General Interest

It’s not every day that Eddie Van Halen comes to your house and shows you how to play Eruption. But this is exactly what happened to Dweezil Zappa – son of Frank Zappa – one fateful day as a 12-year-old.

As he reveals in a new interview with Marshall, Van Halen had just called up his dad and Frank Zappa invited him round. The anticipation was immense for the fledgling guitarist – who was already obsessed with Van Halen – and as soon as the legend walked through the door, Dweezil thought: “OK you’ve got to play Mean Street, you’ve got to play Eruption.”

• READ MORE: One of 500 guitars recently donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was actually stolen from the Rolling Stones by drug dealers in 1972
  

Dweezil eventually did get to hear him play those songs, but “as soon as [Van Halen] plugged in” he performed a short lick – and for Zappa’s son this was a profound glimpse into his unique style. Van Halen showed Dweezil that “you can use open strings” and “saw how his fingers moved”.

The next thing he immediately picked up on was how Van Halen “had very specific looking hands”. “His hands looked different to other people’s,” Zappa says. “The way his pinkie operated – I was fascinated with seeing it up close.

“But when I saw him play Eruption or Mean Street, I at least knew the area on the neck to start looking for when I wanted to try and figure stuff out. And that opened up the whole world of guitar playing for me.”

This would not be the last time that Zappa would hang out with Van Halen – the two would become lifelong friends with a mutual respect for each other’s playing. Eventually, “in a complete role reversal” it would be Dweezil who would teach Van Halen how to play a Zappa riff he couldn’t wrap his head around.

Earlier this year, Dweezil shared the moment with 100 FM The Pike: “He came to one of my shows back in 2010 and we were playing the song St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast… After the show, he came up. He said, ‘What’s that ‘pancake song’? What are you playing there?’ And I had to play this really difficult part and show it to him on the guitar.”

The post “He had very specific-looking hands – they looked different to other people’s”: Dweezil Zappa recalls the time Eddie Van Halen visited his family home and taught him guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in May, it was revealed that over 500 of the “finest guitars from the golden age of American guitar making” had been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including Leo Fender’s first guitar to pre-war Martin acoustics.

But it’s now come about that one of those 500 instruments was a 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul, which was stolen from The Rolling Stones as they recorded their 1972 album, Exile on Main St.

• READ MORE: Metallica lawyers take down US government drone video featuring Enter Sandman

As the story goes, the guitar – which was played by Keith Richards during the band’s 1964 Ed Sullivan Show appearance, as well as by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page in its lifetime – was one of nine guitars burgled from Villa Nellcôte, the mansion on the French Riviera where the Stones were recording Exile. 

A saxophone belonging to Bobby Keys and bass belonging to Bill Wyman were also taken.

According to Louder, the robbery was reportedly committed by local drug dealers to whom Keith Richards owed money.

But the 1959 sunburst Les Paul actually belonged to Mick Taylor, according to Taylor’s business manager Marlies Damming. She explains that Taylor bought the guitar from Richards in 1967 prior to joining John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers after the departure of Peter Green.

“There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared,” she says. “The interesting thing about these vintage Les Pauls is that they are renowned for their flaming, which is unique, like a fingerprint.”

According to Messy Nessy, Villa Nellcôte provided the Stones privacy from the press as they were recording the album. “But with Richards’ ever-present entourage of hanger-ons and drug dealers, nearly half of the furniture was missing from the house by the time their stay was over,” the publication goes on.

“Villa Nellcôte was such an open house that, one day in September 1971, burglars walked out of the front gate with nine of Richards’s guitars, Bobby Keys saxophone and Bill Wyman’s bass in broad daylight while the occupants were watching television in the living room,” says Stones researcher Jack Vanderwyk.

Now, a source tells pagesix.com that Mick Taylor “never received compensation for the theft and is mystified as to how his property found its way into the Met’s collection”.

