If you listen to an entire album of music where one guitarist plays all of the leads, you’ll notice some patterns or repetition in their playing. And, if you learn multiple solos note-for-note by the same guitarist, you’ll stumble across instances where you say “oh, I already know this lick from the last solo!”? What you’re noticing are artifacts of that guitarist’s vocabulary.

Vocabulary on the guitar is directly analogous to spoken language: it is the collection of phrases and expressions you use to express yourself. While your use of these phrases and expressions is actually repetitive to some greater or lesser degree, it’s also what makes your speaking accessible to your audience. The same is true on guitar.

I’m not sure I’ve ever actually heard a guitarist that doesn’t have repetitive licks and phrases in their playing, and it’s not specific to a genre of music. The really crazy thing to me has always been that fans never describe a player’s vocabulary as “repetitive”, which would read as a negative. They seem to always describe them with words like “unique”, “distinctive”, and “inimitable”. Fans commonly say “You know it’s <favorite guitarist here> the second you hear them”. I don’t disagree, and a part of that is down to their vocabulary.

A Few Examples

If you’re confident you know what vocabulary is already, you can skip this. Otherwise, stick with me:

1. Listen to Hendrix’s solo on Fire. The very first phrase in the solo — the first 4 notes — is a classic Hendrix phrase. He bends the 7th up to the root note on the high E string, followed by the minor third. Now listen for just that little phrase in the solos for Hey Joe and Little Wing. If you really go deep in the catalog and listen to his live stuff, it’s all over there as well.

2. Listen to Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption. At about 5 seconds in he does a repetitive lick that is classic Eddie vocabulary. He’s playing (in very fast succession), an open high E string, then pulling off frets 8-5-0 on the B string, followed by picking the 8th fret of the G string. The 8th & 5th frets are the 7th and 5th scale degrees, followed by the open B string. Eddie does this a lot, although not in the same key. In Eruption, it’s in the key of A (fretted A, but he’s tuned down a half step, so it sounds as Ab), but in Somebody Get Me A Doctor you can hear him doing it in E (sounding Eb), and there’s a treat in there because he does the same pattern on the lower strings just a beat or two later.

3. Hester Chambers, of Wet Leg, has very subtle techniques that serve as her vocabulary. My favorite one is her tiny 1/4-note bends. Hester is often playing a single-note pattern accompanying the vocal and over a contrasting, often way heavier rhythm track. To add color & texture, make the pattern less monotonous, and provide a bit more ‘feel’ or ‘vibe’, Hester will inconsistently, when she feels like it, bend one of the main landing notes in the pattern, just a touch. To get a feel for the technique where she’s really not subtle about it, listen to Mangetout

The King Of Vocabulary

In the area of vocabulary, T-Bone Walker deserves special treatment. A great many bits of vocabulary that are heard on later recordings decades later were pioneered by T-Bone Walker. In fact, he had so many techniques and licks in his bag of tricks that later guitarists like Chuck Berry, BB King, Albert King, Ronnie Earl, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page all name him as an influence. Walker just had a ton of vocabulary, and he played quite a lot. I mean just on one track he played a lot! Listen to Mean Old World - a 4-minute song that starts with a guitar solo that’s 2:20 long! It’s not unusual to find songs with 45-60 second solos to start the song. T-Bone Blues and Two Bones and a Pick come to mind. In addition, he often inserts (sometimes intricate and genuinely interesting) fills between phrases in the verses. The consummate showman, I’m sure Walker probably focused heavily on making sure the crowd wouldn’t get bored when he played a lot, by creating new vocabulary to keep it interesting.

5 Ways To Build Vocabulary

Now that you have an idea, and a bunch of things to listen to to get an understanding of what vocabulary is, let’s talk about how to build vocabulary of your own.

1. Learn To Play and/or Transcribe Note-For-Note Solos

To transcribe or learn to play a solo by ear, you’re going to have to listen to that piece quite a large number of times to get it down. And, if you’re not already an expert in music theory, which would make your intuition better and your guesses more likely to be right, you’re going to plunk at notes on your guitar along with the recording to figure out “is that a major third or a minor third” or “is he playing the 10th fret or the 11th fret”.

Going through this process is really rewarding. It develops your ear, which pays huge dividends, and it also helps you build vocabulary.

