The next in the series of Beethoven’s piano sonatas arranged for Stratocasters, bass & drums.

Piano Sonata 3 in C major, Piano Sonata 4 in E-flat major & Piano Sonata 8 in C minor (Pathetique).

This is a four tune album of guitar instrumentals. There’s one for each astronomical equinox and solstice.

The 32 piano sonatas of the master craftsman are an endless source of enjoyment & inspiration for me. I listen through the cycle at least once every year. This year I decided to do more than listen, study & learn. I arranged & recorded 3 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas for Stratocasters, bass & drums.

Piano Sonata 1 in F minor, Piano Sonata 2 in A major & Piano Sonata 14 in C# minor.

This is an album of original songs with vocals!

The title track is one of my favorites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGRc2RyUlIo

This is an album of instrumental rock anthems.

Apollo 11 was written honor the Apollo Moon landing mission.

Last year I made time to remaster two of my old symphonic works.

Symphony 3 ‘Virtues’

Symphony 6 ‘Values’

I recently finished updating some of my favorite older tutorials that cover bridging the gap between playing rhythm and lead playing. Here’s a play along excerpt from one of the tutorials.

This is something that I’ve seen many students struggle with: making the transition from strumming chords to playing licks. This is because they require distinctly different physical techniques. Rhythm guitar techniques require relatively large size motions, strumming chords and riffs. But lead guitar techniques require much smaller size, precise motions in order to play a series of single notes that make up a lead lick or fill.

With that in mind I developed a series of exercises that combine both rhythm and lead techniques. You alternate between them, playing a simple chord or rhythm part for a measure or 2, then you switch to a lead fill idea for the next measure or 2. I started with very simple exampes & then gradually increased the difficulty.

I started very simple with one chord for the rhythm part and 4 quarter notes for a fill part.

E Blues Rhythm and Lead 1

The next one turns it up a notch by expanding the single chord to 3 chords to form a whole 12 bar blues and the licks are bumped up to 1/8th notes!

E Blues Rhythm and Lead 2

The 3rd tutorial in the series moves the idea to a fretted key. So it’s still a 3 chord 12 bar blues, but using all barred chords, while the lead fills are expanded to playing all the pentatonic boxes.

G Blues Rhythm and Lead 3

The 4th tutorial is a classic rock move using diads for the riffs and the fills!

B Blues Rhythm and Lead 4

The final 2 tutorials really ramp up the ideas to include fun and classic blues riffs and fills.

C Blues Rhythm and Lead 5

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1849

G Blues Rhythm and Lead 6

Enjoy learning and playing some rhythm and lead guitar skills!

This year I made 2 new Star Spangled Banners!  The first one is a solo classical guitar arrangement.

A few years ago I did a GT tutorial on how to play this version.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1431

The other Banner version is an electric guitar harmony arrangement.  4 part harmony lines with 3 Stratocasters & a bass!  Enjoy!

This is an original instrumental rock piece with harmonized Stratocasters.

Also on Spotify!