Guitar.com has reached out to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for comment.

The post One of 500 guitars recently donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was actually stolen from the Rolling Stones by drug dealers in 1972 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The US government was recently forced to delete a video it had posted on X promoting military drone technology, set to Metallica’s Enter Sandman as a backing track.

The original video – posted on Friday (11 July) – saw Metallica’s 1991 mega-hit playing in the background as defense secretary Pete Hegseth spoke about the drone-building capabilities of the US military.

But Metallica’s lawyers quickly got in touch with the government to have the video taken down, after Enter Sandman was apparently used without permission.

• READ MORE: Black Sabbath are done, but Tony Iommi is making another solo album: “I’m trying to finish what I started”

The video was quickly taken down and re-uploaded otherwise identically, but this time without Enter Sandman.

“This afternoon, representatives from X reached out to DoD [Department of Defense] regarding a video posted to our social media page and asked that the video be removed due to a copyright issue with the song Enter Sandman by Metallica,” a spokesperson for the DoD said [via Louder]. “The video has been taken down, corrected, and re-uploaded to our page.”

Metallica’s representatives also confirmed to Rolling Stone that the track had been used without the band’s permission.

Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance @DOGE pic.twitter.com/esaQtswwDb

— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) July 11, 2025

After a string of shows in the US for their ongoing M72 World Tour, Metallica recently paid tribute to their musical heroes Black Sabbath at the band’s monumental farewell show at Birmingham’s Villa Park.

Metallica were one of many metal juggernauts to appear on the day – also including Slayer, Pantera, Mastodon, Lamb of God and others – and all were granted relatively short set times.

Metallica’s set comprised six tracks in total, four of their own – Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Battery and Master of Puppets – and two Sabbath covers: Johnny Blade and Hole in the Sky.

For the latter – which happened to be the band’s opening track – guitarist Kirk Hammett wielded the CEO4, a one-of-a-kind SG guitar made by Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian. The axe is set to be auctioned for charity, and we expect it to command a pretty high sale price given its short history…

View a full list of Metallica’s upcoming tour dates at their official website.

The post Metallica lawyers take down US government drone video featuring Enter Sandman appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$699/£749, fractalaudio.com

Back in 2015, partly in response to those players reluctant to give up their tube amps but who wanted access to the vaunted suite of top quality effects available on their flagship product – the hugely popular Axe-Fx 2 – Fractal Audio developed the FX8: a multi-effects pedal that contained all their effects, but none of their amps and cabs.

• READ MORE: Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy”

Prior to this, the only way to access Fractal’s effects alone was to run the Axe-FX 2 through the effects loop of your amp – something that the likes of Steve Vai, Satriani and Mike Keneally were doing at the time – so it made sense to create a standalone product.

The FX8 was another hit for the brand, offering a plethora of all the usual delays, reverbs, modulations and drives in a comfortably compact package – no less than Guthrie Govan was a fan.

But that was a decade ago now, and in the ever-evolving world of high-end DSP effects, that’s an awful long time. Fractal has updated most of its line-up in the intervening 10 years, and now it’s the turn of the FX8, which is being replaced in the lineup by a unit that arrived at the tail end of last year, dubbed the VP4.

Fractal Audio VP4 – what is it?

Like its predecessor, the VP4 is a high-end multi-effects unit that is derived from the flagship Fractal product of the time – in this case that means the Axe-Fx 3. Now, the Axe-Fx 3 is no spring-chicken itself – it’s been around since 2018 – but as with all modern modelling tech, the brand has been regularly supporting the product with new firmware updates, tones and tweaks ever since, so it’s bang up to date in that regard.

As people seem less and less inclined to make use of football pitch-sized pedalboards, it seems that modern manufacturers and users place footprint above a lot of things. So the VP4 is considerably smaller than the FX8 – it’s tiny in comparison really – but that does mean you’re now working with half the number of footswitches.