As a bonus: I used to “study” certain guitarists. I wouldn’t just learn one solo or song — I’d learn three or four. For artists I really liked a lot, I’d try really hard to learn an entire album! Doing this has the added bonus that if someone ever says “hey can you lay down a solo here that sounds kinda like Jerry Cantrell?”, or “hey I’m starting an AC/DC cover band, do you know how to play like Angus Young?”, you’re ready. One time a guy at a blues jam came up and played what was really a country song. He ripped out a pretty mean solo, too. Luckily, about 30 years ago I learned almost the entire Brooks & Dunn Greatest Hits album, learned who Brent Mason was, then learned some of the stuff he did for Alan Jackson as well. It had been decades, but I think I held my own! You never know where this stuff might pop up, and besides, it’s great fun!

2. Play Out

Go to open mics and jam sessions. Join a garage band. Join a wedding band. Join any band. Getting out and around other players is an amazing way to build vocabulary! Watch other players. Ask them “what did you do there?”. Ask them who their biggest influences are and go listen to them. Going to jams is a great way to do this. Being in bands that play with other bands at festivals or just on the same bill is a good way to meet other players who have totally different influences and pick up new things.

Once I was out at another guitarist’s gig. I’d heard about this guy for months, but we were both always playing on the same nights at different places, so this was the first time I was seeing him. He played a lick and I immediately thought “oh man I hope I remember that when I get home so I can steal it!” About two months later he was at my gig, and I basically walked right up to him and played his lick. After the gig he said to me “hey, that lick you played - I play a lick almost exactly like it! Can I show you?” My heart sunk… “Oh damn… that wasn’t your lick?” I didn’t remember it quite right by the time I got home, but it was still a killer lick! I’ve done that a million times over the years. I don’t even care if I remember it right anymore if I’m happy with the lick I wind up learning.

Get out there! There are licks to steal!

3. Learn Licks Played On Other Instruments

Learn saxophone or trumpet lines. Learn piano solos. Learn pedal steel licks. Different instruments are kind of optimized for, or make it easier, to place notes and assemble phrases in different ways. So, while there’s often overlap in vocabulary between different instruments, there’s also lots of stuff that you’ll typically hear almost exclusively on trumpet, or saxophone, or clarinet, or flute, or piano.

The first time I did this I was about 14-15 and I tried to learn the horn lines from Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. It was not easy for me. But, it was really rewarding, it expanded my understanding of the fretboard, and it gave me more confidence going forward that I didn’t need to only think about grabbing licks from guitarists.

4. Sing Over Backing Tracks

Next time you play a backing track, don’t touch your guitar until you sing the line you want to hear. Our voices are the closest “instrument” to our brain. If you hear something in your head, chances are the fastest way to communicate what you’re hearing isn’t to figure it out on the piano or guitar, it’s to sing it.

So, sing what you want to hear over the backing track. Then turn off the backing track and try to sound out how to play what you just sang. Then try to play the new lick over the backing track. Take your time & be patient with yourself. If you have trouble remembering what you just sang, pull out your phone and record yourself singing over the backing track, then you can learn what you sang note-for-note, by ear.

I don’t know about other genres, but I’ve heard a lot of jazz guitarists do this. I know for sure if you watch video of Barney Kessel playing, he sings the whole time he’s playing in every video I’ve seen him in.

5. Pick Up A New Scale, Chord, or Mode

A while back, I finally hired a teacher. I was self taught for 40 years and just felt like I was in a rut, and wanted to use more of the crayons in the box, so to speak. That was going to involve learning some theory. At one point, I was learning the Dorian mode. I went through the motions of practicing it, but I’d always get distracted by melodies and ideas I was hearing in my head that I could make using the notes in the Dorian mode, so I’d start noodling around, and I came up with a lick I use at my weekly blues jam every now and then that comes straight out of Dorian mode.

I did the same thing when I learned dominant 7th arpeggios. For whatever reason, when I got to the D-shape arpeggio, something clicked in my head. Instead of just playing the notes in the arpeggio, I started sliding up to each note in the arpeggio, for no good reason. That led to me discovering a really cool lick that I’m pretty shocked I haven’t heard other folks play before.

Do boring things. We need boredom. It promotes creativity. Get bored playing a scale, let your mind wander while you practice. Eventually it might land on something cool, triggered by your practicing, and being super bored.

