Jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd (d. 1999) plays Those Silk Shiny Stockings tune); his brother Joe is on bass and does a solo. What distinguishes Charlie Byrd from other jazz guitarists is that he uses a classical guitar and pretty much Segovia-style finger technique.
Another Byrd. Here he does Agua De Beber, [...]
Jazz guitarist definitely take a back seat to rock guitarists in popularity, as of course do classical. But Masters of Jazz Guitar: The Story of the Players and Their Music (in pb, from 2003) is one of the most interesting books on guitarists of any kind you’ll ever read. There’s Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Charlie [...]
Depending upon one’s musical taste the term guitar can evoke any one of four distinct types: classic, flamenco, plectrum or electric. These in turn can be divided into two distinct classes: the nylon string class (classic and flamenco) and the steel string class (plectrum and electric). Those of the first, almost identical in outline, have [...]
Queen guitarist, Brian May, is completing his doctorate in astrophysics:
The 60-year-old guitarist and songwriter said he plans to submit his thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” to supervisors at Imperial College London within the next two weeks.
I have no idea what that thesis means but I guess it’s nice to have something [...]
Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes? Yeap, they split way back in ‘75. And I never even knew such a group existed until this very minute. I wonder if Ted toured back then with a couple of deer strapped on over the fenders?
Can a stoned guitarist–namely one of the Rolling Stones–make a good actor? Well, MSNBC contributor Dave White has a take:
You know Keith Richards is in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” right? He plays Johnny Depp’s pirate papa. And without getting too review-y and spoiler-ish … I have to gush a little about Richards’ [...]
When you can pick up an air guitar “and sound and feel like a rock star.”
The gadget has 10 songs, including Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” programmed to play automatically. It is set to hit the market next month. It can also be connected to an MP3 music player or a speaker system, the [...]
Ever wonder what happened to ex Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder (not to be confused with that other Eagles guitarist, Joe Walsh)? Well there’s a large site dedicated to this great rock guitarist, and what he’s doing now in music; there’s also some radio interviews and videos. I didn’t know this before but Felder is [...]
The sound quality isn’t the greatest but you get the idea. Guitarist Jorge Caballero, playing the first part of a Dvorak symphony.
Why is this heavy metal guitarist so into Japan:
Marty Friedman is the ex-lead guitarist of Megadeth, the all-American thrash-metal band that has sold more than 20 million records. Metal cliches being what they are, you’d half expect him to say “Duuuuuuuuude” and throw up a “devil horns” hand sign as a greeting. Instead, his first [...]
Like Sparkplugged, have you found it difficult to find guitar tabs for your favorite Japanese music? The do what he did and go here (just make sure you can read Japanese or at least be able to stumble you way through some pretty bad translation).
This video is from last year. “The guitar Jim is playing was built by himself and was recorded directly from the Baggs pickup via wireless transmitter and a live performance mic in the hall” (from intro by bransonguitar)
The Humane Guitarist offers I guess what you’d have to call the A list of supports–things that help you hold the guitar to your body, like the Slider Strap for $29.95 and then ther’s this thing from Germany below…
This is certainly the most unusual guitar playing (and guitar) I’ve ever seen. The guitarist is Michael Bianco and there’s some information on his style and recordings here.
A tense, brilliant sound produced by playing close to the bridge nut. This brilliance can be highly accentuated by playing only with the tips of the fingernails. The smooth and quick transition from the normal playing area over the sound hole to the area just before the bridge nut is accomplished by sliding the forearm [...]
Sometimes I’ll cruise ebay’s musical instrument pages (especially guitar pages) for a couple of hours looking for unusual instruments. Here’s one I came across today (the ebay # is 300129044775):
Here’s the main problem with this insturment. The fact that the “body” rests so high up the fingerboard. To play below the fingerboard/bpdy you’d have to [...]
Aside from sitting in front of a microphone a transducer pickup is the best option for amplifying a classical guitar. The disk of wood, housing a “pickup,” sticks to the top of your guitar near the bridge. It’s held in place by a special glue-putty that allows you to slowly pull it off when you [...]
This is the first three-neck guitar I’ve ever seen. As I write is has about twenty minutes left on ebay auction. It has no bids (yet) and the Buy It Now price is $637. The ebay site has a ton of pics of it. UPDATE: it ended with no bids (maybe some people thought [...]
The things you’ll need to adjust your guitar’s intonation are:
electronic guitar tuner
a screwdriver which fits the bridge screws
Sounds pretty simple. here’s where the article is.
Here’s a good reference page for John Williams fans (the guitarist, not the composer by that name), with bio and discography.
Guitarist has some nice midi files of various classical guitar pieces, including the famous Twenty Studies by Fernando Sor.
California Guitar Trio
Bravo…more…bravo
Wikipedia has an extremely large datbase of guitar info and links; in fact, it’s called the guitar portal. It’s huge, really huge.
From Axrtopia: eMedia’s Guitar Pro 5.1 is the new Windows/Macintosh hybrid version of the best-selling multi-track tablature editor software for guitar, banjo and bass from Arobas Music. Besides writing scores, Guitar Pro 5.1 is a tool for beginner and accomplished guitarists alike to improve, compose, or accompany themselves.
So far I have never used this program, [...]
I this fake guitar playing by Madonna (aka Queen of Pop)? Well, according to the London Telegraph, “Debate is raging on internet message boards over whether Madonna’s ‘rocking’ Live Earth performance owed more to technical wizadry than musical talent.”
From the pic above it looks like she’s braying for the feed bag of oats to be [...]
Guitar Site has an article on Argentinean jazz guitarist Pino Marrone. “Some of the most exciting musical experiences of the last decade include performing contemporary classical music on electric guitar…” Playing classical guitar music on an electric guitar (or amplifying a classical with a transducer pick-up) is becoming, or should we put it?…less verboten.
Some great compositions here for the classical guitarists. Coste, Giuliani, Sanz, Krieger, Losy, Carulli, Mertz, Sor…
Here’s the teaser “Guitarists often complain about stiff fingers, hands and arms especially after several hours of practice or performing on a regular basis. Having played the instrument for over 35 years now, I’ve taken some daily precautions that have prevented everything from carpal tunnel syndrome to rheumatoid arthritis…”
Read on.
No, don’t try emulating this classical guitar position. It’s all wrong. The guy obviously never took a lesson in his life.
