How’s it going this week? It’s been so awesome to hear from so many readers over the last couple of weeks. If you haven’t joined our Discord chat yet, you can always email me here for access, or if you have a guitar/music question that you want to talk about.

It's been quite the week, hearing of Chick Corea's passing. If you haven't listened to his music ever, here's a good place to start.

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It’s freezing up here in New Jersey, and we’ve been getting blasted with snowstorm after snowstorm. But, in trying to see the good in everything, it’s also meant a lot of extra time inside to play guitar and work on Chasing Sound. This week I have over 25 links to share with you, that range from getting through a Dream Theater song, to how you can get better in guitar in just one month, and a lot more. Let’s get into it!

Guitar Pedal Names (Too Far?) - JHS picked their favorite pedal names of all time. From Danelectro’s Sitar Swami, that helps you emulate a sitar, to a pedal that’s made out of an actual can of Spam, you’ll see them all here.
Ariel Posen Is Giving Away A Fender Jazzmaster - Ariel put up a cool video the other day of him playing one of the new Vintera 60's Fender Jazzmasters. The good news is he's giving one away! I hope one of the readers here wins this guitar!
Dave Weiner's Guitopia Has A Free Tier - Dave Weiner just announced that there will be a free tier to his Guitopia site. This is a great introduction to Dave's massive content library that spans over 15 years. If you sign up, let him know Chasing Sound sent ya!
FUZZ 101: A Beginner’s Guide | Friday Fretworks - Chris Buck gives us the 101 on Fuzz pedals, from Fuzz Faces to The Big Muff pedals and more.
New Jason Becker Signature Yin Yang Guitar - We got news this week that Kiesel is again hitting it out of the park with their next Jason Becker signature guitar. This time it's the signature Yin Yang version. Go check out the video included in the post. The guitar's tone is so similar to Becker's own tone back in the day.
“Cathedral” (Cover) written by Eddie Van Halen, performed by Jude Gold. Donny Baldwin is transfixed! - Jude Gold does an awesome cover of EVH’s “Cathedral”. How often do you use your volume knob to do swells?
Steve Stevens — The Big Five - The legendary Steve Stevens, who’s played with Billy Idol for decades, answers Premier Guitar’s big 5 questions - talking about his favorite guitar, his influences and more.
Woodshed 46- How to use Loopback to add music, computer audio, or your interface to Zoom or Skype! - This was one of my favorite lessons of the week. Andy Wood shows you how you can route your guitar signal to Zoom, Skype or other video conferencing platforms on the Mac by using Loopback. This is a tool I’ve used for years, and really can’t say enough good things about all the apps that Rogue Amoeba makes. Go check them out.
SURVIVING Overture 1928 (Dream Theater) w/ Uncle Ben Eller! - Get your hands warmed up, because Ben Eller is taking us through some of the coolest parts in Dream Theater’s “Overture 1928”. If you’re a fan of John Petrucci, you should check this out!
GREG KOCH | His Techniques, Gear & Wisdom For Musicians - This slipped under my radar, but I’m glad I saw it in my YouTube suggestions. Rhett Shull sat down with Greg Koch for an interview at the end of January. Greg is a monster player, and has an incredible amount of knowledge.
Lead Guitar Arpeggios Explained For Beginners - Knowing simple major and minor arpeggios is a great way to improve your playing, and also gain some good theory knowledge at the same time. Ry Naylor breaks down these two types of arpeggios for beginners.
The MOST IMPORTANT Guitar HABIT You Need To Know - Speaking of knowledge, Tim Pierce dropped a huge video this week, that’s really well put together. You don’t want to miss this one. Tim’s playing is so seamless, and I always love hearing his stories from the studio.
Live From Flat V - Nir Felder Interview - I just got into Nir Felder’s playing at the end of last year. I was blown away by his emotional playing on his album ‘II’. Josh Smith interviews Nir in this video where they talk about how Nir got to where he is today, his early upbringing and learning the guitar and more. If you haven’t checked out Nir’s latest album yet, you should!
