Ted Nugent isn't one to keep his opinions to himself.

His persona has made him a larger-than-life and polarizing media figure. Peel away the political opinions and you find the “Motor City Madman” who has been cranking out hits since his debut with the Amboy Dukes in 1967.

The title of Nugent’s latest album, Shut Up & Jam!, is more than just an album title. It's a mission statement.

GUITAR WORLD: It has been seven years since your last album, Love Grenade, was released. What made 2014 the right time to put out a new record?

Wrapping up the greatest, most fun tour of my life in 2013 and then enjoying the greatest hunting season of my life with family and friends, it put me in such a wild-eyed, glowing, positive, happy place, that these songs simply erupted off my guitar neck unto themselves every time I cranked up the mighty Gibson Byrdland through my amps in the living room of our little Texas ranch house! Positive, uplifting motivation was everywhere. I am a very, very lucky guitar player.

Listening to Shut Up & Jam!, it seems as though the album really encapsulates your personality. When you wrote for the new record, was that a conscious effort?

My musical adventure has a life of its own, mostly an out-of-body experience every time I grab a guitar. Because of the earthly lifestyle of my hunting, fishing, trapping, ranching, outdoor fun, I believe I escape the music totally when not actually playing it. I've never planned any song or any record. Being an addict of groove-oriented R&B and rock and roll, my fingers immediately start dancing on the fretboard with variations of honky-tonk, boogie-woogie and every guitar lick you can imagine that I have absorbed throughout my music-drenched life.

Licks just come, chords just come, lyrical cadence just comes and pretty much immediately, the lyrics themselves just come. I'd call my musical creativity is more subconscious than conscious.

Your guitar sound on the record is instantly recognizable as classic Ted Nugent, but still sounds fresh. Aside from the obvious Gibson Byrdland and Les Paul, what are you using on this record in terms of gear?

A couple of my killer PRS's show up here and there, but the Byrdlands and Les Pauls mostly dominate through a new Peavey 50W and 6505 as well as a vintage Fender Bassman. I give a lot of credit to my cohort in soul music crime, Michael Lutz (producer and founding member of Brownsville Station), who has a very capable and demanding ear for those magical, original, classic, Lonnie Mack glowing tones.

How special is it after nearly 40 years to still be going into the studio with Derek and at the same time to work with friends like Sammy Hagar?

With the soul music masters of Derek St. Holmes, Mick Brown, Greg Smith, Jon Kutz, Johnny Bee Badanjek and Sammy Hagar, as well as Michael Lutz and Tim and Andy Patalan, the mighty Funkbrothers will live on in infamy as we carry the torch of the tightest, most fun garage band in the world. All my guys were raised on the magical grinding of black American blues and R&B, so it is always a soul music orgy and celebration of the sounds and grooves that we all love and crave to reproduce. These guys are the best.

At 65 years young, you show absolutely no signs of slowing down. Do you see a point with the music industry where there might come a time to walk away?

I think we can all agree that the greatest philosopher of all times, Dirty Harry, said it best when he stated the ultimate guiding force for quality of life: "A good man has to know his limitations."

And I figured that out many years before he made that statement. I rock ferociously hard every song, every gig, every night, every year for 50-plus years. As I approach my 6,500th ultra-rockout this summer, I attribute my longevity, overall health and youthful craving for the music to the definitive balance in my life that my hunting, outdoor and quality family time I orchestrate every fall and winter between tours.

Such a quiet, down-to-earth lifestyle literally cleanses my soul, clears my head, relieves my ears and fortifies my spirit. My life is literally perfect. So no, I don't ever consider "the end" but am more than aware of its necessity when the conditions arrive.

Kirk Hammett has had a long relationship with Randall, which in recent years has resulted in a successful run of signature offerings, including the KH120RHS head and KH412 cab, KH75 combo, KH15 practice amp and KH3 preamp module.

But Hammett and Randall are about to take their partnership up a notch with the soon-to-be-released KH103 amplifier.

“I was using the modular amps, but I realized I needed something extra durable to take out on the road,” Hammett says. “The KH103 is what I was looking for. It’s point to point and hand soldered and made so well. It has these amazing gain stages, which really make the amp sound above and beyond.”

