An amazing trick to know what chords go in every key
Plus, 15 ways to improve your Strat
Hey there,
Happy Sunday! Hope you’ve been having an amazing week. 😁
I think you’re going to get someting helpful out of this week’s issue. Whether it’s this Ben Eller video from a couple of years ago, with an amazing trick to understand chords in a key, or it’s Ross Campbell’s video proving that guitar players DO make mistakes all the time, I’m sure you’ll find something that’s worth your while.
What have you learned on guitar this summer, and what are you looking to learn this fall? Let me know!
- This is Why You Suck at Guitar, Lesson 16: You Don't Know What Chords Go in Every Key! - I recently revisited this lesson from Ben Eller on how to know what chords go inside every key. There's a super simple way of finding the major, minor and diminished chords that outline each key by using a simple move a couple frets either way shape. Ben is without a doubt one of the best guitar teachers on YouTube - I've always loved the easy way he breaks down concepts on the guitar. Go sub to his channel if you're not already!
- Gibson Releases New Pickups + MORE! | Greenybuckers - Want to get that classic Gibson Greeny sound, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a new Les Paul? Gibson's pickup shop just released the Greenybucker set for around $299! Trogly's Guitar Show broke down the pickups in his latest video. The shop also released some Kramer Eruption humbuckers as well!
- Forget humbuckers – there's a triple-coil pickup in Schecter's new Sunset Triad guitar - Forget traditional humbuckers, what about a triple coil pickup? Turns out Schecter's new Sunset Triad guitar will have this tri coil pickup. I'm excited to hear how this sounds! Our Discord chat let me know that others had made a similar style pickup decades ago - that's why I love talking to those guys every day. Between all the people who pop in and out of the chat, there's a ton of knowledge contained in there.
- Affordable Guitar Pedals from UAFX?? Surely Not!!! - Universal Audio is a staple brand of the studio, and over the past couple of years has been synonymous with great (yet pricey) guitar pedals as well. Now UAFX has come out with 4 pedals that are all around $199, including their legendary 1176, a tape echo, and some reverbs as well. Check out the video for a breakdown from Andertons. And if you want even more impressions on these pedals, check out Pete Thorn demoing them at GearFest. And if you want to hear how Jimmy Page used 2 1176's to create a cool distortion trick, check out the latest video from Rhett Shull. The coolest thing is that this sound is already in the new 1176 pedal.
- Icons: Noel Gallagher - The Icon series videos from Gibson are always well put together, and you often find out interesting stuff about the artists who are featured in them. The latest Icon video features Noel Gallagher. The video focuses on his time in not only Oasis, but with this band the High Flying Birds. I've been an Oasis fan for as long as I can remember, and even I found out some new stuff from this interview.
- Why You Should Show Your Mistakes | Pro Guitar Mindset Ep. 1 - A great video from Ross Campbell to remind us all, we're all human! You're going to make mistakes from time to time, and even those pro guitar players you see on social media mess up from time to time. Except Guthrie Govan…he never messes up.
- Sam Bell - Learning Without Guitar TAB - Is tab hurting or helping your progression as a guitarist? Sam Bell goes over the benefits/weaknesses of using only tab in your guitar journey.
- how about MODES? (the way the pros do it) - John W. shared this video in the Discord chat this week. It's a helpful video from Rotem Sivan where he explains modes, starting of course with Ionian as "home base”, and expanding out from there. If you were ever interested in adding some new flavor to your lead lines, this is a good video to start with.
- 10 Classic Rock Bending Licks - Bending is one of the coolest things we can do as guitar players. David Brewster put together 10 awesome, classic rock licks from guys like Hendrix, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and others for his latest lesson. He also gives us some great tips about bending in general, that'll help you reinforce your bends. Get some of these licks under your fingers, and then make them your own!
- 15 ways to improve your Fender Stratocaster - I've seen so many of these lists over the years, I usually glaze over them at this point. But I'm glad I clicked on this one from Guitar World, because it actually had some great upgrade tips for Strats. Might try some of these as weekend projects.
I still have some spots left for guitar lessons or recording lessons this fall!
Try out a half an hour to see how much you can learn when you know the right things to practice. Whether you want to learn guitar, recording, mixing or more, I can help you out!