Why You Should Care About Vocabulary

You should care about vocabulary on the guitar for the same reason you build vocabulary in your native spoken language: it makes expressing yourself easier for you, and it makes you easier to understand and more accessible to listeners.

This is not to say that your solos should just be a disjointed collection of random vocabulary. You still have to learn the fretboard and the fundamentals, so that you’re able to create smooth transitional lines between vocabulary, and you’re able to find things you hear in your head that you want to express in the moment.

If you’ve found a way I haven’t mentioned to build vocabulary, let me know! The great thing about guitar is that you can never know everything, so it never gets boring!

Here are just a few things I’ve learned from playing all of these various gigs:

1. Your Image Is Not Defined By Your Current Gig

When I was playing in a country band, I jammed on my off days with my brother, whose favorite band at the time was Sister Hazel. He liked Dave Matthews, too. So I learned that stuff. Also, he had a friend who wanted to be a jazz singer, and she had a few songs she seemed to sing really well, and wondered if I’d learn them & then play them with her out at open mics or small bars or clubs, so I learned some Ella Fitzgerald tunes. A friend of mine at the time was a guitarist who mostly played either heavy metal or southern rock, and we jammed together sometimes too.

Point being: none of these people thought “well I can’t jam with him, he’s a country guitarist”.

Conversely, when I was recruited for the country gig, it was after a country singer heard me play “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix. He never heard me play country, but he didn’t think “I can’t jam with that guy, he’s not a country guitarist”.

If you think a gig is in any way remotely, possibly interesting. You shouldn’t avoid it because of “your image”. Do what you want. As someone famous once said: “those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind”.

2. On Guitar, It’s All Transferable

When I was hustling pool to pay rent, my mentor introduced me to at least a half dozen games you could play on a pool table that I had never heard of. They were dramatically different from each other. Each game requires you to put a laser focus on some aspect of your playing, and highlights weaknesses in your playing that other games might hide. As a result, every different game you learn to play on a pool table makes every other game you play on a pool table stronger.

The same is true of music. I really didn’t use my pinky until I tried to learn classical, but after I did that, everything else I played got way stronger and more confident. I no longer shied away from the Steve Vai or Joe Satriani transcriptions in the guitar magazines, and Van Halen’s solos were still hard, but a lot more approachable.

Before I played country, I mostly stuck to minor pentatonic haunts: Hendrix, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica. Clapton (Cream, really) borrowed from the major pentatonic, but it wasn’t anything like the straight-up major-pentatonic-only stuff I saw in country-land. Make no mistake, though: forcing myself to learn country took my blues playing (my first love) several levels up from where I was beforehand. And, I’m pretty confident that if I didn’t take a gig I didn’t want, I would’ve never learned country at all.

3. People Are People

Maybe the most heartwarming thing I learned from playing all of these gigs I didn’t want is that, no matter if you’re playing in a thrash metal band, a country band, a cover band, or whatever, musicians are still musicians. We all like to geek out about gear, we all like to trade war stories from the road, we all like to talk about what we’re working on, etc. It’s not that musicians are part of some monoculture, but there are commonalities. That makes new experiences a lot less jarring or intimidating, because you quickly realize you’re surrounded by musicians, and everything is going to be ok. Musicians can bond with each other very quickly.

My secret is that I’m an introvert. Lots of musicians are. When I’m on stage, I can see almost everyone. I see people talking at the bar, dancing on the dance floor, couples playing pool, and I think “phew, glad I’m up here where I don’t have to talk to anyone!” But through music I’ve become friends with people I’m sure I would’ve never had it in me to introduce myself to, and I’m so happy I met them all. And lots of those people I met through gigs I had zero interest in!

4. One Thing Leads To Another

I’m a regular at a local blues jam. One time I noticed that we weren’t getting any bassists at the jam for quite a while. I decided “maybe I’ll just hop up and play a set to give the house bassist a break”. This almost immediately became a weekly thing: I’d play my normal set on guitar, and then I’d do a set on bass as well. After two weeks of this I get a message from someone asking if I could cover them on a bass gig they couldn’t make. “Well, I would, but I don’t own a bass amp!” I went ahead and bought one after that, and have played probably a couple dozen or so paid bass gigs since. The bass rig has paid for itself a few times over now.

One thing leads to another. Did I want a gig as a bassist? Not particularly. I was doing it because the house bassist is a good guy, I like playing with the other guys in the house band, it’s a great group of regulars, that night is already clear on my calendar every week anyway, and I get paid on top of it. One thing leads to another.