The KH103 is born out of three years of meticulous prototyping with famed amp designer Mike Fortin. The 120-watt three-channel all-tube amp has been road tested and refined through some serious gigs, including the Big Four Yankee Stadium concert, as well as tours through Abu Dhabi, India and Metallica’s 30th anniversary shows in 2011 at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

“When Mike first came over with this new amp design, I plugged it in and fell in love,” Hammett says. “It instantly became a part of my sound. That amp is basically the sound you hear in the movie Through the Never [Metallica’s 2013 IMAX concert film]. It’s a part of my touring sound and will be a part of my recording sound in the future. It’s a great-sounding amp. It’s given me the tone I’ve been chasing for a long time.”

The new Randall KH103 will debut this fall with a retail price point of $3,749.99.

Randall KH103 Specs

• 120 watt, three-channel all-tube (nine 12AX7 and four 6L6) amplifier.
• CONTROLS Three gain and volume with three-way bright switch for each, plus presence, depth, and dual switchable master volumes.
• LOOPS Dual switchable series/parallel
• MIDI/SWITCHING Seven MIDI-assignable functions for each channel as follows: channel select, boost, low/medium/high gain voicing, master volume 1/2 select, loop/loop2 select, store. Individual metering and bias controls. Footswitch not included (RF8 or RF4 suggested).
• CONSTRUCTION Heavy-duty metal front/rear grilles, corners, edging. Dual side handles for easy lifting.

Blonde Redhead’s newest record, Barragán, is only a few weeks away from release.

In the meantime, fans can listen to another dazzling new track from the record, entitled “The One I Love.”

Barragán, one of the freshest albums in their acclaimed catalogue, takes Blonde Redhead down yet another new sonic path nine records into their career.

This is a band whose name has been built on the endless evolution of their own aural dynamics, and in that respect, Barragán does not disappoint. It is the most stark, elemental, stripped back album Blonde Redhead has ever made, relying on shivers of analogue keyboard twists and the off-kilter, slinky rhythms of drummer Simone Pace to carry the voices of singers/guitarists Kazu Makino and Amadeo Pace, two of the most distinct voices in independent music.

On tour:
9/12/14 Milan, Italy @ Mito Festival
9/13/14 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
9/14/14 Aarhus, Denmark @ Voxhall
9/16/14 Cologne, Germany @ Gebaude 9
9/17/14 Berlin, Germany @ Frannz Club
9/19/14 Groningen, Holland @ Vera
9/20/14 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Tolhuistuin
9/21/14 Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
9/22/14 Paris, France @ Trianon
9/23/14 Rouen, France @ 106
9/26/14 Istanbul, Turkey @ Hayal Kahvesi
9/27/14 Turkey – Istanbul – Hayal Kahvesi
9/29/14 London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
10/2/14 Toulouse, France @ Bikini
10/3/14 Lyon, France @ Epicerie Moderne
10/4/14 Friboug, Switzerland @ Fri-Son
10/5/14 Luzern, Switzerland @ Club Le Schuur
11/1/14 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls
11/3/14 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
11/4/14 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
11/7/14 Vancouver, BC @ Vogue
11/8/14 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
11/9/14 Portland, OR @ Doug Fit
11/11/14 San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
11/12/14 Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
11/13/14 Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
11/15/14 San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
11/17/14 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
11/18/14 Dallas, TX @ Granada
11/20/14 Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
11/21/14 Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle
11/22/14 Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
11/24/14 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/26/14 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/28/14 Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
11/29/14 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
12/1/14 Boston, MA @ Sinclair
12/2/14 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Find out more at: http://blonde-redhead.com/

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

Last month, we examined the high-energy style of Cliff Gallup, whose innovative solos with rockabilly icons Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps set a new standard for sound, technique and imagination. This month, we’ll look at how Gallup explored the opposite end of the musical universe—romantic ballads—with an equally successful balance of skill and attitude.

While best known for sweat-soaked rockers, Vincent filled out his repertoire by recording a number of pre-Fifties standards from the “Great American Songbook” era, including chestnuts such as “Peg O’ My Heart,” “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Up a Lazy River.”

