Expand your guitar vocabulary with this exclusive lesson pack containing some of my favourite licks. The Ultimate Lick Pack contains 10 awesome licks that cover a range of difficulty levels, including some real tongue-twisters and unique sounding phrases!
Each lesson is designed to not only teach you a cool new lick but to give you additional insights into my songwriting process, the techniques used and plenty of other tips and tricks along the way.
Even if you don&#8217;t manage to play every lick note-for-note, each lesson will provide you with some ideas and insights you can take away and apply to your own playing. Also, each lesson includes guitar tabs and a backing track to help you learn and jam along.

In this lesson I&#8217;m going to break down the first solo from Distorted Dreams by my band McRocklin &amp; Hutch. As well as teaching you how to play the notes step-by-step, I also cover all of the finer details &#8211; little tips and techniques that you can apply to your own playing to improve your note clarity and expression.
The solo isn&#8217;t too difficult technically, but it does feature a lot of cool techniques and phrasing which I cover in detail as I break things down. Most notably, it includes a hybrid picking section which sounds great but is also a super easy introduction to the technique if you&#8217;ve never used it before.

Distorted Dreams

Text/PDF

Guitar Pro

Thomas McRocklin

Hybrid Picking

Lick Breakdown

Technique

Distorted Dreams Solo 1

Introduction

Breaking it down

Hybrid picking section

Melodic finish

The finer details

Today we&#8217;re going to break down a track of mine called Drive. We&#8217;re going to break down the techniques involved and show you how to use controlled, slow sweeping to create a really cool effect on the arpeggios &#8211; I&#8217;ve included an exercise that will really help you master this technique.
I&#8217;ll also show you how you can write and come up with a concept like this by linking together simple ideas and turning them into something mindblowing!

Drive

Exercises

Songwriting

Theory

Drive Riff

Breakdown

Exercise

Composition

In this lesson I&#8217;m going to break down the chord progression from one of my tracks &#8211; Square Dreamz.
But we&#8217;re going to go deeper than that&#8230; much deeper! I&#8217;m going to show you exactly how I wrote this track by using melody to lead the chords without thinking too much about theory! I&#8217;ll teach you this method so you can use it to write awesome sounding chord progressions yourself.

Chords

Square Dreamz Chords

Breakdown Part 1

Breakdown Part 2

Solo Section

How To Build Chord Progressions

Finger Stretching Exercise

This solo breakdown from You and Me by McRocklin &amp; Hutch is quite simple to learn but tricky to master. It&#8217;s all about phrasing and delivery, packed full of details that will allow you to take simple lines and make them sound much more complex than they really are.
This lesson is also packed full of solo tips that will change your playing forever &#8211; including how to think ahead with fingering so you never feel rushed and make less mistakes.

Backing Track

Tips and Tricks

You and Me Solo Breakdown

The Breakdown

Today I&#8217;m going to show you one of my favourite go-to shred licks. This lick features a variety of techniques &#8211; sweep picking, hammer ons, pull offs &#8211; and a lot of muting to go along with those to improve your note separation and clarity.
Before we get into the lick itself I&#8217;m also going to demonstrate my approach to playing major arpeggios &#8211; so that you can apply these skills to your own playing and licks!

Tim Hutchinson

Arpeggios

Shred

Black Line Shred Lick

Major Arpeggio Breakdown

Shred Lick Breakdown

In this lesson we&#8217;re going to break down the solo from one of my McRocklin and Hutch tracks &#8211; Neon Skies. The cool thing about this solo is that it has a very Japanese-style sound whilst just using a standard minor scale with no alterations.
There&#8217;s also some interesting sections where you need to push notes through using only your left hand &#8211; and I&#8217;ll show you a couple of exercises that will help improve your technique and hand strength to help pull this off!

Solo

Neon Skies Solo

Solo Breakdown

Exercises and Jam

In this lesson I&#8217;m going to break down the chorus section from my track Clear Skies. This solo is jam-packed with lots of different techniques and flourishes which makes it a lot of fun to play.
I&#8217;m going to guide you through this note-for-note, covering these techniques in detail as well as all of the little details, expression and delivery that will help you get this solo completely locked down. Let&#8217;s do this!