Just four footswitches here also means that you can only run four effects simultaneously, but as with the FX, you do get the full suite of pre- and post-amp effects including drives, delays, modulators, reverbs, and everything in between.

We also have a myriad of connection possibilities covering buffered analogue bypass, SPDIF digital I/O, MIDI I/O, and USB audio/MIDI capabilities. All the fun of the fair that you’d expect from a premium effects unit here in 2025.

Fractal Audio VP4 – do I place it in my effects loop or in front of the amp?

All the connectivity, plus the various pre- and post-amp effects on offer does present an interesting question out of the door… where does it live?

The easiest option is to run VP4 effects through the front of the amp, but what if you just want your drives up the front and your effects loop is the preferred destination for modulation and echo/reverb pedals?

The VP4’s various ins and outs allow you to do this courtesy of what’s known as the ‘four cable method’. This – surprise, surprise – uses four cables to connect the VP4 to the front of the amp and its effects. This enables us to run some effects before the amp (generally drives, pitch shifters, and wahs) and others through the amp’s effects loop – most commonly delay and modulation effects.

Unfortunately, this method is notorious for generating ground loop noise, which is a nightmare to eliminate. Some manage it using a hum-eliminator, but in my experience this slightly affects the tone in specific frequency ranges. We’ll see if the VP4 is similarly afflicted.

Fractal Audio VP4 – usability

The most important thing with any deep and involved multi-effects unit is the ease of navigation. The unit’s colour screen makes this a pretty straightforward process, but if you prefer to do your preset-sculpting on a desktop editor, the Fractal one is both easy to use, stable and in-depth – though you’ll have to connect it to your laptop via USB-C.

There are 50 presets loaded on board, all named to give some sort of indication of the sonic services they provide i.e. ‘Austin Stevie’. Loading up the default patch gives us four effects or ‘blocks’: a drive, chorus, delay, and reverb. Navigating to the routing menu we can select how we’d like to run each of these effects: ‘pre’ (front of amp) or ‘post’ (effects loop). We select the ‘1 pre’, ‘3 post’ option as we want to run the overdrive in front of the amp and the rest through the effects loop.

Once you’ve set up the preset, you can determine how you want the footswitches to behave. Currently I’m in ‘preset’ mode which means I’m able to use them to select different presets (banks of four pedals). There are a total of 104 presets available in 26 banks, which can be navigated by holding down one of the footswitches. Each preset has its own noise gate, EQ and volume levels, meaning that you can set each differently.

There is also the ‘scenes’ option which allows us four different configurations of each block. For example, in my current Scene A I have a TS808 in the drive block, a small hall in the reverb block, and a tape delay in the delay block.

Switching to Scene B (there’s also C and D) can utilise a different overdrive in the drive block and change to a plate reverb in the reverb block. Each scene can be configured differently and assigned to one of the four footswitches.

My preference, however, is to use the ‘pedal’ view whereby you can engage each effect using the corresponding footswitch.

Fractal Audio VP4 – sounds

To get things started, I set the VP4 up in four-cable mode and upon releasing the amp from standby mode, the first big surprise is, well… silence. As alluded to above, interference and ground loop hum is the bane of this kind of setup, but not so here. I can’t emphasise what a big deal this is for touring and gigging guitarists, and it’s certainly a first for me.

One of the biggest bugbears of multi-effects units is often the drive sounds – going all the way back to the first Line 6 POD, people have always complained that digital recreations don’t get the feel and response of a drive pedal right, and despite huge strides in technology in the last 20-plus years, that perception often holds.

The VP4 clearly wants to change that perception as it’s stocked with emulations of pretty much every classic pedal imaginable, from the Boss DS-1 to modern boutique stunners like the Vemuram Jan Ray.

Now, as something of a drive obsessive, I am fortunate enough to own a great many of these modelled pedals, so why not A/B them to see if this thing really does have the juice in the dirt stakes?