FIGURE 1 illustrates a ballad combining melodic and harmonic features typical of countless pop songs like these, including a six-two-five-one harmonic cycle in the key of G (E7-A7-D7-G), a melody closely based on the chord structure, and strong, recurring rhythmic motifs.

Although quite sophisticated by today’s standards, pop songs then as now were built around catchy, intuitive melodies and rhythms––not coincidentally, the same values we look for in a well-phrased solo.

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

In the mid-to-late Sixties, while Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton were putting the rock into blues, John McLaughlin was injecting it and other flavors into jazz.

McLaughlin was influenced by a vast variety of artists, including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone and the aforementioned British Invasion ax slingers, as well as Django Reinhardt, and avant-garde jazz saxophonists John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. Indian classical music shaped his style as well.

Given such disparate inspirations, it iss perhaps not surprising that McLaughlin forged a unique musical path. In the early Sixties, he worked as a session musician, playing on select cuts for Dionne Warwick, Tom Jones, Donovan and others.

By the early Seventies, after recording and touring with Miles Davis and Tony Williams Lifetime, he was primed to form the seminal jazz-rock fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. As his career soared, McLaughlin put the acoustic guitar to the fore with the progressive Indian classical ensemble Shakti and the quasi-flamenco-flavored Guitar Trio (featuring Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia), and on his numerous solo albums.

Chelsea Wolfe’s collaborative film with Mark Pellington, Lone, is now available worldwide for purchase and streaming via iTunes, and she has released the video for the title track today.

The concept behind Lone was birthed out of a mutual desire between Wolfe and Pellington to expand upon the concept of a classic music video.

What began as an idea for a nine minute short film extended into what is now just under an hour-long piece, with Pellington fleshing out the concept surrounding Chelsea’s lyrics and music.

A nonlinear film, Lone takes its dialogue solely from lyrics off Pain is Beauty and explores many of the themes and ideas behind the record. Lone is currently available on USB for purchase and is now available digitally via iTunes.

Watch “Lone” Video (dir. Mark Pellington)

Chelsea Wolfe 2014 Tour Dates
Aug 13 - Brussels, Belgium @ Le Brass
Aug 14 - Luxembourg, LU @ Congés Annulés
Aug 16 - Manchester, UK @ ATP Presents at Gorilla *
Oct 25 - Santa Ana, CA @ Beach Goth Fest (The Observatory)
Nov 8 - Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

* co-headline with Deafheaven

“Find out more at http://www.chelseawolfe.net/

New classic-rock mashups are created every 3.66666666677777 seconds, it seems.

In fact, here's a brand-new one, posted just last month!

It's a pretty decent mish-mash of a 1966 Beatles classic, "Paperback Writer," and the Knack's biggest hit, 1979's "My Sharona." The creator of the mashup, Go Home Productions, even made a video to go with it, and you can check it out below.

If nothing else, you get to hear Berton Averre's brilliant "My Sharona" guitar solo!

For more mashup fun, head in this general direction.

Back in May, we posted a cover of Black Sabbath's "The Wizard" by an eight-piece Austin band (horn section and all) called Brownout.

Today we bring you a new Black Sabbath cover by the Brownout boys. None other than "Fairies Wear Boots"!

While both songs are from Brownout's 2014 album, Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath, this version of "Fairies Wear Boots" is from a live performance at the Do512 Lounge in Austin. The album finds the band reinterpreting the songs with horns, a bit of Latin percussion and more.

As always, tell us what you think in the comments or on the Facebooks! Speaking of Facebook, you can follow Brownout on FB right now. Enjoy!

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

Hey, kids, I’m back! Did you miss me? Don’t answer that. Here I am, back in the glorious Guitar World studios in Bakersfield, California.

Why am I back? Uh…to teach you how to rock, that’s why! I’m also here to talk about the brand-new Steel Panther album, All You Can Eat, which you are no doubt listening to right now! I came back just so that I could teach you how to play some of the incredible riffs on our new record, and I’d like to start with the song “If I Was the King.”

