Happy Sunday! This week I’m featuring the song “Glitch” from Portraits, an 8 string track with some killer rhythm work and cleaner melodies weaving through it, plus a Neural DSP CorOS update that reignited me thinking about gear vs. learning guitar. On the links side, there’s a 2005 Guthrie Govan clinic I somehow never saw, a great breakdown on playing rhythm guitar like a drummer, a couple of videos on understanding chords in a way that’ll make your life easier, and a deep dive on George Harrison’s “naughty chords” that’s got me digging through my old Beatles books again. Let’s jump into this week’s issue!
🔊 Turn This Up
This week’s music rec is the new song “Glitch” from the band Portraits, which is off their upcoming album Vaguely Western. The song features guitarists Joseph Anidjar and Joshua De La Victoria. I first started following Joshua because of all the great Neural DSP videos he was doing - fantastic tones and playing. He also plays in Sungazer along with Adam Neely, which is a whole ‘nother rabbit hole for another newsletter (great music!)
Both Joshua and Joseph are using 8 string guitars for the song, and I love how their cleaner melodies compliment the crushing 8 string rhythm work that’s going on, which syncs up perfectly with the bass on this track. You need to watch the full video for this song, because there’s tons of great techniques being used - awesome slides, Animals As Leaders-esque rhythm ideas (check out Tosin’s explanation here), and some great underlying production that reminded me of Joe Satriani’s Engines of Creation album, but updated for the 2020’s. Satch was leaning into amp emulation and relying on Eric Caudieux for the electronic elements I’m talking about (yet another album I think is great).
What’s cool is that it looks like Sheet Happens already has a few tab bundles on their store if you want to learn this song ahead of the album’s full relase. They also have jam tracks and a Guitar Pro version as well. You can check that out and their other merch here.
You can also watch Joshua’s own breakdown of some of the licks from this song (see the video below) and then head to the rest of his channel, where he has a series on recording this type of music from his home studio. And don’t forget to check out Joseph’s channel on YouTube also, as he’s always going through interesting concepts. One of the more recent favorites had him talking about how he upgrades his chord vocabulary. I’ll include a link to that below too. What are you listening to this week? Let me know!
✨ Question of the Week
I’ll be honest, I don’t always use every feature on every piece of gear I own. That being said, I do try and make my life as easy as possible when navigating these devices (keyboard shortcuts, starting with presets, etc.). The same goes for my phone, computers or even my Apple Watch. So here’s this week’s question: what’s a feature on a piece of gear that you own, that you never use or were just too afraid to look into? This could be something like plugins in your DAW to the tone knob on your guitar. Let me know in the comments, or by replying to the newsletter!
🎸 The Smart Guitarist
I’ve been having a blast with my Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini. I’m super excited this week, because the company just dropped a software update for the device, called CorOS 4.1.0. The update includes things like John Mayer and John Petrucci’s plugins being available on the hardware (if you own them, of course), 8 new Virtual Devices (a multivoicer, ring mod, new delays verbs, and more) that are very exciting and that I want to get into my signal chains, and device presets, which allow you to save presets for individual parts of the signal chain. If you want an idea of how all the new stuff sounds, check out John Connearn’s amazing, new video that has him playing the part of Petrucci, Mayer, Henson and more.
This new update got me thinking about a conversation I’ve been having recently with my oldest son. He’s started to learn guitar, and for the time being, I have him learning on a nylon string. I know he’d rather play through something like the QC and with an electric, but I keep trying to hammer home that if he can play and learn on this type of guitar, moving to an electric guitar (if he sticks with it) will be a breeze.
I think this is relatable for tons of guitarists. So many players, whether they’ve been playing for years or are just starting their journey, convince themselves they need a new piece of gear before they can improve. Here’s the tough part though: there have been countless videos out there of pro guitarists playing on sub-optimal gear, and not only do they still sound like themselves, but they don’t complain that they “can’t play” on anything but a $1000 guitar, with a full pedalboard and a half stack behind them.
I’m still one of the biggest fans of effects, plugins and getting a great tone. What I said earlier doesn’t negate the fact that updates to plugins, a new pedal, or even a brand new guitar can spark ideas you might not have had otherwise. Just don’t let the pursuit of those things hold you back from learning the guitar in the first place. What’s your take on this? Let me know in the comments.
