Video Question: Botleneck

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Date: November 6th, 2007 | Length: 6.19 | Instructor: Brad Lindsey

Vegarbakken asks: "Hi! I've just bought myself a botleneck (metal). Do you have any lessons or tips for me? I've bought it because I love to play rough blues, old style, on my acoustic guitar - so if you can post my some cool blues licks I would be glad. Take care - Vegar " Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

- September 24th, 2008 (3 minutes, 45 seconds)

Gfl23 asks, "As I was learning lessons in Phase 1, which usually included simple chords, I basically had no problem with my left hand. However, when I started to progress into larger and more complicated chords, I found that the wrist of my left hand would stick out away from behind the fingerboard. My thumb would tighten up completely and basically my left hand would be completely twisted up just so that I can accomodate or reach all the frets in the chord. If i stuck out my hand in that position, the hand would be bending inwards towards my body at a 90 degree angle and my thumb would be bending a little the opposite way. After holding that position for maybe 5 minutes, my hand and wrist would feel horrible, discouraging me from playing. I would really appreciate any suggestions as to how I can improve this dilemma. P.S. I reviewed the lessons on posture already but I didn't really see what I needed. Thanks, I really want to get back to learning guitar. This site is great! Oh, and please send the response to this email instead of the one listed above; I can't change it for some reason: masterx23@hotmail.com Thanks again." View Response

Bridge - August 5th, 2008 (3 minutes, 23 seconds)

Mclend1 asks, "My question is about the bridge, which on my guitar has the tune-o-matic part for adjusting the intonation and then there's further back, the metal bar piece that the ball ends secure into. What I'm curious about is the metal bar where the strings ends lie. It has two large screws for adjusting its height, and I wondered why or when would you ever adjust that or if you even need to? Does raising or lowering that bridge part effect the tone characteristics in any way? Is it generally tightened down to the body of the guitar or not, does it even matter that much? On classical/ acoustic type guitars the bridge is glued flat to the body for better resonance, so I wondered why electric guitars have a slightly different set up. As that's where the sound connects to the guitar, I guess it must do the same thing. I'm interested to know what the adjustments might do. Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance, Matt." View Response

Pentatonic Scale Advise - April 25th, 2007 (3 minutes, 30 seconds)

KevinAce asks "What is the pentatonic scale? How is it used?" Aaron takes you through a brief over view of the scale & how you can modify it to get some pretty cool riffs. View Response

Thumb Independence - April 30th, 2008 (2 minutes, 38 seconds)

KenStyle asks, "How much is the thumb really independent during fingerstyle and how much of it is super coordination with the right hand? thanks in advance!!! Love the lessons" View Response

John Mayer Style picking - October 8th, 2008 (3 minutes, 38 seconds)

Kenstyle asked "I'm curious about John Mayer's technique in this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvkSo1itgc&feature=related. He uses his thumb and index finger throughout the song and the net effect of this technique is that it sounds like a strum with a pick. Any help would be great. Thanks! Ken" View Response