Six String Sunday is my absolute favorite thing I do for Chasing Sound. Without fail, no matter where I am in the world, a newsletter goes out each and every Sunday. That's been happening for about 2 years now, and I continue to write it, because I've met so many awesome guitarists through the newsletter.
Every once in a while I like to post a sample of what an issue of the newsletter looks like for folks who aren't signed up just yet. Here's the issue that just went out last Sunday. If it seems like something you'd be into, make sure to sign up on the sidebar of this site!
This week on the newsletter we’re going to have a lot of fun. I hope you dug last week’s issue, and that it helped you get better at guitar. This week I’m going to share with you one of my favorite playlists, a new album that I can’t get enough of, guitar lessons and lots more. Here we go!
The Ultimate Guitar YouTube Playlist
Last week I shared my updated guitar playlist for Spotify and Apple Music, where you can hear over 5 hours of awesome guitar music (updated all the time!) This week we’re going even further behind the scenes, with a little “inside baseball” article I posted to Chasing Sound this week.
Videos on YouTube are a big part of Six String Sunday. Over the past couple of years I’ve been compiling guitar videos I love into one playlist. Now I’m making the playlist available to you for the first time - and it’s over 500 videos! You can check out the post and playlist here!
How to Play Melodic Guitar Solos
David Wallimann is back with an awesome series on how to make your solos more melodic. David talks about his “LOVE” system - where his solos are Lyrical, Obvious, Visual and Expandable. I’ve been really enjoying this 4 part series - here’s parts one, two, and three. By the time this issue is emailed to you, look for part four!
David always does great lesson videos, and in addition to loving that latest series, I also REALLY enjoyed this video about intentional practice. I’ve written about practice at length on the site, and I couldn’t agree more with David’s idea of planned practice.
Behold Electric Guitar
Speaking of supremely melodic players, Paul Gilbert’s new album “Behold Electric Guitar” is finally officially here! This album was produced by John Cuniberti (who’s also worked with Joe Satriani), and is such a joy to listen to. Similar to what David Wallimann talks about in his videos, Paul said he wrote lyrics to these new songs, and then turned those lyrics into guitar melodies - talk about lyrical!
The album has lots of Paul Gilbert shred, great bluesy slide lines, jazz elements and lots more. But the coolest part about this album was that it was made up of all live takes and no overdubs for the entire band. Pretty wild stuff! I can’t say enough great stuff about this album. You can listen to it on all the streaming services.
If you want to check out Paul and his band in the studio, he’s recently put up a few new videos - I Own A Building (loveeee that slide playing, and how the slide is magnetized to his guitar), Blues For Rabbit, A Herd of Turtles, Things Can Walk To You, and Havin’ It.
Jason Becker With Some Solid Guitar Advice
Perpetual Burn is one of Jason Becker’s all time greatest songs - and there have been countless covers of the song on YouTube, by big guitar names to bedroom guitarists. In this lesson, we get to see old school tabs from Jason himself for some of the coolest licks in the song.
He also reminisces about how Marty Friedman used to tell him “A craftsman never blames his tools”, and how when many people have excuses for why they’re not good, it’s usually that they haven’t practiced enough.
“Try to be good on any guitar and amp.” This has been proven time and time again, when we see someone like Satriani or Van Halen play on a kid’s guitar or some sub $100 Strat copy, and still sound good!
The lesson is short, but a lot of fun, and has Jason’s recognizable humor throughout it. Loved this one.
How to Actively Improve On Guitar
With even more awesome advice on how to get better at guitar, this video from Samurai Guitarist came back on my radar this week. It’s from about 2 years ago, but all the information is still relevant. He gives some tried and true tips, like breaking hard passages down into more manageable chunks, starting slow and bumping up your metronome bit by bit, focusing on ear training and lots more.
The Best Resource On Modes
I’ve been trying to be more and more of a modal player when it comes to my lead lines, and when I really try and learn something new, I try and soak up all the information I can find on that topic. With that being said, Matt Warnock is one of the best guitar teachers out there. He writes guides on everything from beginner concepts to jazz standards, and SO much more.
If you want to understand what modes are and how to use them, you have to check out his incredible lesson which you can find here. Matt is so thorough with his lessons, including tablature, audio examples, fretboard diagrams, mode formulas, and so much more. His website is one of the best guitar resources on the internet! Be warned, if you head to his website, you could be there for hours or more realistically, days learning new things on guitar.
That’s it for now! If you’re struggling with something on guitar, or if you have any guitar, music or recording/mixing questions, I want to hear from you! I read every single email, tweet, FB post, IG and YouTube comment. And I always try and make new lessons from your requests!
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-Brian Sutich
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