Interview with Jody Worrell

On September 18th our own Jody Worrell sat down with George Price to record an hour long interview covering his guitar playing. Jody discusses his early teachers, bands, and inspirations as well as some general thoughts on playing guitar. The interview was recorded for The Music Scene which airs on Radio Sandy Springs. You can listen to the interview on Sandy Springs Radio website.

New Lesson: Free Blues Guitar Videos

Jody Worrell has four new free lessons for blues guitar available.

Turnaround in A will teach you a really fun turnaround lick that you can use in a blues progression.

Pedal Note Lick will cover how to add pedal notes to a minor pentatonic blues scale.

Moving a Lick Around will teach you a new blues lick and then show you two additional places on the guitar where you can play the same lick.

Note Bending will cover playing a bend and adding a fretted note to it, to give you a cool sound and a way to create your own licks.

Ask a Teacher: Lighter Gauge Strings

Bill: Can I put the lighter gauge electric guitar strings on an acoustic guitar (that is also electric) to make it easier to fret and do bends on it?

Peter: You can but there are several things you should know. I wouldn't use electric strings but lighter gauge acoustic strings. Lighter gauge will also mean less tone and less volume. Secondly, your guitar is not set up for these gauge strings and will probably have to be. This also means if you switch back to a heavier string it will have to be set up again.

Two New Free Classical Guitar Lessons

Peter Vogl has created two new free video lessons for classical or fingerstyle guitar. The Em Arpeggio lesson is for beginners and will teach you a simple arpeggio and proper right hand technique. The Pedal Tones & Thirds lesson will teach you a neat little riff as well as some music theory.

Also be sure to check out Peter's arrangement of Amazing Grace for classical guitar. Watch a preview

Never Tune Your Guitar Again

I'm not sure I'll believe it until I use one, but Gibson claims to have a self tuning guitar. Surely it can't be this easy?

"Simply activate your guitar’s Master-Control Knob (MCK), strum the strings lightly, and within seconds the Powertune’s digital brain and Powerhead tuners work together to put you perfectly in tune. Or to achieve any open or alternate tuning, rotate the MCK to the desired preset, strum, and you’re ready to play in Open E, Dropped D, Double Dropped D, DADGAD, Open G, Hendrix Tuning (half-step down), or any of your own custom tunings. In the time it takes you to say, “Hello, Cleveland—we think you’re gonna like this next one…” you’re back in tune, and ready to rock."

The article also takes some jabs at Fender's attempt at creating a self tuning guitar.

Which also leads us to the news that Gibson has retooled their site with a more entertaining approach. When you now head to Gibson.com you are given the choice of heading towards "Products" or "Lifestyle". The Products section gives you what you'd expect from a guitar manufacturer website. From the lifestyle section you'll immediately get a blog like layout, but also choices for interviews, downloads, podcasts,lessons, and more.

Guitar Pic of the Week: Lightsaber

Strat-o-Blogster brought our attention to this great photograph. Apparently the picture you see is the result of taking two pictures: one with the guitar, and one without. The outline of the guitar is traced with a "pen light" and then the guitar itself is removed from the picture. Check it out

Blog Roundup: Reading Material for the Weekend

- Hometracked.com has an excellent post that includes audio examples of 10 recording bloopers that appear in famous songs.

- Guitar MX has a how to guide on makin your own guitar picks

- Gibson has an interview with Emmylou Harris about music, her guitar, and well... her love of the Atlanta Braves.

- All About Jazz has an interview with guitarist John McLaughlin

- Interesting article on Mel Bay from the Indianapolis Star.

- Mark McGuigan posts his favorite guitar related Youtube videos of the past month. Which includes the video below entitled "Tomatito Bulerias"