Latin Guitar Lessons

In this video, I demonstrate how to play the jazz standard Blue Bossa. The lead sheet for this tune is readily available on the internet, and the voicings I am using are standard. If anyone ...

In this lesson, I teach you how to play a bossa nova comping style that was taught to me by a Brazilian musician named Weber Lopez. This style seems simple but it is much harder than it...

This lesson is a latin feeling improvisation that utilizes notes from two easy sources: the G Major scale, and the D minor pentatonic scale. You will notice that it is in the key of G Major....

The chords contained in the backing are:  G7M, C#sus4, C, C7M   Notice that the G note in the bass is held for most of the progression. Movement is minimal despite the tonal chan...

In this example, be careful of bar 2 where there is a short burst of three notes. They are intentionally fast, passing notes to set up the G note on the first beat of bar 3. Remember also th...

If you have a tremolo bar on your guitar, now is the time to put it to work! This example uses it quite sparingly, but you can experiment with greater degrees of bending for a more 'outside'...

Important note:  the last 7 bars use the fingers of the right hand in place of the pick. Bar 2 can be a tricky transition, so practice transferring your pick to a comfortable place...

This backing is in the key of G Major and is set to 120 BPM. Have fun improvising!

Next-Level StrummingLatin Grooves Exercise 1: To get things started, let's break down a fairly basic latin groove. Commonly referred to as a "Clave", this feel is very often abducted into ...

Hello Infinite Guitarists! In this song tutorial, we'll be learning a piece I wrote called "Moonlit Waters". It has a bit of a sexy, latin jazz feel to it. Once you watch the full video abo...

Picking-Hand Fingering T Thumb I Index Finger M Middle Finger A Ring Finger O Pinky Finger In Exercise 1, we're going to be accent...

In this section, we're going to be playing an octave pattern on the Low E and D strings. Just like in Exercise 1, we have a lot of rests and space between the chords. Try adding that rhythm...

Now we get to the main theme of the song. This part isn't too difficult, but be careful with your fingering on both the left and right hands. Using proper fingering will help the transitions...

Have fun with the backing track! Just for your reference, the backing track is at 138 bpm (beats per minute). If you ever make a recording of yourself playing along, be sure to post it in t...

Welcome! In this tutorial, we're going to delve into some Latin styles. If you enjoy guitarists like Al Di Meola and Steve Oliver, this will be right up your alley. And if you haven't heard...

Here we have the main theme of the song. It has a bit of a sexy, smooth jazz feel to it. First thing to observe, is the first two notes played at the very start. This is called a "pick up",...

This section mainly contains 16th notes and 32nd notes. We'll also be inserting multiple 16th note rests throughout. Be careful with your picking as well. I primarily used alternate picking...

This is the part where we'll be playing along to a second guitar's harmonies. It mainly builds with ascending patterns on the G string, then moves to the B string at the end of the build. I...

In this riff, we'll be incorporating Major and minor 3rd harmonies on the B and High E strings. Also, if you watch my picking hand in the video, you'll notice that I'm fingerpicking this se...

We're also going to take a little time to explore the backing for this piece. When you hear the song, you'll notice a rhythm guitar in the background strumming some chords. Let's go ahead an...

To continue with the backing, we'll also look at the guitar percussion I used. When you listen to the song, you'll hear a bit of a drum beat going on, and that's me playing percussion on the...

Have all the parts down? Then get your groove on with the backing track! As always, if you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums. We'd love to hear you play!