A RUT BUSTING LESSON FOR 2021 - Ask Zac 61

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we're going to
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have
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what i call a rut busting lesson for you
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uh yeah hope you are
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you are all doing well today so uh
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yeah i think this comes from my own you
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know kind of experience of sitting
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around playing guitar especially over
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the last
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year and we can get overly dependent on
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uh
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outside inspiration like watching videos
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and lessons and stuff like that and
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those things are great
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but this is just kind of a tool for when
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you're sitting around
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and you're like I'm playing the same you
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know silly things over and over again
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and what can i do to kind of you know
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bust out of that in a simple way and to
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take things that you already know
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and to reuse them and you know kind of
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take them apart and put them back
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together in interesting ways and it kind
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of
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makes your playing sound more like you
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yeah
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so all right so
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let's take a lick that's kind of tired
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uh or at least you know
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you know it gets played a lot and you
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know we're really used to hearing it
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which would be you know something like
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this
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yeah in the key of b
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[Music]
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so immediately i started thinking okay
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what can i do to make that lick
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more interesting well
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i could take it down an octave so
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because also that's one thing that we
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get you know as guitar players we get so
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used to playing
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things in certain geometric shapes and
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it's like that's the way you play that
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right because it's like you do
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[Music]
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you know if you if you want to do it in
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the key of e
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so but if you take it down an octave and
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you figure out a different fingering for
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it all of a sudden it has a lot more
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usages so let's take it back in b all of
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a sudden you have
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[Music]
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now automatically that sounds more
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interesting than the other way
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it's different because your ears so used
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to hearing it you know played up
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you know in that kind of higher
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fingering so
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then if you take it to another part of
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the neck but still keeping it in that
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lower octave
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uh you know you can get some interesting
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things so I'm going to go to the neck
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pickup
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and just make things fun I'm going to
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turn the tremolo
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on whereas this says vib that's what the
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footswitch says
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so here we go b b blues
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[Music]
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okay so there that whole thing
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that i played was inspired by taking
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that
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kind of run of the mill you know kind of
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blues lick
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taking it down an octave and utilizing
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this open b
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string that you have on the guitar so
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here's the fingering
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turn the tremolo off as fun as it is
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[Music]
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and of course because you're playing a
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telecaster which you know or some type
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of fender guitar
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uh you can play all these low string
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things and the voicings come through
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when you play
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quarterly you know like if you're
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playing some other kind of guitar this
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might not come through that
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[Music]
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and that's just uh you know that's an f
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sharp you know
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seven uh in kind of a fun
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so again slow the lick is
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yeah we can do a fun little kind of uh
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you know base lick
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and then just climbing up on you know
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kind of a
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normal kind of uh you know
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[Music]
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but it sounds better if you do like some
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double stops on some of it so you can
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[Music]
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slowly
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so again all of that came from just
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taking that lick and taking it down an
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octave and then finding an interesting
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place you know to play it and then this
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other stuff comes from it and
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and to me when you play blues like that
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you
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and you play it that low it starts
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sounding like a baritone guitar and it
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just kind of
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pulls your ear a little bit just makes
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it sound a little more interesting
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you know keeping with that same lick and
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just you know kind of some other things
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you can do with that
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uh if you if you go to the key of g
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again you've got an open string
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and so then you get this kind of thing
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that's cool uh and then of course the
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thing i played
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the intro of the show was kind of uh
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what i think of as a little Richard you
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know kind of Lucille
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kind of you know rhythm you know thing
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and you have that and that
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slow is again it's that same thing that
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same
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b lick but now you're using as the five
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chord in this other thing
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again this is about take what you know
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and then use it in all sorts of
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different ways so
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here we go
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[Music]
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so again just you know finding cool ways
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to reuse you know to recycle
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licks as it were and so this will really
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keep you going
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is you know when you're practicing think
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about some lick that you play a lot
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and then figure out different ways of
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using it you know use it in
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you know instead of using it as the one
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chord or playing over the one chord use
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it over the five
