Archive for the ‘Guitars’ Category
The Acoustic Guitar
There are many types of guitars. Musicians have been playing the guitar for centuries. Not only musicians but people that just love the art of music as a whole enjoy the sound that guitars make. You can do many different sounds with a guitar.
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. As with everything else that evolves so does the guitar. You can even make an acoustic guitar into an electric sounding guitar with the right wiring connected to it. The guitar is one of the many instruments that will stand the test of time.
When you think of a travel guitar it is not what you think. It is not just the traveling with your guitar. When it comes to guitars a few come to mind. You have your acoustic guitar and then there’s the electric guitar.
A travel guitar is a small guitar with a full or nearly full scale length. It is different then the regular normally proportioned half and three quarter scale length guitars intended for children. Travel guitars are airline friendly. This makes it easier to travel with.
Who said all video games were just entertainment? While music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band might be all that close to the real thing (with the exception of the drums), these video games have inspired kids to learn to play the real instruments. Sales of electric guitars have seen a huge spike since the release of the popular Rock Band franchise, which features both electric guitars and bass guitars as two of the instruments. These video games, in of themselves, can help kids to appreciate the complexities, and inspire them to learn more about music through experimentation with the actual instruments.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band are great guitars for kids and becoming more popular by the day, and it just might be these two video games that inspire more and more kids to start garage bands and pursue a career in music. While just playing the video games doesn’t accomplish much, one has to appreciate what video games can do to inspire and educate kids and teens!
For the last 15 years I’ve worked in customer service for the phone company-by day at least. But my true passion is music. And although I’ve conceded the fact that I will never achieve mainstream notoriety, I enjoy playing small shows at local coffeehouses, open mics and farmer’s markets.
My music centers on acoustic gallagher guitars and subtle keyboard backing, with an overarching minimalist theme. Since there is a serene, tranquil quality to my music, I like to have a small stage show to enhance the effect. I always set up a couple of glass incense burners before the show and have a couple of muted stage lights that I utilize during my nighttime gigs.
For hundreds of years, mother-of-pearl has been used to decorate clothing, knives, guns, watch faces and turquoise jewelry. Many musical instruments include mother-of-pearl accents, including acoustic guitars, saxophones, banjos, violins, and trumpets. Natural mother-of-pearl has the capability of being tinted to almost any color that will complement the piece it accents.
Another name for mother-of-pearl is nacre. Freshwater pearl mussels and pearl oysters as well as other mollusks produce nacre as an iridescent inner shell layer. The majority of mother-of-pearl is produced by abalone native to California and Japan and the pearl oysters of Asia.
Founded in 1974, Taylor Guitars is a California-based company that makes extremely high-quality guitars and guitar cases. It specializes in hollow-body acoustic guitars and semi-hollow and solid body electric guitars. While Taylor guitars are not inexpensive, they are high quality and will serve you well for a long time. Many famous musicians play Taylor guitars, like Taylor Swift, Dave Matthews and Jackson Browne.
A Taylor acoustic guitar was even in the news recently, due to the breakout popularity of the YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars.” Canadian musician Dave Carroll was travelling with his band on United Airlines when he witnessed his $3,500 Taylor guitar being thrown by baggage handlers. It was broken, and United would not compensate Carroll after a year of his requests. Finally, he wrote the song “United Breaks Guitars” and filmed a YouTube video to go along with it, which finally prompted United to get in touch with Carroll. United even asked Carroll for permission to use his video to train baggage handlers, so other musicians’ Taylor travel guitars may be able to survive the journey!
Okay, I have to confess, there was a time, years ago, that I was a “stomp box” junkie and bought every new fangled pedal that came out. Yes, I had a pedal board. And yes, the rest of the band was set up and ready for sound check before I had all those pedals hooked up and tweaked!
Then came the digital age and everything changed. Legions of engineers designed pedals with a plethora of effects built into a compact package. Suddenly the need to acquire a multitude of guitar effects pedals was abolished.
Even so, many guitarists – especially fans of the Eastman guitars, like me – still prefer the use of analog stomp boxes over their digital counterpart. Talk to ten different guitar players and you’ll get ten different answers as to the merits of one over the other.
The term steel guitar refers both to a type of guitar and a method of playing guitar. Steel guitars are held horizontally with strings facing up towards the player, who in turn uses a slide called “steel” above the fingerboard. In other words, the player’s fingers don’t pluck or fret the strings. Any guitar can be played in this manner, though guitars specifically built for steel guitar playing produce the best sound.
Steel guitar was popularized in Hawaii during the 19th and 20th centuries. During the 1950s and 60s the steel guitar enjoyed immense popularity. Due to its origins, the steel guitar is sometimes referred to as a Hawaiian guitar or Hawaiian steel guitar; however, in Hawaii the term Hawaiian guitar refers to a slack string guitar. It is thought that the design of the bottleneck guitar may have been inspired by steel guitar technique.
Music has evolved throughout the centuries. Right now there is no western or eastern music, as the walls that have distinguished them are no longer there. What used to be western music has found its way to far-flung countries. Music has been a way to bridge the gap among nations. Through music, the world has become closer than ever.
One music genre that has entered the mainstream and has been getting a following is Cuban music. Cuban music has African and European influences. Perhaps the more popular would be the rumba, mambo, and reggae. The tempo is mostly upbeat and happy, with the use of drum beats and the sound of maracas and resonator guitar strings.
Despite an active time just over a decade, Led Zeppelin is often hailed as the greatest rock band of all time. Like most bands, Led Zeppelin had a humble beginning, starting out as four friends who wanted to create original music and incorporate different styles like reggae, soul, and funk. The band’s four members included Jimmy Page on guitar—playing everything from classical guitars to his trademark double-neck model—, Robert Plant on vocals, John Paul Jones on bass guitar and keyboard, and John Bonham on the drums. These four members were true masters of their craft whose musical style is well recognized today. Led Zeppelin composed dozens of original songs, and sheet music for their more well known ballads, like Stairway to Heaven, remains some of the top selling sheet music of all time.
In 1980, drummer John Bonham died, and the band subsequently broke up and wouldn’t collaborate again until 2007. In December of 2007, Led Zeppelin reunited for a benefit honoring music executive Ahmet Ertegun. Jason Bonham took his father’s place on the drums, and the concert was well received, proving that the legendary band could still perform at the level that made them famous.