Working on your guitars and building your own gear. Would Hendrix be famous today?
Plus, June's fiery new song challenge
This week’s issue is a lot of fun - not only do we have great videos to share, I also wanted to direct you to the latest episode of Chasing Sound Live! I was able to get Simon Allaway on to talk about building your own gear, setting up your guitar, and lots more. I had a great time talking with him. You can check out the replay here.
We also recently picked out a new song for June’s Song Challenge. We had over 20 songs to pick from, and as luck would have it, the random number generator landed on The Cult’s “Fire Woman”. I’m so excited to learn this song. Billy Duffy’s playing on it is great, and the tones are awesome too. Make sure to join our Discord chat (link at the end of this post/email), and join in on the fun as we try and learn this song, comment on each other’s progress, and help each other out.
Alright, let’s get to this week’s links!
Pete Thorn Sunday Live #222 with Ian Thornley - Two of my favorite Canadian guitarists for 2 hours, talking about playing as a band during the pandemic, new Suhr guitars, songwriting, and lots more. It’s not often I dedicate 2 hours to watching an interview, but this one was fun to have on. If you want even more Ian Thonrley, check out Guitar World’s latest post featuring him.
Jimi Hendrix Wouldn’t Be Famous Today - Beato talks about a comment made by Jeff Berlin, stating that Hendrix wouldn’t be noticed if he came along today. I have my own thoughts that I shared about this on the livestream. What do you think of Jeff’s statement? Later in the week, Rick put up a great video with Tim Pierce, where they talk about amateur mistakes that pro guitarists don’t make.
Most Important Skills For Jazz: Chord Tones on a II V I - Jens Larsen’s videos are always really easy to understand. If you want to get good at playing chord tones over a II V I, check out how Jens and Pat Metheny talk about arpeggios, and how you can make them sound more exciting with “slower improvisation”. Loved this video!
Why Nobody Sounds Like Duane Allman - Rhett Shull talks about the uniqueness of Duane Allman’s slide playing. Rhett is a fantastic slide player himself, and I really enjoyed hearing his thoughts on Duane. Rhett talks about some classic moments from Statesboro Blues and Whipping Post, really getting into why Duane’s playing was so special.
Wildwood and Greg Koch’s Featured Guitar Tip • Arpeggiated Flat 5 Lick - Any time I see a Greg Koch lick lesson, I have to attempt to learn it. I really love Greg’s playing. In this video for Wildwood Guitars, he shows us an odd flat 5 lick that’s arpeggiated. I hope he continues to put out more of these. If you’re looking for more great lessons from Greg, go check out his courses on TrueFire.
Harmonizing Through The Stack - Are you thrown off when chords have too many symbols or numbers that you’re not familiar with? Chris Sherland explains why many of these really complex chords, are easily built by harmonizing through “the stack”. Check out the concept in Chris’ latest vid.
Tom Quayle New Signature Guitar -TQMS1 | Ibanez - Tom Quayle’s new signature model looks great, but I’m really linking to this video because I always love hearing Tom’s playing. As NAMM is taking place, signature guitars are definitely one of the biggest trends of this year’s show.
Trying Tik Tok Guitar Hacks (You won’t believe how good some are) - TikTok is really everywhere lately. Samurai Guitarist tries all sorts of funny guitar hacks from the platform. The first one up is messing around with strings next to each other to get a little bouzouki sound going on.
Phil X’s Pentatonic SHRED SECRET Decoded! - Speaking of bouzouki, Ben Eller’s latest vid features an awesome lick idea that he copped from Phil X. The lick itself is great, but hearing how Ben adapted the lick to use in his own playing is the best part of this video.
THIS Is What I LEARNED from Mateus Asato - If it seems like I’m linking to some sort of Mateus Asato related video each week, it’s because I probably am. This week Tim Pierce, a session legend in his own right, talks about what he learned from Asato’s playing. This video goes along with what I said about Phil and Ben above - learning someone else’s vocabulary is so powerful.
NAMM 2022: Martin unveils its 2.5 millionth guitar, a luxury acoustic encrusted with 436 diamonds - I don’t usually geek out too much about gear, but I thought this milestone for Martin was pretty special. To mark their 2.5 millionth guitar, they announced this really beautiful acoustic with 436 diamonds, and a very cool palladium pickguard.
The 11 most expensive guitars sold at auction - Speaking of iconic guitars, it was fun to take a look at the 11 most expensive guitars that were sold at auction. Ranging from Clapton’s “Blackie” Strat at $959,000, all the way up to Kurt Cobain’s Martin D–18E, which sold for an astounding 6 million dollars.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading Six String Sunday!
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