First up is the venerable Boss SD-1 – a bona-fide classic that pairs well with my EL34-powered Suhr Badger – and first impressions are impressive. It’s driving the amp in the same manner of an SD-1 – boosting the mids, smoothing out some of the harsher high-end frequencies and focussing the low end.

Engaging my own SD-1 with the same settings, the VP4 sounds very slightly brighter; however by turning its tone down a touch and adding a tiny fraction more gain the sound is near-identical.

Next up is the DOD Overdrive/Preamp 250, and it’s the same result – the tiniest of adjustments on the VP4 once again leads to a sound that’s almost impossible to differentiate. Another surprise is the notable lack of hiss when engaging the VP4 drive compared to its analogue counterpart.

It really is an impressive feat to accurately model analogue gear, retain its qualities but eliminate or diminish the more extraneous noise that none of us want – and it does it with so many classic pedals here. But enough about overdrives! What are the other effects like?

Delays and reverbs are our next stop and there’s a huge selection of both with the VP4. The tape delays are particularly rewarding, and I can see it in real-time replacing my new UA Orion tape delay pedal, with the ‘worn tape’ preset proving especially inspiring.

There are over 70 different reverbs with multiple parameters that allow you to dial in preferred pre-delay, decay, mix, etc. There are some hidden delights on board too such as the mysteriously named ‘Recording studio C’, which is a tight shimmery reverb ostensibly based on some very expensive analogue studio gear.

Fractal Audio VP4 – should I buy one?

Although Fractal will forever be synonymous with its incredible digital amp modelling capabilities, those in the know have been equally as desirous of their effects suite. The VP4 represents their most compact and inexpensive method of providing them for use with tube amps.

Onboard are literally thousands of pounds worth of unerringly accurate models of the greatest overdrive pedals ever created, along with studio quality modulation, pitch shifting, compressors and other effects.

The VP4 offers more than that though – it provides this accuracy without the addition of unwanted noise. And I’m not talking of the analogue noise that many of us have affection for – no, it’s the hiss from a drive pedal or the hum from the four-cable method.

While it’s obviously not a cheap thing, it starts to feel generous when you calculate what you’re getting for your money – you could easily sell a handful of pedals and take a dive with this, even if you’re wary of multi-effects in general.

And if you are apprehensive about taking the plunge into a modeller, my advice is simple – try one of these, you won’t be disappointed. It’s the best digital multi-effects unit I’ve ever used.

Fractal VP4 – alternatives

Much like the VP4, Line 6’s HX Effects ($549.99/£499) was designed to usurp your pedal collection and integrate with your favourite amp. Slightly larger than the VP4 but featuring eight footswitches and the ability to run nine effects simultaneously, its 213 different effect models make it vast in scope.

Not quite as guitar-centric is the Eventide H90 ($899/£799) a company who have led the way for decades with studio quality reverb, pitch shifting, and delays. The H90 packages many of these classics in a very petite unit including reverb and delays galore with some superb modulation and industry-defining pitch shift capabilities.

It would be remiss not to mention one of the first manufactures of multi-effects pedals, Boss, who still provide a huge range, one of which is their flagship GT-1000CORE ($659.99/£599) which features the full suite of their famous effects and access to virtual amps and cabs too, allowing up to 24 simultaneous effects blocks.

The post Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard review: “you could sell your pedal collection and replace it with this” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It was December 1982, and the Police, barely tolerating one another, were recording their final album, Synchronicity, at legendary producer George Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat. As the band’s skillful and creative guitarist, Andy Summers, recounted recently to YouTuber Rick Beato, the band was sitting with a synth-laden version of the soon-to-be mega-hit “Every Breath You Take” that no one quite cared for. With the song then being stripped down to basic tracks and songwriter Sting asking Summers to “make it your own,” the guitarist proceeded to record—in one take—the now-famous guitar hook that catapulted the song to #1 on Billboard’s pop chart.

