How to learn hours of music for your next gig
Plus, 5 great tips for better solos
How’s it going? I’ve been all over the place this week, but I wanted to get a fun issue out. This week’s issue has tons of great advice - stuff like how to learn a setlist of songs the right way, how to improve your improv, how to accompany a singer, and lots more. Now that we’re right on the cusp of summer, hopefully you have even more time to learn and play guitar.
I’m going to be out in Nashville a couple days next week, so it might be a links-only edition of the newsletter next weekend. I’m hoping to get back to the Gibson Garage to try some more guitars, and take some more photos. Alright, let’s get into this week’s links!
This week’s guitar links
How the Pros Learn HOURS of Music for Gigs with @RobHarrisGuitar of Jamiroquai and more - One of my favorite videos in a long time. If you need to learn a bunch of music for an upcoming gig, you should check out these 3 musician's takes on the best way to learn it all without losing your mind. I was glad to hear that most of these guys are learning 2-3 songs a day. There's some great advice in this one.
The Guitar Exercise that Changed My Life - Rotem Sivan shows us how a simple chromatic scale exercise, can be morphed into a helpful tool that can be played for 15-20 minutes at the beginning of every practice session. Not to mention, this is a great video to understand how you can build on simple exercises to keep challenging yourself.
THE 5 STAGES OF IMPROVISATION (ft. Matteo Mancuso) - I've said it a million times, but Matteo Mancuso is everywhere lately - his signature fingerpicking style has impressed a ton of guitarists. If you want to get a behind the scenes look at how Matteo approaches improvisation, check out this video where he sits down with Paul Davids to talk about the topic. Similar to my last link, they start with something simple like the pentatonic scale, and take it to somewhere special. There's some excellent advice in this one.
5 cheat codes for better guitar solos - Want even more advice with the pentatonic scale as a base? Check out this video from Pickup Music, where they break down 5 tips with a little video game flair, that are sure to help your solos. Stuff like working on your rhythm, working within limitations, lessening your note count and making your leads more memorable.
How to Improve Your Legato FAST - OK, with the above links we've worked a lot on the note choices you might want to use, but maybe you want to work on your legato. Ben Eller has you covered this week. He shows us a fun sounding exercise that you can pop into your practice schedule easily to work on legato like Satch, Govan and more. If you want more legato, you should definitely check out Mika Tyyska's latest video.
VVco Pedals I Can't Believe It's a Pedal: Burger Fuzz - Had to share this one. From the same people who turned things like Deloreans and the Ghostbusters car into a pedal...comes the Bob's Burger Fuzz. The pedal is a full recreation of the restaurant, and also a fuzz that's very gnarly to say the least.
Tim Lerch - Tips for Accompanying a Singer - Do you have a duos gig coming up? One of my all time favorite jazz guitarists Tim Lerch, just put out a great video with a bunch of tips for how to accompany a singer. And if you haven't already, check out the awesome Guitar Vivo books by Lerch. You can check them out here. I'm going through his latest - Melodic Blues Guitar Soloing.
Ariel Posen - Powerplay Nights Live - If you've been reading this newsletter for a litle while, you might know that I'm a huge fan of Ariel Posen. I love his songwriting, his singing, and especially his slide guitar playing. Not to mention, he's a great teacher too - check out his courses on TrueFire. Posen recently put up ‘Powerplay Nights Live’, which is a 50 minute set of his songs recorded live from Switzerland at the Powerplay studios. I linked to “Angeline" a little while ago, but this is an extended version of that whole performance. If you want some great slide tips, Tyler Larson sat down with Mike Gannon earlier this week. You can check that video out here.
P.S. - See you on the bus. 🤘