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or what have you but find you know take
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it down an octave use open strings if
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you've been using open strings find a
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way to play it
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in uh you know and without open strings
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so let's see here's another thing uh
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here's a lick that uh
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i would play a lot kind of like an
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ending lick
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on on the low strings but it's like
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okay that's that's cool but
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i never thought of using that higher up
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the neck or even learning like a
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different fingering well
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then you find that you know it's right
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here
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or
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[Music]
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so all of a sudden you have this lick
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that now it's a great you know
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it's a great soloing tool and you can
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use that and then go into all sorts of
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other things
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[Music]
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or let's think about something you know
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like the uh
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the bluegrass uh lick the the Lester
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flat you know
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lick which you know of course in g
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[Music]
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but in you know let's let's take it to e
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and go
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okay well let's say we just keep playing
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that same lick up the neck well it
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starts to sound like something
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[Music]
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awesome that's that's great and then you
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could even instead of landing on the one
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again that e note
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up on the 12th fret you could you could
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land on the on the d
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and that moves you into your into your
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chord into your a so you
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so all sorts of things that are just
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right there
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under your fingers yeah so
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when you're practicing think about those
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things that you play
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over and over again you know that you've
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gotten into a rut with
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and take those things and use them as a
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tool to grow
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and move them into other keys move them
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into other areas in the neck
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you know be your own guitar teacher it's
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great to take
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lessons it's great you know to watch
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videos but there's this aspect
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of we can get to where we allow our
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minds to get weak
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and we become spoon fed I'll give a
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little example
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I've always loved uh the guitar part on
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William bell's i forgot to be your lover
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and funnily enough uh i found out that
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that guitar part was actually played by
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booker t
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jones you know the the organist for
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booker t and the mgs
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and uh i confirmed JD Simo had told me
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about that and then also i confirmed it
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with john Leventhal who produced
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William bell and and talked to William
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about it
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and that was a guitar part that I've
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loved and i played it in the uh
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esquire video and then I'll just play it
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real quick right now
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[Music]
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so that's a really cool guitar part that
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i never did take the time to learn
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on my own instead you know i just kind
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of kept
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you know dragging my feet and you know
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thinking okay at some point someone's
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going to make a video showing how to how
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to play this and they did and so i
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learned it that way so
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nothing wrong with that but you learn so
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much more when you figure things out on
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your own so
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uh yes pick the you know pick out things
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learn them yourselves play melodies
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that's a
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great thing that i did you know
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especially over the holidays i would
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take
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you know Santa clauses coming to town or
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whatever and just pick out the melody on
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the guitar
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and then figure out how to play it like
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harmonized in thirds or six or what have
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you
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so those are all great uh tools to
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to get you going and get you out of ruts
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and
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you know yes it's good to get
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inspiration from videos and
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lessons and things like that but also
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you need to
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be able to bust yourself out of ruts and
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inspire yourself when you're sitting
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there on the guitar
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all right well that's enough for the the
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lesson part of the show i wanted to end
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by uh kind of a just a note of
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our respect and honor to a
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r Dusussoir so he was a
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French author and he passed away in late
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uh 2020 and he wrote
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the bibles when it came to you know
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guitar books especially in the in the
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80s
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this is considered by most telly guys
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the the bible
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of you know of the history of the
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telecaster
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and uh and he he wrote this and this is
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what he did on the strat and he did one
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he did he wrote books on Gibson
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electrics
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such a groundbreaking and important uh
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guitar author so thank you
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uh mr duchess war
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uh we're grateful for the the work that
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you did
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and these books are out of print now uh
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and people are of course about
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asking you know crazy money for them but
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you can get it digitally
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on amazon and I'll put a affiliate
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amazon
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link in the in the description because
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this is so
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worth uh reading even if it's digitally
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of course if you can find one like at a
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used bookstore and pay a normal price
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instead of
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50 or whatever people are asking on eBay
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or amazon at this point
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i would do that all right guys
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well i hope you have a great week and
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I'll see you next time bye