Last June, Summers released his latest solo album, the adventurous Vertiginous Canyons, which you can read more about in the fun and incisive Andy Summers: The Premier Guitar Interview. So, let’s take this opportunity to revisit the guitarist’s unique creativity in some of the Police’s classic songs, as the band weaved together elements of rock, punk, reggae, and jazz.

Chords Are Key

So much about music and guitar playing, even soloing, begins to make more sense as you develop a better understanding of chords, a key part of Summers’ musical foundation. Ex. 1 is based on the aforementioned classic part in “Every Breath You Take.”

Ex. 1

Solid fret-hand fingering is important in order to be able to pull this off as smoothly as Summers does in the above video. He is notably employing a palm-mute throughout, which frees him from being overly concerned with the notes ringing over each other, and he can maneuver his fret-hand index finger to jump to non-adjacent strings. Let’s tackle Ex. 1 using his method. For the Eadd2 chord, use your index and pinky to fret the 5th and 4th strings, respectively; then, shift your index finger to the 3rd string to fret the G#. The only other challenge is the F#m(add2) chord, which you can fret with your index, middle and pinky, shifting your index finger as in the previous chord.

But what’s this “add2” stuff all about? Well, we’re in the key of E major, so let’s first take a look at its accompanying major scale: E–F#–G#–A–B–C#–D#. The notes of a basic triad (three-note chord) are the root, 3rd and 5th, with our E chord spelled E–G#–B. To the find the 2nd of any chord, simply count one step up the scale from its root. One step up from E is F#, which is indeed the note we’re adding to our E chord in the example. To add the 2nd to the F#m and A chords, we add a G# and B, respectively.

The 2nd can also be used in place of the 3rd in a chord, which Summers famously does in the opening riff of “Message in a Bottle” from 1979’s Reggatta De Blanc.

These chords are known as “sus2” chords, as adding the 2nd without the 3rd being present creates a suspension—the tension created by adding a non-chord tone. (You might also be familiar with sus4 chords.) Ex. 2 illustrates an easy way to add the 2nd to some open-position chords. For the Gsus2, the 2nd (A) is located on the 3rd string; for the Csus2, the 2nd (D) is both on the 4th and 2nd strings, and for the Fsus2, the 2nd (G) is located on the 3rd and 1st strings.

Ex. 2

Ex. 3 illustrates the very same concept, but involves stretched voicings Summers employs in “Message…” Note how satisfying it sounds to resolve the 2nd of Asus2 (B) to its 3rd (C#) at the end of the second bar. In much the same way, you can create drama in your own playing simply by being aware of this concept of tension and release.

Ex. 3

Summers’ Colors

A hallmark of Summers’ playing is how deft he is at adding all sorts of colors to chords, which he does quite often in a host of Police classics, including “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” from 1981’s Ghost in the Machine.

Here, though, he takes a different tack. By allowing the same open strings to drone over each chord of the progression, new colors are created each time. Ex. 4 illustrates this in a similar fashion.

Ex. 4

We’re moving a simple 5ths shape up the neck on the 2nd and 4th strings, while letting the open strings do the heavy lifting. Sometimes these droning notes turn out to be basic chord tones (root, 3rd, or 5th), as in bar 1’s G6 chord, where the open G string is the root. However, the open E adds the 6th, lending its own unique flair. The open G is key to the next two chords, where it acts as the 7th of A7 and the root of Gmaj13/B. In that same chord, the open E becomes its 6th. (The 6th is the same note as the 13th, but is generally called the latter when the 7th is present, as it is here in the form of the F#). Adding the same open strings to the C chord in bar 4 would simply result in its 3rd (E) and 5th (G), so we took things up a notch by adding the suspended 2nd (D) on the 1st string.

