Ask Brendan is a monthly column where Guitar Educator, Brendan Burns, answers questions about music and the pursuit of Understanding and Mastering the guitar.

The Style of Dave Matthews

April 03

Q: How come Dave Matthews doesn’t sound like other guitarists? What can I do to sound more like Dave? Or more importantly, how can I expand on what Dave has already done with the guitar?

B: I can understand your confusion/amazement of Dave’s playing. He’s a very unique and fascinating guitarist. If you’ve ever seen him perform live I’m sure you’ve seen the strange contortions he does with his fingers to play his music. He’s definitely not your typical singer/songwriter guitarist.

Dave Matthews is a very stylized player. And just like anyone who has developed and crafted a style, we can look at some of the reoccurring themes in his playing and then continue on, and take them to the next level.

This is a big question for this column so I’ve moved it over to the online lesson page where we can stretch it out on it’s own page. The lesson will go over two elements of Dave style: reduced chord vocings and stacked 5ths melodies. Click here to go to there now.