Fender Play Live: Sonic Explorations Playlist

Fender Play Live is a weekly studio show that dives deep into the Fender's legendary gear and the iconic music that was made by it over the years.

Hosted by Fender Play's Scott Goldbaum and guitarist/producer San Holo, the episode offers some tips and tricks that will hopefully unlock your creative side through different effects, tunings and sounds.

Don't worry if you missed the show. You can watch it on Fender’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels, in addition to the video embedded below.

To accompany Fender Play Live, we've compiled a set of lessons to help you push your creative boundaries through Fender Play. Check out the lesson lists below, and if you're not a Fender Play subscriber yet, start your free trial here.

Effects Crash Course

Tone Quest: Reverb

Reverb is created when soundwaves from any sound source reflect off surfaces in a room causing a large number of reflections to reach your ear so closely together that you can’t interpret them as individual delays. The result is magnified in larger rooms where it appears that the sound continues after the source has stopped. The larger the room, the larger the potential reverb. It's a great effect for altering the natural reverb for whatever room you're in.

Find out how to create reverb in this lesson.

Tone Quest: Delay

Delay is making a sound repeat at a later time. The methods of doing this vary, but the three most common are acoustic delay, mechanical delay and electronic delay. By adding delay to your signal, you can achieve lush echoes or even create warbly sci-fi sounds.

Learn how to harness delay here.

Tone Question: Put It All Together

Now take your tone to the next level by putting your effects skills to use with this lesson that covers the basics and then presents an exercise to work on switching between them.

Alternate Tunings Crash Course

Alternate Tunings: Drop D

Drop D tuning is very popular is heavier music like rock and metal. By tuning your guitar this way, you'll find power chords to be a breeze. Drop D also offers an easier range to pair with a singer that has a deeper voice.

Get into Drop D with this lesson.

Alternate Tunings: D Standard

D Standard is another tuning that will help you play some rocking riffs. While many metal bands regularly tune each string a whole step down, blues guitarists also use D Standard tuning to accomodate string bending.

Learn how to use D Standard tuning here.

Alternate Tunings: Open E

Open E tuning is a popular tuning that is used in a lot of blues and rock songs, such as Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way," the Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels" and ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid." In fact, slide guitar players commonly tune their guitars to Open E.

Find out more about Open E tuning in this video.

Alternate Tunings: Open G

Open G tuning was classically featured in several Rolling Stones songs, including "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Woman" and "Start Me Up." This tuning is great for beginners because you can play simple one-finger chords, while it also provides seasons players with new ideas because it rearranges the notes on the fretboard.

Dive into Open G tuning in this lesson.

Strange Sounds Crash Course

Unearthly Noises: Volume Swells

By manipulating your volume knob to create volume swells, you can create atmospheric effects with your guitar or even mimic the sound of a slide guitar. Just be sure to keep your strumming hand close to the bridge so you can reach the volume knob with your pinky.

Unearthly Noises: Natural Harmonics

A harmonic is a pitch that results from lightly touching a string and plucking. See how to utilize natural harmonics to come up with unique sounding melodies and chime-like overtones here.

Unearthly Noises: Pinch Harmonics

Pinch harmonics are a great way to add squeals and bell tones to your notes. They can be subtle or over the top, and while they are similar to natural harmonics, they give your note a wider range of timbre and feel.

For more Fender Play Live, go to Fender’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels. And if you're not a member of Fender Play yet, click here for a free trial.