Truefire Andy Wood's ShapeShifter TUTORiAL

Currently touring with his own band and as a solo guitarist and mandolinist, Andy Wood has toured professionally with a wide range of acts, including most recently Gary Allan, LOCASH, Rascal Flats, Scott Stapp, and Sebastian Bach. Known for blurring the lines of preconceived genres, Andy’s guitar and mandolin prowess explodes across a broad range of styles from fusion and rock, to metal and acoustic bluegrass, and virtually everything in between.

Widely acclaimed as “one of this generation’s top influential players,” we are thrilled to welcome Andy to the family with his first TrueFire course, ShapeShifter! You will likewise be thrilled when you dig deep into the shape-shifting techniques and creative approaches that Andy presents throughout his innovative curriculum.

"I’ve been in love with music my whole life! Not just one style - I love country, rock, jazz, blues and all forms of American music! I’ve been super lucky to have worked with so many great artists, over the years, across multiple genres. And to be able to do that, I’ve had to learn to shape shift - taking the fundamental harmonic and rhythmic knowledge -- that we all know -- and then twist it to fit appropriately into each style. I’m excited to share some of these concepts and techniques with you here in this course!”

Andy organized the course into three sections. In the first section, he demonstrates and explains 9 key techniques and concepts: Major Pentatonic Connections, Basic Harmony Foundations, Alternate Picking, Cross Picking, Basic Legato, Slides & Faux Slides, Vibrato & Bends, Blues Foundations: Licks & Tricks, and How to Approach Tone: The Gear & The Hands.

”This first section of the course is very "mindset" oriented - there's a lot of philosophical and conceptual things here that have to do with your headspace before you dive into a genre. There's a lot of harmonic overlap between different styles of music, so here we'll talk about the best way to approach a genre and some connections between them.”

Style Shapeshifting is the focus of the second section. Andy demonstrates how to ‘shapeshift’ the essential techniques and concepts presented in the first section to be able to play in other genres with more authenticity: Adding Country Flavor: 1, Adding Country Flavor: 2, Adding Rock Flavor: 1, Adding Rock Flavor: 2, Adding Jazz Flavor, and Musical Self Awareness Philosophical Approach.

Stonesy G Blues Shapeshift Studies
”This first track is a throwback Stones-style tune, which stays fairly static in the rhythm section to allow me to shape shift between different genres. We'll be covering a country, rock and blues studies over this one. Let's get to it!”

Study 1: Stonesy G Blues - Country Flavor
Study 2: Stonesy G Blues - Rock Flavor
Study 3: Stonesy G Blues - Blues Flavor

Funky D Vamp Shapeshift Studies
”For this next set of improvisations, we chose a track that's a simple two chord vamp, going from a D7 to a G7. You can play this one as if it's just in D7, however, you lose some of the flair, so I tried to pull out the G7 as much as I could to draw out the harmonic interest. We're going to play a jazz blues, country, and rock version of this one.”

Study 4: Funky D Vamp - Jazzy Blues Flavor
Study 5: Funky D Vamp - Country Flavor
Study 6: Funky D Vamp - Rock Flavor

Gm Jazz Fusion Shapeshift Studies
”This next track is fun to play on, with the most harmonically complex changes we've seen so far. We'll start by playing through a basic jazzy study, and then one with a little more rock flavor.”

Study 7: Gm Jazz Fusion - Jazzy Flavor
Study 8: Gm Jazz Fusion - Rock Flavor

Blues Rock in A Shapeshift Studies
”For our final track, we're looking at a driving, roadhouse style track in the key of A. It's Southern, bluesy with a ZZ-Top tinge to it. We'll first play a country style improvisation, and then try out some blues ideas to wrap things up.”

Study 9: Blues Rock in A - Country Flavor
Study 10: Blues Rock in A - Blues Flavor

Andy will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for each of performance studies. Plus, Andy includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s shapeshift with Andy Wood!



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