The 2nd Best Guitar Lesson You NEVER Had In Your Life - This might just have to be called the monster players issue. This video features Rick Graham talking about the major scale, harmonization, and intervals.
5 Healthy Guitar Habits Pro Guitarists Have - This week’s issue is heavily focused more than ever on setting good habits, and setting yourself up for success as a guitarist. Which is why I really loved Tyler Larson’s new video on 5 habits a pro guitarist should have. Tyler goes over everything from physical fitness and stretching to setting up your practice routine, and more.
How To IMPROVISE BETTER Guitar Solos - I enjoyed this video from Johnathan Cordy where he goes over what’s going on in his head when he’s improvising a solo. Tab included in the video!
How to Make Custom Pedal Patch Cables - Last week we talked about what the best patch cable was, and this week I’m back with a great video on how you can make your own custom pedal patch cables. Making your own helps your pedal boards look ultra clean, and you get the ability to have just the right amount of cable that you’ll need.
How I Got WAY BETTER at Guitar in a Month - Samurai Guitarist shows us how he got better at guitar in 1 month - he discusses what he’s practicing, how he decided what to practice, thoughts on his technique, picking mechanics and more.
Al Joseph's Speed Secrets Webinar | Mastering The Art Of Speed! - Speaking of picking, Al Joseph just uploaded an awesome webinar about his speed secrets. Al’s solo playing, and his work in Hyvmine are awesome. His lessons on JTC Guitar are some of the most helpful I’ve ever tried. If you want to get faster on guitar, start here.
How To Successfully Switch Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales In A Guitar Solo. It Sounds Real Good! - Over the years, I’ve found that players who are able to tastefully combine major and minor pentatonic scales, often make incredible sounding leads. Stich Method shows us how to switch between the two scales effectively.
Creating new picking licks from a template - Chris Brooks Guitar - Another technique I’ve seen employed a lot is using lick fragments all over the neck. This is what Chris Brooks talks about in his latest video, as he goes over creating new licks from a template.
Ariel Posen - Now I See (Live) - Ariel Posen’s new album will be out in March. To tide us over until then, he just put out a beautiful live version of the song “Now I See”. His slide playing is always amazing.
George Lynch Guitar Solo Lesson | The Banishment - Lost Horizons | Plus Complete RIG RUNDOWN - Jay Parmar breaks down a heavy George Lynch guitar solo from The Banishment’s “Lost Horizons”. George Lynch even shows up throughout the vid for comments.
The USA Banned These 36 Guitars from Entering | What Were They and How Much? - The big gear news this week is that 36 guitars were seized by U.S. customs. In this vid Trogly’s Guitar Show investigates what they are, and how they estimate their price at over 150 thousand dollars.
Dave Grohl voices his support for Phoebe Bridgers' SNL guitar smash: "Let me tell you, it feels good when you do it" - In dumb news of the week, Phoebe Bridgers attempted to smash her guitar on SNL, and some people apparently got upset about it? Man, the world has too much free time on its hands if this is what we’re worrying about. Nevertheless, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters chimed in with how much he enjoys smashing guitars and other equipment.
Julien Baker: “I involve myself in different playing minutiae throughout different periods. I wanted my last album to sound like an ad for the Strymon BlueSky!” - One of the coolest new albums I’ve heard is from Julien Baker, called Little Oblivions. So much of the guitar is effects heavy and gives the listener a ton of ear candy to come back to each time. In this new post from Guitar World, she talks about all sorts of effects pedals, thoughts on theory, songwriting and more.
How to play blues like Joe Bonamassa - I liked this basic blues lesson from Guitar.com where they give a few examples of how to combine brit and American rock and blues, to make something entirely Joe Bonamassa.
Premium bonewoods: the Skelecaster is a guitar made from real human remains - And finally, I had to end on a weird note. This guitar was made from the real human remains of someone’s Uncle. Just…just weird man.