The 3 most important modes, the truth about bending, and soloing ideas from Richie Kotzen
Plus, an update to Line 6's most popular delay pedal
This week has been busy, with the guitar world talking about the tube shortage, the release of a mk2 version of a long time favorite delay pedal, and so much more. This week’s issue touches on that pedal and other tone-related videos, tips on playing like Hendrix, and much more. While I’m writing this week’s issue, we lost a legend of the rock world in Taylor Hawkins. The Foo Fighters have consistently released some of the best, and catchiest rock over the past couple of decades, and Taylor was a huge part of that. I have to imagine that Dave Grohl is devastated at the news, as they always seemed like such a tight knight duo. May Taylor RIP. I’ll be listening to the Foo Fighters, and some of his side projects all weekend long.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Lenny’ | Iconic Tone #2 - “Lenny” is one of my top 5 Stevie Ray Vaughan songs, which is why I loved watching Ross Campbell continue his Iconic Tone series with this song. Similar to the Slash video Ross did, he nails the tone by using a plugin, but gives good general advice how to get close to the tone on any style of setup.
The 3 Modes MOST Guitarists Use MOST Of The Time - Tim Pierce makes theory easy. Rather than worry about every single mode (including those lesser used ones), Tim shows us the 3 modes that most of us might already be using in our playing.
🎸 How to Use a Metronome - Guitar Lesson - Tommy Emmanuel - One of the most celebrated players of our time, Tommy Emmanuel, shares why and how he uses a metronome in his guitar practice. If you’re not playing over a backing track, a metronome is your best friend in the practice space.
Kirk Fletcher - The Chicago blues sound of Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Magic Sam - Kirk Fletcher is one of the most exciting blues players out there. He sat down with Guitar World, in what looks like Josh Smith’s studio, to talk about Chicago blues. Check out this lesson for great tips on the Chicago style, featuring players like Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and more.
Minus the Bear’s David Knudson Demos the New Line 6 DL4 MkII. - I have to imagine David Knudson of Minus the Bear sold a similar amount of DL4’s as Morello sold Whammy’s or Hammett sold wah pedals. Maybe not close, but surely a big number went out the door because of him. A lot of folks have been waiting a long time for Line 6 to re-release the DL4, and that day is finally here. They’ve updated algorithms for the pedal, added a secret reverb menu and more. This demo is great, but if you’re looking for another good demo of the pedal, check out Rhett Shull’s as well.
Why Do Guitar Players Like Boost Pedals? - Ben Eller shows us why guitarists love boost pedals so much. If you want a fun overdriven sound without waking up the neighbors, a boost might be for you. Boost pedals are so versatile, whether you use them as the main basis of your tone, or configure them strictly as a solo boost. Ben shares a couple of his favorite boosts, and shows what type of amps they work well on, and what amps they might actually take away from. If you’re in the market for a boost pedal, check out this video first.
The Truth About Bending - Nothing will make your playing sound more amateurish than an out of tune bend. In Chris Sherland’s latest video he gives us some great exercises to get our bending in shape, to make sure our bends land on the right pitch. I liked Chris’ example solos too, that really outline why bending properly is so pleasing to the ear.
The Led Zeppelin Riff Nobody Can Play Correctly - Tyler Larson makes the case that Zep’s “Black Dog” might be proggier than you think, and shows us what many players don’t get right about the time signature. It was cool to see Tyler bring this track into his DAW to do some research on why the feel might be so elusive.
Plini Live Stream 2022 - Plini has been putting out exciting instrumental albums for a couple of years now, and he’s been one of my favorite newer artists to listen to. In this video, he shows off his brand new Strandberg signature models, takes some questions, and performs some his songs. After the initial technical difficulties, it was a fantastic livestream.
Embellish Your Rhythms + Chords Like Hendrix - Have a couple of minutes and want to get your rhythm chops up? Check out this cool video from Marty Schwartz where he shows us some cool, Hendrixian chord rhythm tricks that’ll spice up your playing.
EJ “Cliffs” Lick (No, Not THAT One) - 5 Minute Licks - Leon Todd offers up a quick lesson on a sweet Eric Johnson lick from “Cliffs of Dover”. Not only that, but he shows you how to make it your own, to use in your own solos.
Joe Satriani reveals the song that was impossible to play live: “My hand didn’t want to do it live. It started to really hurt” - This short story about Satch was about how difficult the title track from ‘Shockwave Supernova’ was to play, but really it’s a great lesson on why you should always try and find the most economical way to play the phrases you write. Joe’s new track “Pumpin” is also out from his upcoming ‘Elephants from Mars’ album.
5 soloing ideas you can learn from Richie Kotzen - Richie Kotzen is so inspiring - not only in his ability to play guitar and sing, but the sheer amount of songs he’s created over the years. In this lesson from Guitar World, they give us 5 soloing ideas to use that are right out of Kotzen’s wheelhouse.
An Introduction to Texas Blues in 12 Tracks - by Ted Gioia - One of my favorite music newsletters on Substack, is Ted Gioia’s ‘The Honest Broker’. In his latest email he talks about 12 Texas blues tracks that’ll introduce you to the style. SRV and Albert Collins are on here, but so are their influences, like Blind Willie Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins and more. I’ve always found that one of my favorite ways to soak up guitar vocabulary is to check out who my guitar heroes’ heroes were. It’s a great way to see how these players melded a variety of player’s styles into something all their own.
Chasing Sound Live Q&A - And finally, just yesterday I did a Q&A version of the livestream where I answer a couple of questions from the community. The questions range from what truly matters when it comes to tone, to if anyone truly ever improvises. I hope my rants made sense! Let me know in the YouTube comments.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading Six String Sunday!
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