Mark Lettieri's mini masterclass on tiny chords
Plus, Sophie Lloyd rocks The Office
I think this is it folks…the last newsletter for 2023! Between Christmas and the New Year I may send out a “links only” edition, but if not, thank you SO much for reading the newsletter this year. Seeing inboxes light up with the weekly issue each Sunday really makes me happy, and I love that you’re enjoying all the fun guitar stuff I share with you each week. I hope you have the happiest of holidays.
If you ever want to ask me a question or just talk about in general, feel free to reply here, or better yet, join our Discord channel - it’s free! There's a lot of really great links this week, so without further ado, let's get right into it.
This week’s guitar links!
- Mark Lettieri Breaks Down One His Favorite Rhythm Guitar Techniques - The Key To Better Guitar Parts - Brett Papa has been on a roll lately with getting great guitarists to make courses for his site. The latest is a course called “Tiny Chords” which features Mark Lettieri. The two sat down to go over the main concept of the course in this awesome YouTube video. I've seen a ton of players opt for these smaller chords to really stand out in a mix, and let the other instruments fill in some of the other sonic space. If you want even more goodness from this channel, check out the new video Brett posted with Tom Bukovac, all about picking.
- 5000 Hours to realize you can do it in 10 (PRACTICE RIGHT) - What's the point of practicing 5000 hours if you're not focused on why/what you're practicing? Rotem Sivan put out a helpful video where he talks about how to practice the right way. Sivan goes over 10 tips that are sure to make your practice sessions way more effective.
- THIS Is The Secret To Mastering Alternate Picking! - Looking to master alternate picking? You need to understand how to get with downward and upward pick slanting. Bradley Hall gives us a very "Cracking the Code" style lesson on the topic.
- The BEST Pentatonic Exercises NOBODY Practices! - This was one of my favorite lesson videos of the month. Levi Clay shows us a great exercise from his “Guided Practice Routines” series of books - the exercise is all about being able to get to multiple tonal centers and different pentatonic patterns all from within a short span on the neck. This will without a doubt help with your fretboard visualization.
- Aaron Marshall's TONE SECRETS - Fractal Preset - AMAZING Modern High Gain Tones - Last year I was so happy to see that Fractal ran their Gift of Tone series - they had tons of guitarists offer up their presets for Fractal units. This year they're doing some Encore Edition versions of Gift of Tone. One of the presets (with 8 scenes) comes from Aaron Marshall of Intervals. John Cordy plays through the preset, and gets into it with the editor in his latest video. The tones from last year's event are still up. If you have a Fractal unit, you owe it to yourself to grab these presets.
- 5 Guitar Tones Every Pro Uses - If you're just getting started with guitar and effects, you should check out this video from Rhett Shull. Rhett goes over 5 bread and butter tones that every guitar player uses. What's your favorite?
- PERFECT Position Shifts EVERY TIME! Uncle Ben shows you how! - If you want to work on switching positions on the neck, check out this video from Ben Eller. He came up with a really fun Yngwie-inspired etude that'll help you practice moving around the neck.
- Holiday Greeting Cards, From Aerosmith to ZZ Top - I've been following Jas Obrecht's newsletter on Patreon - he always has some fantastic content from over the last couple of decades. He recently put out a video of holiday greeting cards, which features cards from Aerosmith, B.B. King, Eric Johnson, and more.
- Reverb reveals its best-selling guitar amps of 2023 - If you thought a Marshall or Mesa head took top honors here, you'd be wrong. Turns out Positive Grid and Boss topped the best selling amps list this year.
- Derek Trucks is one of the finest slide players to ever pick up an electric guitar – learn how to add his lyrical soloing style to your repertoire - Derek Trucks is one of the best slide guitar players of our time. Whether it was his time in The Allman Bros. band, with his solo gig, or the incredible Tedeschi Trucks band, Derek has been wowing us with his slide playing for decades. Guitar World put together a short lesson that'll help you get into this style of playing.
- Creed and Alter Bridge veteran Mark Tremonti has put together one of rock's most impressive catalogs of crowd-pleasing riffs and solos. Learn his muscular metal guitar style - On the other end of the musical spectrum, Mark Tremonti has been creating memorable riffs and lead lines with Alter Bridge and Creed for a long time. GW also put up a short lesson on his playing style, with pull off licks, triads, tapping and more.
- Sophie Lloyd shreds her way through cover of The Office US theme tune - Sophie Lloyd just combined two of my most favorite things - shred guitar and The Office. I think Michael Scott would be proud.