The easy way of playing bar chords
Plus, Guitar Player ending print publication at the end of 2024
This week’s issue has a ton of fun videos in it - Mateus Asato livestreamed for the first time, Sweetwater brought guitarists together to play the Guitar Pedal Game, and we also had the big and controversial news of Neural DSP’s Nano Cortex. Sadly, we also found out that Guitar Player will be ceasing their print publication at the end of this year. There’s a lot of stuff to get into in this week’s issue, so I hope you’ll enjoy it!
On Saturday, I ran the Chasing Sound St. Jude livestream event to raise funds for this great charity. I talked about gear that I’m enjoying, new music I’m listening to, and more. There’s still time to donate, and you can do so by heading to the link in the livestream’s description. I promise this is the last time I’ll bug ya about this (until next year!), but this cause is near and dear to my heart. Alright, let’s get into the links!
This week’s guitar links!
There's always a first time... - Mateus Asato, guitar hero, is like all of us when trying to get streaming technology to work. All jokes aside, Mateus did his first livestream on YouTube this week, and talked about his new course Asatonics - which is a deep dive into everyone's favorite box scale. He also talked a bit about gear, and split up the livestream with some of his legendary playing.
I Couldn't Play FAST Until I Learned This Benson Idea - I loved this video about playing fast on guitar from Chase Maddox. I think everyone understands that part of playing fast is the technical side, but I love that Chase covered the mental aspect of playing quickly too. If you want to work even more on fast guitar lines, you should also check out this great lesson from Martin Miller, which you can find here.
An Easy Way To Learn The Fretboard - If you want a great "back to basics" sort of lesson, you should check out Jack Ruch's latest video. In it, he talks all about learning the fretboard by moving and combining licks all over the fretboard. As a bonus, it’s my opinion Jack has the lightest touch ever when playing. I think there's something that can be learned there as well from his approach.
A Better Way to Play Bar Chords (Pain Free!) - One of the early things that turns aspiring students of the guitar away is barre chords. A lot of times they don't ring out, they hurt the students' hands, and oftentimes they give up the guitar entirely. In a new video from PickupMusic, Karl shows us the “float, support, embrace” concept he's using to teach barre chords. If you're just getting started, check this video out.
How to Make Riffs - I also dug this video from Eric Haugen. Eric starts off the video breaking down the difference between a riff and a lick, and then he goes into how to create awesome riffs. I couldn't put my finger on why I loved Eric's videos so much, but one of the recent comments summed it up perfectly - “The Bob Ross of guitar tuition. Chilled out, skilled, and very informative.”
Guitar Player to cease print publication this year - I opened up this new video from David Brewster hoping to hear one of David's regular breakdowns of some cool riffs he found in an old issue of Guitar Player. But when I heard him say that Guitar Player would stop their print publication at the end of this year, it hit me like a ton of bricks. GP was the first guitar magazine, and it was my favorite. I subscribed for years, devouring each and every issue. Moving to digital later on, GP would always be the magazine I sought out at airports to read on the plane, and I always read each issue in some form each month. Check out this great video from Brewster on GP's legendary history.
The Guitar Pedal Game - Sweetwater seems to always have great guests stopping by to participate in fun challenges. The latest is the “Guitar Pedal Game”, where a number of guitarists spend their budget on developing the ultimate pedal board. Videos like these are guitar player comfort food.
What Dweezil Zappa Learned From Eddie Van Halen - Dweezil Zappa spent nearly an hour talking to Rick Beato about what he learned from Eddie Van Halen. Growing up as the son of Frank Zappa, Dweezil was able to learn guitar from the likes of EVH and Steve Vai. Talking to Beato, he discusses everything from pick thickness to playing with personality, and how hard that is to define, and so much more.
How to Play Rhythm Guitar in the Pocket — Improve Your Feel with Tom Butwin - Not playing in time is one of the easiest indicators that your playing needs work. In this lesson from Premier Guitar, Tom Butwin shows how you can play to different rhythm elements to practice your rhythm. Not to mention, he's recording his part each time, so he can critique and listen back after he's done playing. This alone is such an important thing to start doing during your practice sessions - not only to seek out issues in your playing, but also to start creating a library of cool licks that you create.
“There are so many emulators of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen, but no one has been able to play like Frank Gambale”: Matteo Mancuso names 10 guitarists who shaped his sound - One of the best ways I got better as a guitarist when I was first starting out, was to find out who my guitar heroes’ inspirations were when they were first starting. You'll find the same thing here for Matteo Mancuso in this post from Guitar World. Matteo talks about guys like Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson, Django Reinhardt and more. I love lists like this, because they either show me new players to check out, or remind me of players to rediscover.
Nano Cortex - Neural DSP - The big news out of the gear world this week is the new Neural DSP Nano Cortex. After a bunch of teaser videos, this new profiler pedal is available for $549. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of its big brother, the Quad Cortex, I do think this will get a lot of folks in the door with digital modelers. There are a ton of great demos of this pedal out there from guys like Jack Gardiner, Rabea, Andertons and more.
That being said, the market is saturated right now with options that are similar in price, like some of the HX pedals from Line 6 or even the Tonex. The best thing for us as guitarists is that competition in the market only helps us, as these brands compete to be the pedal you'll choose with new features. And in addition, it looks like that competition is also bringing prices down as a whole. Win-win for guitarists!
ZenRigs - The Fractal Audio Accessory Specialists - Speaking of modelling, I wanted to give a shout out to Sukh over at ZenRigs. If you have any Fractal gear and want some great accessories, you should check out his newly re-opened store. I know I'll be making a purchase soon for my FM3! To celebrate, he also did a very fun livestream, which you can check out here. He played some killer Ibanez JS guitars, and got some monster Satriani-esque tones from his Fractal gear. The good news is he's sharing those presets, which you can find on the livestream page. How cool is that?