5. Every Gig Is A Surprise

Ever have someone ask you to join one of the best bands in town, only to realize that the face of the band is also an unreliable drug addicted egomaniac? Ever feel like you’re in the best band in town and yet it’s completely impossible to book a single gig? Have you ever felt like things were going along quite well until the singer & guitarist got into a fist fight between sets, rolled around in a dirty, unpaved parking lot, and… whatever, you get the point. The gig you think is fantastic is often far from it.

Likewise, the gig you think is just “not your thing” or “totally mid” or a “waste of time” very often bears more fruit than you ever expected. The drummer becomes a good friend. The bassist pulls you into other, possibly better, gigs. A venue owner you would’ve never met connects you with a band you’re a perfect fit for.

The perfect gig never looks like the perfect gig before you get into it, and bad gigs often don’t look bad, and sometimes look like amazing opportunities, until you get into it. So don’t be too quick to act on your first impression of how much you might like or dislike the gig up front.

6. When To Pass

There are, of course, gigs you should not take. You should be clear in your own mind about what your “intolerables” are when it comes to gigs and the people you’ll be gigging with. For example, a couple of my own intolerables are:

• Not getting paid, or not getting paid what was promised

• Habitual Inebriation on stage

• Criminal activity (dealing drugs is the most common in my experience)

Intolerables, mean “if I see this happening with my own eyes, I’m out through the nearest exit”. Sometimes things pop up that you could never expect, and you have to make the call on the spot that something is intolerable. Where I’ve most often seen this is with band leaders (it is somehow always the band leader) treating people in and/or out of the band poorly. It’s inexcusable, and I’ve learned that, in most cases, the people who are the best musicians and the ones who go furthest are also the ones who treat people well. They might be bristly, impatient, demanding, and more, but they’re not bullies, and they’re not abusive.

So, I’m not advocating that you put yourself in a position where you’re uncomfortable because you think it could be actually unsafe, or you feel like you could be taken advantage of or abused. But “uncomfortable” musically? I think being musically uncomfortable is where all your growth potential as a musician lives.

Just Do It

Doing something is better than doing nothing. Doing something with others is better than doing it by yourself. Doing something with others in front of an audience is better than doing it in a garage with no spectators. It’s pretty amazing how many parallels there are between growing as a musician, and just generally growing as a human being.

If you disagree that you should take gigs you don’t want, or you think there’s some really obvious exception or special case I missed, feel free to point it out. I want to hear all sides of this. But for me, I have played far more gigs I didn’t want than those I really wanted, and I continue to do so to this day, and I highly recommend others do the same!

The first jam I ever played at was run by a local music store owner & guitar teacher. He was also a great guy. I was not a student, but I frequented his shop. The jam was held at a burger joint & bar, and it was open to all ages and skill levels.

The first time I went, I was really nervous. But when I came off the stage that first time, I got lots of applause, pats on the back, and compliments. I’m sure some folks were not entertained by my playing, but I honestly couldn’t see them. They were drowned out by the positive vibes.

I was an “ok” player and a “not great” singer. I knew that at the time. These people were not all being appreciative of my ability. They were being encouraging and supportive, and admiring the guts it takes to get up and put myself out there.

Since then, I’ve played in countless jams, in dozens of venues, across at least a half dozen states, in the northeast, southwest, deep south, and midwest United States. I’m a regular at several jams in my local area today. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that just about every single jam is made up of regular players, other new players, and a community of spectators that is very welcoming and supportive.

Do Your Part To Help It Go Well

The most important thing to remember is what I wrote above: almost all jams are a safe place to be a beginner. If you feel unwelcome, go to another jam. If you go to two different jams in the same city that are both awful experiences, please write to me and let me know! I don’t know what I’d be able to do about it, but who knows - maybe I can be of some help, and if I can, I definitely will!

Let’s talk about some stuff you can do to help things go smoothly at the jam.

1. Get There Early The First Time

For your first jam, it’ll be easier if you get there before it starts and ask the organizer or band leader if there’s a signup. Most jams use a signup sheet so they can get an idea of how many musicians they need to fit in, and make sure they don’t miss anyone. They might also let you know if there are any rules or norms. For example, some jams are a strict “3 songs and out” format, meaning you go up, plug in, play three songs, and unplug & get off stage. Having that expectation set up front keeps things moving smoothly.

