Cory Wong's 1 Hr. Practice Workshop
Plus, my review of the KraftGeek Music Stand
It’s been a busy week over at Chasing Sound HQ! When I haven’t been sporting a Fender Strat inside of Fortnite, I’ve been playing and practicing wherever I find time. One of the things that's been helping me, is the KraftGeek Music Stand. I recently did a review for their stand, and it is awesome! It's super portable, and really well made. If you want to check that out, here's the review on YouTube. I also have a link in the comments that'll save you 10% off if you decide to pick one up.
Alright, let’s get into all these awesome links we have this week!
This week’s guitar links
- Cory Wong Guitar Course // One-Hour Guitar Practice Workshop - Cory Wong's guitar course is fantastic - it goes over technique, and being able to find notes all across your fretboard, CAGED shapes, how to prepare for gigs, and so much more. Included in the course are a bunch of workshops. Cory just put up one of these workshops for free on YouTube. If you want a really great, structured practice session that'll last an hour, start with this video.
- The Greatest Guitar Solos Of All Time - Samurai Guitarist gathered up a bunch of his guitar friends and asked them what the greatest solo of all time was. The cool thing is they mix it up by picking best solos out of different genres. Rhett Shull chose a Zeppelin classic, Bradley Hall picks a Megadeth song featuring Marty Friedman, and there's many other awesome solos here from a wide array of genres. Check this list out for some good listening material. It'd also be great to learn a handful of these, to add that vocabulary into your own playing.
- Must Have Guitar Tools | Mythos Mods - Zach from Mythos talks about some essential tools that you should have on your workbench. Everything from a jack tightener to a multi piece toolset, a multimeter and more. What's the number one tool you think everyone should have when working on guitars?
- Keeley’s 4-in-1 Series replicates classic circuits that can be mismatched to “Frankenstein monster tones” - Keeley is at it again. It's rare I link to a lot of gear in this newsletter, but these 4 pedals from Keeley seem awesome. They replicate classic pedals like the Bluesbreaker or the DS-1, but they have a hybrid mode, which makes these pedals even more flexible. From GW's article - “each pedal also features a 'Hybrid mode', where interchanging tone stacks and clipping sections from each circuit can be harnessed through the two additional toggle switches.” Seems like you can do a ton with these pedals, and they're priced pretty fairly too. Really looking forward to trying these out.
- Triads and CAGED (are the same thing) - Eric Haugen is one of the best teachers on TrueFire. In his new video, he simply explains how triads and CAGED are the same thing. I've been harping on this for a long while. Everyone always wants to pick a system and stick with it - I always say, why not try and learn a bit from every system and see how they all connect?
- Julian Lage: There Are No "Bad" Guitar Sounds - If there's anyone I love hearing talking about guitar, it's Julian Lage. Julian joined the Dipped In Tone podcast to talk about how he practices, the concept of no "bad" guitar sounds, how he plays with such finesse, and a lot more.
- How and Why You Should Learn the MODES on Guitar [LESSON] - Dylan Adams talks about learning all the major tonality modes, the minor tonality modes, and how to actually apply them over different chords. This goes back to what I said about triads/CAGED - learn this concept, and see if it sticks with you.
- This is Why You Suck at Guitar: Learning Scales SUCKS! - Speaking of learning modes, Ben Eller dropped a fantastic video on why you might not be learning scales effectively. Not only does Ben talk about a singular way of learning, he breaks up learning scales into 4 different concepts. My favorite was the pocket octave. But we still always have to wrestle with that darn B string! What's your favorite way of learning scales?
- 10 essential jazz chords - learn these and play (nearly) any tune - Want to play nearly any jazz song? Check out these 10 essential jazz chords from the Anyone Can Play Guitar channel, and you'll be well on your way to playing nearly any jazz standard.
- Joe Bonamassa Plays Hendrix's "Band of Gypsys" Rig: For Real & For Less - Bonamassa sat down for Reverb to play Hendrix's real Band of Gypsys rig, and then he shows you how to get that tone for a price mere mortals can afford. This rig sounded awesome!
- Shred Like Metallica: Kirk Hammett Solo Techniques Explained! feat. @JamieSlays - Marty Schwartz had Jamie Slays as a guest on his channel - Jamie went into the intracacies of Kirk Hammett's soloing techniques. He talks about tapping, using similar scales as Kirk, and how Kirk uses bends and vibrato. Kirk was a huge reason I picked up the guitar a million years ago, and I still love seeing videos like this.
- The Story of ‘Carl’: James Hetfield's most sentimental guitar - Speaking of Metallica, recently on this newsletter I talked about how I picked up James Hetfield's ‘Messengers’ book, which features some of his most classic guitars over the years. 'Carl’ is one of those guitars, which was made from reclaimed wood, from one of Metallica's most legendary practice spots. It has some pretty incredible touches on it too - those band member coins are awesome! The guitar was made by Ken Lawrence, who's made some of James' most unique looking guitars over the years. If you dig getting into the details on this guitar, you should give the full 'Messengers' book a read.