This song is pretty basic rock and roll in that just about everything in it is based on either the minor pentatonic scale or the blues scale—the biggest scales in rock, right? These scales come in handy.

Don’t just practice the Phrygian and Mixolydian modes—you should be basing everything on the blues and minor pentatonic scales. You might not listen to B.B. King very much, but everything he played is the foundation for all that Testament and Megadeth stuff you listen to, and it’s the foundation of Steel Panther’s music too.

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

For decades, the Guild S-200 Thunderbird was a mostly forgotten fun and funky electric solidbody from the Sixties, best remembered as the guitar that Muddy Waters wielded on the inside cover of his Electric Mud album.

Then Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys started playing one, and the model went from being a pawnshop bargain to a vintage collectible with a price tag well above $3,000. (Damn you, Auerbach!)

That vintage Guild is the inspiration for the PureSalem Tom Cat, which has the same wild, asymmetrical body shape but several significant upgrades, including better pickups and a simpler control configuration.

Last month, we lost Johnny Winter, one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time. Winter channeled the classic blues he grew up with and introduced it to generations of new listeners, young and old, with his unmistakable guitar playing.

His new album, Step Back, will be released as planned on September 2 through Megaforce Records. It features collaborations with a virtual laundry list of legendary axmen, including Brian Setzer, Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Perry and more.

Another collaborator on the album was Ben Harper, with whom Winter recorded this searing cover of Elmore James'"I Can't Hold Out." Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments section or on Facebook!

This past Tuesday night, former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

While he was there, he played his classic Russ Ballard-penned solo hit, "New York Groove," with the show's house band, the ever-versatile Roots.

Frehley is promoting his new album, Space Invader, which is set for an August 19 release. Check out the zany performance below!

Dave Rawlings Machine are going out on the road this September and October for a string of west coast tour dates and a performance at this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

Beginning on September 22 at The Wilma Theater in Missoula, MT, the tour will take them along the west coast into Seattle, WA, through Oregon and into California where the tour will end in Los Angeles at The Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on October 6.

Before LA, the band will play the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The free, three-day festival takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park the weekend of October 3, 4, and 5. A full list of tour dates is below.

The Dave Rawlings Machine released its acclaimed debut record, A Friend of a Friend. (Acony) in November 2009, and it sounds as good today as it did then. This was the first record by Rawlings, the guitarist, producer, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show. Dave Rawlings Machine features Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, John Paul Jones, Willie Watson and Paul Kowert.

Here they are performing "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)"

Complete tour dates below. Tickets can be purchased via www.daverawlingsmachine.com/tour/.

September
22 - Missoula, MT - The Wilma Theater
23 - Spokane, WA - Bing Crosby Theater
24 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
25 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
27 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater
28 - Arcata, CA - Van Duzer Theatre
29 - Grants Pass, OR - Rogue Theatre
30 - Redding, CA - Cascade Theatre

October
1 - Santa Cruz CA - Cocoanut Grove
3 - Sonoma, CA - Gundlach Bundschu Winery
4 - San Francisco, CA - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
5 - Santa Barbara, CA - Lobero Theatre
6 - Los Angeles, CA - The Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian Church

We’ve heard plenty of covers of Metallica songs over the years.

But this might be a first.

Below, listen to “Nothing Else Matters,” performed by a group called The Boys of County Nashville.

The band pulls out all the stops in this Celtic tribute, with flute, fiddle, acoustic guitars and more.

According to AllMusic.com, The Boys of County Nashville released a full album titled The Celtic tribute to Metallica in 2008.

“Nothing Else Matters” is featured on Metallica’s seminal self-titled record and was released in 1992 as the third single from the album.

In addition to this rendition from The Boys of County Nashville, the song has been covered a plethora of artists including 3 Doors Down, the Vienna Boys' Choir, Staind and even Shakira.

Listen to it out below, and as always, let us know your thoughts on this page or on Facebook!

Find out more about The Boys of County Nashville at theboysofcountynashville.com.

Ages and Ages is more than a band.

It’s a collective of like-minded souls that believe in the power of music to change the world and elevate the spirit.

Their music is bright and uplifting, with lyrics, penned by bandleader Tim Perry, that deliver serious introspective messages full of insight and consideration for others.

