How do you become an advanced guitarist?
In honor of the late, great Mick Goodrick
The Realm of the Electric Ice Skating Rink (if you know, you know)
Never want to start off on a somber note, but this week we found out that guitarist and teacher Mick Goodrick had passed. Aside from being a phenomenal player, Mick wrote one of my all time favorite guitar books, The Advancing Guitarist.
The ideas in the book could take you years to master, and I think it’s one of the best guitar instructional books ever written. The ideas will make you rethink guitar, and Mick has a healthy dose of humor throughout the book, which makes it feel like you’re really sitting down taking a lesson from him.
The book is one of my most gifted of all time, and I want to keep that going with this week’s newsletter in honor of all that I learned from Mick. Here’s all you have to do - comment on this post (make sure you view it on Substack) the most life changing guitar advice you ever received, and where you learned it from. In next week’s newsletter I’ll pick a winner and send you the book.
Let’s get into this week’s links (there’s a lot to learn, including some of The Advancing Guitarist’s concepts right at the top here).
This week’s links
- 3 Mick Goodrick Concepts From 1987 - Late Night Lessons is a fantastic channel on YouTube, and in his latest video he breaks down 3 lessons that he learned from Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist. Take these 3 lessons as a small sample of what's contained in the pages of T.A.G., and then make sure to enter your own comment on this post/email to get a chance at winning your own copy of this fantastic book.
- Analyzing Guthrie Govan's Playing Style & Techniques - Play Guitar Like Guthrie Govan - Sam from Licklibrary shows us seven different techniques that makes Guthrie Govan's playing truly exceptional. Whether it be Guthrie's legato work, clever use of chromatics, or even his arpeggio sequences, it always sounds like he's hitting the right notes. Guthrie has to be one of the best guitar players, if not the best guitar player out there today. Try to get one or two of these ideas into your practice schedule.
- Pro Guitarist Reacts to Guthrie Govan Moments - What Can We Learn? - On the same day, Sam also did some analysis of some of Guthrie's top moments. It's so helpful to jump on to YouTube every once in a while and really try and write down why a player is making their playing work. What techniques are they using, what note/scale choices, and so on. Do some detective work on your favorite players and songs.
- Make Your Picking WYLDE | 5 Minute Licks - I half had to share this Leon Todd video because the Zakk Wylde ideas in it are great, but the other half was damn, that's a good Zakk Wylde tone! Speaking of Zakk, he's heading out soon to start the Pantera reunion. Our friend Sam from the Guthrie videos above, also did a great video on 5 Dimebag Darrell ideas you can steal for your own playing. Check that out here.
- 15 MIN WITH ZAKK WYLDE ABOUT PANTERA - If you want more Zakk and Pantera goodness, Ola Englund recently did an interview with the riffmaster to talk about everything Dime and Pantera.
- STEVE VAI's 29 Greatest Guitar Techniques! - If you want even more technique focused stuff, check out The Art of Guitar's latest video. In it, he talks about a whopping 29 different techniques that Steve Vai does. Whether it be sliding, using the wah, whammy bar or more, there's a lot of fun ideas you can add to your playing.
- This Is WAY Better Than The Tubescreamer (The Boss DS-1 Sound) - The DS-1 is without a doubt one of the most famous guitar pedals of all time. It seems a lot of folks this week have been sining the praises of the new DS-1 Waza Craft edition, and how versatile of a pedal it is. If you've recently picked up one of these new versions of the DS-1, what do you think of it?
- What I Learned About Legato From Tom Quayle - Tom Quayle is a master of legato, making the technique look effortless each time he starts up a flurry of notes. Ross Campbell took a good look at what makes Tom's use of legato special, and how we can get there too!
- The Funk Metal Master, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme - Nuno has been one of my favorite "underrated" guitarists for so long. His work with Extreme was always so melodic and incredibly executed. In Ben Eller's recent video, he breaks down the neoclassical goodness that you can hear in the solo to "Suzi (Wants Her All Day What?)”. There's a lot to learn from not only this solo, but all of Nuno's playing.
- The Guitars of Eric Johnson: A Short History - If you know Eric Johnson, you know how particular he is with his gear. Five Watt World recently did a great retrospective on Eric's guitars. I've been loving this channel, and can't get enough of these types of videos.
- Fluid sequencing with major arpeggio - Animated Licks of Mika Tyyskä ep32 - Mika Tyyska breaks down an awesome major arpeggio lick from “Loose Heads”, which is off his brand new album ‘Flight Mode'. If you haven't checked this album out yet, it's worth a listen. Mika is always coming up with interesting songs.
- After 23 wonderful years, announcing my retirement from the Steve Vai band. 🫶 - Dave Weiner this week announced that he's leaving the Steve Vai band after 23 years. With Dave leaving the band and him also recently shutting down his guitar education platform Guitopia, I'm really interested to see what he's up to next. Starting in 2023, Dante Frisiello (tech on the recent Vai tour) will be taking over Dave's role in the band. Excited to see what he contributes to the band next year!
- 15 young guns making the Gibson Les Paul cool again - For a while over the past couple of years, you might think the Les Paul had fallen out of fashion with guitarists. Guitar World made a great list of 15 guitarists who are making the iconic guitar cool again. I love lists like this so I can find new players I might not have heard of yet.
- 6 ways to use an EBow on electric guitar - I just recently dug up my EBow out of storage, and I've been messing with it to create some interesting, sustained tones. I was so excited to see GW put up an article recently with 6 ways to use this funky device while playing.
- The best christmas gifts for guitarist according to Reverb’s experts - We're only about a month away from Christmas (I need to start shopping). If you have a guitarist in your life, or if you want to buy a nice present for yourself, the folks at Reverb listed some great guitar, pedal, and amp options that are sure to make any guitarist happy.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading Six String Sunday Club.
Hey did you know, not only do I talk guitar each week, but I also teach it!
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!