Guitar News

Picking up the new Washburn is becoming something of an obsession; Mrs The Millbrooker has likened it to one or two of her offspring's less savoury habits - something that I probably ought to be able to stop myself doing but don't seem able to.

Mind you, every guitarist I've ever spoken to has recommended the "little and often" approach to practising; i.e. pick the thing up every time you go past it, plink away for a minute or two and then put it down again.


The hugely talented Millbrookian guitar player John Stubberfield kindly dropped around last week to throw a few pointers in my direction; the nearly two hour lesson consisted of, as John put it, S.T.B teaching. (Shit To Blanket - tell the student everything very quickly and hope some of it sticks).


One of the things John mentioned was the preponderance of guitar tuition videos on YouTube. So I took a look and found a few that I thought were a peg or two above my abilities (you never get better by doing stuff you can already do, after all). I'm currently working hard to get my fingers around Spanish Bombs from this video:


And this is what it sounded like when the sainted Joe Strummer alongside Mick Jones, Paul Simenon and Topper Headon (that'll be The Clash, then) played it.