What's happening?

Corey Wong here with the Wong Notes podcast, episode 4 with Eric Johnson.

Now I want to start this episode a little bit different than I've done the others with a challenge.

I'm not going to do a weekly challenge. Maybe I will at some point, but today I just want you to think about this one thing, as far as a phrasing picking thing.

I want you to practice your three note per string major scales, up and down. If you're not familiar with these, just look them up online. I'm sure Premier Guitar's got some sort of lesson online somewhere with them. There's some YouTube guy who's got it. Paul Gilbert, he's the guy that got me hip to it off one of his Hot Licks videos or something like that. Now, typically, when they go down up down up down up down up down up down up up alternate picking or they'll do some sort of sweeping thing on the way down where they go down down up down up down up down down down down up whatever and then on their way back up the strings they go up down up down up up up up down up up up up down up up what i want you to try this week is go down up hammer on when

you're going up the scale and down up, pull off when you're going back. What it's going to do is

it's going to create a different type of phrasing and it might implement some sort of change into

the way that you phrase your soloing or your melodies to create a new and cool different sound to your playing that might just bring a new fresh take. Not because other people are sick of what you're playing, but sometimes as a guitar player, we get sick of our own playing. Check it out, try it out, see what you think. Okay, if you're listening to a guitar podcast, you probably know who Eric Johnson is. The person in the car next to you or in the office next to you probably knows who Eric Johnson is, even if they don't know who Eric Johnson is. He's one of those cats who ended up in the zeitgeist due to a hit song, Cliffs of Dover. Now, that's a straight up hit song. He won a Grammy for it. Many of us played that song on rock band when we were kids.

That's why the person in the office next to you knows who he is. If you're like, hey, you know who Eric Johnson is? They're like, Eric Johnson. And you're like, do, do, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de, do de. Oh, yeah, I know Eric Johnson.

That dude's dope.

We all know who Eric Johnson is.

I'm stoked to have him on the show today.

Man. Oh, yeah, I know Eric Johnson. That dude's dope. We all know who Eric Johnson is.

I'm stoked to have him on the show today.

Man, he can write some really hooky guitar lines.

And he's been able to make hook after hook that are very guitaristic,

that are also just very approachable and listenable for the average listener.

I love it.

It's a riddle I'm always trying to

solve with my own playing. So let's sit back, enjoy some wisdom from guitar hero, Eric Johnson.

All right, a lot of people ask me what I use on the road for backline gear when I show up at a festival,

when I show up at a gig in another country or something and I have been able to fly with all my gear.

...