Improve your picking speed with Justin Hombach's new e-book
And, the case of the broken fridge
A little inside baseball, but how I usually make this newsletter is I collect links throughout the week of what looks exciting. On Thursday I start writing the newsletter, and wrap it up on Saturday the day before it’s supposed to go out. This gives me time to get even more links, add the new sections I’ve been trying (album rec, question, gear feature, course feature) and give it a final once over before hitting your inboxes on Sunday.
Also, this weekend I was faced with a rare free weekend with nothing planned. I'd have tons of time for guitar and other relaxing things. But then, my son noticed that my ice maker in the fridge wasn't making ice, which turned into oh wait the freezer isn’t getting down to 0, which turned into a whole problem that only ChatGPT and I could kind of fix. Needless to say my entire fridge is cleared out right now, and I'm doing whatever I can to try and fix the problem myself.
All that to say, I have a good amount of links this week, but less commentary than usual, and no extra sections. Next week we’ll be back with a full issue, full of guitar goodness. Let’s hope by the time you’re reading this I have this issue figured out, and am playing guitar instead. Talk to you next week!
This Week’s Guitar Links!
Will This Free Book CHANGE SPEEDPICKING?? - First up this week is a brand new, free guide from Justin Hombach that covers everything in regards to speed picking. I'm getting some heavy Troy Grady vibes from this, in the best way. I downloaded the PDF myself and it gets into the actual biomechanics of picking, some common myths, and how to practice so you can shred your favorite solos cleanly. Combine this with some of Grady's introductory videos on pickslanting, and you'll be well on your way to being a picking master.
Learn Chords Like a Piano Player - Even though guitar isn't laid out in the same way as piano, you could still use a lot of the same concepts, especially when it comes to triads, to learn chords. Jack Ruch gives you a great primer on major and minor triads and more, and then shows you how to effectively use these over a backing track.
5 Reasons Guitarists Never Learn the Notes on the Fretboard - And How to Fix It - Ry Naylor has put out some of my favorite guitar educational material over the years - whether that be on his social media channels, or as part of his courses, PDFs and books. He's back this week with a quick video about why guitarists often fail to learn the notes on the fretboard. Whether it be something more technical, like getting into a rut and falling into one of your favorite shapes, or something more mental, like dealing with impostor syndrome, there are many reasons why you might not have succeeded in the past. This video gives you some tips on how to overcome those blocks, while at the same time pushes Naylor's new course, Fretboard GPS. If you like what he's doing, check out his wealth of educational materials.
Tim Miller - Visualizing Intervals Lesson - We've been talking about triads so much lately, but the building blocks of these concepts is learning intervals. Tim Miller is here to help out, with some advice on visualizing interval shapes on the fretboard - who knew visualizing half steps could actually be difficult? Tim also gives advice to learning intervals with different fingers, because you never know what type of shape you'll encounter as you're soloing. Great video, that's totally worth your time.
SHRED or FEEL | We asked Paul Gilbert, Tom Quayle, Martin Miller, Kfir and many more... - You think this question would be easy...but the answers that these guitarists give at the Ibanez Guitar Fest '25 might surprise you. I loved Martin Miller's response.
Even More Links I Was Checking Out, but, ya know…fridge stuff
I hope you got your fridge all taken care of.