On this week's live I talk about everything from how to practice chord tones and legato, to news of John Mayer using a Fractal on his latest album, 'Sob Rock'. We also talked about how Lick Every Day In August is going, made a couple of music recommendations, and a lot more. Check out the episode and let me know what you think in the comments!
Six String Sunday (August 8th, 2021)
I’ve been having so much fun this week creating new guitar licks. I’m happy to say I’ve been sticking to the Lick Every Day In August challenge - writing and posting at least 1 lick every day to social media. You can check them out on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts. It feels good to dedicate at least an hour of time to guitar each day! You can join the challenge and start today. Just block out 30 or so days for yourself, and see what happens at the end!
I’ve also been having fun immersing myself in other people’s licks that I love - Guthrie Govan, Josh Smith, Martin Miller (speaking of which, Josh just interviewed Martin - you can check that out here), and many others. I’ve been trying to keep my own licks varied, so I’ve been pushing myself to learn some of their parts on JTC Guitar. Anyway, that’s enough about me. What’s been new with you? What are you working on with guitar? What’s your favorite lick of all time?
Six String Sunday (August 1st, 2021)
It’s been a pretty crazy week in the music world. Unfortunately we lost guys like ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill, and Slipknot’s original drummer Joey Jordison way too soon. I’ve been spinning a wild combination of ZZ Top and Slipknot over the last few days in their honor. If you get a chance to see Slipknot live, I would 100% recommend going. Their live shows have always been a lot of fun, and they usually bring great supporting acts. I hope ZZ can keep going as well, as they were just set to go out on tour at the end of July.
I also just wrapped up episode 4 of Chasing Sound Live, and as always, I had a blast doing it. Aside from this newsletter, the livestreams have been so much fun to come up with. You can check out the replay here. And finally, before we get into this week’s links, make sure to join me on Lick Every Day In August. I’ll be posting up a brand new lick that I create each and every day on TikTok and Instagram. I hope you’ll join me in taking the challenge of creating every day. Alright, let’s get into these links!
Chasing Sound Live EP 4
This week on the livestream we're talking about Kirk Hammett joining Gibson, Lick Every Day In August, Paul Davids comparing a 50 to 50,000 dollar guitar, and a lot more. I had a lot of fun on this one. Also you have a chance to win a free copy of Guitar Aerobics! Make sure you leave a comment on the video, and I'll pick a winner next live stream!
Six String Sunday (July 25th, 2021)
I’m back with another issue of Six String Sunday! So much has been going on this week, and I’m excited to share two new announcements with you. First, I have not one, but TWO new shirts in the Chasing Sound merch shop. If you want to support this newsletter and the rest of what I do, I’d love it if you picked one up! The shirt features “Sundays are for Six Strings”, and I made one for seven string guitarists too!
As a second announcement, I wanted to think of a way that I could be active on the guitar every single day in August, so I thought up the concept of LEDIA. You might be asking, what the heck does that mean? It’s an acronym for Lick Every Day In August. Every single day in August I’ll be writing and filming one lick, and I’ll end up posting it on Instagram and TikTok. At the end of the month I’m going to try and combine all of the licks into one big montage video for YouTube. I hope you’ll join me on the journey and do your own challenge!
One last thing, be sure to tune in to next Saturday’s livestream, as I’ll be doing a giveaway! You can sub to Chasing Sound on YouTube here.
Lick Every Day In August
I was thinking about a fun way to push myself to play guitar every day, no matter what the circumstances, and I recently came up with a fun idea. The concept is based on stuff like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or Vlogmas (where you vlog every day in December until Christmas). I’m calling it L.E.D.I.A. - and while it might sound like the latest drug to cure your allergies, it’s in fact just an acronym that means Lick Every Day In August.
Sundays Are For Six Strings (and Seven Strings too!)
I've been writing and shipping the Six String Sunday newsletter every Sunday for years now, and it's one of my favorite things to do each week.
I thought it'd be fun for people to be able to support the newsletter or just show their love of jamming on the weekends, by making the Sundays Are For Six Strings t-shirt. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! And at the request of one of our friends in the Chasing Sound Discord chat, I made one for seven strings too!
You can click the photo below to head to my merch store over at Teespring.
Chasing Sound Live EP 3
This week I talked about how to practice guitar - some of my best tips that I've learned about practicing over the years are in this video! I also talk about Billy Gibbons' crazy expensive, new signature model, John Mayer's new album, and more.