Clear Skies

Alternate Picking

Sweep Picking

Clear Skies Breakdown

In this lesson I break down one of my tracks called Follow The Light. First we&#8217;ll break down the intro and chord sections, which sound really huge and busy, but in fact are really straightforward &#8211; once you know the secrets!
The shred part of this track can be pretty difficult though! It contains a lot of different techniques but I&#8217;ll break the whole thing down for you piece by piece. I&#8217;ll even give you an exercise to practice to help you nail the toughest parts.

Follow The Light

Chord Section

Shred Section

This tongue-twisting solo contains a ton of awesome techniques, so as well as breaking down how to play the notes I&#8217;m going to focus heavily on teaching you the techniques themselves &#8211; so even if you don&#8217;t learn to play the solo note for note you&#8217;ll be able to take the skills you&#8217;ve learned and apply them to your own playing.
At the end of this lesson I&#8217;ve included a bunch of really fun and useful exercises that get you used to delivering these techniques in the real world.

All I Want From You Solo

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

In this lesson I break down the 2nd solo from Distorted Dreams by my band McRocklin and Hutch. This is a really challenging but rewarding solo to learn. It features a couple of awesome techniques, without them this solo wouldn&#8217;t be possible.
As the solo progresses, it introduces new note choices, new modes and sounds. Constructing a solo in this way keeps the listener interested &#8211; and I&#8217;ll teach you how to do that as well. So download the backing track and the tabs&#8230; I&#8217;m going show you all of the techniques and insights so that you have everything you need to make this solo happen!

Distorted Dreams Solo 2

Breakdown Pt1

Breakdown Pt2

Putting it all together

Ultimate Lick Pack

This toolkit contains some of the most popular lessons I&#8217;ve created, as well as those which will make the biggest impact on your playing. Finish working through these and I guarantee you&#8217;ll take your guitar playing to the next level.
My Favourite Guitar Exercises &#8211; Full tabs and video tutorials for my favourite killer exercises that are guaranteed to improve your speed, reach and dexterity.
My Top 10 Warm Up Tips &#8211; You MUST watch this before you next pick up a guitar. I cover everything from posture, stretching, hand positioning, warm up exercises and more, so that whenever you play guitar you’ll be at your best!
How to Improve Your Picking Speed &#8211; The highest-viewed lesson on School of McRock, which features the single most useful pattern I&#8217;ve ever learned to improve my picking speed and tons of other real-world tips to improve your picking speed.
Unlocking The Fretboard &#8211; In this mind-blowing video lesson I&#8217;ll show you how you can use 4 very simple shapes to unlock the entire fretboard and solo in any key.

Hey! So before you even play guitar, it&#8217;s really important to warm up and get yourself into the right frame of mind.
I&#8217;m going to show you my top 10 tips covering everything from posture, stretching, hand positioning, exercises and more, so that whenever you play guitar you&#8217;ll be at your best!

Top 10 Warm Up Tips

The Tips

We all have those days when you get to the end of the night and you haven&#8217;t practiced or even played guitar and you want to feel like your fingers are progressing &#8211; something has improved that day &#8211; but you only have 5 minutes&#8230; it happens to me all the time.
In this lesson I&#8217;m going to show you some of my favourite exercises that work out your right hand, stretch your left hand and are guaranteed to improve your ability and dexterity even when you only have 5 minutes to practice in the day. Let&#8217;s go!

The Spider - Text/PDF

The Spider - Guitar Pro

My Favourite Guitar Exercises

The Staircase

The Spider

The Cramper

One of the most common questions I get asked is: &#8220;How do I break out from playing the same licks right in the middle of the fretboard all of the time&#8221;
I&#8217;m going to show you some scales that all link up together and explain how you can use them to unlock the entire fretboard &#8211; giving you much more clarity on how to can come up with great note choices, breathe some fresh life into your playing and improve your improvisation skills in any key.

Improvisation

Scales

Unlocking The Fretboard

Shape 1

Shape 2

Shape 3

Shape 4

The Mind Blowing Bit

There are a few things people get wrong when they try to start playing at high speed, so let me show you exactly how to approach playing fast &#8211; from how to practice right up to choosing when and how to apply your new speedy techniques to your playing.
I&#8217;ve also got a great exercise to show you and there are lots of cool tips sprinkled throughout this lesson to get you going from 0-60 in no time!

