Playing Guitar like a Pro: Lead, Solo and Group Performance

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Playing Guitar like a Pro: Lead, Solo, and Group Performance

Trailer

01: Hot Lava: Van Halen’s Two-Handed Tapping

Dr. Colin McAllister begins his second guitar course with one of lead guitar’s most extravagant techniques: two-handed tapping. Using an original composition inspired by the legendary Eddie Van Halen, Dr. McAllister teaches this elaborate performance tool hands-on and step by step, in an accessible and easy-to-follow lesson.

39 min

02: Hot Lava Backing Track - Lead

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

03: Hot Lava Backing Track - Rhythm

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

04: Luna Negra: Soloing like David Gilmour

Here, Dr. McAllister dissects the unique, blues-influenced soloing style of Pink Floyd’s lead guitarist, David Gilmour. Along the way, he’ll introduce you to some of the band’s fascinating history before outlining two playing techniques: vibrato and string bending. As with the other lessons, it includes backing tracks at the end.

37 min

05: Luna Negra Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

06: Barnhill’s Blues: Going Acoustic like Clapton

Eric Clapton’s concert for the MTV Unplugged series is one of the most famous ever played. In this lesson, you’re invited to unplug and play bluesy swing rhythms and learn the Hendrix-inspired playing style that balances both lead and rhythm guitar with just one guitarist in order to help fill out the sound of any single-player performance.

43 min

07: Grant Green Street: Funk Rhythm and Licks

Take a trip to 1970s Detroit and master the sound of Grant Green, a funk and blues guitarist for Blue Note Records whose personal life was as colorful as his talent on the six-string. Learn—and learn about—funk-style chord strumming as well as crosspicking, a melodic picking style partly owing its fame to bluegrass.

37 min

08: Grant Green Street Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

2 min

09: Fantasía Ibérica: Celin Romero’s Rasgueado

Dramatically switching genres, Dr. McAllister approachably demonstrates staples of classical acoustic guitar, including rasgueado, or playing with the fingernails; right-hand arpeggios, planting the right hand’s fingers on strings to nimbly traverse the guitar; pizzicato, or playing with the thumb while palm-muting with the hand’s outer edge; and tremolo, sustaining a note by finger-picking rapidly and repeatedly.

44 min

10: Sunday Drive: Leo Brouwer–Style Classical

Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s one-of-a-kind Afro-Cuban classical guitar style provides the basis for this remarkable lesson. Interweaving slow playing with rapid hammer-ons and open-string licks, Brouwer’s trademark sound effortlessly switches from easy performance to challenging and back quickly and deftly—and it may have just the flair your next composition is missing.

36 min

11: Manitou Swing: Django’s Gypsy Jazz

Dr. McAllister leads a masterful study of one of the greatest jazz guitarists in history—Django Reinhardt. Perfect the arts of staccato chords, fast vibrato, sliding, and other “Gypsy jazz” elements, and bring Reinhardt’s 1930s and 40s to life on your own six-string.

35 min

12: Manitou Swing Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

13: Anselm’s Caper: Bebopping like Tal Farlow

Start with George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” or the theme song from The Flintstones, then increase the tempo and add the frenzied playing of Charlie Parker or Tal Farlow. This is the structure for “rhythm changes” jazz. Don’t worry, Dr. McAllister comes through again with examples, theory, and practical use for the aspiring guitarist.

39 min

14: Anselm’s Caper Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

2 min

15: Blue 13: Wes Montgomery’s Octave Melodies

Journey back to the meat and potatoes of improvisational music—the 12-bar blues structure—and spice it up with additional chord progressions and octave-based melodies popularized by jazz legend Wes Montgomery. Fine-tune your thumb strumming and master the style of this legend.

39 min

16: Blue 13 Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

4 min

17: Moto Perpetuo: Andy McKee–Style Workout

Andy McKee’s percussive use of the body of the steel-string guitar, coupled with his right-hand tapping and slapping harmonics, defies categorization. The first guitar sensation on YouTube, boasting 100 million views, Andy’s lovely and unconventional playing led him to open for Prince. Learn several of his innovative techniques today and how to “play outside the box.”

42 min

18: Way Beyond: Intervallic John McLaughlin

Broaden your musical horizons with this lesson inspired by John McLaughlin, a prominent jazz fusion guitarist who featured on Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew. Dr. McAllister uses McLaughlin as evidence to enlighten the viewer about cross-rhythms, interval-based music, and changing time signatures.

46 min

19: Way Beyond Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

20: Sketch for Barbara: Pat Metheny’s Influence

This lesson focuses on the modern jazz waltz, utilizing arpeggiated improvisation and cross-rhythms in the vein of Pat Metheny. Metheny is known for his blend of highly technical yet swinging play style in jazz and blues, adding a distinct flavor to each genre—especially during the changing musical scene of the 1970s and ‘80s.

