I couldn’t wait to write this post

I couldn’t wait to write Six String Sunday this week because I’m excited about how great August has been already.

I’ve been billing August as the perfect month to learn. Whether you’re just starting or have played for years, why not start learning something new now?

15 minute guitar lessons — August is a big announcement month at Chasing Sound. On Monday I announced that all throughout August I’d be offering 15 minute guitar lessons. These are perfect for guitarists of all levels.

You’d be surprised how much you can learn in such a short time. I break my practice sessions into 15–20 minute blocks. I’ll work on a mode for 15, a technique for another 15 minutes, songwriting, theory and more all broken up.

This way you don’t get stuck on one thing for too long and it makes the practicing more exciting. Head to this post to see how you can schedule your own lesson for free.

Back to Basics Series — I’ve talked to so many of you who read Six String Sunday, and one piece of feedback that’s come up time and time again was developing a “Basics” series, which is exactly what I started on Wednesday.

I already have two posts that I consider Basics for every guitar player. I’m going to continue publishing Back to Basics posts like this from time to time and tag them with a B2B tag. Eventually I’d like to create a roadmap that’ll get you from one post to the next.

These posts cover the proper way to hold a guitar and strap height, how to construct major and minor scales, how to record your first guitar part, and lots of other essentials. Check out the announcement here. Thank you guys for giving me the inspiration to start this up!

Guitar Album of the Week — The guitar Album of the Week this week is a little different, in that it’s actually a bass album. I think it’s really important to listen to other instruments for inspiration. It’s also great to be able to transcribe other instruments.

This week I’m recommending Victor Wooten’s A Show of Hands 15, which is the 15th anniversary edition of Wooten’s first album.

I had the opportunity to meet Victor at one of his clinics, and he is not only a monster player, but also a genuinely nice guy. His tone and playing is unique and this album has tons of groove.

I also wanted to recommend this album because I’m in the process of reading Victor’s The Music Lesson book, which is a great read so far. If you want to think about music and life in a fun way, check this book out.

Paul Gilbert’s “Terrifying riff — Got 2 minutes? Great! Then you have time to learn this simple but awesome pentatonic riff. The reason I’m recommending this riff is because it’s great how Paul attacks the picking.

Check it out to learn a really great sounding riff and to work on your picking. This is a great, short primer on how to think of the most economical way to play your own riffs.

Incredible Music Theory resource — Keeping in line with learning something new in August, I think you should totally check out this amazing resource for music theory.

I came across it while messing around on Reddit, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you. It’s 54 pages of really comprehensive, but easy to read music theory.

Learning theory is important and makes our lives as guitar players easier. It’s never a bad idea to learn the language behind what we’re playing. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Fun and Strange — When in not transcribing guitar, I love to try and transcribe horn players like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.

Check out this fun video of Lars Schurse covering the song Giant Steps in a country, Chet Atkins style on his Tele. While you’re there check out his country-fied versions of Satch Boogie, Eruption and more.

That’s about it for now friends! Have a great week, and have fun playing guitar.

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If you have any questions or comments, you can reply to this post, let me know on Twitter, or by posting in our Facebook group. I also have a fun Instagram channel where I post fun guitar pictures throughout the week.

Brian Sutich is a guitar player, audio engineer, podcaster, teacher, and hockey fan! He loves learning, helping people, and drinking way too much coffee.