2. Be In Tune

If you’re able to get your guitar out at some point after you get to the jam, tune up. Even if you tuned up before you left the house, I frequently find that a tuning key has turned in the soft gig bag I use to transport my guitar. If you have to, tune as soon as you get on stage. It can be quite distracting and confusing if someone is badly out of tune, because it can sometimes be hard to tell where the problem is. The distraction is enough to throw newer players off and possibly make things kinda fall apart.

3. Know What a Key Is

It’s a big help if, when someone says a song is “In G”, you know what that means.

Now, understanding the ramifications of a song being in a specific key is actually a little more complicated than I have space for here, but in about 99 songs out of 100, if the song is “In G”, your first chord is going to be a G chord. If you’re playing at a blues jam, this is true 9999 times out of 10,000.

4. Use Standard Tuning

I have been to jams where a first-timer takes the stage to do a Jimi Hendrix song, and they’re tuned to Eb, because Hendrix tuned to Eb. As much as I am a Hendrix fan, and I tuned to Eb when I was learning his stuff, don’t ever go to a jam tuned to anything but standard E tuning, because that’s what everyone else is going to be tuned to. More experienced guitarists & bass players will adjust on the fly in most cases, in an attempt to be as supportive as possible. But it’ll be uncomfortable for all involved, and it won’t sound the way you want (because the Eb can’t be played open). At the very least, if you absolutely must use a non-standard tuning, clear it with the jam organizer when you walk in the door, not when you get on the stage. They’ll either ask you to tune to E standard, or they’ll make sure the backing musicians are prepared.

5. Watch The Band Leader

At a jam, the band leader is whoever calls the song, and it can change from song to song. The band leader is almost always the singer. You have to watch them because they’re going to use hand gestures, nods, and other body language to communicate a bunch of potential things to the rest of the band (like mid-song stops, the song ending, when it’s your turn to solo, or even what chord to play). If you’re staring at your fretboard, be prepared to feel suddenly off-track every now and then as you’ll miss these cues.

By the way, the band leader is usually the singer, but it doesn’t have to be! If you’re a singer but have never sung at a jam or with a whole band, you can ask the organizer of the jam, or someone who is obviously an experienced player, if they can cue the solos & ending for the other folks on stage. If they know the song you’re playing, they’ll typically be happy to help! At that point, you’re just a singer, not the band leader, so don’t forget to watch the band leader!

6. You’re Allowed To Stop Playing

If you get lost, or you think you’re out of tune, or you played the wrong chord by accident, or whatever, you can stop playing to get your bearings. Nobody cares. It’s a jam, and everyone on stage and in the audience knows that. Nobody expects anyone to be a professional at a jam, even if other folks there are professionals.

That said, know that, when you stop playing, nobody else on stage will stop playing. It is exceedingly rare that a song will completely stop, even at a jam. Instead, if half the band stops playing, the more experienced folks are going to bend over backwards to try to salvage a song for the benefit of the audience, and also to give those who stopped the opportunity to jump back into the groove.

7. If Someone Says To Turn Your Volume Up Or Down - Do It

It is not at all uncommon that a newer player or someone who hasn’t played out in clubs much, or maybe just hasn’t played in that room before, is told to turn up or down (usually down, to be honest). How you respond is going to speak volumes about you to every person in the place.

The only really acceptable response is to try to maintain eye contact with who told you that while you turn down a bit and then keep playing so they can hear the adjustment. They’ll either give you a nod of approval, or give you a ‘down’ wave to request you turn down more. That’s it. No faces, no backtalk, no eye rolls, just do it. Ask questions later.

8. Be Respectful

Don’t show up at a bluegrass jam and ask if you can play a Bob Dylan tune. Don’t show up at a blues jam and ask to play “Play That Funky Music”. Don’t go to a jam that does a lot of folk standards and ask everyone to join you in the most obscure and complicated folk song you can think of. Everyone wants everyone else at a jam to come off happy with what just happened. You need to have that as a goal as well. If you’re too busy showboating to notice that everyone else is thoroughly annoyed, struggling to keep up, etc., it is likely the case that you are the problem.

Respect the format, cadence, genre, and the other general themes and “shape” of the jam. Most importantly, if you fall down in some aspect of this, acknowledge it and apologize, and make sure it doesn’t happen again! Everyone will be patient with mistakes, but repeated mistakes are seen as disrespecting the event and other musicians after a while.

