Written by After you start to seriously play guitar, you might want to look for different ways to make your music unique and make it yours. This may be done in a multitude of ways and each one is specific to you. Some musicians can transform and meld their music into something memorable and unique, just look at Kiss and Metallica. Doing this is great, but for many who are not that creative we must find other ways to personalize our music. One way is to personalize your instrument. READ MORE »
Posts in category Music
Headphones safety and precautions
We all know that listening to music with your headphones at a loud volume for a long time can damage your ears. Another hazard is that if you are out walking or cycling with your headphones on you could be so distracted that you don’t pay as much attention to other pedestrians or vehicles as you should. Here are a few quick guidelines to help you avoid any potential health hazards while using your headphones. READ MORE »
Easy Karaoke Performance Basics
So you got up on stage in front of a group of strangers and you tried your very first karaoke song. Unfortunately it didn’t go so well and your performance was less than impressive. People applauded kindly for you, but you know in your heart that your attempt was failure. Do you give up or try again? If you want to give it another shot, then there are some things to keep in mind that will help you out the next time you try karaoke. They are simple suggestions that won’t require you to take singing lessons, and with a bit of patience you can get up and conquer that karaoke stage. READ MORE »
Pink Family Portrait – Unofficial Divorce National Anthem
The pop/R&B song titled Family Portrait is an unofficial divorce national anthem for all those young children out there who have suffered at the hand of divorce through their warring parents. Pink Family Portrait has managed to get and keep a very strong following of many faithful millions of people. This is solely because many can personally relate to the painful issue of divorce. In addition, how it occurs in families from all different backgrounds. Divorce affects each of us in its own way and sometimes the hurt is something that never goes away. READ MORE »
Gift Ideas For People Learning Guitar
Guitarists are always looking for more guitar related toys. So whether it’s a birthday, christmas time, or an anniversary, and you’re wondering what to buy for a guitar playing friend, here are some ideas. READ MORE »
Blues Guitar in American History
Written by The blues has a long history in the United States, and the blues guitar plays a major part in it. In the late 19th and early 20th century in the American South, the blues was born. African American slave workers in the cotton fields and on sharecropper lands would sing their woes. It was a very free and heart felt style, and every time a song was sung, or later played, it sounded different, mimicking the artists’ feelings. In the 1920’s, the guitar became a popular accompaniment for these artists and their music. Often this became a call and response style where the singer would sing something and his guitar would respond.
Some of the first well known artists of this genre were Robert Johnson and Son House. They would use a slide on their guitars to create notes that sounded like someone wailing and lamenting. For the slide, they would use things like a bottleneck or a knife, hence the term bottleneck or slide guitar. In the 1950’s, Muddy Waters was big in this blues world and his guitar music was often accompanied by a drum or harmonica. Chicago and Memphis were huge towns for the popular blues, and some know Beale Street in Memphis as the heart of the woeful blues.
As the electric guitar became more widely used, the slide was often tossed aside as the electric guitar was capable of sustaining longer notes to create fluidity of the same woeful tones. As blues music traveled across the Atlantic in the 1960’s and 70’s, it took off with rockers like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and became a huge part of rock and roll. Some other famous blues musicians are Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. Listening to any of these artists is probably the best blues guitar lesson you could hope for.
From the start of this form of soul felt music on the cotton farms, it made its way across the world to influence all types of music, including jazz, country and rock, with the accompaniment of a blues guitar always prominent. When a genre of music has this much lasting influence, it is clear that it was born from the heart and the soul.