What songs have pushed your playing along?
Plus, want a Nano Cortex? NeuralDSP is having some fun for their birthday!
Hey friends, hope you’re having a great week. I ran a giveaway in last week’s newsletter - since it was Easter, I asked to comment your favorite candy and I’d send you free strings. ONE person commented/replied. So either:
a) You all hate free strings.
b) You don’t read to the end.
c) I’m shadow-banned by the universe.
I honestly want to know: What would make you comment? What would make this newsletter more fun and engaging? Hit reply, comment on Substack or join the Discord and tell me.
One thing I want to point out about the Discord - we have a ton of knowledgable guitarists in there. If you ever want free advice on anything from understanding triads to working on your Floyd Rose, ask in there! It’s super welcoming and is like having a free guitar teacher.
This week’s issue has a ton of great lessons, updates to gear and much more. I’m going to slowly incorporate new sections and formatting to this newsletter, so let me know what you do/don’t like after reading each week. This is our newsletter!
🔗 This week’s guitar links!
Plini and Jack Gardiner record on a pocket studio in 1 take - I love portable music setups that allow you the freedom to work from anywhere. Whenever I'm not at my desk, I'm using a UA Volt with my iPad to sketch out ideas. This week Neural DSP brought together Plini and Jack Gardiner to write a song using the Nano Cortex (powered by a USB battery), right into a Teenage Engineering OP-1 (they even monitored using the built in speaker!) This is such a cool idea, and not only that, the Nano Cortex got a huge update this week, adding new effects and the long awaited feature of being able to modify your signal chain. Do you own a Nano Cortex? If you don’t, NeuralDSP is running a birthday sale where they’re giving one away. You can check that out here.
The SIMPLE Chord That Every Pro Guitarist Loves - This video by Ross Campbell is absolutely worth your time. It'll instantly enhance your rhythm playing skills, and more importantly, Ross demonstrates how to identify a first inversion triad on the E and A strings. Get this simple shape under your fingers, and then check out the cool Hendrix style rhythm at the end of the video.
Guitar Finger Stretching Exercises For Every Player | Chris Buono's Guitar Gym - Let's say you want to play more demanding licks and chords - you need to warm up your hands first! Chris Buono put out a great video for TrueFire that features a bunch of finger stretching exercises that you can incorporate at the beginning of your practice sessions. TrueFire is without a doubt one of the best deals on the internet for guitarists. If you want to get an insane amount of guitar content, sign up for their All Access Pass. Use my link to help support this newsletter!
5 Songs That Made Me A Better Guitarist | Molly Miller - Molly Miller and Karl Kerfoot from Pickup Music go over 5 songs that made Molly Miller a better player. Molly’s lessons on the CAGED system for Pickup have been a helpful jumping off point, plus her solo albums are always so relaxing to listen to. Molly picked 5 songs in varying styles that really pushed her along as a guitarist. The cool thing about this video is that they offer tab for the first couple of songs they go through. What are some songs that’ve really informed your own playing?
I Didn’t Understand TRIADS Until I Knew THIS - Ricky Comiskey always seems to be doing a helpful livestream on theory. He put out a short video this week that goes over all sorts of great triad shapes you should be learning. He also talks about triads in the context of CAGED. This is a great lesson to pair with any of the Molly Miller or Ross Campbell stuff I talked about above.
The GREATEST GUITARISTS add THIS to their pentatonic - Is the key to making your pentatonics more useful adding just one note? Daniel Seriff makes the case that adding the 2nd (9th) to your pentatonic box shapes makes using hammer on and pull off phrases super simple. If you don’t stick on the note for too long, it starts to make the scale sound more intricate. Try adding this note gradually to your licks and see how it enhances them.
10 Proven Ways to Improve Your Guitar Skills FAST! - Clickbait title aside, this is a great video from Guitar World. It includes simple tips that we all need to hear every once in a while, regardless of how far along we are on the guitar. Stuff like not applying too much pressure to your notes, strengthening your weaker fingers, using picking for dynamics and more. Check it out and let me know if you’re already doing this stuff in your own playing.
The Top 3 Habits of Pro Guitarists - Super simple and straightforward lesson from Kerry Marshall. Watch the full video for his top 3 habits that pro guitarists employ. You can do at least two of these by being subscribed to this newsletter! If you have any questions on putting these tips into practice, hit me up for help!
Greg Koch - Can't Lose What You Never Had FT. Jimmy Hall & The Memphis Horns (Official Video) - I loved this video of Greg Koch and Jimmy Hall playing “Can't Lose What You Never Had”. The song is from Koch's Blues album that answers a question Greg’s heard a bunch from his fans - "what album has the most blues songs on it?” There's some killer playing on this track, and I can't recommend Greg's catalog enough. After this, check out Radio Free Gristle and Unrepentant.
“The musicians, shops, and brands who use Reverb have always been at the center of all that we do”: Reverb has been acquired by two new investors – and will once again become an independently operated company - After being acquired by Servco and Creator Partners, Reverb will once again become an independently owned company. During its time under Etsy’s ownership, changes occurred in terms of percentages and fees, as well as layoffs. I hope that these new owners steer the site back in the right direction for musicians who use it to buy and sell gear. One thing that deserves pointing out is that both of the companies have stake in Fender. Even though that’s true, they mentioned that Fender wouldn’t get any preferential treatment.
So currently there are two.
1. "On The Pipe" by The Steve Morse Band album "The Introduction".
I always wanted to learn how to play this, but really had NO idea how to approach it. So I found a guy online Hemme Luttjeboer who is a professional transcriber. His site is musiconpaper.com. His Transcription saved me so much time, and since I have less than an hour a day to practice, it got me much further, much faster than if I was to try to transcribe it myself.
This is a VERY difficult tune to play and after about 6 months I'm about 1:53 into the tune. It pushed me and my practice regimen. I actually learned so much about what makes Steve Morse's compositions sound the way they do and learned many practice tips. The hardest part of learning a tune like this is finding the correct fingering. And since I had the TAB I was able to write down the fingering which is SO important. Working out the fingering is EVERYTHING when learning a difficult composition.
2. "Donna Lee" by Charlie Parker
I play this nearly EVERY day. I can play it at 195 bpm, clean and mistake free.
This took me 1 month just to get through the whole thing and play it mistake free. Very slow tempo.
I put two obstructions in front of me before I started learning it.
1. I would NOT use the tab, I would read the notes.
2. I would not listen to the composition to see if I was making mistakes ONLY when I finished learning a full section.
I did this so my reading would get better. My knowledge of the fretboard would get better, and that forced me to make sure that my time was correct. BeBop (especially Charlie Parker) is always good to learn because musically it doesn't go where you expect it to, so you're constantly blowing open new doors in your brain. The time is especially challenging. BeBop is great for this. I got to study with Ken Navarro for a year, and he was really big on BeBop just for this kind of thing. The parts sound completely abstract when played alone, and then when you put the second part on it makes sense. He used to give me these BeBop duets to learn.
But I feel like I'll play Donna Lee every day until I can't pick up the guitar anymore. There are parts that are still challenging and I"m still experimenting with different fingerings to get my tempo up.
Keep up the good work on the newsletter Brian. You Rock.