9. Stick Around

If it’s at all possible, don’t leave after you play. Stay until the jam ends if you can. When I was really young, I went to a jam that lasted until 11PM, and I had to be home by 10. It is what it is. But as soon as I was not under a curfew, I have always stayed for the duration. This is not so much an etiquette thing, it’s just a good way to meet other musicians, get more feedback on your playing, figure out how the jam works, watch other more experienced players navigate the same jam, etc. It’s a good way to get a lot of learning by osmosis. Also, at some jams, a lot of great conversations break out while the house band breaks down, waits to get paid, or just hangs around at the bar afterward. It’s kind of a special time. For some reason I can’t explain, bonds are formed here. If nothing else, you’re more likely to be recognized when you show up at the next jam.

This has quite a lot of folks up in arms, calling for a boycott of Fender products. It has also raised awareness among buyers that the American-as-apple-pie brand is actually owned by a huge conglomerate whose main business seems to be in the automotive space. The whole affair reads to consumers as “faceless corporate overlord divorced from the guitar community now looking to squeeze any and all profit from formerly beloved brand”, and this narrative being repeated over and over in community forums has only intensified the calls for the boycott.

Personally, I own several Fender-branded guitars. I might’ve bought more. However, the current situation has made me think for more than 10 seconds about it, and that’s all it has taken to realize that, if Fender didn’t exist, there are lots of guitars that are not Fenders that are both Fender-like, and as good, or better quality than the Fenders I’ve played and owned. I thought I’d share six brands with you that have models and quality at least as good as Fender:

1. Ibanez

Ibanez makes a very wide variety of guitars for all genres, and they’re all very well built, whether you’re looking at a less expensive AS93 for blues or jazz, a FLATV2 for playing country or blues rock, a Steve Vai signature model for playing modern instrumental insanity, or something in between, it’s hard to match the breadth of Ibanez’s offering while also matching their consistent quality.

2. Eastman

I have only gotten to play a few of the Eastman models, but I’ve always come away being extremely impressed, and this also seems to be the consensus among my guitarist friends. I will almost certainly own an Eastman at some point, and am disappointed I don’t own one already. Admittedly, the models I’ve played are easier to compare to Gibson models than to Fenders per se, but to my mind, Eastman has put both Gibson and Gibson-inspired Heritage Guitars on notice by selling extremely high quality, fantastic-looking guitars, that sound and play great, at a price that Gibson wouldn’t give to their own family.

A more one-to-one replacement for Fender (or Gretsch, in my opinion) models can be found in their Fullertone line, which has some really unique and creative design and construction decisions. I really admire what they’re doing at Eastman, and they’re definitely worth more than a passing glance!

3. Godin

A Canadian guitar maker that is doing really interesting things, and given the quality of the builds, it’s hard to understand how any other maker could compete on a pure value basis. The bang-for-the-buck here, for the couple of models I’ve played, is off the charts. Where I live, they’re very difficult to find (though for some reason their Acoustics under the Seagull brand are quite easy to find), but I play them whenever I see them, and am consistently surprised at how well a $500 electric guitar can play and feel.

4. Yamaha

Don’t sleep on Yamaha. I’m so glad Yamaha guitars seem to be poised for a moment in the sun. Way back when I was in my teens, a buddy had a Yamaha guitar, and I was young enough that I had no idea Yamaha even made guitars. I absolutely loved it. I never felt a neck quite the same as that Yamaha neck, and when I did, it was another Yamaha (at school, where it was owned by the music department). My biggest issue with Yamaha guitars is that, like Godin, they just seem to be really rare where I live. I rarely see one at all, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a brand new one on the rack.

5. Guild

Ironically, Guild used to be owned by Fender, and is now owned by contender Yamaha. Guild has a somewhat long and sordid history and has been through more owners than most. Since being bought as part of Yamaha’s purchase of Cordoba, Guild’s offerings and brand seem to be on the upswing.

The models I’ve played in the last 5 years have all been under $1000, and have all been very nice. Better than the average Squier, but not at the fit & finish quality of a PRS SE model. While I have not gotten to play one of their Newark St. models, I’ve heard they’re quite good, and there is no Fender equivalent.

