian Mode Lesson Use your guitar to explore the popular and expressive fifth mode of the major scale. With audio.

November 2009: Swing Blues Lead Lesson Learn to play the blues like early swing and jazz guitar soloists Lonnie Johnson and Charlie Christian. With audio.

October 2009: Soloing with Arpeggios Lesson Add variation to your guitar solos by playing arpeggios. With audio.

September 2009: Two-Handed Tapping Lesson Get both hands on the fretboard with this primer on tapping, slapping, and other percussive effects. With video.

August 2009: Alternating-Thumb Guitar Lesson Learn (or revisit) the basics of alternating-thumb guitar playing. With audio.

July 2009: Make a Chord-Melody Arrangement Use this process to start arranging multiple parts on one guitar. With audio.

June 2009: Guide Tones Lesson Boil chord sounds down to their most important notes for minimalist rhythm and lyrical leads. With audio.

May 2009: Harp-Style Guitar in D A D G A D Learn to combine a popular alternate tuning and a cool trick of sustain for glorious musical results. With video.

April 2009: Composing with Chord Substitutions Learn to use chord-substitution ideas to get new sounds out of well-worn progressions. With audio.

March 2009: Drop-2 Chords Lesson Learn to use jazzy drop-2 chord shapes to create secondary guitar parts in any style. With audio.

February 2009: Working Bass Lines into Guitar Arrangements Use this guide to build interesting bass lines into your songs and arrangements. With audio.

January 2009: Triads Lesson Explore the fretboard by learning to play three-note major and minor chord shapes. With audio.

December 2008: Orkney Tuning Lesson Learn the ropes of this flexible and popular alternate tuning. With video.

November 2008: Six Ways to Support a Melody Create chord progressions to bring out the best in existing melodies. With audio.

October 2008: Playing with Open Strings Lesson Learn to use open strings up the neck to create rich, easy chords and grooves. With audio.

September 2008: Chromatic Movement Lesson Learn how to use notes that occur between scale tones. With video.

August 2008: Tone Clusters Lesson Add color to your guitar chords with these piano-like cluster voicings and riffs. With audio.

July 2008: Diminished Chords and Scales Lesson Expand your harmonic palette with diminished chords and scales. With audio.

June 2008: The Circle of Fifths Learn to use the circle of fifths and unlock the mysteries of song construction. With audio examples.

May 2008: Ornamentation for Celtic Music Learn to incorporate the melodic ornamentation used by Celtic guitar players into your own acoustic guitar playing. With audio examples.

April 2008: Play Partial Chords Get more out of your guitar accompaniment parts by using small chord voicings. With audio examples.

March 2008: Soloing With Octaves Apply this technique to your solos to create melodic lines that really pack a punch. With audio examples.

February 2008: Slack-Key Guitar Lesson Loosen your strings and think about warm island weather with this soothing laid-back style. With audio examples.

January 2008: Double-Stops Spice up your fingerstyle blues with this melodic technique. With audio examples.

December 2007: Clawhammer Guitar Turn your fingerpicking around—literally. With audio examples.

November 2007: Economy Picking Demystified Use a special picking technique to maximize efficiency. With music to 'Slippery Strings.' With audio examples.

October 2007: Modal Playing for Traditional Tunes Modal thinking will enhance your understanding of the way many songs are constructed. With music to 'Idbury Hill' and 'Old Heddon of Fawley.'

September 2007: High-Strung Tuning Alternate tunings don't always require a huge learning curve. High-strung tuning lowers the bar by raising the octaves.

August 2007: Six Ways to Expand Your Rhythm Have your rhythm playing and composing grown stale? Instill new life into your chord progressions with these six surefire ways to spice up your rhythm playing.

July 2007: Visualize Chord Changes Learning to 'see' movable three-note shapes around the neck will soon enable you to transpose voicings and improvise melodic lines that fit the chord progressions you're playing. With music to 'The Shape of Things.'

June 2007: Play Chordal Harmonics Add a celestial texture to your music by interspersing fretted notes with artificial harmonics.

May 2007: Get That Big Swing Rhythm Learn to fill out your rhythm sound with these bass line-driven chord changes.

April 2007: Blues in Open-G "Spanish" Tuning Sound like the Delta Blues masters by learning the techniques they used: judicious muting, vibrato, and a conservative balance of slide to fretted notes. With music to 'Delta Horizon.'

March 2007: Harmonics Use harmonics—a technique for playing overtones on your guitar—to add a harp-like affect to your sound.

February 2007: Chromatic Swing-Blues Soloing Use chromatic notes—the half steps between scale tones—to cultivate that serpentine swing sound in your lead lines.

