Tips and Tricks

Skill Building Guitar Course from David Anthony

Every guitarist gets to a point where he/she wishes to add his/her own touch to songs. Basic techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, rakes, and harmonics are a great way to put an original spin on the music you play.

11 Lessons

Complete course with step-by-step lessons and practice examples.

Multi-Camera

Course filmed with 6 cameras for the perfect angles.

Guitar Pro

All tabs and notation provided in PDF and Guitar Pro formats.

Tabs & Info

Download tabs, helpers, JamTracks and docs included with lessons.

Included

Access this course, along with all other courses with Membership.

Full Course Breakdown

David Anthony thoroughly explores harmonics on the guitar. He begins the series with an explanation of the acoustic properties surrounding harmonic production. David explains how to add natural, tap, slapped, and harp harmonics to your original compositions.

1

Intro to Lesson Series

David Anthony introduces the Tips and Tricks lesson series.

4:12 Runtime

0.5 Difficulty

2

Basics of Harmonics

David explains the basics of natural harmonics.

25:00 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

3

Cool Harmonic Exercises

David Anthony teaches a basic harmonic exercise. The exercise is modeled after "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica.

10:48 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

4

Rakes and Harmonics

David Anthony explains a technique known as string rakes. He explains how rakes may be used with harmonics.

15:30 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

5

Harmonic Exercise

David Anthony teaches a beautiful harmonic exercise. This exercise is a short piece that is great for building harmonic skills.

15:00 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

6

Tap Harmonics

David Anthony covers the basics of tap harmonics. He demonstrates an exercise that will help you with this technique.

24:00 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

7

Slap Harmonics and Open Tuning

In this action packed lesson, David Anthony teaches slap harmonics and CGDGAD tuning.

15:00 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

8

More Slap Harmonics

David demonstrates a new exercise involving slap harmonics.

9:00 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

9

Harp Harmonics

David introduces harp harmonics.

16:00 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

10

Harp-Slap Harmonic Jam

David Anthony brings harp and slap harmonics together in a practical, musical exercise.

10:03 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

11

More Harp Harmonics

David returns to the world of harp harmonics. Once again, this lesson uses an alternate tuning.

14:30 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

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  • Loveland, Colorado
  • Playing since 2001
  • 38 lessons at JamPlay
David Anthony was born on November 9th, 1982, in the small town of Mount Hope, NY. As a child he absorbed the church flavored musical environment that his parents provided. With this influence he realized at a young age that music would not simply be a passive experience for him. It was not until the age of 15 that he decided to string up his first guitar. Relying solely on his father for his foundational chord knowledge, he quickly became enamored with the possibility of endless melodic structures, and the goal of becoming a fantastic player himself.

His early shredder influences came from Kirk Hammet of Metallica. During his first few years of guitar playing, he developed a very workable knowledge of pentatonic, major and minor scales. Over the years his musical interests swayed from rock to standards, from jazz to classical, and a strong love of the art of flamenco guitar; Spanish finger style. It was not until the age of 18 that he decided to surround himself entirely with the music of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. This influential exclusivity enabled him to learn more about thinking outside of the musical box. In one year he had learned than in the prior 3 years. Picking up multiple ways to structure melodies, create chords and use different modes, his writing and improvisational abilities grew exponentially. In his senior year of high school, he was responsible for the development of the first Musical Appreciation class in the schools history, and had aided the instructor in the teaching of those classes.

After high school, his focus started to rest mainly in writing. With this he realized that he would need additional, abstract influences to develop a unique style of writing. After a couple more years of playing in a small band, and writing some decent material, he greeted 2004 with a move to Nashville, TN. There he found the exact influence that would change his opinion of the guitar forever. Attempting to weed out a strong foundation in shredding and solo techniques, he began learning finger style guitar, and quickly realized the options that his door would open for him.

As he picked up more complex chord structures and jazz scales, his style became a passion for him that continues to drive him and push him to learn more. He feels strongly about the connection between musical input and the music you write. He notes that his subconscious pool of influence, developed from the music he listens to, is almost directly responsible for the type of music that he writes. He adamantly believes that in order to create a unique, soulful style, the pool must remain unpolluted by substandard music. What's that mean? As David puts it, "If you don't want to play crap, don't listen to crap."

David currently teaches Jazz guitar in Fort Collins, Colorado, with plans to move back to Nashville in the spring to pursue a career in writing.
Reviews & Feedback 60/100 with 10 ratings
toadsong

I wanted to select all 3 options.

pgoelz

Yes. All instructors should only use guitars with dots on the face of the fretboard so we can see where you are on the neck.