The band recently announced Fall tour dates that you can check out below.

“When we made this album, we wanted a word to describe how we felt and what we were going through as individuals and a band,” Perry says, “so we made one up. Divisionary signifies a group whose vision of ‘right’ is upsetting to the existing power structure.”

“It includes a philosophical, spiritual, and physical ‘breaking off’ from the status quo. It also references the individual inner conflicts that arise as you struggle to make the right choices in life. Visionaries don’t always create conflict, but they challenge the establishment with new ideas and with the threat of change. Where there is change, there is usually resistance, controversy, division.”

Perry spent ten days on a silent meditation retreat, formulating the direction of Divisonary, and his calm, centered vision is at the core of the music. The intricate harmonies, celebratory choral vocals, churchical piano and organ, inventive counter melodies, bright acoustic guitars, and exciting, interlocking rhythms set off aural fireworks to frame the grounded emotions conveyed in the lyrics.

The title track, “Divisonary (Do The Right Thing),” is a secular gospel song with inspirational harmonies, sanctified piano and smooth violin adding muscle to a simple refrain: “Do the right thing, do the right thing….don’t you know you’re not the only one suffering.” A stomping, exuberant bass drum pushes the giddy pop vocals of “I See More,” as it reassures listeners that, “It’s all OK, I’ll be on your side.” ”

“We live in a country where a substantial amount of the population would rather discard science than admit climate change is happening. A culture which, more and more, considers higher education to be some kind of liberal indoctrination. A culture that does not value critical thinking and a power elite that perpetuates misinformation, apathy, and ignorance because it preserves the status quo. I don't blame people for feeling daunted, apathetic, powerless, and overwhelmed, but I believe that facing the darkness is a necessary step in overcoming it.”

“Ultimately I think the band all feels hopeful and blessed,” Perry concludes. “These songs reflect that optimism, but they don’t do so lightly or try to dodge the struggles we’re dealing with individually and as a band. It was an exceptionally long, hard road this time around but in the end, we’re all really proud and excited to share this record.”

Catch Ages And Ages On Tour This Fall:
8/20 - Sandy, OR - Sandy Summer Sounds 2014
8/23 - Tofino, BC - Otalith Festival
10/5 - Medford, OR - Imperial Event Center
10/8 - Grass Valley, CA - Main Stage
10/9 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10/10 - Denver, CO - Forest Room 5
10/12 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway
10/13 - Evanston, IL - Space
10/16 - Indianapolis, IN - Hi-Fi
10/17 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
10/18 - Cincinnati, OH - MOTR
10/19 - Ithaca, NY - The Haunt
10/20 - Portland, ME - Empire
10/21 - Boston, MA - Middle East Upstairs
10/25 - Philadelphia, PA - MilkBoy
10/27 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
10/28 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
10/29 - Athens, GA - Green Room
11/21 & 11/22 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios

Find out more at www.agesandages.com.

When first learning to play guitar, transitioning between chords and playing a few progressions can allow you to play hundreds of songs.

While this can keep you entertained for quite a while, you might find there is a large amount of the fretboard that is lacking your attention.

One of the many tools that can be used to learn the higher positions is the CAGED system. Though the application can be very useful, aspects of it can be simplified and studied in a more musical approach. Doing this might help you have a better understanding of chord voicing and harmony.

The CAGED system uses five guitar chord shapes — C, A, G, E and D — to create barre chords for playing in higher positions. The problem with this system is that its functionality has nothing to do with music itself. It is simply a physical device that works based on the tuning of the strings. It cannot be applied to music in general and is specific only to the guitar.

These five chords are all root-position chords, meaning the letter name of the chord is the lowest-sounding note. But music does not always consist of root-position chords, so why should it on the guitar? In this column, I’ll demonstrate another approach for expanding your fretboard knowledge using triads and their inversions.

First of all, what is a chord? If you’re asked to play a G chord, what really does that mean? Sure, it can be a shape from a chord diagram, but why that shape? And if it’s different from one diagram to the next, is one of those wrong?