6. Paul Reed Smith (PRS)

Speaking of PRS, it’s not possible to walk into a PRS dealer and not appreciate their quality, broad range of models, and the amazing aesthetics of most of their instruments. I’ve played dozens of them over the years through friends, fellow jammers, and in music stores. Lots of my guitarist buddies love them. In fact, it’s one of only a few brands where I know people who play PRS exclusively, and only have PRS guitars in their collection. It is possible to get guitars similar to PRS at a cheaper price, but it’s very hard to beat the “out of the box” experience of a PRS. I recently played a buddy’s brand new SE Silver Sky and was really impressed, and I asked “who set it up?” and he said he had not so much as changed the strings on that guitar - it came that way out of the box. I was floored.

In Conclusion

So there you are - six brands, all of which anyone should be proud to own, and all of which produce models that are equal to or even better than similar Fender models in terms of fit & finish, aesthetics, and pricing. I encourage you to check them out if you’re looking for an alternative to Fender, either for reasons of principle, or because having a high quality instrument in your hands means more than having a specific name on your headstock!

First, I am a real guy, and I’m writing this by typing with my own, personal fingers. Up to this point, nothing in this newsletter has been generated by AI. Second, it’s probably worth noting that I’ve worked in tech as my main source of income for since the 90’s, and I currently use AI quite heavily for work, and I’m quite happy to do so.

With those bits out of the way, I do not have any plans to turn this newsletter over to some kind of bot and become completely uninvolved in this newsletter. I have the knowledge and understanding of the technology to do this, but I won’t, because what I’m writing about here is genuinely a passion of mine, and I really enjoy sharing my enthusiasm and excitement toward playing guitar, and everything that goes with that.

I haven’t, but might someday use AI to help with:

• Editing. AI seems genuinely good at editing in a way that existing automated grammar checkers are not good at. I have actually worked as an editor of a newspaper and two magazines as past side hustles, but editing one’s own work is harder and requires more discipline, and AI can be genuinely useful there.

• Ideation. It is way, way easier to keep up a daily or even weekly newsletter when you have a very strong backlog of ideas. Being that I have a day job, I can’t literally sit around ideating about guitar-related topics all day. AI is great at ideation in all contexts I’ve thrown at it, so I might try throwing a prompt at an AI like “Think of 50 topics related to playing guitar in some way that I could write about in a newsletter”. Then, from those 50 topics, I might choose 10 that hit me like “Oh, yeah, I could totally write about that!”

• Research. I did not use AI to write the article about strings. I did a lot of Googling, sifting random (or not-so-random) sites, validating, verifying, cross-checking, etc. I referenced probably 10% of the actual content I looked at. The other 90% of the content I looked at was either stuff I couldn’t verify, stuff that didn’t matter, stuff that didn’t have enough detail to be useful, etc. I have used AI for research at work, and I know it would’ve made that article take 1/10th the time I spent on it. I could easily prompt AI to go do the research and cite its sources, and quote the relevant bits for me, and then the ones that look like they have particularly interesting or relevant quotes, I can follow the link to the site and validate that the quote actually exists on that site, and that it makes sense in context.

So, with writing, it’s not the actual act of writing that takes all of the time. It’s all of the tasks and little bits of work that happen around that process that take most of the time. A lot of that time is ideation, research, and editing. I’ll do the writing myself.

I know some writers flip that script: they just edit what is written by the AI. I’m not a fan, because the writers voice is completely replaced with some generic obviously-AI voice. Even when you tell an AI “write using x tone, as someone passionate about y”, etc., I can always tell it’s AI. For factual information content where the focus is being accurate, I’m not sure I care as long as it’s fact-checked. But for passion projects like this, I think the author’s voice is really important, and so I’ll do the writing myself.

AI-Generated Music

Practically speaking, I have heard AI-generated music that is kind of impressive in a “I can’t believe AI can do this” kind of way. But, I’ve never been impressed in a “this song is going to be in regular rotation on my playlist” kind of way. I’ve never downloaded an AI-generated song to my collection. My interest in it, or maybe tolerance for it, is purely academic. It’s a curiosity.

Conceptually speaking, I’m not really in favor of AI generating music in a context that takes jobs away from actual living, breathing artists. So, I’m not going to go to a movie with an AI-generated soundtrack, for example. I’m also not going to watch a concert where a singer is on stage singing over an AI-generated backing ‘band’. Not because I don’t think AI either is, or will be, generating good-enough sounding music, but rather on the principle that artists have a hard enough time making a living and we shouldn’t be making it harder.

