A couple ideas on visualizing the fretboard more easily

I’m back from a week off, hopping around all the Universal parks with the family, and I’m still recovering. While I was gone I had a ton of time to listen to SO much music, which is where this week’s Turn This Up rec comes from: Larkin Poe’s Blood Harmony, an album that’s got me excited to finally get serious about slide guitar this year. I’m sharing a fun Substack rec - Brad Tolinski, a guy whose writing I’ve followed since I was a teenager, showed up on Substack and has been reading my stuff too.

I also want to talk directly to you all about where this newsletter is headed and what would make it feel more like the community I always wanted it to be. And of course, there’s a set of links this week: slide guitar tips from Greg Koch, lead guitar ideas, jazz standard advice from Tomo Fujita, fretboard visualization, and a “greatest guitarist of all time” video that’s actually worth the full watch. Let’s jump into this week’s issue!

I listened to about 40+ hours of music on my trip down to Florida - a mix of SiriusXM and my own library/station on Apple Music. While listening to a lot of fun slide music I always enjoy, like Ariel Posen, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, Larkin Poe came across my radar. Specifically the Blood Harmony album.

The album is straight ahead blues-rock with some of the best slide playing you’ll hear on a record all year. It won the 2024 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and once you give the first couple of tracks a listen, I bet you’ll want to listen to the rest.

What’s refreshing is that both sisters play guitar. Rebecca handles electric guitar and lead vocals, Megan is on lap steel and slide. Every song has a riff that’s super catchy. But it’s Megan’s slide work that kept me listening. Tracks like “Deep Stays Down” and “Summertime Sunset” are a masterclass in how to make slide sit inside a rock song. Slide is one of those techniques I’ve always wanted to get serious about, and this album is pushing me to finally put in the time this year. When you hear players like Megan, or Ariel Posen, or Derek Trucks weave slide into their lead lines instead of treating it as a separate technique, it’s hard not to want that vocab in your own playing.

The record was tracked live with a full band rather than pieced together, which gives the album a more human feel than Larkin Poe’s earlier, more self-produced records. You can hear it when Rebecca and Megan go back and forth, they’re trading lines throughout the album.

Gear-wise, Rebecca leans on Fender Custom Shop Strats and Teles along with a Gretsch Duo Jet, while Megan’s signature sound comes from her Beard Electro-Liege lap steel, with a vintage 1950s Rickenbacker B6 in the mix too. Both run cool drives, fuzzes and reverbs. You can check out a recent rig rundown with Premier Guitar here.

This album was a breath of fresh air on the trip. You can hear the Allman Brothers, Zeppelin, bluegrass, and country all folded into the mix. If you want to dig deeper, pick up a slide and try to learn one of Rebecca’s lead lines. Let me know how you make out.

Ever since the mid-90s I’ve collected guitar and recording magazines. Guitar Player, Mix, Tape Op, and of course Guitar World. GW is actually where I first came across Brad Tolinski. He was the editor there for 25 years, and I’d read his notes and articles every issue, always walking away having learned something.

So when I saw him show up on Substack, I was genuinely excited he was still writing about guitar. And when he started liking a few of my posts and dropping comments here and there, that was a real cool moment for me. Twenty-something years of reading his work, and now he’s giving some of my posts a look.

That’s why this week’s rec is a double one. First, check out his Substack. Second, if you want to go deeper, get into his books. He’s written some fantastic ones on Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and more, including a brand new one on the MC5. I’ve still got to dig into Play It Loud, which covers the electric guitar’s whole history. I’ll report back once I do!

I want to switch things up a bit this week and talk directly to you all instead of diving into a lesson or technique.

A while back I called this newsletter a secret club, guitarists hanging out together, talking about the stuff we all geek out on. I still believe that, but I don’t think I’ve done enough lately to actually make it feel that way. So I want to ask you directly: what would make Six String Sunday feel more like an actual community instead of just an email you read on Sundays? More discussion threads, a Discord hangout, live Q&As, something else entirely? Reply to this email or drop a comment, I read every single one and I actually want to build whatever it is you’re asking for.

