Brian Sutich
The Chasing Sound Song Challenge Returns!
The Chasing Sound Song Challenge Returns!
Brian Sutich
Chasing Sound Live! Is Back
Chasing Sound Live! Is Back
Brian Sutich
Kraftgeek Capsule Lite Review
Kraftgeek Capsule Lite Review
Brian Sutich
Rob Scallon’s Fretless Has Arrived
Rob Scallon’s Fretless Has Arrived
Brian Sutich
Bumblefoot …Returns! Blends Technique, Melodic ...
Bumblefoot …Returns! Blends Technique, Melodic Playing, and Standout Guests

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 3

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 3

Wow, it has been a super busy May! This Song Challenge has taken over Chasing Sound for much of the month. In week 1 we talked all about how to spark inspiration and get rhythm ideas down. We picked our key and quality, and started brainstorming ideas.

For week 2 we worked on finalizing our chords and developing leads over the chord changes we wrote. We tried recording a simple rhythm scratch track to practice our ideas over.

This week we’re going to focus on a basic recording primer - how to really record your song, before we head into mixing next week. There already are a number of great articles on how to record guitar. If you want to find the best I’ve ever seen, you should check out this post from one of the best engineers I’ve ever met in my life (RIP Tim!). It’s hilarious, NSFW, and incredibly informative.

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 2

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 2

Welcome to week two of the Chasing Sound Song Challenge. Last week we focused on getting the basic idea of our song down, and I gave you some ideas on how to spark new song ideas. If you missed that post, you can check it out here.

This week we’re going to work on making sure our rhythm section is solid, and how to compose lead lines on top of our chord changes. I’ll show you some smart ways to get your song going quickly, and what pitfalls I ran into myself.

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 1

Chasing Sound Song Challenge - Week 1

Welcome to week one of the Chasing Sound Song Challenge for 2023! If you’re not sure what the challenge is, recently in the Six String Sunday Club newsletter, I asked you to join me in writing, recording, and mixing just one song in the month of May. I’m going to share my progress with how it’s going, and I’d love you to share your progress too. I’ll be posting information about the challenge here, on Twitter, on YouTube and more!

Here’s how the weeks will work: Week One (this week) we’ll go over how to get the base structure of your song down (the “bones” of the song so to speak). Week Two we’ll work on getting lead lines, bass and drum parts done. For Week Three we’ll focus on recording the song, and adding any final elements (maybe keyboard, cowbell anyone?) Finally, Week Four will focus on how to mix your song and share it for people to listen to.

Chasing Sound Live Returns!

If you missed it over the weekend, I brought back Chasing Sound Live! For the first time in the show's history, I streamed both to YouTube and to Twitter. Next time I do a stream, I'll be streaming to both of those plus Twitch!

On this week's episode I weigh in on all the "Kirk Hammett sucks" drama, talk about May's upcoming song challenge, and geek out about why I think the new Discord practice rooms I opened up will be so helpful for guitar players.

I also had Simon Allaway stop by to talk about building your own guitars, make some music recommendations and more.

You can check out the replay below!

50 Influential Guitarists / 50 Songs

50 Influential Guitarists / 50 Songs

Back when I was doing the Amped Up! podcast, I talked about 50 of my favorite guitar players for the 50th episode of the show, and why they were so influential. I wanted to bring back that list today, and share 50 songs you should check out - 1 for each guitarist. Be on the lookout for an “honorable mentions” post, as I couldn’t bring myself to stop at just 50!

16 Ways To Get Better At Guitar, Revisited

For this month’s subscribers only edition of Six String Sunday Club, I sat down and talked about one of Chasing Sound’s most visited posts. I first wrote “16 ways to get better at guitar” back in April of 2018. Since then it’s had tens of thousands of visits over the last 4 years.

In this audio retrospective, I look back at all 16 ways I mentioned to see if all the tips still ring true. I also add a bunch of new commentary to each and every tip. I had so much fun doing this, and I think you’ll get a lot out of it! Let me know what you think in the comments section.

The art of using what you already have

I’m a big fan of Ash Lamb’s newsletter about using visual ideas to get your message across. In my neverending quest to find good writing and see it through the lens of guitar, I was inspired to share an excerpt from one of Ash’s recent newsletters:

"Looking to buy the newest most expensive tools is a passive form of procrastination. In order to get started and make a difference, you don’t need to have the fanciest tools.

It doesn’t matter who you are and what you do, in the vast majority of cases, you only need the basics to go far and make a difference.”

I think we can apply Ash’s advice to guitar gear. I’ve seen countless people, entire forums even, wax poetic over every single minute detail of a guitar, amp, or pedal. I love gear just as much as the next guitarist, but not in place of actually practicing and playing each day.

Next time you find yourself scrolling through your favorite gear site, ask yourself the last time you learned something new. And if you’re ever uncertain if your gear is enough for what you're trying to get done...trust me, it is.

If you’d like to sign up to Ash’s newsletter, you can check that out here.

An Essential Pedal For Every Guitar Player - Vidami Blue Review

I picked up a Vidami Blue a few weeks ago, and it instantly changed how I practice guitar each day. The hands-free bluetooth pedal has 3 modes that have helped me out in a major way: its page turning mode works brilliantly for flipping pages in a number of iPhone and iPad apps, not to mention the ability to scroll through tabs online.

You can use it as a YouTube control device, where you can play, pause, go forward or backwards in time on the video, make loops, and even slow down the video, while retaining the original pitch!

And if you record your guitar, it works with a number of DAWs as a DAW controller, helping to play/pause, record, turn on your metronome and more.

I think this pedal is a no brainer to have on any guitarist's board. Check out my full video walk through of the pedal below.