How to learn guitar, and make it stick
Hey and welcome back to Six String Sunday. If you haven’t seen already, I’ve been raising funds all September for St. Jude. I did a livestream this Saturday all about learning guitar, and how to make what you’re learning actually stick. I’ve been learning Italian lately, and the key to keeping all that new information in my brain, has been to immerse myself in the subject. I’ll put the livestream link down below, but more importantly, if you have a couple of bucks, please donate to St. Jude here.
Last week it turns out I wasn’t on my game. For the first time in over 5 years, I actually sent the newsletter out on a Saturday. I think it was the day off that messed with me while scheduling. In addition, that documentary featuring the Vaughan brothers is apparently already out! Thanks to
for letting me know. Pulin writes an awesome newsletter with album recommendations. We listen to a bunch of similar stuff, but I’ve also found some artists I’ve never heard about from his newsletter. Go check that out if you’re looking for something awesome to listen to. Onto this week’s links!This week’s guitar links!
How to learn guitar and make it stick - Here’s my latest livestream, with a ton of ways to learn guitar, and actually remember what you’ve learned. If you’re not subscribed to Chasing Sound on YouTube yet, I’d really appreciate if you did subscribe to the channel!
- 3 Reasons A Guitar Teacher Is The Fastest Way To Learn - Having taken and given countless guitar lessons at this point, I still believe that having a guitar teacher is super important. Jens Larsen makes the case with 3 different reasons why having a teacher is one of the fastest ways to learn guitar quickly.
- Eric Johnson's Cascading Pentatonic WORKOUT! - Eric Johnson's cascading pentatonics are a huge part of his sound. Ben Eller was lucky enough to jam with Eric at the recent Woodshed Experience, and he came away with a great pentatonic workout that we can use to sound more like EJ. This is one of those great lessons where you combine learning a cool run, while working on your picking at the same time.
- How to Design a Distortion Pedal Circuit - Want to geek out over prototyping a distortion pedal? Brian Wampler sits down and goes to town with breadboarding a cool distortion pedal circuit. If you want to hear more of Brian, check out the always fun Chasing Tone podcast.
- Guitar Things Everyone Does Wrong - One of my favorite videos this week came from Steve (SamuraiGuitarist), who talks about things that guitarists get wrong. He goes over tuning with a capo, how to use dual amp imputs, how to restring your guitar, and even how to wrap a cable.
- How I Would Relearn The Guitar From Scratch - Rick Beato did a great livestream on Labor Day, where he discussed how he'd go about relearning the guitar, if he had to start from scratch. If you're just getting started with guitar, and have about 30 minutes, this is an easy video to start with.
- Gretchen Menn, Pete Thorn, Al Joseph & Will Dailey: Traveling with Gear - In last week's issue of 6SSC Guitar World had some tips about flying with your guitar. This week, I found a great video featuring Gretchen Menn, Pete Thorn, Al Joseph and Will Dailey who have their own travel tips for gear. Check this video out for some tips from these road warriors.
- Hot Licks - The Hot Licks series of videos were super popular among guitarists back in the day. Whether you had them on DVD or on VHS, these were some of the best lessons we had! David Brewster talks about the revamp of the Hot Licks brand, which I covered a while back. He goes over 5 books currently in his collection, and why along with the online video component and new editing, they're so good. These books are all around $20 or so, and I can't recommend them enough!
- Johnny Hiland LIVE Masterclass - Authentic Country Guitar - Levi Clay had the always fun Johnny Hiland on for a masterclass on country guitar. Both Levi and Johnny have new books out that are awesome. Hiland just came out with Authentic Country Guitar through GuitarVivo, and Levi just released the third installment in his Guided Practice Sessions series with Fundamental Changes.
- The Les Paul Players That Changed the World: My Top 10 - Keith Williams over at FiveWattWorld put up a video this week where he talks about his top 10 most important Les Paul players. I always love the production on this channel, so even though the video was around 20 minutes, I watched the whole thing, and really enjoyed it.
- Marty Friedman: International Wall of Sound | Rig Tour - Marty Friedman whether with his solo work or with Megadeth, has always been a huge influence on my playing. I liked this short video from Sweetwater, where Marty's tech shows off Friedman's rig. It includes his beatufiul, purple "cracked mirror" signature guitar, and a pretty awesome pedalboard as well.
- Metallica have launched their own guitar-shaped ice-cream bar - Trapped under ice? St. ice cream? I couldn't think of a good Metallica ice cream based pun. But here we are in 2023, and Metallica has a guitar-shaped ice cream bar. It's a great time to be alive.
Any time! I always look forward to your newsletter. 🎶
Thanks for the kind words and shout out Brian! :-)