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Category: Great Guitarists
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Homework 07/03/16
Johnny B Goode! One of the great guitar songs about guitar written and performed by Chuck Berry. [Here’s the backing track in A]
Here’s the famous scene from Back To The Future where Marty copies the style of Chuck Berry, Eddie Van Halen, Pete Townsend (The Who) and various others.
Here’s Chuck playing it to a TV audience in 1958
Here’s a bunch of guitarists that turn their guitars into percussion instruments – while still playing chords and melodies.
First US busker Reginald Guillaume aka Guitaro 5000 showing you how to play Michael Jackson‘s Billy Jean with a can of tuna and a bulldog clip
A little more hi-tech is Kelly Valleau who has two small drum trigger pads stuck to the front of his guitar which he’s hitting with his thumb and wrist.
Next Gabriela Quintero from the Mexican group Rodrigo y Gabriela who combines spanish flamenco style guitar with a drumming technique used on the Irish Bodhrán drum
Last but not least is the amazing Jon Gomm who hits, scratches, taps and retunes the guitar all while singing at the same time.
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King Of The Blues
I like almost every style of music in the world but I only love a few artist in each genre that really connect with me. In the blues those artists would be Sonny Boy Williamson (I and II), Howling Wolf, Robben Ford and B.B. King.
Sadly B.B. died today at the age of 89. He was an incredible singer and guitar player with perfect phrasing and a master of string bending. I remember being amazed at hearing a live recording of him singing How Blue Can You Get – when he got to the bridge “I gave you seven children and now you want to give them back” women in the audience screamed! (and you thought that started with the Beatles).
My Favourite songs are The Thrill Is Gone (which has a classy turnaround chord change), Help The Poor and How Blue Can You Get.
My favourite albums are Live At The Regal and Live In Cook County Jail.
And if you’re in the UK, BBC iTunes has a few free documentaries to stream Sounding Out (1972) and Arena (1985).
B.B. had a playful sense of humour (as demonstrated in the song below) – oh and he was a master of the ‘guitar face’…
One of the terrible things about the internet is it brings you face to face with your own inadequacies and failures. No matter what you excel at, there’s someone out there who’s way better than you, even though they’re not old enough to shave yet. Here are a few mutants wonderfully talented young people.
8 yr old banjo player Jonny Mizzone plays Earl Scruggs’s Flint Hill Special with the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys (aka his brothers Robbie (12) and Tommy (13) on fiddle and guitar). FB
The Mini Band play Enter Sandman by Metallica. These metalheads are all 8 to 10 years old. FB
Elder statesman Brazilian bassist Michael Pipoquinha was 13 yr old when filmed here. Notice the other players watching him closely? That’s cos he’s leading the band!
Finally let’s not beat around the bush. The North Korean Children’s Guitar Ensemble performance of “Our Kindergarten Teacher” is creepy. Someone get them some half size guitars, Stat!
Got any favourite young players to share?
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JJ Rosa
Don’t know much about Jessica Rose Hancock aka JJ Rosa other than she’s from Stockport near Manchester and she’s a great guitarist.
Check her out on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.
Free Downloads – Step Aside [Live] here or the Live At The Deaf Institute EP here
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Nile Rodgers Primer
One of the all time funk guitar greats, master arranger, stellar songwriter. Here’s a brief intro to Nile Rodgers
And some other links
Guardian beginner guide and a Spotify one
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Jake Bugg’s Sweet Moves
If you think Jake Bugg is ‘just’ a singer/songwriter maybe this video will make you think again. Jake displays some cool guitar chops here
Bruce Springsteen has been a professional musician for over 42 years. In that time he has released 18 studio albums, 71 singles, five live albums, five box sets, and six compilation albums. He has sold 64.5 million albums in the US alone. Most artists in his position would (and do) rest on their past achievements, becoming almost their own tribute act. And yet Bruce keeps challenging himself, to learn new music, to do something different. On a recent tour of Australia, Bruce decide to open his shows with a cover of one of that county’s best known bands AC/DC…
By the way, that’s Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine on guitar