As guitarists, we often think about chords as shapes, and we have “go-to” shapes for certain chords. But that’s not thinking musically. So that we can develop a stronger sense of musicianship, we need to understand how chords are constructed. To demonstrate, I’ll use a simple I-V-vi-IV progression in the key of A, so the chords will be A, E, F♯m and D.

First, we need to know what notes are in the key of A.

The basic chord is called a triad and consists of a root, a third and a fifth. The chords in this progression will have these notes:

A: A, C♯, E
E: E, G♯, B
F♯m: F♯, A, C♯
D: D, F♯, A

Your “go-to” shapes for these chords might look something like this:

When first learning to play a chord progression, we’re typically using our basic “guitar” chords. I use quotations because many guitarists think of a chord as a certain shape. That may suffice for a beginner, but to make those root-position chords even more musical, we need to take advantage of the rest of the fretboard. We can do so by learning different chord inversions.

As there are three different notes in a basic chord (triad), there are three basic forms for these chords. These forms are presented only on the top four strings. The reasoning for this is twofold: 01. Historically, the developing guitar was a four-string instrument until the Baroque era, when a fifth string was added, and then a sixth. Therefore, chords had to be formed on fewer strings. 02. Chords formed on the top four strings involve a systematic, musical approach to triadic harmony and the use of chord inversions.

Form I Voicing: 1-3-5-1 (root, third, fifth, octave)—“root-position.”
Form II Voicing: 3-5-1-3 —“first inversion.”
Form III Voicing: 5-1-3-5—“second inversion.”

There is a clear pattern of intervals with this system of chord inversions. While the official term is “inversion,” using form numbers can help to identify where the root of the chord is. For example, the root in Form I is on the first string, it’s on the second for Form II, and the third for Form III. This applies to both Major and Minor Forms.

Applying these forms to the chord progression, A, E, F♯m, D, will give us three different fretboard locations, with each of these having a different sound because of the different chord voicings. The transition from one form to the next is designed so that common chord tones may be used where applicable, and shifting is kept to a minimum.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Each of these examples systematically moves through the different chord inversions, and they create sounds very different from the basic, root-position shapes.

Learning these six total forms can be much easier than the learning CAGED system. With its musical approach, the focus is on specific chord voicing rather than just root-position chord shapes. Through using these, you can expand your fretboard knowledge in a musical way and gain a better understanding of how chords function. Sonically, if you’re playing the same progression with another guitarist, each of you can play the same chords, but in different positions, creating a wider spectrum of sound.

This method of learning chords is presented in my new iBook, Beginning Guitar Method, which is available in the Apple iBookstore.

Matthias Young teaches online guitar lessons at FreeGuitarVideos.com and is the Head of Guitar at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. His book and DVD, Metal Guitar Method, has sold thousands since its publication in 2012. His most recent release, Beginning Guitar Method, is available in the Apple iBookstore. You can follow Matthias on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.

So, we've spent a few weeks talking about the left hand, the shape of the left hand, and how to organize your technique to take pressure off of your wrist and palm.

But, how does this work in real time?

In other words, is it possible to take this newly-organized shape and apply it to actual songs?

One thing I see in my beginning to intermediate students–particularly in adults, who tend to be a bit more focused on the idea of 'success’–is the left hand's unconscious tendency to 'double-check' itself.

Beginning guitarists learn the shape of a chord, they put their fingers on the appropriate frets and strings, and then they sort of wiggle each finger around a bit to make sure it's landed where they think it has.

Most of the beginners I know aren't even aware that they're doing this! But, with a few exceptions, just about everyone I've taught from the ground up goes through a phase where they play a chord, they wiggle around, then they go to play another chord, and spend a bunch of time wiggling around all over again.

Once you become aware of this problem, it's generally pretty easy to fix. All you need is some focused, slow movement, and to begin to trust your hands.

The other thing that impedes us at first–and really, can be an ongoing dialogue for players of all levels–is our focus on the left hand to the exclusion of just about anything else. Because the left hand is doing all of the 'exciting' movement from chord to chord and up and down the neck, we tend to forget that the RIGHT hand is the one that actually makes everything happen.

