David MacKenzie gives a crash course on bending in this lesson. Bends can add a lot of soul to your playing.
Taught by David MacKenzie in Basic Electric Guitar seriesLength: 16:12Difficulty: 1.5 of 5
In his Phase 1 series, David MacKenzie will walk you through the basics of rock guitar.
Lesson 1
David discusses the parts of the guitar. He also gives you some basic techniques to get you started.
Length: 31:00 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 2
In this lesson, David introduces basic power chords. Great fun for beginners!
Length: 10:12 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 3
David introduces some basic chords and chord progressions.
Length: 14:15 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 4
David provides a brief explanation of what notes, chords, power chords, and arpeggios are.
Length: 8:12 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 5
This lesson is all about increasing your speed and coordination. David demonstrates basic picking exercises.
Length: 14:12 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 6
David MacKenzie presents a mysterious sounding chord exercise. This exerices is designed to improve right hand technique.
Length: 9:12 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 7
In this short lesson David talks about practice, discipline, and how you should apply yourself when learning and mastering the guitar.
Length: 6:00 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 8
Double stops can bring new life to your rhythm and lead playing. David provides a short tutorial on what double stops are and how they can be used.
Length: 7:12 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 9
David covers the basic major chord shapes. Every guitarist must learn these basic chords.
Length: 18:29 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 10
David MacKenzie walks you through the basic minor chords. Expand your knowledge of chords with this fun-filled lesson.
Length: 8:15 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 11
Major scales are an essential component of all styles of music. They can also be used as a great way to orient yourself with the fretboard.
Length: 32:12 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 12
David MacKenzie explains how to practice the major scales along with a fun backing track.
Length: 11:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 13
David MacKenzie proceeds to an in-depth discussion of the minor scales.
Length: 15:36 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 14
David MacKenzie shows you how to play the natural minor scale over a rockin' JamTrack.
Length: 6:12 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 15
David demonstrates an excellent one-string exercise in this lesson. This exercise will improve your dexterity and knowledge of the fretboard.
Length: 16:48 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 16
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are techniques that enable you to play with a smooth, legato feel.
Length: 8:27 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 17
David MacKenzie gives a crash course on bending in this lesson. Bends can add a lot of soul to your playing.
Length: 16:12 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 18
David MacKenzie teaches two rock licks inspired by Yngwie Malmsteen and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
Length: 12:12 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 19
David returns to the world of hammer-ons with a fun new exercise. This lesson includes a JamTrack.
Length: 13:56 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 20
David returns to the world of pull-offs with a new exercise. This lesson includes a backing track.
Length: 12:50 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 21
David MacKenzie returns to bending technique in this lesson. This lesson features a backing track that is designed for bending practice.
Length: 12:18 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 22
Integrating vibrato into your guitar playing is a great way to add emotion and soul. David MacKenzie explains the basics of vibrato in this lesson.
Length: 9:12 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 23
David MacKenzie introduces the pentatonic scale.
Length: 5:48 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 24
David MacKenzie introduces the minor pentatonic scale in this lesson.
Length: 4:38 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 25
David MacKenzie explains a two octave pattern of the major scale.
Length: 11:31 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 26
David MacKenzie introduces a two octave natural minor scale pattern.
Length: 12:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 27
David teaches a two octave pattern of the major pentatonic scale.
Length: 6:30 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 28
David MacKenzie teaches a two octave version of the minor pentatonic scale.
Length: 9:20 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 29
David MacKenzie teaches several licks based on common arpeggio patterns. This lesson also includes a backing track to jam with.
Length: 20:40 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 30
David MacKenzie introduces some important rhythm basics in this lesson. This lesson also includes a backing track exercise.
Length: 14:55 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 31
David MacKenzie explains various power chord voicings. By simply moving a finger or two, new power chords can be formed.
Length: 18:43 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 32
David MacKenzie introduces some new amazing licks.
Length: 29:12 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 33
David MacKenzie introduces the tapping technique and teaches a fun exercise. This lesson includes a backing track.
Length: 22:44 Difficulty: 2.5 FREELesson 34
David MacKenzie teaches another amazing tapping exercise.
Length: 13:07 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 35
The third tapping lesson elaborates on the previous lesson by adding open strings.
Length: 12:59 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 36
The fourth lesson in Dave's tapping series deals with a monster diminished lick.
Length: 11:02 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 37
In lesson five of his tapping mini-series, DMac provides backing tracks that you can tap over.
Length: 8:04 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 38
In lesson 38, DMac demonstrates some tremolo techniques to add to your repertoire.
Length: 13:54 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 39
DMac returns to his tapping instruction with more advanced techniques.
Length: 19:54 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 40
In lesson 40, DMac teaches you how to play various D chords all the way up the neck.
Length: 9:20 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 41
In lesson 41, David discusses the octave and its uses while playing.
Length: 17:09 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
About David MacKenzie
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Dave MacKenzie has been playing guitar for 30 of his 45 years on this earth. Starting back when he was 14 years old, Dave picked up the guitar and started to learn from his oldest brother, who had played some guitar as well. Dave was hooked, and couldn't learn fast enough! Everything from the Beatles, Chicago, Ted Nugent, The Eagles, you name it, Dave was trying to play it.