Using Colors in a Different Way

So far, we’ve learned how to use colors to vastly expand our vocabulary of chords. But learning to recognize each color’s unique sound, while at the same time being able to visualize them on the fretboard, also massively revs up your soloing ability. A great way to do this is to learn to visualize where the color notes are located on the fretboard in relation to the chord shapes you already know. First, let’s create a compelling guitar melody (Ex. 5) over the same chords used in Ex. 1.

Ex. 5

Before actually playing it, reacquaint yourself with Ex. 1’s Eadd2 chord shape, noting that the added 2nd (F#) is found on the 4th string. Ex. 5 begins with that very same F# resolving up to G#, the 3rd. Now, play bar 1 while visualizing the Eadd2 chord shape. (If you prefer, you can visualize a basic open position E shape, noting where the 2nd can be located.) Much like how the CAGED system is structured, this same shape can be moved up the neck. (For more on CAGED, check out these Premier Guitar lessons.) For example, let’s try finding the same melody over a Gadd2 chord by first moving our Eadd2 shape up to the 3rd position, creating a Gadd2 chord, with its root found on the 6th string, 3rd fret). It requires stretching your fingers a bit, but here, actually playing the chord isn’t our focus. Instead, simply visualize the shape, noting how its 2nd (A) is again found on the 4th string. Next, play Ex. 6, which is our same melody, arranged to function over a Gadd2 chord. This same process can be repeated for the F#m(add2) and Aadd2 chords, and to visualize any added color note or suspension.

Ex. 6

Finally, let’s loosen things up by playing a similar melody, but more in the style of a guitar solo, primarily by adding some bends, as in Ex. 7.

Ex. 7

In similar fashion, exploring Andy Summer’s style, especially his vast knowledge of chords, reveals a depth to his playing that can be mined to open up new worlds to boost our own creativity.

It was December 1982, and the Police, barely tolerating one another, were recording their final album, Synchronicity, at legendary producer George Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat. As the band’s skillful and creative guitarist, Andy Summers, recounted recently to YouTuber Rick Beato, the band was sitting with a synth-laden version of the soon-to-be mega-hit “Every Breath You Take” that no one quite cared for. With the song then being stripped down to basic tracks and songwriter Sting asking Summers to “make it your own,” the guitarist proceeded to record—in one take—the now-famous guitar hook that catapulted the song to #1 on Billboard’s pop chart.

Last June, Summers released his latest solo album, the adventurous Vertiginous Canyons, which you can read more about in the fun and incisive Andy Summers: The Premier Guitar Interview. So, let’s take this opportunity to revisit the guitarist’s unique creativity in some of the Police’s classic songs, as the band weaved together elements of rock, punk, reggae, and jazz.

Chords Are Key

So much about music and guitar playing, even soloing, begins to make more sense as you develop a better understanding of chords, a key part of Summers’ musical foundation. Ex. 1 is based on the aforementioned classic part in “Every Breath You Take.”

Ex. 1

Solid fret-hand fingering is important in order to be able to pull this off as smoothly as Summers does in the above video. He is notably employing a palm-mute throughout, which frees him from being overly concerned with the notes ringing over each other, and he can maneuver his fret-hand index finger to jump to non-adjacent strings. Let’s tackle Ex. 1 using his method. For the Eadd2 chord, use your index and pinky to fret the 5th and 4th strings, respectively; then, shift your index finger to the 3rd string to fret the G#. The only other challenge is the F#m(add2) chord, which you can fret with your index, middle and pinky, shifting your index finger as in the previous chord.

But what’s this “add2” stuff all about? Well, we’re in the key of E major, so let’s first take a look at its accompanying major scale: E–F#–G#–A–B–C#–D#. The notes of a basic triad (three-note chord) are the root, 3rd and 5th, with our E chord spelled E–G#–B. To the find the 2nd of any chord, simply count one step up the scale from its root. One step up from E is F#, which is indeed the note we’re adding to our E chord in the example. To add the 2nd to the F#m and A chords, we add a G# and B, respectively.

