We’re so back for 2025
Let’s make some amazing progress on guitar this year!
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Six String Sunday of 2025. This week, we’re diving into everything from Ben Eller’s beginner-friendly tips to the ACPG 30-Day Technique Challenge and Justin Hombach’s insights on mastering mechanics. There’s also a wild selective picking riff from Josh De La Victoria, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marshall Factory, and much more. Starting a new year is your chance to make incredible progress on guitar, and I’ll be here with ya to help out! Let’s kick off 2025 strong!
This Week’s Guitar Links
How To Become a Better Guitarist in 2025! - I've said it so many times, but most beginner's don't know what they don't know. Where do you begin when trying to become a better guitarist? This video from Ben Eller, and many of the videos below will help you with just that! In this video, Ben shares some of the helpful videos he's made that cover different styles of picking, learning scales, technique builders, and a bunch more. Ben's one of my favorite teachers on YT, as he always breaks things down in a very simple way. Any of his videos are well worth your time.
The ACPG 30 Day Guitar Technique Challenge: Day 1 - I love timed challenges, as they build commitment/dedication to getting better at guitar and have an end date where you can go back and check out your results. Anyone Can Play Guitar started the 30 day guitar technique challenge for the month of January. In the first video of the series, you'll learn the classic "spider" exercise. This will help your hand sync and also allow you to practice picking at the same time.
My Biggest Guitar Lesson Of 2024 - Turns out, sometimes the biggest changes come from taking a look in the mirror....literally. Check out this video, where Justin Hombach talks about the biggest changes he made to his playing in 2024. Spoilers...it has to do with truly understanding the mechanics of hand movement and speed, similar to all the great stuff we've gotten from Troy Grady over the years. Some great insights in this one.
10 Guitar Concepts You MUST LEARN In 2025 - Ben Eunson is a monster guitarist, and in his latest video, he hits us with 10 concepts to learn, all in under 10 minutes. Ben covers everything from triads, and producing great sounding notes, to working on melodies and the trusty pentatonic scale. This video has a ton of great starting points for developing a practice schedule.
This Josh De La Victoria Selective Picking Line is INSANE - @JoshuaDeLaVictoria lick tutorial - What in the Tosin Abasi is this? Josh De La Victoria uploaded a wild selective picking riff recently. If you want something that'll really challenge you in 2025, check out John Cordy's breakdown of this riff (which thankfully includes tab!) I'm excited to check out more Josh De La Victoria vids in the future, as he slipped under my radar. And if you want even more ways to work on your picking, check out these 2 exercises from Leon Todd. Oh, and because this is the first issue of 2025, how about ANOTHER picking video…this time from David Beebee, and focusing on hybrid picking and string skipping.
Behind the Scenes at the Marshall Factory! - If you’ve ever wondered what goes into making Marshall amps/cabs, then this video from Andertons is for you. I love watching people craft awesome guitar gear - I always find there's something calmin about watching the process. Andertons visited a lot of the build stations, and even stopped by the museum when visiting. If you hve any other great behind the scenes factory tour videos, let me know!
Learn Three 'Outside' Blues Fusion Licks! - OK, back to lessons! If you've already got the pentatonic scale under your belt, you might want to check out some options to go outside the traditional box patterns. Jack Ruch shows us some slick blues/fusion licks that you can get under your fingers, and start making your own today.
Shawn Tubbs Is One Of Nashville's Scariest Guitarist (Guitar Stories Ep6) - I feel like Shawn Tubbs is seriously underrated. I've been watching Shawn's gear videos for years, and really fell in love with his album “Demolition”. I thought it was so cool that he had all these little sketches of great guitar ideas, that almost immediately got to the point, and then got out. Check that album out here. In this video, Shawn sits down with Robert Baker to discuss all sorts of amazing gear, live from his studio.
How Much Money I Lost On Tour - This video isn't specifically related to guitar, but I think these types of videos are important for musicians who are trying to make a living with their music. I've been on tours like the ones that Mary Spender is talking about here, and I think it's important for musicians to see the behind the scenes of what everything costs. Planning is super important, and it reminds you that it's helpful to diversify what you do in this line of work. Also, support independent musicians whenever you can - buy physical copies of music, merch, go out to see a show. It all helps.
Mike Dawes plays stunning percussive fingerstyle and explains how his guitar is customised for it - Mike Dawes is one of my favorite acoustic guitarists (check out his most recent album from last year, it’s fantastic). His playing takes advantage of the entire guitar to create beautiful music. Mike recently sat down with Guitarist to talk about how he customized his guitar for his special brand of playing.
What The Fretboard Looks Like To A Good Player - This fun video from Andrew Clarke takes CAGED ideas, and scales you might already know (major, minor, pentatonic) and mashes them up into one master shape. From there you can see triads, 7th chords and a lot more. I’m going to dip into this idea over the next week.
Useless Guitar Technique Warm-Up Routines - Are warm up exercises doing us any good? Denis Chang makes the case that simple “spider exercises” and the like, might not be the best use of our time.
Quick Hitters
Which EVH Solos Deserve (Even) More Love? - The 100 Guitarists podcast from Premier Guitar talks about some sleeper solos from the legendary EVH. What are your favorite underrated solos, not only from EVH, but from other guitarists you like?
What No One Tells You About Mixolydian! - Once you've gotten comfortable with pentatonic scales, it's worth your time to get the Mixolydian mode in the mix. This is a great video from Corey Congilio on what you can do with the scale, and how you can see it across the fretboard, by employing triads.
Gary Moore and Paul Kossoff were both heavy hitters in the blues rock guitar world. Check out the two videos below to get some of their best licks into your vocabulary. David Brewster gives us some Gary Moore licks from the Montreaux Guitar Festival, and Richard Barrett fills us in on some great Paul Kossoff licks. Plus, check out that killer sounding Knaggs guitar on the second video!
Adding another video here from David Brewster - it came out later in the week, and is greatr, if you want to understand the soloing ideas of The Allman’s Dickey Betts. Check this out!