On a related note, I need to be honest about something. When I launched the paid tier, I built it around a handful of perks, priority Q&A, direct email access, monthly video critiques, but I don’t think anyone’s really using them the way I intended. That being said, that makes me think you’re just supporting to help what I do - I appreciate that immensely! So instead of guessing at what would actually be valuable to paid subscribers, I’d rather just ask. If you’re a paid subscriber, or thinking about becoming one, what would actually make it worth it to you? I’d rather rebuild this around what you want than keep offering stuff that’s sitting unused.

Last thing. I know I mentioned What Actually Works a while back and then went quiet on it. I haven’t forgotten, it’s still coming. I want to get it right before I start posting, so bear with me. More soon.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with me while I figure some of this out. Let me know how you make out with any of the above.

• What Makes Slide Guitar So Intimidating (And Why It Isn’t) - Greg Koch is back off the road and has been putting out a ton of great lessons lately. This latest one dives into slide guitar, and it works whether you’re in an open tuning or sticking with standard. He’s teasing a full masterclass on making the slide way less intimidating (which is why most never start trying to play it in the first place). For now, this video’s got some good tips: what material he reaches for on his slide and why the ring finger is his preferred digit to play slide with. He also dropped a killer breakdown of a T-Bone Walker lick that’s an easy add to your blues vocabulary. Definitely worth a watch, check it out here.

• 10 Lead Guitar Ideas You’re Probably Not Using - Whether it’s single string leads, repetition, string skipping, or something else entirely, sometimes it takes a video like this one from Troy Downward to really open your eyes to what’s possible. He walks through 10 techniques you can start slotting into your own lead playing right away, each one a small tweak that’ll make your playing sound better. Check it out and see which of these techniques clicks for your own playing style.

• Every Jazz Standard You Need To Know - Tomo Fujita, the Berklee professor famous for once teaching John Mayer, recently sat down with Zak Kuhn to talk through how to actually learn jazz standards, instead of just collecting them. His advice is great for really any genre: pick a smaller handful of songs and really dig into them, transcribe the classics note for note, and build up the vocabulary and signature ideas that define the genre rather than just memorizing changes. Every time I watch one of Tomo’s videos I walk away having learned something new. Well worth your time if you’re serious about leveling up your jazz playing.

• What A Jazz Pro Sees On The Fretboard (That You Don’t) - Speaking of jazz, one of my favorite jazz guitar teachers on YouTube, Jens Larsen, just put out a helpful video on how a jazz player usually visualizes the fretboard. He breaks the lesson down into three “layers”, including learning your target tones, what notes are part of your scale, and everything else around the scale. Not only does he have some helpful fretboard diagrams in the video, but he plays a lot of great licks that explain the concept.

• Jedd Hughes - Nashville Country Guitar - Unlocking the Fretboard - From one video talking about unlocking the fretboard, to another. This time the vid is from Jedd Hughes, whose Trifecta album with Trapp and Bukovac I’ve been listening to nonstop. The concept is simple in this video - he’s basically showing a smaller version of CAGED - which will help you move ideas up and down the fretboard. In addition to seeing the notes, Jedd gives a few ideas on making these smaller ideas sound more fun with rhythmic changes and more.

• Learning Triads is POINTLESS Without This - Ross Campbell has been putting out a ton of videos lately - he has a new phrasing course that he’s shipping. This video is fantastic and kind of ties in with the Jens Larsen video above. Ross is calling it the “orbit method” where you learn the important triads, but you understand them in the context of the bigger scale. If you want more of his phrasing ideas, check out this video on making your solos more memorable. He’s been doing a five part series on phrasing on his channel that’s been very good. I also liked this one from the series - the coffee/tea trick!

Even more great links to check out:

• Learn 10 Classic Blues Licks in the BB King Box! - We’ve been talking a lot about blues this week, which is why this new video from Swift Lessons is perfect. Rob shows us 10 licks that all fall in the BB King box. These are perfect for getting under your fingers, and then changing them up a bit to make them your own.

• My Case For The Greatest Electric Guitar Player Of All Time - Lists and “greatest of all time” videos are usually just clickbait, but I couldn’t help but watch this entire video from Bill Hall. His pick is someone you already know, but it’s the reasoning that makes this one worth the full watch.