The 2nd can also be used in place of the 3rd in a chord, which Summers famously does in the opening riff of “Message in a Bottle” from 1979’s Reggatta De Blanc.

These chords are known as “sus2” chords, as adding the 2nd without the 3rd being present creates a suspension—the tension created by adding a non-chord tone. (You might also be familiar with sus4 chords.) Ex. 2 illustrates an easy way to add the 2nd to some open-position chords. For the Gsus2, the 2nd (A) is located on the 3rd string; for the Csus2, the 2nd (D) is both on the 4th and 2nd strings, and for the Fsus2, the 2nd (G) is located on the 3rd and 1st strings.

Ex. 2

Ex. 3 illustrates the very same concept, but involves stretched voicings Summers employs in “Message…” Note how satisfying it sounds to resolve the 2nd of Asus2 (B) to its 3rd (C#) at the end of the second bar. In much the same way, you can create drama in your own playing simply by being aware of this concept of tension and release.

Ex. 3

Summers’ Colors

A hallmark of Summers’ playing is how deft he is at adding all sorts of colors to chords, which he does quite often in a host of Police classics, including “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” from 1981’s Ghost in the Machine.

Here, though, he takes a different tack. By allowing the same open strings to drone over each chord of the progression, new colors are created each time. Ex. 4 illustrates this in a similar fashion.

Ex. 4

We’re moving a simple 5ths shape up the neck on the 2nd and 4th strings, while letting the open strings do the heavy lifting. Sometimes these droning notes turn out to be basic chord tones (root, 3rd, or 5th), as in bar 1’s G6 chord, where the open G string is the root. However, the open E adds the 6th, lending its own unique flair. The open G is key to the next two chords, where it acts as the 7th of A7 and the root of Gmaj13/B. In that same chord, the open E becomes its 6th. (The 6th is the same note as the 13th, but is generally called the latter when the 7th is present, as it is here in the form of the F#). Adding the same open strings to the C chord in bar 4 would simply result in its 3rd (E) and 5th (G), so we took things up a notch by adding the suspended 2nd (D) on the 1st string.

Using Colors in a Different Way

So far, we’ve learned how to use colors to vastly expand our vocabulary of chords. But learning to recognize each color’s unique sound, while at the same time being able to visualize them on the fretboard, also massively revs up your soloing ability. A great way to do this is to learn to visualize where the color notes are located on the fretboard in relation to the chord shapes you already know. First, let’s create a compelling guitar melody (Ex. 5) over the same chords used in Ex. 1.

Ex. 5

Before actually playing it, reacquaint yourself with Ex. 1’s Eadd2 chord shape, noting that the added 2nd (F#) is found on the 4th string. Ex. 5 begins with that very same F# resolving up to G#, the 3rd. Now, play bar 1 while visualizing the Eadd2 chord shape. (If you prefer, you can visualize a basic open position E shape, noting where the 2nd can be located.) Much like how the CAGED system is structured, this same shape can be moved up the neck. (For more on CAGED, check out these Premier Guitar lessons.) For example, let’s try finding the same melody over a Gadd2 chord by first moving our Eadd2 shape up to the 3rd position, creating a Gadd2 chord, with its root found on the 6th string, 3rd fret). It requires stretching your fingers a bit, but here, actually playing the chord isn’t our focus. Instead, simply visualize the shape, noting how its 2nd (A) is again found on the 4th string. Next, play Ex. 6, which is our same melody, arranged to function over a Gadd2 chord. This same process can be repeated for the F#m(add2) and Aadd2 chords, and to visualize any added color note or suspension.

Ex. 6

Finally, let’s loosen things up by playing a similar melody, but more in the style of a guitar solo, primarily by adding some bends, as in Ex. 7.

Ex. 7

In similar fashion, exploring Andy Summer’s style, especially his vast knowledge of chords, reveals a depth to his playing that can be mined to open up new worlds to boost our own creativity.