Posts Tagged ‘guitar’
Great Guitar Players
These days, playing the guitar is as common as skipping rope or frozen yogurt. With the advent of technology, it’s not surprising that people have found a way to learn practically anything and everything under the sun. One of those skills is playing the guitar—a skill that anybody can learn. It is easy to play the guitar especially when you have the tab for your favorite song as.all you really have to do is follow the chord chart. But some of the industry’s great guitar players learned playing without the Internet or detailed guitar lesson plans. With some of them making waves in the music business even before you were born, these guitar players are indeed looked upon for their talent, skill, and determination.
Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave is a wildman when it comes to guitar playing. He is known for his mad skills, driving fans to complete frenzy when he starts performing unbelievable riffs, disc scratching, and helicopter rudders. Considered as an innovator, Morello is a name that easily commands respect out of sheer talent.
If you haven’t heard of John Mayer, you must have been shipped out to an alien world and brought back to Earth only today. John Mayer earned a reputation not for his ear-bending guitar solos, but rather for his soulful acoustic guitar playing ability. Third on the list of the industry’s great guitar players is Jack White, who is popularly associated with the band the White Stripes. Dubbed by many critics as an underrate guitarist, White is known for his simple blues rhythm style.
Then there is Jimmy Page, the founder of the legendary English rock band, Led Zeppelin. His talents still echo today through his successful merger of acoustic guitars, mandolins, and even banjos to create a sound that is uniquely his and not just the infamous song, Stairway To Heaven. The Blues genre also prides itself with a great guitarist in the name of BB King. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd is also a renowned guitarist that was able to translate his passion and heart into his guitar playing. It’s not easy watching Gilmour play simply because one will inevitably feel every single hair strand on their skin standing at sound of his music.
Jimi Hendrix. His name alone leaves everybody breathless and sad at the same time. His career was cut short by his demise but his incredible guitar playing innovations stood against death and remained to be an inspiration among many guitarists. Whether it’s Voodoo Child or Catles made of Sand you’re listening to, you will be in awe.
Rounding up the industry’s great guitar players is Robert Johnson who not only changed the walls of guitar playing history but also that of society. His amazing talent and passion for his craft was an inspiration during the civil movememnts back in the 1960s. A musician that transcended the boundaries of an industry and society, Johnson can indeed be considered as the world’s greatest guitar player.
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So You Want to Play the Blues Guitar?
People who play the guitar can surely play anything today. But when it comes to rhythm and blues—the good ‘ol one, that is, not everybody can pull off a winning performance for the blues guitar is unlike any other guitars. Playing this type of guitar is a skill acquired from constant practice and a whole lot of effort, of course. While most guitarists would find it difficult to jam with other instrument-tugging musicians without knowing which song they’ll be jamming along with, a guitarist trained in the blues will find it easy to play along even without knowledge of which song to play or what. How is that even possible?
For one, most blues songs use 12 bar Blues, a form of blues that traces back to Africa. The songs really used just one chord but with the influence of western music came inevitable changes in the musical form and thus, the 12 bar Blues was born—the most popular of all blues forms. In this 12 bar Blues, a song is divided into 12 bars or also often called measures. In a nutshell, this form is repeated in every verse until the song finishes. But there are also 8 bar Blues, 16 bar Blues, and 24 bar blues.
The blues guitar is for a seemingly structured type of music that’s all about the standards. So when you are aware of the schemes and standards in rhythm and blues, one can easily get into the music. With this guitar, it is not just about strumming and switching chords when you need to, it is also about finding the right shuffle feeling of the song. They say it sounds a little like your heartbeat. There are also two types of shuffle rhythms that guitarists in this genre should know: the Chicago shuffle and the Texas shuffle. The Chicago shuffle emphasizes the second and fourth beats while Texas shuffle stresses the first and third beats. If you are trying to learn these shuffles, your best bet is to listen to the songs, Key to the Highway or Reconsider Baby.
There are also different styles of Blues that more often than not, are named after the places where they originated. Some examples of these styles are Delta Blues, Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, West Coast Blues, and even British Blues. These blues styles also often have other sub-genres and all these styles have incorporated the place’s local music styles with the blues standards.
Now if you are thinking of taking your guitar playing up a notch by inserting guitar solos, you’ll be needing blues-specific guitar skills and techniques such as string bending, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and vibrato. Just like other guitars, the blues guitar require specific techniques that are tailored only for this genre. When playing this guitar, the number one thing that guitarists are usually told is to forget the classical way of playing the guitar. With technique and dedication up your sleeve, you are bound to be playing the blues like an expert.