Brian Sutich
Kraftgeek Tripod and Pocket RGB Light Review
Kraftgeek Tripod and Pocket RGB Light Review
Brian Sutich
The 2024 St. Jude Fundraiser Is On!
The 2024 St. Jude Fundraiser Is On!
Brian Sutich
3 Easy Solos For Beginner Guitarists

If you’re just learning guitar, getting started with playing solos might seem daunting. It’s a big change to go from strumming chords to your favorite songs, to playing lead lines. The best thing is to start out easy, but not too easy. The more you challenge yourself, the better a guitarist you’ll become. Just remember to take everything in bite size chunks as you’re learning. To help you get started with solos, I’m recommending a couple that I’d learn if I was just getting started - one from three different genres. The feeling of learning and playing lead is amazing. Let’s get into it.

3 Easy Solos For Beginner Guitarists
Brian Sutich
1 Habit All Amazing Guitarists Have In Common

I’ve observed hundreds of guitarists over the years from all different skill levels, and the ones who are making a lot of progress often share a lot of the same traits - they have a plan when they sit down to practice, they know the people to go to when they’re facing a hurdle in their playing, and they’re endlessly curious about guitar and music in general.

But outside of all of that, there’s one habit I’ve seen that all of my favorite guitarists have - they practice active listening.

1 Habit All Amazing Guitarists Have In Common
Brian Sutich
Every guitarist should record their practice ...

It’s cliche, but everyone has a mini recording studio in their pocket with them at all times. Not only is it stupidly simple to record your audio ideas, you can record yourself via video as well and see everything you were working on at the time, to truly pinpoint issues in your playing. But that’s not the only reason you should record.

Let's dive into three ways guitarists can use recording to see huge improvements in their playing.

Every guitarist should record their practice for massive progress – here's why

candle power

We Have to Talk About Steve Vai's "Joint Shifting"

There I was, watching Steve Vai’s 60th birthday stream on Facebook. Apparently I was there with many others, because at the time of this posting the livestream has nearly 290 thousand views. Think about that, a instrumental guitar player garnering 100’s of thousands of views for his birthday stream. It had me thinking just how influential Vai has been not only to me, but to thousands of other guitarists and even guitar design over the last couple of decades.

The livestream was great, and it was so cool to celebrate such a momentous occasion for Steve turning 60, but then he hit us with his brand new song “Candle Power.” I’ve been playing and writing about guitar for nearly 20 years, and at this point it’s hard to be impressed or hear something that sounds new - but Vai pulled it off.

He mentions, “I wanted to challenge myself for my 60th birthday and decided to record a simple trio track. I gave myself some parameters to work within. I told myself I would use a Strat style guitar, (tougher for me to play then a Jem) use a very clean tone, (not conventional for me) no whammy bar, (that’s like losing a body part for me) and no pick, just fingers (way out of my comfort zone). I also had this idea for a particular type of riff that can only really be played on a guitar with no whammy bar. It’s a technique that I call “joint shifting." This is where you bend a note while fretting another, but I wanted to do this technique with a combination of double and triple stop single note bends while fretting other notes and releasing bends. After considerable experimenting, I discovered it created a unique sounding passage. You can hear this technique on a few sections of the song. I certainly hope other ambitious guitar player see the potential in this technique and take it to the moon!”

I’ve watched the video for “Candle Power” over and over to see Vai do “joint shifting”. It’s wildly interesting, and is something that you only see a guy like Vai do, making up a new technique. The guitar tone is beautiful, and reminds me of other songs he’s done, like his clean work on ‘The Ultra Zone’ album. There’s absolutely no distortion on the guitar at all, just clean playing, done incredibly well.

The video is even more special, because of the backdrop of his beautiful Harmony Hut studio, filled with guitars, cabs, rack gear, and so much more. I also thought it was really cool to give a nod to songwriter Jacob Collier, and his ‘In My Room’ album, by wearing a t-shirt of the album. If you haven’t heard Jacob’s unique pop-funk-jazz creations, go check them out!

Super happy to see Vai always pushing the boundaries of guitar. Happy 60th birthday Steve, thanks for inspiring so many of us!