The “What Actually Works” Series

This week I want to share something I’ve been thinking about for a while, that I’m excited to kick off soon. After nearly three decades of teaching guitar, I’m putting together a short-form video series called What Actually Works - one concept per video, no wasting your time, just something you can take straight into your practice routine today.

Before I start filming, I want to know what you actually want to see, so this week’s Smart Guitarist section is all about that. I need your input to make it exactly what you’re looking for. Beyond that, Jack Ruch put out his debut album and it’s totally worth a listen, Oz Noy drops one of the best pieces of fretboard advice I’ve heard in a long time, and Marty Friedman has a video out that every guitarist at every level needs to watch. Let’s jump into it!

If you’ve spent time on guitar YouTube over the past few years, it’s likely that you’ve heard of Jack Ruch. I did a quick search on this newsletter alone, and I’ve mentioned him at least 10 times, maybe more. I always come back to him being an amazingly thoughtful player in his note choice, how awesome it is to see how humble of a person he is, and my favorite part of his playing - undeniable control of dynamic range.

Jack has put out his first solo album, and in addition to his great playing throughout, he also assembled an incredible band - Dennis Chambers on drums, Gary Grainger on bass, Brandon Woody on trumpet and Adam Wakefield on keys. These guys have played with everyone from John Scofield to Steely Dan and more.

The tracks are a mixture of blues, jazz-fusion, some Latin mixed in and more. Of the 6 tracks, most of it is instrumental, aside from Ruch picking up vocals on track 4 and Wakefield doing the same on track 5. What surprised me most is how Jack plays in this context, because he has all the room in the world to shred, and he just... doesn’t. Every phrase feels carefully chosen. He plays with his signature dynamic control that I’ve always loved about him, and on a record with every musician playing at their top potential, it’d be easy to try and match that constantly - but no, Jack is a musician’s musician and plays for the song. I’ve thought the same about guys like Tom Bukovac and Guthrie Trapp (those Nashville guys always have some great ideas).

Here’s what you should do, go check out the album (make sure you pick it up on Bandcamp), and then if you’re into Jack’s playing, make sure to subscribe to him on YouTube and check out his great lesson series with Brett Papa.

I’ve watched countless Jack Ruch videos, and he spends a lot of time on the neck pickup. It’s a big part of what gives his tone that warmth and singing quality. Personally I like either neck or bridge, with the other 3 positions on a 5 way switch not always getting the same amount of love.

So here’s my question before the poll: do you have a strong preference for where you spend most of your time when you’re playing? Is it a tone thing, a feel thing, or do you just not think about it much? Let me know in the comments.

I’m going to do something a little different this week. I don’t want to hit you with two questions in one issue, so instead of a traditional Smart Guitarist tip, I want to bring you into something I’m building. I’m very excited about this, because it’s low stakes enough that I can put out a lot of videos and help you a lot in the process.

I’ve been thinking about short form video content lately (YT Shorts, IG Reels, etc.), and I have a series idea I’m calling “What Actually Works”. The concept is simple: no fluff, no bs, just targeted concepts you can take straight into your practice routine. Some of it will be me sharing things I’ve learned from nearly 3 decades of teaching. Some of it I’ll pull from guitarists I’ve studied closely, taken lessons from, or learned from through courses and YouTube.

The goal is that every single video gives you one thing you can work on today. Not a 20-minute deep dive. Not a concept you have to sit with for a month before it clicks. Just one idea or experiment you can work on today.

Before I start making these, I want to know what you actually want. I have ideas across playing and phrasing, tone and gear, recording/mixing, and even the mindset side of being a guitarist long term. Rather than guess, I’d rather ask.

What would you most want to see covered first?

• Playing and phrasing (target notes, bends, dynamics, making solos sing)

• Tone and gear (Fractal FM3, Neural Quad Cortex Mini, plugins, building sounds that work in a mix)

• Recording in your DAW (tracking, EQ, reverb, getting a finished sound)

• The mindset stuff (practice habits, motivation, playing with intention)

Reply and let me know. Let’s make this the exact thing you want to work on!

• Oz Noy’s Secret to Fretboard Mastery - Any time Oz Noy does an interview, I make it a point to watch it, and his recent appearance on the Playback channel on YouTube is your time. After some great conversation about his influences and coming up as a player, he gets into why he loves Strats and Teles, why rhythm is still essential even if your whole plan is to be a lead guitarist, and then lands on what I think is one of the most important concepts any guitarist can internalize: think in numbers, not note names. When you learn something in a specific key, you learn it once. When you learn it as a number, a scale degree, an interval relationship, you learn it everywhere. The fretboard stops being a collection of separate keys and starts being one big connected system. Oz has been playing at the highest level for so many years and this is the concept he always comes back to. Things like this are exactly what I’m talking about in this week’s Smart Guitarist section. Stick around until the end for everything Oz has coming up, new music’s on the way from all sorts of different bands, and I’m super excited to hear it.

