How to get more out of your pentatonics with chords
Time to recharge and work on something new!
Welcome to this week’s Six String Sunday! If you're celebrating Easter, hope you're having a great one - and if not, hope you're enjoying a relaxing Sunday picking on your guitar. It's the perfect time to reset, recharge, and get into something new. Here’s what I’ve been digging into this week.
This week’s guitar links!
One Of The Coolest Moments To Ever Happen In My Studio The Tom Bukovac And Dann Huff Interview - Any time Tom Bukovac sits down to geek out over guitar with another musician, I know it's going to be a momentous occasion. Tom is an incredible guitarist, and seems to come up with interesting ideas all the time. He recently sat down with Dann Huff, where the two talked about competitiveness in the music scene, Dann's upcoming solo record, and the differences between being a session player and a producer. This hour long video is packed with good advice.
Why beginners could never nail this Frusciante Riff - If you've been around over the last 20 or so years, you've likely heard RHCP's “Can't Stop". Paul Davids does a deep dive into the song's main riff, talking about technique like muting and syncopation, but also focusing on what makes the tone uniquely Frusciante. I love videos like this that hone in and pick apart all the details of a small section of why a song is so good. I'm working on my own YT series that's in a similar vein - so stay tuned. Speaking of cool riffs, did you see this newly unearthed footage of Andy Summers teaching John Mayer “Message In A Bottle”?
SHRED This Lick for MAXIMUM SPEED! - I gotta believe Ben Eller has an incredibly extensive folder containing all the etudes he’s ever composed. His latest video focuses on a 3 and 6 note pattern to improve your guitar speed. For this lick he uses alternate picking, starting with either a downstroke or an upstroke, to cover all possible scenarios you might run into. Ben also goes over the role of your fretting hand and how placement is so important. Ben has been in the news a bunch because of his live performance filling in for Mastodon. I’ve been a fan of his videos for quite some time. I had the privilege of taking a lesson from him in the past, and he’s an excellent one-on-one teacher. I also had the opportunity to interview him back in 2018. You can check out that interview here.
How To Play Impressive Pentatonic Licks Between Your Chords - I loved this lesson from Andrew Clarke. He uses 3 positions of the pentatonic scale, and shows us how to compare chords and those positions for great leads in between our rhythm. The neck diagram with all this info overlaid on top of the video is super helpful. This is the best way to learn more about what you're playing - really understanding where all the scale degrees are throughout your scale shapes.
Ernie Ball: String Theory with Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria - Coheed and Cambria is always coming up with something exciting - new music, a comic book series, or something else cool to geek out about. Claudio Sanchez had a chat with Ernie Ball about his journey in music, the start of his band, performing live, and of course, why he loves Ernie Ball strings. My favorite part of this video is that he’s playing the Jackhammer model from his new guitar brand, Evil Instruments. You can learn more about the guitar here.
“Jeff Beck used to love seeing him and Lenny play live – it feels full circle”: Lenny Kravitz guitarist Craig Ross has been playing Jeff Beck’s $490,000 Yardburst Les Paul onstage for an entire tour - Speaking of cool guitars - in a very “Greeny-esque" way, Lenny Kravitz's guitarist Craig Ross has broughout Jeff Beck's Yardburst LP for a year long tour. The guitar is valued at almost half a million dollars! Check out the Guitar World post for the full story, and also a video of Ross playing it live with Lenny.
How to weave crosspicking and Carter picking into your acoustic guitar playing - I've been a big fan of Molly Tuttle, and have been listening to her even more after picking up a new acoustic recently. I loved this lesson on crosspicking from GW, where they go over how to get into the technique, and share a few videos and tabs for us to check out. I've also loved Lessons With Marcel's channel for this type of material. Check out his video on crosspicking here.
“You might laugh a little. The post office shipped your guitar to Jim Root”: This metal fan ordered a new guitar from Sweetwater – but it ended up with the Slipknot guitarist - How would you react if the postal service gave you this excuse? What a story.
7 Guitarists Who Don't Belong in the "Greatest" Conversation - I have to think this list is either insanely misinformed or trolling. Imagine calling out these icons of guitar for…checks notes doing what made them famous? Even if any of these guitarists isn't your cup of tea, you have to agree that they've all made a significant impact on music.
The lost Van Halen photos that took 45 years to resurface - Check out this 5-minute video with Neil Zlozower, a photographer who discusses some legendary Van Halen photos he thought were lost forever. The video is part of a longer 20-minute clip that explains how Neil got access to the photos again after over 45 years!
Oh hi, you made it to the end of this week’s issue - thanks for reading! In the spirit of kicking things off on a fresh note, let’s do something fun. What’s your favorite candy? I’ll randomly pick one person who responds by this Wednesday (4/23) and send them their favorite pack of strings to start the season off with some sweet new tones. You can either reply to this email or comment on Substck. Have fun!
My favorite candy is probably Reeses peanut butter cups. 😀