🔗 This Week’s Guitar Links
Guthrie Govan Guitar Clinic | Fast Picking, Tapping, Improvisation & Technique | 2005 - I’m a huge Guthrie Govan fan, but I’d never seen this 2005 clinic that Musicians Institute just posted to their YouTube channel. Guthrie plays some of his solo material, but he also gets into technique, how he builds his own personal vocabulary of short licks, and even touches on the gear he was using at the time. His legato and tapping are two things I always try and work into my own playing, since they’re such a big part of what makes his lines sound so vocal and exciting.
How to Play Rhythm Guitar Like a Drummer - I loved this video from Andrew Clarke. If your rhythm playing is sounding stale or too robotic, adding some more dynamics, similar to how a drummer would play, can make a huge difference. Clarke breaks down the concept with 3 different genres, showing how you strumming pattern can emulate the kick, snare and hi-hat of a drum kit.
This Simple Grid Shows You Every Chord In Any Key (No Chord Charts Needed) - No other YouTuber breaks down concepts as easily as Ricky Comiskey does with just a piece of paper and some markers. His latest video uses an L7 grid to find all the chords in a key, both major and minor, and seeing chords laid out this way makes transposing songs so much easier. Fretboard visualization knowledge is always a good thing to build. Comiskey is always plugging his book alongside his YouTube lessons, and I couldn’t recommend it enough, it’s packed with information every guitarist should know.
George Harrison’s Naughty Chords - Who else had that huge The Beatles Complete Scores book that came out ages ago? I tore through that thing looking up all the odd chords I heard throughout my favorite Beatles songs. Eric Haugen’s latest video touches on George Harrison’s use of the diminished 7th chord in Beatles songs, and gets into some of the theory behind it. Haugen also makes the case that the Beatles didn’t just have a ton of cool things going on theory-wise, but in how they recorded their songs too, which reminded me of Recording The Beatles, one of the most cherished books in my collection. It’s gross how expensive that book has become, but if you can find a copy under $100, I recommend it.
The C Chord: Beginner to ADVANCED - This video from Andy Guitar, and the next one from Jens Larsen, should be watched back to back. Andy’s video focuses on taking a simple open C chord and transforming it into its major 7 and dominant versions. Plenty of videos can teach you how to build different chords, but what I liked about this one was all the different examples it showcased along the way. It’s a good reminder that even without a guitar in hand, active listening is always worth doing, since it trains your ear to recognize these different chord types when you hear them.
If You Skip These 3 Things, Jazz Chords Will Always Feel Hard - And if you liked the video above, you need to check out this one from Jens Larsen, where he talks about “chord families.” To me, this video is all about not getting overwhelmed when learning anything on guitar. Jens talks about understanding the triads in a key, and why learning them this way makes chord charts way less intimidating. He then walks through some very helpful shell voicings to learn, and touches on some of the outlier chords you might run into. This one’s a tiny bit more advanced, but worth your time if you’re getting into understanding different chords.
Even more great links to check out:
The Most ADVANCED Harmonics Technique EVER! This Is NUTS! Tab - I had to share this transcription from Levi Clay, showing us how Alan Gogoll plays harmonics on his song “Through the Leaves”. The playing is beautiful, and the “bell harmonics” make the guitar sound more like a harp. The song is off his 2017 album Bloom, which is filled with this unique type of playing.
This Simple Shift Will 10x Your Blues Playing! - We’ve talked about it a million times, but hitting chord tones always make your playing sound more intentional. Charlie Long explains a few ways about how to play for the chord, rather than playing one scale over an entire progression.
Unlocking The Sounds Of Robben Ford, Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather - Fun video from Rob Garland, where he shows us how we can use b3 in to 3 and 6 into b7, to make lead lines that work well over dominant 7th chords. Garland gives examples in the style of Lukather, Carlton and Ford.
Ten Albert King Blues Guitar Lessons - I’ve been re-listening to the SRV and Albert King album In Session lately, so it was a fun coincidence that Anthony from TXBA recently put out a video of 10 Albert King blues lessons, in bite size form.
Adam Jones Guitar Tone - The Masterclass I’ve Been Asked For - Awesome video from Ozz Guitar on how to get an Adam Jones guitar tone, and why that sound works so well for his rhythm playing.
On the feature nobody uses: I just bought Ableton Suite, so the honest answer is most of it. Five percent, maybe. Which sits awkwardly next to your point about gear, and I would still say it was the right buy. I just need to spend time with it.
I've got "The Beatles Complete-Easy Guitar"... probably not the same as you mentioned, right?