Tips for flying with a guitar

Plus our first look at Brothers In Blues

Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

Happy September! Fall is right around the corner, and that means a lot of the world heading back to school. I’m excited to get back into full swing on the website and with YouTube. You can expect lessons, gear reviews and more all headed your way.

Speaking of learning, I’ve been diving in to Pickup Music’s latest course, called Hendrix CAGED. The course teaches you CAGED shapes/scales through the lens of Jimi Hendrix. I’ve been loving this course so far. If you want to check it out, if you sign up for a 14 day trial with Pickup Music (Sep 1-29th), you also have the chance to win an Ibanez AZES40. If you do sign up, make sure to use my link.

Alright, let’s get into this week’s links!

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This week’s guitar links

- Sam Bell - 4 Ways To Unlock the Fretboard - I can never get enough of these types of lessons. Sam Bell did a webinar where he breaks down 4 ways you can visualize the fretboard better. He starts the lesson with a fun finding notes exercise, where you're counting to 4, and trying to find the same note on different strings. He then kicks into the lesson, where the first step is about learning scales on a single string. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's one of the early lessons of the Advancing Guitarist book, which I've been talking about for quite some time. Check out this lesson, and let me know if it helps you see the fretboard more clearly.

- Brothers In Blues TRAILER | 2023 - We got a trailer this week for “Brothers In Blues”, a documentary following Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan. Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Nile Rodgers and others make apperances too. I'm excited to check this movie out. Update: After sending out this week’s issue, I got a great comment from

Pulin Kothari

mentioning that this movie already dropped this year. (That’s what happens when it’s an extended weekend and I’m writing the newsletter early 😂). Thanks for the correction Pulin!

- Pro Guitar Tech's Most LOVED Things (and how to use them) - I linked the first video Rhett Shull did with this tech, where he listed things he hates (and how to fix them). In this vid, the same tech talks about essential tools every guitarist should have, and how to use them. I love linking to videos like this, because I always learn something new.

- Your First Arpeggio Lesson - Chris Sherland's latest video is an arpeggios 101 for guitarists who are curious about adding them into their playing. Once you know the way arpeggios are built, you'll begin to start seeing these patterns all over the fretboard. This can only help with your fretboard knowledge, so they're great to learn.

- Queens of The Stone Age Tones for £99 | Funny Little Boxes "Skeleton Key" Pedal Demo - There's been a ton of speculation over Josh Homme's guitar tone over the years. Now you can get Homme's tones in the “Skeleton Key" pedal, which is a collaboration between Funny Little Boxes and Let's Play All. The pedal sounds pretty darn close to Josh's tone, and cleans up well too. Plus, you have some great artwork on the pedal, that is very QOTSA-esque. All this for a little over a hundred bucks.

- Tips for flying with a guitar - We've all heard the horror stories of musician's instruments getting destroyed while flying. GW gives us some great tips, so we can be prepared when traveling with our guitars. There are tips to prepare for travel with a guitar, and tips for after a trip, in case anything has gone wrong.

- “The Reality Is, the Most Expensive Guitar in the World Isn’t Going to Improve Your Playing”: Nili Brosh’s Top Tips for Guitarists - Nili Brosh has played with so many amazing artists over the past decade. I love watching her jam out with such a wide variety of acts - everyone from Cirque du Soleil to Dethklok. Don't sleep on her solo albums either! The top quote from this article though, is what's in the title. Gear will never make you a better guitar player. It might help you get more inspired, but only putting in the work will improve your skills.

- Why Chris Shiflett spends his Foo Fighters downtime talking to other guitar players about guitar - I've been having a blast watching the new Chris Shiflett show, Shred With Shifty. He's had guitarists like Rivers Cuomo from Weezer and Alex Lifeson of Rush. In the interview with Guitar.com, Chris talks about why he's doing this show, during his downtime with the Foo Fighters. I love the premise of the show - Chris throws some general questions to the guest, but the real meat of the show is that the guest breaks down a solo from one of their songs, and Chris tries to play it, almost a mini guitar lesson, right on the show. Check out the video version on YouTube, if you haven't seen it yet.

- “Every rock band is trying to write their own Seven Nation Army riff... It’s nice when you write something powerful that even a beginner could learn”: Simplicity is the key to a good guitar anthem – just ask Skindred’s Mikey Demus - This short interview with Mikey Demus of Skindred was fun to read - Guitar World asks Mikey some good questions about gear and recording. But the title of the article itself was my favorite. 9 times out of 10, simplicity is what'll produce an earworm style riff  for the average listener.

- Guitar.com Originals: 60 Seconds - Guitar.com recently got a fresh coat of paint for their website, and I think it looks great. They also just debuted two new series of videos. The first is their 60 seconds series, which are quick and to the point gear reviews. They've already done one on the UAFX Heavenly pedal. The other series they just kicked off is their Guitar Shopping videos. They take famous guitarists to their favorite guitar stores to try out guitars, amps, pedals and more. You can check out the first episode here.