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Five amazing guitar lessons that will help you play like Joe Satriani

These five video lessons, from Joe himself, will show you how to get that Satriani sound.

Few guitar players in any genre have had as much influence over the last 20 years as Joe Satriani. While he may be described by most as a metal or rock guitarist, his playing spans far more than those two genres, taking in classical, jazz, and blues. 

In the lessons below, Satriani himself takes you through techniques for playing solos and scales, and developing your playing way beyond its current level, whatever that may be. 

One of the features of each video is the way Joe Satriani explains exactly what he's doing and why, and how he listens to the guitar as he's playing it to allow him to subtlely adjust his pick technique or the notes he frets to give his music a different feel.

Each video covers something different, and together will help you get a feel for playing like Joe Satriani.

If these lessons whet your appetite for getting really serious about improving your technique, you might want to consider a structered online guitar lessons course, such as JamPlay. You can read more about JamPlay here.

Soloing

In this video, Satriani discusses the techniques he uses for developing and playing solos, and about how to avoid 'cookie cutter' solos and instead put real expression into your playing. He also explains how he started out by playing solos over blues shuffle rhythms.

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Modes

Do you know your Dorian from your Lydian? Joe does, obviously. Satriani, as well as being an incredible guitar player, is an accomplished student of music theory. Watch and listen as he explains the differences between modes and how some sound better when put next to each other in a solo than others.

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Ten Tips

This video has lots of quick tips for improving your playing, from executing pitch-perfect bends to playing the perfect hammer-on. It also has several exercises for stretching and strengthening your fingers. If you want to play like Joe, you're going to have to get those finger muscles working properly.

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Surfing with the Alien solo lesson

Satriani's 1987 album, Surfing with the Alien is a classic and in this lesson, Satch shows you how to play the solo from the title track. Click through to view it on YouTube if you want to find lessons for the intro, verse, and chorus.

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Cascading Legato runs

The don't call Satch the 'Godfather of Shred' for nothing, but there's a great deal more to it than playing one note after another very quickly. In this video, Satriano reveals the secrets of his trademark cascading Legato runs.

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Photo: Johan Berglund