Speed

How To Play Fast

Practicing Fast

Speed Exercise Part 1

Speed Exercise Part 2

Speed Exercise Part 3

When to Play Fast

A lot of people approach picking as a black and white thing but the right hand is often capable of adding so much to your playing than you might think!
In this video I&#8217;m going to go right from the top, breaking down my entire approach to picking and teaching you how properly utilise picking techniques to unlock extra expression in your playing, power in your chords and speed in your licks.

Picking

Pinch Harmonics

The Ultimate Picking Guide

My Picking Approach

Rhythmic Picking

Picking for Speed

Expressive Picking

Chromatic Picking Exercise

Pentatonic Picking Exercise

The Ultimate Guitar Toolkit

Is your guitar playing stuck in a rut? Do you wish you had more variety in your playing? Or have you always found certain things difficult, when other guitarists make it look easy?
Whether you&#8217;re looking to add a new technique to your arsenal or squeeze an extra ounce of efficiency into your playing, this course will transform your guitar playing &#8211; forever.
Each lesson dives into a different topic from a beginners perspective, so that no details are glossed over and you get all of the information required to nail the mechanics relating to each specific technique.
As well as breaking down each technique, every lesson is packed full of advanced tips that have been gathered from years of practice and experience, so that you are able to learn (or re-learn) these techniques using best-practices that will fundamentally improve your playing, whatever level you are currently at.

Rhythm playing is one of those areas that is often overlooked, whether it&#8217;s because your timing isn&#8217;t so great or you just don&#8217;t have enough elements to create really killer sounding riffs.
This lesson covers every aspect of my approach to rhythm playing, and it&#8217;s packed full of tips and insights that you&#8217;ll be able to pick up and apply to your playing today, whether you&#8217;re just starting our or you&#8217;ve been playing for years!

Rhythm

Riffs

Heavy Rhythm 101

Palm muting

Open strikes

Chord vibrato

Alternate picking

Using silence

The arcade sound

Breaking up chords

Pinched harmonics

Muted picking

Wylde vibrato

Open notes

Power and depth

Adding variations

Alternate picking chords

Rhythmic flair

This lesson covers everything you need to know to become a tapping master &#8211; whether you&#8217;re a beginner unsure how to get started with tapping or a more experienced player looking for some tips and inspiration to take your playing to the next level.
We start with the basics such as how to transition from picking to tapping, common tapping patterns and changing notes with each hand. Once we&#8217;ve got the fundamentals down we&#8217;re going to crank it up to 11 with some fun advanced tapping techniques &#8211; let&#8217;s go!

Double Stop

Tapping

Tapping 101

Transitioning in and out

Tapping patterns

Changing notes

Using open notes

Advanced tapping

In this lesson I&#8217;m going to give you a full breakdown of all of the mechanics and movements involved in sweep picking so that you can learn everything you need to nail this awesome technique.
I start with the basics, including the best methods for holding the pick correctly so that you can sweep through the strings like a warm knife through butter! As you progress through the lesson you&#8217;ll learn multiple sweeping patterns and how to put everything together so you can use this technique in the real world to deliver some awesome solo action!

Sweep Picking 101

Ascending Sweeps

Descending Sweeps

Changing Direction

Transitioning Between Shapes

Bending is such an important part of playing guitar – it’s a crucial technique to have in your arsenal and it’s worth taking the time to get it right.
In this lesson I break down the fundamentals of bending and answer the most commonly asked questions about the technique. I also share a few of my top secret tips so that you can learn all of the tools you need to become a bending master.

Vibrato

String Bending 101

Push or Pull

How to Bend

Getting The Pitch Right

To Vibrato or Not

Four Finger Bending

Gimme a Secret Tip!

Over Bending

How Far Can You Bend?

Pinched Harmonic Bends

My Final Tips

There&#8217;s a lot of information out there about pick slanting, but what is the correct information for you and how can you start using it to improve your playing?
The good news is: I&#8217;ve done the research for you!
I&#8217;ve put together this definitive guide to the subject, which will explain exactly what pick slanting is and how you can start using it within your playing &#8211; without undoing any of your existing technique.