In this episode, we try to resolve that telltale “wiggle,” organize your picking hand so it resembles your left hand in terms of shape and lack of tension, and take a close look at the pick and how the pick actually works when it strikes the strings.

Learn more about Lily Maase at the following links:

Performance – www.lilymaase.com
Production – www.handmaidmusic.org
Composition – www.musicforrobots.org
Guns N’ Roses tribute band – www.rocketqueensnyc.com

Guitar World Buyer's Guide 2015 is available NOW at the Guitar World Online Store!

Guitar World's 2015 Buyer's Guide issue features more than 1,000 products and photos.

The 2015 Buyer's Guide features more brands and models than any other guide and includes electrics, acoustics, basses, amps, effects and accessories modeled by Playboy Playmates Nikki Leigh, Gemma Lee Farrell and Dani Mathers.

The best guitar Buyer's Guide ever — we've got reviews on all the gear:

• Electrics
• Acoustics
• Basses
• Amps
• Effects
• Accessories
• and many more!

For more information, head to the Guitar World Online Store now!

These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

When jamming, guitarists are always challenged by the task of creating interesting, evolving rhythm parts behind a soloist.

In my experiences, I have found the study of modal chord patterns and structures to be tremendously useful in this regard and endlessly interesting.

I recently devoted a few columns to the study of building chord shapes, or “grips,” and patterns from modal structures, focusing on two of the most widely used minor modes, Dorian and Aeolian. This month, I’d like to turn your attention to one of the major modes, Mixolydian.

The Mixolydian mode is spelled: 1(root) 2 3 4 5 6 f7. It is essentially a major scale with the seventh degree lowered, or “flatted.”

Today we’re thrilled to share a video of blues-folk icon Chris Smither playing his live acoustic performance of his classic song, “Devil Got Your Man.”

This song holds a special place in Smither’s catalog, as it’s the first song he ever wrote!

It and many other classics are part of Smither's Still on the Levee, a retrospective two-CD set due out July 22.

This laid back, acoustic performance highlights Smither’s legendary songwriting skill and his velvety dirt-laced voice. You hear the resignation of the tune, but its sad beauty shines through as well.

Smithers shares, “It was the sixties and Bob Dylan had shown the world that a songwriter could perform his own music. I was in Paris. I'd quit going to my college classes and instead all I wanted to do was play music. This is the first song I ever wrote. What does a 19 year-old know about devils? Not a lot, but it's amazing what he can learn in 50 years. The song holds up. "

Watch it here:

Smither has long been revered for both his guitar prowess and his way with a lyric, inspiring artists from Bonnie Raitt and John Mayall to Emmylou Harris and Diana Krall.

He toured as one of the original monsters of folk with Dave Alvin, Tom Russell and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott in 1998, and continues to live up to the title with accolades such as Mojo magazine’s five-star review for his 2012 release, Hundred Dollar Valentine.

Smither still makes music and tours regularly; his April 2014 appearances at the revered New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival earned him a spot on Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke’s Personal Top 10 list of best festival performances.

As Smither marks his 50th year of music-making in 2014, the New Orleans-raised troubadour takes a look back at his career with Still on the Levee, a two-CD retrospective releasing July 22 on Mighty Albert/Signature Sounds.

He’s also releasing his full lyric collection as a book titled Chris Smither Lyrics 1966-2012, and in September, Signature Sounds will salute him with Link of Chain, a tribute album featuring contributions by Raitt, Loudon Wainwright III, Dave Alvin, Patty Larkin, Josh Ritter, Peter Case, Tim O’Brien and other friends and admirers from his beloved Boston music scene and beyond.

Reconnecting with his roots, Smither recorded Still on the Levee at New Orleans’ Music Shed with longtime producer David Goodrich. Their aim was to give fresh perspective to a selection of songs from his vast career — from “Devil Got Your Man,” his first composition, to recent originals.

Among those who joined him on the project are famed pianist Allen Toussaint, members of the band Morphine and fellow folk-Americana artists Wainwright, Kris Delmhorst and Rusty Belle. It’s also a family affair, with backing-vocal contributions by Smither’s sister, Catherine Norr, and fiddling by his daughter, Robin.

Find out more at http://smither.com/