And that’s basically that. I don’t have a big long diatribe about the quality of the current generation of AI-generated music, because it’s not super relevant: it’s going to get 10x better over the coming 12 months anyway. It can create pretty good lyrics from what I’ve seen, but again, I think I’d be more likely to use it as a means of ideation (“show me 50 titles in genre x that touch on topic y”), and then write the songs myself. If you were someone who wanted to practice cowriting with a lyricist, maybe that’s good practice. If you are a songwriter but need a better quality demo produced, maybe you could architect the song & have AI produce the demo.

“Wait, isn’t that taking jobs from people?” Not in my case. I’m a songwriter. I currently don’t demo my work because I wouldn’t be able to justify the cost of producing one, so I’m not someone who was ever a candidate to give anyone work, and I never have given anyone work in that context. But I see the point. If I can do create my demo with AI, lots of people who can justify the cost can also do it. It’s a quandary. So far, I have not considered using AI for this, btw. I’ve just collected all of the instruments & equipment needed to do a demo & I expect to do that myself if I ever get around to it.

No matter how well-made a guitar is, no matter who built it, no matter how long it has had to “season”, no matter how much that guitar cost, it will never be “perfectly in tune”. Depending on the method you use to tune the guitar, it might sound perfect for some chords, and obviously out of tune for another. Or two strings that are obviously in tune with each other sound out of tune with each other when you play a certain chord.

This is true even if you’ve just had a proper setup, your strings are properly stretched, and the guitar is in perfect working order. The problem you’re running into is that you have to “remember, it’s just wood”.

When you tune a guitar to standard pitch, using the old Mel Bay method where you put your finger on the 5th fret of the low E and compare it to the open A, and so on, you do so by pressing down a fret, and comparing it to an open string that has no frets pressed down, and then you continue that pattern down the strings to get them all “in tune”. If that’s how you tune, then you’ve no doubt noticed that playing a full, open G chord right after is often clearly not in tune.

When I was a kid, I would tune using the Mel Bay method, play a G chord, and immediately start making up stuff to get the guitar in tune, like playing the open G string with the 3rd fret on the high E. Or focusing on the open D and open G strings together. I’d do this for a couple of minutes, and eventually I felt like the guitar was “in tune”. Then I’d play a song that had a C chord in it and feel like I was back to square 1 and had to tune again!

At different times, I thought I was crazy, I thought “this guitar sucks, I need a more expensive one”, I thought “I just had a setup, I’ll never go back to that guy again!”, and more. This was at a point in my life where I just didn’t realize how important it was to “remember, it’s just wood”.

As I got out & played with more experienced players, I always watched them closely to see what I could learn from them. Surprisingly, what I learned was that they seemed to tune constantly between songs. They had better guitars than I did, and I had just listened to their last song and they were sounded perfectly in tune to me. I later learned that they were tuning between songs because the next song has a lot of open G, and the last song had a lot of open E, and on their guitar if one of those sounds perfect the other doesn’t - you had to tune just slightly differently.

Today, I happened across a video of none other than Vince Gill showing how he tunes a guitar by ear. He goes through & tunes a couple of different acoustic guitars, while casually discussing the process with “Uncle Larry”, who is also someone worth learning from. Like his music or not, it would be very, very hard to conceive of someone more qualified than Vince Gill to learn about this from. In the video, Vince says, explicitly: “I’ve always though it was a pretty imperfect science”.

One person you might conceive of as being as good to talk to about this, though, is James Taylor. He made a video specifically to teach you how he tunes his guitars, and it is far more analytical and scientific, and I can’t imagine doing this in any kind of live setting, but the video is over here, and it’s 100% worth watching (in fact, both Uncle Larry and Vince Gill mention having seen the James Taylor video though, like me, neither has ever tried his method). Watching both videos completely will likely fill in some gaps.

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“What strings do you use?” or, similarly “What are the best strings for playing <whatever>?”

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• Which strings, guitar, pick, <other product here> is best for playing rock, blues, metal, <other genre here>?

• Which scales do I need to learn …

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This newsletter is meant to inspire players to dive deeper, keep going, and broaden their horizons into new techniques, new genres, new repair & mod projects, and more. It will include personal stories, bios, history, interviews, technical workouts, song and solo analysis, and all things from the universe …

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