• Matt Schofield’s Blues Language - A few weeks back I featured Many Moons Vol. 1 by the Matt Schofield Trio as my album rec, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, this might be the video you need. Matt just sat down with Justin over on the JustinGuitar YouTube channel, and it’s a great watch. They dig into “Catch My Breath” specifically, covering chord voicings, scale choices, and how Schofield blends blues with jazz and funk influences. He also gets into the influence of guys like B.B. King and Robben Ford, and how the genre has changed over the decades. If you’ve been sitting with the album, this conversation adds a whole other element to what you’re hearing. And if Vol. 2 shows up this year with horns and guests like Matt hinted at, I have a feeling we’re going to be talking about this trio for a long time!

• Stop Being a Guitar Clone (Do This Instead) Ft. Marty Friedman - One of my favorite videos of the week, and the advice means even more coming from one of my all-time favorite guitarists. Marty Friedman put out a video with TrueFire that every guitarist needs to watch. The advice is straightforward but important: don’t fixate on what feels out of reach or too far from where you are right now. Instead, polish what you’re already good at, find your own voice, and look outside the genres you normally live in to build something that’s uniquely yours. Don’t be a clone. It’s the guitar version of the Gary Vaynerchuk mindset, and I think it should be required viewing for any guitarist at any level.

• I’ve Learned EVERY Petrucci Exercise... Here are the only 5 you need! - Justin Hombach knows a thing or two about John Petrucci and Dream Theater. In his latest video he scoured every Petrucci lesson whether it be in a book, post, or instructional video, and put together the top 5 you should learn. Whether you need work on hand sync, speed, pickslanting or more, these are perfect for getting into your practice routine. Oh, and I miss the old John Petrucci Ibanez signature models!

• Let’s Talk About Eddie Van Halen’s Tapping - Speaking of shredding and sweet looking Ibanez guitars, Ben Eller recently put out a video in his FAQ You series focused on Eddie Van Halen’s tapping. Not only is hand sync super important, but muting on both hands is what separates clean playing from a bunch of noise. He covers right hand palm muting, fretting hand tip muting, and dampening higher strings to kill resonance, then gets into the good stuff including hammer-ons from nowhere and more. Even if EVH-style tapping isn’t your thing, the muting concepts here apply way beyond that style and are worth getting into your playing.

• Showing Each Other Our Licks | Episode 40 | The No Cover Charge Podcast - I’ve watched most of the 40 episodes of Jared James Nichols and Tyler Larson’s No Cover Charge podcast, and this one has to be one of my favorites. The two share lick ideas back and forth, and there are some seriously great concepts throughout. JJN kicks things off with a killer double bend idea, Tyler gets into minor thirds which somehow leads to Jared doing sweeps without a pick, and there’s a Satriani-inspired tapping lick that’s very cool. Playing guitar for so long, you think you’ve heard everything, but it’s episodes like this that inspire you with new ideas.

Even more great links you should check out:

• What a Pro Sees on the Fretboard (That You Don’t) - I’ve linked to this channel a few times, and I love their ideas of simplifying what you’re learning. Nicholas makes the case for the most important things you should learn - triads, scales, arpeggios, 7th chords and inversions. I agree that all that stuff is important, but it’s his anchor technique which he talks about in this video that makes it all stick. The anchor technique has you learning new information and pairing it up with a shape you already know, which helps make learning the new ideas stickier. Definitely don’t miss this one.

• You Don’t Need More Guitar Videos. You Need A Plan - This video from Guthrie Trapp pairs perfectly with the one above. For years, Trapp has argued that a lot of guitar education, especially on YouTube, has a way of making learning guitar feel far more complicated than it needs to be. In this lesson, he makes the case for why the CAGED system remains one of the best frameworks a guitarist can learn. Both this video and the one above will have you seeing the fretboard more clearly.

• Philip Sayce Raises The Roof At TPS! [Pedalboard, Tones & Life-Affirming Awesomeness] - I loved this video that had Philip Sayce visiting the Pedal Show. They talk about the Strat that got away and came back around, Cesar Diaz pedals, playing loud, still practicing every day, and being excited about playing guitar. This was a fun interview with a lot of mutual respect and gratefulness about being a musician, chasing tone and more.