Photo credit: Reverb.com A short story: Through over twenty years of gripping my guitar neck like it had murdered my childhood dog (that is to say very tightly), I’ve caused damage to my fretting wrist that makes playing standard-scale guitars a challenge. Oddly enough, I’ve had no issues with playing ukulele. The issue mostly pops up when I play power chords, but the … [Read more...]
5 Boxes Essential Licks (2nd Edition) – Texas Blues Alley
My friend Anthony, owner of Texas Blues Alley, has gone through and fully updated his popular 5 Boxes Essential Licks course: Several months ago I decided it was time to use everything I've learned and improved over the past eleven years, and breath new life into this popular, but very old course. I shot new lick demonstrations, updated all the tablature, and created 12 new … [Read more...]
Kala Parlor Guitar Review
Aloha! I know that I usually talk about ukuleles and ukulele instruction here, but I wanted to talk about guitars today. Specifically about what makes a good beginner guitar. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and came up with a list of what would make the PERFECT beginner guitar. See if you agree with me: 1) It needs to be affordable. This is pretty obvious, I … [Read more...]
Things I Like: June 2018
This is a roundup of a few things I’ve been enjoying this month: 1. Pete Thorn II - The new album from Pete Thorn. In addition to being a popular YouTube demo guy, Thorn is a world-traveling side-man, having played with everyone from Melissa Etheridge to Chris Cornell to Don Henley. This is his second collection of solo material, and it's an enjoyable listen for guitar … [Read more...]
The Charlie Brown Collection
By: Russ Aloha, everyone! Let’s talk books! Specifically, let’s talk biographies: One of the best (if not the best) biographies I’ve ever read is called Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaels. It’s a long one, I’ll warn you, but Michaels did a fantastic job giving the good, bad, and interesting of Schulz’s life instead of skewing toward any one direction and the result is a … [Read more...]