An Ask Zac B-Bender Lesson - AZ 83

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we are going to
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do
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a bee bender lesson so I've had a lot of
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requests for this and of course after
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the episode where i had a
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bee bender installed on this guitar i
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thought it would be
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fun to do a little a little bee bender
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lesson and uh
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yeah just some chords shapes and such
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that i use and
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that i find are really helpful for doing
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uh for playing b bender stuff
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so just a quick pause for the cause
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all right so you've got your first b
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bender and you're kind of learning how
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to use it
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well there's a lot of uh there's a lot
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of tips and tricks
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first thing is you need to make sure
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that your uh your guitar is in tune and
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intonated and that you have the tension
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set
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to where when you're playing normally it
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doesn't just activate on its own
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also you need to make sure that it's in
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tune when you when you activate it
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so you know you can just use a tuner and
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make sure that when you
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play open it's going from b to c sharp
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those are uh you know important tips
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because tuning is is really
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everything so here are uh
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my favorite uh chord shapes and I'm just
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going to stick in the key of
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a and I'm just going to be throwing
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these out there so this is
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a chord shape number one and this is the
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most basic one
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it's basically an a you know add 9
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of this
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and then you just use the bender with it
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and then it's just however you decide to
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you know use your picking fingers or
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strum it or what have you
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[Music]
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and then you can add other other things
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to it
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so I'll take the other part off and I'll
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just do it open so you can hear what it
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sounds like when you add a sixth
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or seventh note to it
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so there's your sixth here's your
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seventh
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[Music]
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then you have a a7 kind of chord shape
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where you just use one finger
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on the d string on the second fret and
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you get this
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[Music]
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then you can while you have it bent up
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you can bring down your first finger
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on the first fret on the b string and
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you can get a suspension
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[Music]
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you can also hit this uh
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you can hit the the tonic you know or
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the a
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note you know on the high e string right
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here and you can
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be on the third fret on the
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on the b string that's it this thing
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and then you can yeah you can resolve it
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by removing the finger
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here's another handy you know kind of
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chordal shape
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and I'm just barring across with my
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first finger and you know hitting
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you know the the d and g string and then
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I've got
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my third finger covering the b and e
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strings and you get this
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that's uh another you know favorite
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because it's got that dominant seven
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and you know all sorts of good things
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going on
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uh then here's an a9 and this is not
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your typical a9 like you think if you're
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playing like funk
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chords right here it's it's right here
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and
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uh you know your your second finger is
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on the fifth fret on the d
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string your first finger is on the
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fourth fret on the g string
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and then your third finger is barring
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the b
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and g and you get this
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[Music]
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and that i learned from albert lee uh
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off the the Ricky Skaggs tune um
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honey won't you open that door Mel
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Tillis wrote that
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and it has this great move where he
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plays that
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over the ii chord because in the key of
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c
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[Music]
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that kind of thing and then in the solo
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it goes to the two chord which is a d
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and then it goes to the five which is a
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and so you have this
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[Music]
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so again here's that shape but you're
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playing it at the 10th fret
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[Music]
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that's a really useful one it's also
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really useful for
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if you're playing the the chuck brace on
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Memphis you know of course you have the
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[Music]
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normally you do
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and
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what you can do instead is again using
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that ninth chord shape
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and then of course do illegally wrap
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your finger your thumb over the top and
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you get this
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so that's another uh fun one um
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then you kind of come up to uh another
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you know
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big uh b bender uh chordal shape and
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that's
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this um a7 right here inverted
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and of course when you activate the
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bender you're pulling
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this dominant seven up to the tonic up
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to the a note you're going
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you know from the g to the a and so you
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get this
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and albert lee and Ricky Skaggs have
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used this a bunch
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[Music]
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there i added the suspension
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another uh very popular thing
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so then let's take that let's keep
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playing in a
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except instead of playing this a
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dominant 7 let's just play a regular
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old a chord in this inversion
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[Music]
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and let's add when we
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activate the bender we're going to bring
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this pinky onto the
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10th fret and so you get this
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what you're doing is you're getting a
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cadence where you're going quickly from
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the five
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chord back to the one so you're giving
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kind of a you know
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[Music]
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and that is a very nice steel guitar
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type effect because you're kind of going
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quickly between
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an e7 and an a so you get
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and then you can follow it up by playing
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this
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suspension which gives you a quick
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cadence between
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a d the iv chord and the a
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and then you follow it up with your kind
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of first position
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a add 9 however
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so here's the whole thing
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[Music]
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of course on this last part I'm I'm
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hammering on
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on the d string and then you know
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rolling with my picking fingers
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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that one's uh really really fun
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then you have kind of you just two
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string kind of things that are really
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popular
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you have this
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[Music]
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you know just on the on the b and e
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strings or this
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and that's you know your uh you know
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your third fingers on the
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fifth fret and your first fingers on the
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on the third fret
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and again we're staying in the key a
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what's happening is you're getting this
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really nice rub between these two nuts
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[Music]
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because you have the sixth and then the
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dominant seven which
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are only a semitone apart and so you get
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this really cool clash
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[Music]
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and then of course you have this uh
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which
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you know it you know you're pulling it
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up a whole step so what you're getting
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is a unison when you do it so
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you know again first fingers on the
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fifth fret uh
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my pinky is on the eighth fret and you
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get this
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and that's really useful for doing you
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know climb ups and such
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you know
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things like that so I've thrown
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a lot at you but uh but these are
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a really good kind of starting points to
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uh
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you know to to really getting on it i
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think
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another thing that i would highly
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recommend is
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you know the uh albert lee solo on Emmylou's
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poncho and lefty is a really
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good one because you have this
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that's a really good one to work on
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because it's not it's not as much of the
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chordal stuff but it's uh using it in a
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really
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neat way and uh yeah you can learn that
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and uh funnily enough a a great way of
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of learning licks is this this tool that
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fender sent me and
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it's called a mustang micro it's about a
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hundred bucks
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and it's a fantastic practice
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tool and uh the reason being
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is that uh one it has all these great
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sounds in it you know of course models
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of different amps and you've you've got
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eq control
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and you've got effects on there you've
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got like chorus and delay and overdrive
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and all and flange and
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rotary effects and all sorts of things
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and you can change them
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and then what i found super helpful
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is of course you you plug in your
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headphones here of course that plugs
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into the guitar like normal
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but you can connect your phone to it via
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bluetooth
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and in whatever streaming service you
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have you can play along with tracks
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so let's say you know you're wanting to
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learn
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uh poncho and lefty well you can loop
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poncho and lefty or no we're going
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over and over again and you can play
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along with it also
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via usb you can record straight into a
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computer
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uh great sounding little unit and uh
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it's fantastic and i've been using this
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a lot uh you know at night
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when uh when after the kids go to bed
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this is a really nice thing to just plug
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in it's easy because you just plug it in
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plug your headphones in there and you
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just practice there and you can practice
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along with
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you know other audio tracks and things
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like that very easily and just use your
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phone to control that
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so really cool thing from uh from fender
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yeah check that out all right guys
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well i hope you've enjoyed this bbender
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lesson and we'll probably
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do some more depending on how y'all
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respond to this and and like the
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b bender lesson and uh just thank you so
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much and i'll see you next time