Pick Slanting 101

The Basics

Outside Picking

Hybrid picking sounds super complicated, but it&#8217;s actually quite easy to pick up. In this lesson I break this technique down to teach you everything you need to know so you can start incorporating it into your playing &#8211; today!
We&#8217;ll start with the basics &#8211; what exactly is hybrid picking and how do you pull it off? I&#8217;ll show you why this is such a cool technique, how to practice it effectively, when to use it and which tones it works best with. Even if you&#8217;ve never tried it before, by the end of this lesson you&#8217;ll be able to start using hybrid picking in your playing.

Hybrid Picking 101

What is Hybrid Picking?

What Tones Work Well?

What About Patterns?

If you&#8217;ve wanted to incorporate legato into your playing this is the lesson for you &#8211; I&#8217;m going to give you all of the tools and information you need to incorporate this fun and explosive technique into your playing today!
This lesson covers the fundamentals relating to the tone and mechanics of legato playing, as well as some deep dives into various ways I use legato in my own playing. It&#8217;s packed with tips and tricks as well as a selection of simple, quick exercises that will take your legato chops to the next level.

Legato

String Skipping

Legato 101

Tone and Technique

Pentatonics

Guitar Techniques 101

Does music theory not seem to &#8216;click&#8217; for you? Do you feel like you&#8217;re playing the same licks over and over, but not sure how to break out of the box? Do you wish you could confidently improvise in any key, all over the fretboard?
If so&#8230; this is the course for you!
This course focuses on the practical elements of music theory &#8211; things that will make the most impact on your playing in the shortest space possible. It&#8217;s packed full of information and insights, teaching you how to visualise the fretboard and improvise in any key &#8211; playing all over the neck with complete confidence.
Once you&#8217;ve completed this course, I guarantee you that your guitar playing and understanding of music theory will be transformed forever!

I use arpeggios all of the time within licks or to transition between different parts of the neck when soloing.
In this video I&#8217;m going to show you the major and minor arpeggio shapes that I think everyone should know, as well as some 3 octave and diminished patterns that are a bit less common but still amazingly useful.
I also explain the best practices for fingering these patterns, and how to think ahead when playing to ensure your fingers are in the correct position during a transition.

Arpeggios Everyone Should Know

Pattern 1

Pattern 2

Pattern 3

3 Octave Patterns

Diminished Patterns

Do you find yourself stuck playing the same scales and patterns all the time?
In this lesson we&#8217;re going to pick a few different keys to improvise in but we&#8217;re going to completely ban the obvious and comfortable scale positions you&#8217;re used to! Instead I&#8217;ll show you some cool new shapes and patterns to use which will force you into using new note choices and phrasing options to help you break out of your habits and breath new life into your playing!

Alternative Scale Positions

A minor

C minor

D minor

This lesson is all about getting you really comfortable playing everywhere on the neck &#8211; without learning any scale positions at all!
This is one of the first things I learned on guitar and is actually how I was able to shred from a very young age. It&#8217;s based on a very simple method that is really easy to learn and will make a huge difference to you when it comes to visualising the fretboard.

Thinking in Tones

Getting started

TSTTSTT

Linking it together

One of the questions I get asked a lot is &#8211; what tuning are you in? I always play in standard tuning, but the way you approach chords and phrasing in different keys can completely transform the way they sound.
This lesson gives you all the insights into my approach to playing in my favourite keys. I&#8217;ll show you how to re-train your fingers to come up with some amazing sounds based on familiar shapes and how to layer harmonics onto chords to create epic soundscapes.

My Favourite Keys

F Sharp Minor

E Minor

B Minor

I absolutely love chromatics, when used in the right place they can add some crazy sounds to licks and solos!
When you&#8217;re practicing chromatics there are few different ways you can do it, and there are a few things that can trip you up.
In this lesson we&#8217;re going to talk about some of my favourite patterns to use, how to practice them and also how chromatics can really help improve your picking technique.

Blues Fusion

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You and Me Solo 1 Breakdown

Waiting For The Right Time – Solo 2

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Sweep Combo Lick