January 2007: Crosspicking Crosspicking with an alternate-picking pattern can keep your time steady while you embellish single-note melodies.

December 2006: CGDGBE Tuning Alternate tunings don't need to be intimidating. CGDGBE tuning can enhance huge-sounding chords and bass lines you can't play in standard tuning.

November 2006: Bossa Nova for Fingerpickers Learn how to play bossa nova by adapting your fingerpicking patterns.

October 2006: Seventh-Chord Inversions for Blues Guitar Quadruple your chord palette by incorporating four-string seventh-chord shapes into your fingerstyle blues tunes.

September 2006: Smooth Moves When you play songs written for other instruments, does your guitar sound clunky? Even out your melodic lines by using slurs, position shifts, and open strings.

August 2006: Building Extended Chord Voicings Extended chords don't have to be complicated. Learn how these chords are constructed, then build them all using just several basic chord shapes.

July 2006: Blues Beyond the Box Break out of boring blues-scale patterns by soloing with compact triad shapes, then dress them up with some bluesy upper and lower 'neigbor' tones. By Adam Levy

June 2006: Accompanying a Singer Add the right amount of color to an arrangement by visualizing bite-sized chords up the fretboard, then add open strings and embellish these portable chord shapes. By Andrew DuBrock

May 2006: Fingerstyle Blues-Rag Licks Contrast the bass patterns in your fingerstyle rags by adding single-note runs organized around open-string drones, partial chords, and barre-chord shapes.

April 2006: Jazz up Your Blues Add new colors to your fingerstyle country blues tunes. By Ron Forbes-Roberts With music to 'New Blues'

March 2006: Expand Your Fingerstyle Arrangements Create melodic variations. By Eric Lugosch. With music to 'Eighth of January'

February 2006: Open-String Chords Create fresh, colorful chords voicings by combining familiar chord shapes with open strings. With music to 'The Aftermath'

January 2006: Percussive Fingerstyle Add driving backbeats to your arrangements with these percussive slapping and strumming techniques. By Doug Young. Music to 'Back in the Groove'

December 2005: Clawhammer Guitar Add driving rhythms to your arrangements with clawhammer banjo techniques. By Craig Dobbins. Music to 'Old Joe Clark'

November 2005: Legato Lines Do your single-note melodies sound staccato and stiff? Make them more fluid by mixing open strings with higher notes up the neck on lower strings, and using hammer-ons and pull-offs 'from nowhere.' By Stevie Coyle. Music to 'Cousin Sally Brown'

October 2005: Bluesy Bluegrass Lead Fiddle tunes and G-runs will get you off to a good start in bluegrass, but to really get that lonesome guitar sound, you need to come down with a bad case of the blues now and then. By Scott Nygaard. Music to 'Sugar Baby Blues'

September 2005: Modern Fingerstyle Basslines With a little syncopation, phrasing, and a few percussive techniques, you can turn boring bass lines into fingerstyle funk fests. By Doug Young. Music to 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'

August 2005: Flatpicking Celtic Style With the right feel, phrasing, and a few authentic ornaments, you can play Irish fiddle tunes like you're from the old country. By Sue Thompson. Music to 'The Plains of Boyle'

June 2005: Soloing with Nonchord Tones We show you how to paint leads in exuberant new colors by venturing outside expected chord notes. By Karen Hogg.

May 2005: Blues Chords up the Neck David Hamburger explains how to get musical results past the fifth fret with commonly used chords. Music to 'Handful of Chords/Blues up the Neck'

April 2005: Embellishing Arpeggios John Coco leads beginners through an easy, step-by-step process for learning and integrating arpeggios into their playing. Music to 'Turnaround Blues'

March 2005: Fingerpicking and Slide Covers basics of using various slides and slide tunings with a fingerpicking approach. By Pete Madsen.

February 2005: Jazz Chord Families Learning how jazz chords and chord shapes relate to each other. By Tony Marcus.

January 2005: A Classical Left-Hand Workout Developing left-hand technique for classical guitar. By Patrick Francis.

December 2004: Octaves in D A D G A D Tuning Various ways to incorporate playing octaves in D A D G A D tuning. By Doug Young.

November 2004: Right-Hand Fretting Expanding your palette of chord voicings with right-hand fretting. By Sean McGowan.

October 2004: Hendrix-Style Embellishments How to adapt Jimi Hendrix-like chord voicings to acoustic guitar. By Karen Hogg.

September 2004: Hot Lick Breaks A lesson in firing up your fingerstyle leads. By David Hamburger.

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