John Mayer took the stage Friday night at the Ford Center and schooled his audience in “Battle Studies,” guitar solos and songs about life and love.

Mayer started the show — named Battle Studies after his latest album — with his most recent top-20 hit, “Heartbreak Warfare.”

After performing a few songs, Mayer began to interact with his crowd with more than just music.

At one time, Mayer read a sign out loud that stated “Come to the 918,” in which Mayer replied, “I don’t even know what the 918 is.”

Mayer is one of those artists who sounds just as good, if not better, live than recorded.

But the show was not all about Mayer.

At many times in the night, he would allow members of his band to go into five-to seven-minute solos on guitar, keyboard and even on drums.

Mayer went back to his roots, performing a classic on acoustic guitar — “Your Body is a Wonderland” — with his fellow guitarist Robbie McIntosh.

“This song is not back from the dead,” he said. “It was just taking a break.”

The night was a wonderful roller coaster ride between Mayer’s full-band songs with a lot of bass to just Mayer and his acoustic guitar, which gave his band just enough time to take a small break and recharge for another round of blues-like solos.

Mayer himself transitioned between at least five guitars throughout the entire concert, all the while entering his own antics into the show.

However, Mayer’s feelings were expressed with each guitar, whether it was frustration with the situation occurring in the lyrics or just carefree attitude with the acoustic guitar.

Not only was the audience left singing along, but they could feel the tone of each song and get a sense of the true meaning of the lyrics.

“I told you guys, I’m only half cool,” Mayer said as he counted off a beat to the next song but then stopped to tie his shoe. “You never see Mick Jagger tying his shoe in the middle of a concert.”

Mayer ended the night with an encore that included him wearing a custom Oklahoma City Thunder jersey with “MAYER 1” printed on the back.

The encore consisted of at least four minutes of excellent guitar and drum work that left some in the arena gripping the seat in front of them to find their balance.