PART I: "ROCK & ROLL 101" - Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne

This month's "Rock & Roll 101" lesson is taken from the founders of METAL music: BLACK SABBATH!

"BLACK SABBATH"

BLACK SABBATH was formed in England in 1969. Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler hit the mark of success with the most famous METAL tune of all time: PARANOID. IRON MAN, WAR PIGS and other Metal greats followed. Tony Iommi is the father of Metal guitar and guys like Kirk Hammett, Randy Rhoads, Ronnie Dio and others owe him their "Props." He paved the way for them.

Tony's style is really cool because there are jazz influences in his playing. Power chords were not his main chording tool. I would strongly suggest that if you are interested in playing metal guitar, you pick up one of SABBATH'S first 3 albums. There's an arsenal of cool licks here to learn. The tunes are great too!

Now, please go get your guitar: we're going to LEARN A LICK!

PART II: LEARN-A-LICK - Crazy Train

Here's the part of the newsletter where you will have some fun. In this section, we will learn an important Lead LICK for you to add to your list of riffs. As I mentioned above, guys like Randy Rhoads are proteges of Tony Iommi. So, for this lesson, we will draw from the OZZY OSBOURNE/RANDY RHOADS collaboration of "CRAZY TRAIN". The opening guitar riff is immediately familiar to any Metal fan. If you don't have a taste for Metal, it's OK because there are pull-offs to perform. Let's face it: it's just a great sounding lick!

LET'S DO IT!

This is what it should sound like when you've gotten it up to speed.

Here it is at half speed to help you more easily play along.

 

Well, how did you do? Don't forget that the "upper case" "P's" mean to PULL YOUR FINGER OFF of the string without striking it. If you enjoyed this little exercise, there's plenty more on my 2 web sites. Go and have some more fun.

 

If you like the above approach to learning a new guitar riff, don't miss my guitar leads course. This 5 volume course contains hundreds of licks to some of rock's greatest all time songs. It features:

 

It is available for immediate download or can be ordered on CD. Learn what customers in 58 countries already know - not only will it help you become a better guitar player - but you'll have more fun learning than you will with any other course.

 

Have you been to GuitarRx.com, our Newest Guitar Website?

GuitarRx features the same lesson format as Guitar Leads, but allows you to choose individual lessons, rather than buying pre-packaged group of songs on a volume. In addition to all of the great Guitar-Leads songs, this site also has about a dozen songs not found on Guitar Leads and we are adding about two new songs per month.

We give you a $10 gift certificate just for signing up and giving it a try.
Why not take a look now.


 

PART III: TRUE ROCK STORIES

In this last section of the newsletter, I will share some of the wonderful experiences I've had as a guitar player.

Long before becoming a full-time musician, I attended a small college just outside the New York City limits. I lived in a dorm on campus and the rules were to tone down all noise by 9pm. Well, the administration didn't know that I had just gotten a brand new Gibson SG guitar and a Marshal 4-12 stack. I wanted to jam and I couldn't wait any longer. It was a Friday night around 11 pm and I was really into Sabbath's 1st album titled "BLACK SABBATH." As I sat on my bed with new guitar in hand, I had a mischievous idea. I don't know why, but I had the thought of waking up every one of the students that lived on this very small campus. So, I turned on my record player (I'm showing my age), turned the stereo volume up to ten and cued up the first song off of Sabbath's first album titled "Black Sabbath." I shut off all of the lights in my room and waited for just the right moment when OZZY would emotionally scream "Oh no, no, please God help me."

I grabbed my speaker and stuck it out on the window ledge. I turned my Marshal amp up to "11" (Spinal Tap) and proceeded to drop the needle down on the record. About 500 people and I heard OZZY scream his plea to God as I begin playing along with the record. It's now about 12 O'clock in the morning and I can begin to see lights turning on in all of the windows across the courtyard. Shadows are now appearing behind the shades and heads are peering out looking for the culprit of this blood curdling yell and the Marshal stack explosion of sound. I instantly cut all power to my guitar and stereo.

My room is now as quiet as a library on a Friday night. About 10 minutes pass and to my surprise, there's a lynch mob outside my door: pounding on it and screaming for me to open it. I turned to stone, clutching my guitar and hearing these words screaming inside of my head... "Oh no, no, please God Help Me!"

Somehow God heard my prayer and spared my life that night. I however, did learn a very important lesson that night: SABBATH ROCKS and I needed to learn everything I could by Tony Iommi!!!!

From time to time I will share these real life stories about myself because I want you to know that it was my guitar playing that has given me the chance to fulfill my dreams today. And yes, you can do it too!

I am living proof that if you stick-with-it and want something bad enough, you can have the same or better chance of living out your dreams too. The great part about this is that: Even if you don't have a big plan to become a pro, there are opportunities that unexpectedly find you, but you have to learn the tools of the trade and be ready for that chance. That's why I want to help you get ready for when the opportunity comes knocking at your door.

START LIVING YOUR DREAM TODAY. LET ME HELP YOU LEARN THE BEST GUITAR LEADS, LICKS AND RIFFS EVER PLAYED!

Keep on Rockin!

Tony AJA

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