The blues genius John Lee Hooker is gone seven years now, but his big bad boogie style lives on. Hooker, who’d turn 91 this August 22, got his first guitar from a traveling bluesman named Tony Hollins, who took a shine to his sister Alice.
Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:58 PM
Playing octave notes simultaneously in various runs is a great way of both improving and adding to your own style of playing. As evidenced in Arlen Roth’s exclusive lesson from yesterday, Wes Montgomery brought this unique style to the forefront of jazz guitar playing, leading the way for other artists to take into their own respective musical genres.
In today’s lesson Roth takes this style one step further, progressing from the “octave” technique to the contrary motion technique, which is the use of positions and licks where one note goes down while the other goes up—or vice versa.
Thursday, August 07, 2008 12:35 PM
Gibson USA’s new Shred-V Flying V—the Guitar of the Month for August 2008—takes the style and attitude of the fearsome Flying V a step further. Two EMG 85 pickups deliver high-ouput, screaming tone, perfect for aggressive hard rock and metal, and a new Kahler 2215K tremolo system allows stable tuning and dive bombs.
Thursday, August 07, 2008 11:01 AM
Bolstered by its refined sound and renewed energy, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida album has topped the charts in a staggering 36 countries, confirming the U.K. group’s status as one of the era’s great rock bands. Now the title track that became the first Coldplay song to top both the British and American charts has been treated to two new videos by directors Hype Williams and legendary image maker Anton Corbijn. Williams’ vision amplifies on images already familiar from the band’s ubiquitous iTunes spot, while Corbijn’s “official alternative” version offers up a more traditionally cinematic take, featuring band leader Chris Martin as sightseeing royalty as captured via the Dutch director’s ever playful ways with film stock.
Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:42 AM
When Gibson set about revising the Les Paul in 1961 in the wake of declining sales for the model, the exercise produced an instrument that was far more unlike than like the guitar that had preceded it. The Les Paul Standard of 1961 retained its predecessor’s two PAF humbucking pickups, tune-o-matic bridge, and 24 3/4-inch scale length, but it looked entirely different and was constructed very differently too. In place of the thick, solid mahogany back and carved, arched maple cap was a thinner body of pure mahogany, flat on top but highly contoured at the edges, with two very pointy, asymmetrical cutaways that offered access right up to the 22nd fret. It was also, arguably, a less elegant looking guitar, initially offered in a translucent cherry finish rather than the sultry sunburst of the 1958-’60 Les Paul.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4:18 PM
The mere mention of the name Randy Rhoads brings so much emotion from all types of guitar players. He was the inspiration for a whole generation of heavy metal guitarists and continues to inspire people 26 years after his death.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 2:47 PM
Jazz legend Wes Montgomery is responsible for pioneering many new jazz guitar techniques and sounds. But none is more famous than his distinct style of using octave notes when playing either rhythm or lead jazz parts.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 11:46 AM
When we publicized a few brave players who tackled one guitar with six hands, Gibson.com reader Wheat Williams responded with this great image of Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and his bandmates performing a similar trick―albeit with two extra necks!―at the 2005 Lunel Mandolin Festival. Zep fans know the crucial dimensions Jones added to his legendary band’s sound, particularly its acoustic-centered ballads. Here’s John performing on the same triple-necked instrument during his 2000 Zooma tour.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:49 AM
In case you haven’t been following the career of Dayton, Ohio’s post-screamo heroes Hawthorne Heights, you’ve missed a series of events that would have destroyed most bands. From suing their label Victory Records (the two have since reconciled) to the tragic death of founding member and guitarist Casey Calvert, who passed away in his sleep on tour last November at the age of 26, the band has endured a lot this last year. Luckily, frontman JT Woodruff is quick to point out that Hawthorne Heights—which includes guitarist Micah Carli, bassist Matt Ridenour, and drummer Eron Bucciarelli—are more of a family than a group of musicians, especially after persevering through hard times to make their third album Fragile Future, out this week.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:08 PM
If you want to emmulate great Chicago blues artists like Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, today is your lucky day.
Arlen Roth knows the blues, and in today's exclusive lesson he examines the art of "walking" and "string jumping" bass lines—a style utitlized by many of the great guitarists associated with the legendary Chicago blues scene.
Roth clearly demonstrates how learning these various patterns can greatly improve any guitarist's ability to play in near-perfect time and structure. He also shows how to use them to build your arsenal of licks, and add an abundance of ideas for great overall blues and R&B guitar playing.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 12:18 PM