Improve your solos, Hammett's guitar workout, and the magic rhythm playing of Maddison Cunningham

Plus, details on Gibson's new "Greeny" replica

I just got back from Nashville the other day, and wow, I haven’t been so inspired in such a long time. There were great musicians literally every 5 steps, as I soaked up all the music on Broadway. I also got to check off a bucket list item by going to the Grand Ole Opry. Tons of great musicians graced the stage that night, with a special guest appearance from none other than Tommy Emmanuel!

I have so many great lessons to share with you this week that I think you’re going to love. Everything from a sick pentatonic run, to how to improve your solos, the announcement of the new “Greeny” replica, and much more. Let’s get right into this week’s links.

- 5 Pro Secrets to Improve Your Solos - Chris Sherland is one of my favorite guitar teachers on YouTube. In this lesson, he talks about different ways you can easily improve your guitar solos. Stuff like scale sequencing, vibrato, and really getting your bends in tune.

- KWS - Chase The Rainbow Rhythm Lesson - 'Trouble Is…’ is still my favorite Kenny Wayne Shepherd album. In this lesson from TXBA's Anthony Stauffer, he shares how to play the rhythm to the song "Chase The Rainbow”. If you want to work on your raking and string muting, this is a great lesson to start with.

- Pentatonic AFTERBURNER SHRED! Weekend Wankshop 334 - During a recent lesson, Ben Eller came up with a great sounding pentatonic phrase. This is the type of stuff that you'd hear from Hammett, Wylde, and even Slash.

- Top 50 badass guitar riffs! 🤘🏻 - Guitar Pro Blog - Arobas Music - Do you have Guitar Pro? If you do, you should download this new ‘50 badass guitar riffs' pack they just uploaded to their site. If you don't have this amazing transcription software, consider buying the program through my link. It costs you nothing more, but helps Chasing Sound.

- Do you dare transcribe these riffs? - Speaking of transcribing riffs, JustinGuitar gives us a handful of riffs to work on transcribing this week. This is the 3rd video in his transcribing series, and it's been great so far. If you're just getting in to writing notes down, whether that be in something like Guitar Pro, or even by hand, it's one of the best practices you can do for yourself as a guitar player.

- Steve Vai talking to Co de Kloet about his book "Frank & Co" - Some of Steve Vai's most influential years was his time with Frank Zappa. Vai recently put up a video where he talks to Co de Kloet, who just released his own book on Zappa called “Frank & Co”.

- Why The 1960s Was The MOST Significant Decade In Music History! - Speaking of books, Levi Clay just came out with his newest offering for Fundamental Changes, with the book “100 Guitar Licks of the 1960s". In his latest vid, he makes the case why the 60's were the most significant decade for music. I love Levi's books and FC books in general, so I'm sure this will be a lot of fun to learn from.

- THIS is Slowing You Down - BREAK This Bad Habit - Are you prone to this bad habit when playing scales? It might be slowing you down. And speaking of which, you should check out Cordy's new vid about a Eric Johnson-esque group of 7 run.

- Kirk Hammett's Diabolical Diagonal Workout - Want to know Kirk Hammett's warm up secrets? Nick Bowcott shows the workout he learned directly from Kirk years ago.

- Gibson unveils long-awaited “Greeny” Les Paul Custom Shop replica - Speaking of Hammett, Gibson finally unveiled its "Greeny" replica this week. While I was in Nashville, I asked one of the associates at the Gibson Garage the details on the guitar - it turns out there will only be 50 of these guitars available, and that they'll cost 50 thousand dollars each. You'll be able to hang out with Hammett himself if you end up owning one of these axes. Side note, if you ever have the chance to visit the Gibson Garage in Nashville, it's a good trip to make. My wallett was trembling a little bit, but I made it out safe.

- I Don't Know How She Plays Guitar Like This - Rhett Shull talks about how awesome Maddison Cunningham is. I just recently started listening to Maddison's latest album, and it's fantastic. Cunningham has to be one of the most original rhythm players I've heard in a long time. Check out her album 'Revealer’.

- Are you (really) an intermediate player? - Want to make the jump from beginner to intermediate guitarist? Robert Baker gives some concrete things to pay attention to, that'll help out in your quest to get better on guitar.

- Minor Pentatonic Rut Buster - I've been talking about the importance of targeting chord tones for a long time at this point. That's why I loved this video from SwiftLessons, where he talks about an easy method on targeting the 3rd of chords in a 1-4-5.

- Learn Nick Johnston's soloing secrets in this video masterclass - If you want to get more advanced with your targeting, you should check out this awesome masterclass from Nick Johnston. Nick talks all about using different scales to get the most out of his lead playing.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading Six String Sunday!

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