10 mistakes you can start fixing today on guitar
Plus, Yngwie’s giving away a free Ferrari 😂
It’s been a fun week over here - I just got to see Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire yesterday, and they were phenomenal, even all these years later. I’ve also been playing my ES-355 a ton. Before that I was playing one of my Telecasters a bunch. Do you ever fall into seasons/phases where you favor one guitar more than another? What guitar are you playing currently? I always love talking guitar, so whether it’s a reply to this email, a comment on Substack or in our Discord, feel free to reach out!
We’re also a handful of subscribers away from hitting 500 on this newsletter. If you have a friend who’d enjoy reading about guitar each week, forward your favorite issue to them. Alright, let’s get into the links!
This week’s guitar links!
10 Mistakes Guitarists Make (and how to fix them!) - Sometimes, the hardest thing about learning guitar, is not knowing what you don't know. Thankfully, videos like this new one from Paul Davids are around, with 10 mistakes guitarists make, and how you should focus on fixing them. Paul goes over things like hand placement, not focusing heavily on gear, working with tabs and more.
Why Do We Play Guitar? - Ben Eller talked to players like Greg Koch, Misha Mansoor, Sophie Burrell and others about why they picked up guitar in the first place. Is it for expressing yourself, the happiness you get from creating, or something else entirely? Guitar is a different journey for everyone, but it's always fun to hear people's different origin stories with the instrument. Check out the video for fun guitar stories...stay for the hand holding.
How NOT to learn the guitar fretboard (and the solution) - Ry Naylor, whose instructional materials I always love, talk about how to not learn the guitar. Naylor shows us a great exercise using the circle of 4ths and a metronome, to jump around the fretboard and not work chromatically. He then takes the exercise and shows how 4ths work vertically, and how to deal with the difference between the G and B strings. This is a lesson that every player should check out.
This Practice Routine Will Instantly Improve Your Rhythm Guitar Playing | Free Drum Tracks Included - Brett Papa has a new foundations of rhythm guitar course out. In this lesson he breaks out some of the concepts from the course, and also includes some great drum tracks he generated from EZ Drummer, that you can get for free. You can use these to practice your rhythm work! Also, I know I just linked to him last week, but check out this country primer from Daniel Donato.
Escape The Scale Pattern Trap (Start Practicing This...) - If you're "stuck in the scales", you should check out this video from Ross Campbell. His videos/guitar lessons are always top notch. In this one he talks about how to think of the fretboard in a more intervallic way - mainly using triads to solo and see those essential root, 3rd and 5th degree scale patterns. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Tim Lerch Masterclass - How to Learn a Jazz Standard - Tim Lerch is one of my favorite jazz guitarists on the planet. In this livestream with Luke Lewis, he talks about how to learn jazz standards. But the even bigger announcement here is that Tim is launching Tim's Guitar Workshop - which comes with livestreams each month, Tim's entire transcription library, lessons, and a bunch more. Excited for this!
Free Your Mind And Your Axe Will Follow - David Brewster is going through his back catalog of guitar magazines, and pulling out awesome ideas he finds. His latest find has him teaching us some cool ideas from Living Colour's Vernon Reid. If you want some challenging workouts to add to your practice routine, check this video out!
Peavey 5150 | Eddie Van Halen | Service & Demo - I only recently started watching Fazio Electric's channel, but I'm glad I found it. In this vid, Colleen talks about the history of EVH’s Peavey 5150 amp head. After a little bit of history, she shows how she services the amp at her shop. I don't know if it's just me, but these videos are very calming. It's like ASMR for guitarists.
“This way, there’s a straight-line connection between the solo and the song itself”: Trying to craft a memorable solo? Revisit hooks from a song’s melody - I loved this short lesson from David Grissom. In the video from Guitar World, he talks about giving a nod to previously used hooks/melodies from earlier in the song, and injecting them into your solo to make them more memorable. This is a great lesson that's sure to make your solos better.
“This guitar holds the magic of Malmsteen’s fast-paced, virtuosic playing”: One of Yngwie Malmsteen's main Fender Strats is up for grabs – and it comes with a free Ferrari - Basically what the title says. If you're the lucky person who buys Yngwie's #4 Strat, which has been used all over the world, you also get his 1983 Ferrari 308 GTS. The listing is still up, which you can check out here.