39 min

21: Sketch for Barbara Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

2 min

22: Cinq de Blanc: The Police’s Quintal Harmony

Thanks to guitarist Andy Summers, most songs by The Police are instantly recognizable. His focus on fifth intervals and reggae-style playing gave the band their signature sound, and hits like “Message in a Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take” give excellent context to this study and insight into your own songwriting.

38 min

23: Cinq de Blanc Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

24: Tarsus: Power Arpeggios of Alex Lifeson

Unleash your inner progressive-rock beast with this Rush-inspired exercise of shifting time signatures, power chords, and crosspicking. The intrinsic and dynamic qualities of the prog-rock subgenre are laid bare here in an easy-paced, digestible format for you to ramp up your technical game.

42 min

25: Tarsus Backing Track - Lead

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

26: Tarsus Backing Track - Rhythm

Practice playing along with this backing track.

1 min

27: Samba Sonrisa: Playing Brazilian Style

This lesson covers the lovely subgenre of Brazilian-style bossa nova. Bossa nova, which includes “The Girl from Ipanema,” surged in the early 1960s thanks to guitarist João Gilberto and pianist/composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. They developed its smooth acoustic plucking and syncopation into a cool, slowed samba irresistible to master guitarists.

42 min

28: Cumulus: A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

Dr. McAllister teaches the viewer how to make use of open D tuning and switch between strumming and playing slur-based melodies, enabling him or her to emulate Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. “Cumulus” gives you the opportunity to adapt the full, rich sounds of the legendary artist and the 1960s-70s folk movement.

40 min

29: Gog Magog: Bluegrass and Flatpicking

It’s quicker than a fighter jet and more intricate than an Agatha Christie murder mystery, but you’ve got this! Apply everything you’ve learned so far from this course about hammer-ons and pull-offs (or “slurs”), open notes, speed, and precision to tackle a lightning-fast—and seemingly intimidating—American musical creation: bluegrass.

47 min

30: Gog Magog Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

2 min

31: Whisper Creek: American Folk Music

Ballads of America’s downtrodden. Post-Dustbowl hardships. Empty bottles. It may not seem flashy or glamorous at first glance, but the viewer crosses the finish line with this snapshot of a nation, a people, a time. Complete your journey of guitar edification with folk music—that most humble, somber, and sincere of American working-class genres.

38 min

32: Echo Park

American Surf Guitar. Revisit the early 1960s sound of surf rock by freshening up on the rapid picking and steady 16th-note rhythms that dominated the beach. Dr. McAllister shows you how to play like Dick Dale and The Beach Boys, while enlightening you about everything from the Rendezvous Ballroom fire to Brian Wilson’s nervous breakdown.

17 min

33: Echo Park Backing Track

Practice playing along with this backing track.

2 min

Overview Course No. 7800

With Playing Guitar like A Pro: Lead, Solo, and Group Performance, The Great Courses invites aspiring guitarists to master the techniques of some of the premier guitar players of the last 100 years. At the same time, the course offers a wealth of wisdom and insight into the music world for the casual listener interested in understanding what makes their favorite bands so unique.

No matter your preferred genre or skill level, Dr. Colin McAllister has you covered. Adopt intermediate-level techniques like right-hand arpeggios, crosspicking, slurring, funk-style chord strumming, and slapping harmonics, then improvise them over the provided backing music tracks to truly make them your own. Unearth the secrets of some of the world's most influential rockers, including Eric Clapton and David Gilmour; then bone up on jazz pioneers like Django Reinhardt and Antonio Carlos Jobim. All of them—and a dozen more—are discussed in 18 engaging and interactive 45-minute lessons.

Whether you are a musician looking to play like the greats or a music fan wanting to enrich your experience of favorite performers and songs, you will find Playing Guitar like a Pro a journey that will evolve the listening ear of anyone who experiences it. If you've ever wanted to go back and hear your favorite song again for the first time, this is your chance. Embark on a wondrous trek around the world, through time, and into the hottest musical scenes in the last 100 years as you open your eyes and ears to the magic of playing guitar like a master.

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About

Colin McAllister

Most importantly, good technique allows us to express our musicality without inhibition.

ALMA MATER

University of California, San Diego

INSTITUTION

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Colin McAllister is the Music Program Director at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees in Musical Arts at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied guitar with Celin and Pepe Romero, interpretation with Bertram Turetzky, and conducting with Harvey Sollberger and Rand Steiger.

Dr. McAllister has taught the guitar and performed professionally as a guitarist for more than 25 years. He has made more than 1,000 appearances with organizations including the San Diego Opera, the San Diego Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. Dr. McAllister is also a member of the jazz ensemble Hennessy 6. In 2016, he entered an artist partnership with Taylor Guitars.

Dr. McAllister has recorded on several record labels, including Albany Records, Tzadik Records, and Naxos. He also pursues research interests in 3rd and 4th century religious beliefs related to apocalypticism and early medieval commentary on the Book of Revelation.

Dr. McAllister lives in Manitou Springs, Colorado, with his wife Barbara and their children. In addition to his academic studies in music and the apocalypse, he has climbed more than 35 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, along with Mount Whitney in California and three high volcanoes in Mexico.

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