The legacy of Jeff Beck
We lost a good one this week. Legendary gutiarist Jeff Beck passed away at the age of 78. Whether you’re old school and loved him in the Yardbirds, heard him blaze new trails with ‘Blow by Blow’ and ‘JB’s Guitar Shop’, or even got into his newer stuff like ‘You Had It Coming’, you always heard Jeff reinventing himself, and setting a higher bar for everyone else. Speaking of bars, his whammy bar work alone was incredible. Countless guitarists were inspired by his playing. RIP Jeff Beck.
This week I have a bunch of awesome guitar links to share with you. Since it’s still early in the year, there are still some great goals-related videos that are coming out.
It’s a perfect time to set up what your practice looks like so you can make some real progress on the guitar. We also have new gear being announced nearly every day - some of it at really attractive prices, even for players who are just starting out. It’s an exciting time to be a guitar player. Let’s get into this week’s links!
This Week’s Links!
- 7 Guitar Goals for EVERY PLAYER | ALL LEVELS - I loved this video from Jack Gardiner. If you're looking for some inspiration on guitar goals, this video is a great place to start. Jack talks about everything from working on fretboard visualization and transcribing, to spending more time with production. I'm going to be working some of these goals into my own yearly plan. Later in the week, Jack came out with another must watch video all about triads. You can check that out here.
- How in the Heck Do Key Changes WORK?! - One of my favorite Ben Eller videos of all time came out this week, where he discusses how key changes work. Using the circle of 5ths will help us when we're wanting to make smaller and closer key changes that seem to make sense, but going outside of its boundaries will give you an even wilder lift to your songwriting. Ben also talks about temporarily using other keys to grab certain chords for your songs. If you've ever had a question about key changes, it's probably covered here. Definitely one of the best videos of the week.
- 11 ways to improve your guitar tone for FREE - No new gear needed! - Want to improve your tone for free? Brian Wampler has you covered, with some tips that focus on technique and tone. The technique related tips all have to do with making sure you can get that "tone is in the hands" element down, while the tone side of Brian's tips focuses on stuff like using less gain, understanding EQ and more.
- Growing as a musician - Devin Townsend Interview - Devin Townsend, especially with his later projects, has been one of my favorite songwriters. Not only that, but his last bunch of albums have sounded so larger than life. Devin recently sat down with TC Electronics to talk about growing as a musician. It's funny, but a lot of the tips that Wampler mentioned above are what Devin talks about in this video.
- The Biggest Problem With Scale Positions and How They Can Ruin Your Progress - Jens Larsen talks about some common ways of learning scales, and if they're truly effective to practice in the long run. Are scale positions the right way to learn the guitar, or is there a better way? I enjoyed listening to Larsen's thoughts on what worked for him.
- When (not) to learn scales... - David Potts over at Song Notes makes the case about why you may or may not want to learn scales, with a little help and advice from Steve Vai.
- Plini – "Finnvox Sessions" (Live) - Plini just came out with a 3 song live album and video, featuring songs like “Electric Sunrise", “I'll Tell You Someday”, and "Cascade". If you were ever in the market for a Quad Cortex you should check this video out, because all of the tones were captured using one, and damn they sound good. The overall mix of these sessions sounds huge!
- Mateus Asato on Learning from Bruno Mars | Wong Notes Podcast - Cory Wong's podcast is always good, because he has great guests on all the time. This week is no different, as he had Mateus Asato on live from Joe Satriani's G4 experience retreat. Mateus is always super humble. You should listen to the whole episode, but if you want to preview a bit, check out this part where he talks about learning from his gig with Bruno Mars.
- Why is THIS Guitarist SO Influential? - Jens Larsen talks about guys like the legendary Wes Montgomery all the time. Wes influenced SO many other players in one way or another, especially when it came to his octave playing. Rick Beato made a video this week talking about why Wes was so influential. Thanks to John Waller for finding this one!
- He's The Next Guitar Hero! - We've been talking about a lot of classic guitar players, but what about some new guitar heroes? Robert Baker is excited about Marcus King tearing it up on guitar. I absolutely loved his latest album ‘Young Blood’. If you want to hear some amazing playing, and even more amazing tone, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
- You Can Tune Your Whammy Bar? - If you're inspired by Jeff Beck this week and want to mess with your whammy bar, you might want to try this experiment from StringJoy. Did you know you can actually tune your whammy bar for different intervals? Check out this video for all the details on how it works. Break out your box of Post It notes. 😆
- Soloing Secrets - Steve Howe - When I was younger, and getting into prog bands like Dream Theater, I inevitably made my way to bands like Yes, and the playing of Steve Howe. I remember when I heard Howe's playing on “Starship Trooper", I was blown away. Late Night Lessons has been putting out some fantastic videos lately, and his latest one is all about Steve Howe's soloing secrets. If you want to open up your playing to some proggier ideas, check this video out.
Hey did you know, not only do I talk guitar each week, but I also teach it!
Try out a half an hour to see how much you can learn when you know the right things to practice. Whether you want to learn guitar, recording, mixing or more, I can help you out!
Some more great links, thanks Brian. I'm glad you mentioned the Beck's whammy. I've never used one much. My main guitars don't have one and I took the one off my Strat and lost it. I have since bought a new one, but still don't really use it. I haven't been aware of other guitarists use it the way Beck did, it's almost like a pedal for him. He is part of the guitar school that uses his thumb pick a lot for riffs instead of fingers, or as well as, but I think his hand position with the focus on his thumb gives him more flexibility to use the whammy. What do you think?