Then as with a lot of players out there, Eddie Van Halen came along and changed the way guitar was played! Dave has been influenced by anyone he has heard play guitar, literally! Always keeping an open mind and a humbleness about him has helped him to keep learning new things on, and about the guitar.
Dave has mostly played in top 40 rock, country, and pop bands. He is most recently playing guitar and keyboards in a 80's metal band called Open Fire. They have opened for Warrant, Firehouse, Winger, and LA Guns
within the 3 and a half years they have been together, and are now jumping into original music.
Dave believes you should have internal motivation, and passion to play guitar, and most definitely, it should be fun!
As with his playing, Dave will find new ways to show you how to get the most out of your time learning guitar!
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Cant relate to he fret positioning on a Jackson guitar.
DMAC YOU MADE ME BREAK A STRING!!!! haha probably my fault, that high e didnt wanna scream like i asked it too :(
What is the right hand doing at the top of the bend? Is this used to mute the strings or is the same bend bent twice? One up then one? Are the strings released at the top of the bend
It probably boils down to practice, practice, but I have a continuing problem when bending up, particularly quick bends, of hitting the string above with my bending finger, or pushing the bent string under the string above and as the upper string sort of pops over the bent string since it it pressed down to the fret, the upper string makes a noise as if it has been struck, and blows the whole bend. Very frustrating. The DMAC lesson was helpful but if you know what I am doing wrong in particular and how to correct it, any help would be greatly appreciated.
a music teacher told me to mute the above strings with your palm. it works for me easier than trying to mute with your fingers
Hi, I have this problem, too, and a friend showed me that in bends where you use two ore more fingers on one string (because you want to bend it hard), the other finger(s) can be used to mute the string that is touched by the bending finger.
what you may be doing is bending too aggressively with your finger and using to much power, thus hitting the other string. now i cant say for sure as i cant see what your doing. but after trying to replicate myself what you said was happening, that was roughly the only way i could make it happen. you dont really have to bend super hard, and work on being slightly less hard on the bend. work on having the curve of your finger be the connecting point on the string. not the top(towards fingernail), or too much of the bottom of your finger. it will take a bit of getting use to, but your right, along with these tips, hopefully and with some practise you will start to get it down. hope this helps.
Great stuff Dave ! Really enjoying your series here , I could have skipped phase 1 but I'm glad I didn't.Have you heard of Pat Thrall ? Well I bought an instruction book that featured him in 1979 & it had that double bending lick you demonstrated as well as bending double stops on the high strings ...best thing is I've still got that book ! Keep 'em coming Dave ML
oh yeah pat thrall, aint heard that name in a while!!! loved his playin with pat travers. they worked well together.
What i noticed is that DMAC almost never uses his first finger to bend but uses it to dampen any strings that might be accidently hit when bending. I tried to use that technique as well and it works quite well for me.
perfect....
Bends I understand. What I am having problems with is going from the bend to the next note when the tab only calls for either a full bend or a half not a bend and release. Also what is the best method for bending two strings at once. For example a full bend on the 14th fret with the 1st and 2nd string. I have been using a bar method due to the next note.
i had problems with bending before this ty
Can anyone help me? I've been playing for 4 months or so now and I still suck at bending. I always seem to end up plucking another string or hitting another string and it sounds awful. Or when bending upwards, when I come down, my nail hits the string up above and sounds awful, just like all my bends. I know what a bend is supposed to do, but can someone tell me where exactly to be putting my fingers/thumb/hand when bending??? :(
Hey there. Sometimes it's hard to answer questions like this because there are so many variables, including your guitar, how you are holding the guitar, the size of strings etc. One thing to realize is precision stuff like this doesn't come overnight and the best thing you can do is practice the bends EXTREMELY slow, so slow it might be painful, until you get it right. Continue doing it that slow and slowly move up the speed. These Q&A's might also help you out! http://www.jamplay.com/members/guitar/ask/view-response.html?id=333&search_text=bending http://www.jamplay.com/members/guitar/ask/view-response.html?id=355&search_text=bending http://www.jamplay.com/members/guitar/ask/view-response.html?id=41&search_text=bending There's also a couple of other lessons that might help shed some light on the situation: http://www.jamplay.com/members/guitar/phase2/matt-brown-9/lesson7.html?search_text=bending http://www.jamplay.com/members/guitar/phase2/dennis-hodges-28/lesson4.html?search_text=bending
Once again a great D-Mac's lesson! However I find the Half and Whole Step Bends explanation for matching the tone of the fret not very easy for a beginner. I hope it will come with experience and practice! Very interesting lesson , a lot of techniques, very useful, good effects remembering a lot of great songs!
There's actually another lesson about bends coming up on monday, this one will elaborate on it a bit more and give some exercises for you to practice. Thank you for the feedback.
haha, yeah, oops, slipped, how'd that get in there? hee, hee!
cool lesson on bends here man! I also liked tho hammer on and pull off lesson(nice little thunderstruck lick you snuck in there! I was doing that part on the wrong fret before your lesson) thanks again man!!! ROCK ON BRO!!!