Heavy Rock Masterclass

Hello everyone! In this masterclass I’m focusing specifically on the modern approach to heavy rock or hard rock.

I’m going to show you some of the scales and techniques I use in this style, influenced by the whole wide history of rock guitar.

I’ve made four backing tracks in a modern heavy rock style, and we’ll use them to explore a range of exercises and licks, culminating in a long improvised solo.

Rock is a direct descendant of Blues. The two genres share the same basic material: the pentatonic scale, the blues scale and some of the most commonly used modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian.

Focusing on the guitar, much of our standard rock vocabulary has its roots in blues guitar, itself often an attempt to imitate the human voice. For example: bends, vibrato, double-stops (often in combination with vibrato and bends), slides.

This rock guitar vocabulary was largely established in the mid-1960s, when rock developed from within the blues rock movement, eventually giving rise to the subgenres of heavy rock or hard rock. Heavy rock bloomed from the end of the 1960s, recognisable by its aggressive singing, distorted guitars, driving bass and drums, and a generally heavier approach to the blues elements.