Andy Wood's new GW column
Plus, why triads are your map to the guitar
A short, but lesson-packed issue of the newsletter this week. Whether you’re looking to learn songs fast, want to hone your ear, or learn why triads are so important to us as guitarists, this week’s issue has you covered. Mika Tyyska is back with a new guitar, with an X-Lok system, Marty Schwartz shows us the benefits of the B.B. box, and more!
Let’s get into this week’s links!
This week’s guitar links!
5 Tips To Learn Songs Faster On Guitar - One of my favorite videos of the week came from Andy Guitar. He talks about 5 helpful tips that'll help us learn songs faster. The key behind all 5? It comes down to preparation, and not getting frustrated with yourself while learning. If you're trying to learn songs, especially for an upcoming gig, you should check this one out.
7 Ways Ear Training Makes You A Better Guitar Player - Jon MacLennan gives us the low down on why ear training is so important as a guitarist. Ear training doesn't have to be boring - you can actually turn it into a game, and it'll transform your playing (especially in a band setting) in a huge way.
Andy Wood: Strengthening interval recognition - Speaking of ear training, Andy Wood has some more tips on the topic in his brand new Guitar World column. In his first lesson for GW, he talks all about interval recognition. Similar to above, it helps to have certain songs you know really well to make a interval map. i.e. minor 2nd is “Jaws” and major 6th would be the NBC theme.
Triads Are So Crucial And This Is Why! - OK, one more for good measure, just because I think the topic is so helpful. Skip ahead to about 6 minutes in, where Guthrie Trapp gets into how much you can do with triads. Learning all your triads (whether it be in the CAGED system or not) will help you simultaneously move all over the fretboard, or stay in a home base position and find all your notes in a short fretboard span.
Say Goodbye To Sloppy Picking: 5 Tips For Perfect Synchronization - I really liked this lesson from Jon Bjork this week regarding how to clean up your picking. These are all tips we've heard before, but sometimes it helps to hear them again. Especially if you're not putting them into practice. Things like recording yourself (to review at a later time), and keeping a constant motion going, rather than stopping (even briefly), will 100% keep your picking from sounding sloppy.
Enhance Your Blues Soloing Skills: A Guide to the BB Box - I love it when Marty Schwartz does his non-song type lessons. In his latest video he goes over the legendary BB Box. If you want a wealth of great blues licks, you owe it to yourself to learn how BB made it great.
You Need This Pentatonic Exercise to PERFECT Your Technique like Eric Johnson and Joe Bonamassa - What about if you want to work on your pentatonic boxes and picking at the same time? John Cordy has a great video for us. The exercises allow you to practice Eric Johnson style pentatonic riffs up and down the entire neck.
Guitar update! Diet Frog with X-Lok – Ruokangas Guitars Aeon - I don't often post about gear here - I typically try and keep this newsletter to great guitar lessons and news, but I had to post Mika Tyyska's Ruokangas guitar. The guitar still has that classic Mika tone, but what I was most interested in was the X-Lok system. We've seen systems like this before, but this one seems to hold tune really well. Whether you want to use a trem bar, or want a fixed bridge guitar (for de-tuning, etc.), this seems like a great option.
Steve Vai is selling two of his Ibanez JEMs for charity - And to close out this week, Steve Vai is selling 2 guitars for charity. 1 of them it looks like has already been purchased, but there's still one JEM77B RMR available on Reverb for $20K. It goes towards the Alexander Burnstein Fund for Musical Performance.