Rick Beato interviews Kirk Hammett
Plus, a pro tech's excellent advice
This week we saw the release of Rick Beato’s interview with Kirk Hammett. It’s not often I watch a 2 hour interview video, but this one was a lot of fun. It’s been awesome to see Beato get such heavy hitters on his YouTube channel. This week’s issue also has a great video on Steve Vai’s techniques/habits, an awesome video with helpful tips from a pro guitar tech, and Josh Scott and co. are at it again, restoring ROSS Pedals this time.
Let’s get right into this week’s links!
This week’s guitar links!
- Kirk Hammett Reflects On His Career In Metallica - The Kirk Hammett interview with Rick Beato just dropped this week, and it's nearly 2 hours long! Being that Hammett is the guy that made me want to pick up guitar in the first place, I ended up watching the entire interview. Kirk talks about Greeny and his recent mishaps with the guitar, tells Rick why James' rhythm playing is like second nature to him, and even mentions some of the trials and tribulations he had to deal with when joining the band. Not to mention they both listen to a handful of Metallica riffs, and Kirk talks about how they came to be. If you're a fan of Metallica, this is a fun interview.
- What can we learn from Steve Vai? Steve Vai Playing Techniques & Habits - I love these videos from Sam Bell where he goes over a guitarist's habits and the techniques they're most known for. He takes on the big task of covering Steve Vai in his latest video. Sam talks about slides, interesting bends, odd groupings in Vai's phrases, and a lot more. If you like Steve Vai, I think you'll get a lot out of this one.
- Steve Vai Licks Lesson | The IMPRESSIVE Ones! - And if you're inspired by that video, and want even more Steve Vai, you're in luck! This week, Cameron Cooper came out with a Vai licks lesson video. If you want to take what you learned from Sam's video and apply it here, this is a great two video combo.
- Pro Guitar Tech's Most Hated Things (and how to fix them) - Rhett Shull heads down to Big House Guitars in Atlanta to talk to guitar tech, Ben Calhoun. Ben talks about his top 5 pet peeves when setting up guitars. I loved this video, and always like hearing how pro techs think about setting up guitars.
- Everything You Need to Know About ROSS Pedals - JHS is at it again! This time, Josh Scott and co. are re-launching the ROSS Pedals brand. And they're doing it with a bang, because they're coming back with 5 different pedals. These pedals sound fantastic, and they're all under 200 bucks! Check out this video to hear what these reissues sound like.
- John Mayer Reveals The Pedal Used On Wild Blue - Speaking of ROSS pedals, it turns out that John Mayer himself used a ROSS Phaser on his hit “Wild Blue", off his latest album ‘Sob Rock’. Justin Jeske has the story in this video.
- Do you Need to Target Chord Tones to Play Melodic Over Changes? - John Cordy talks about hitting chord tones to solo melodically over chord changes. In the video, John references one of my favorite TrueFire courses from Ariel Posen. The course is called Triad Targets Soloing Edition. Check it out if you want to work on hitting chord tones over changes. Also, brand new this week, TrueFire linked up with MatchMySound for a couple of their videos. With that technology, you can learn a lesson, and record yourself playing it, and the software will actually grade your performance. Check out their announcement video here. And if you pick up anything on TrueFire, make sure to use this link which helps out Chasing Sound, with no additional cost to you!
- The Best Exercises For Jazz Guitar - Advice From 7 Online Teachers - Looking to get really good at jazz guitar? Jens Larsen, who's one hell of a teacher himself, got 7 online educators together to offer some excellent tips.
- For 30 years, this Japanese guitarist has dedicated his life to becoming Jimmy Page – watch the first trailer for Mr. Jimmy, a documentary about his incredible story - There’s fandom, and then there's Mr. Jimmy. Earlier this week, we got the first trailer for a movie called ‘Mr. Jimmy’, which focuses on a Japanese guitarist, who over the last 30 years has tried to become Jimmy Page. This is going to be wild.
- Three Sure-Fire Ways to Break out of That Old Minor-Pentatonic Deadlock - I know, I know...we've all seen a million videos/lessons about "breaking out of the box”. But every once in a while, it's nice to get a few new licks under your fingers. Check out this lesson from Guitar Player, where they feature licks in the style of Page, Clapton, Fripp and more.
- YouTuber builds neckless guitar and creates a whole song with it - File under: I thought this was fake at first. I'm not even going to comment on this one, just check out the video.