Category Archives for "Music"
Everyone who knew Frank Zappa is shedding a tear at the fact that items from the great composer’s estate, which includes gear from his legendary Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studio, is about to go to auction. The property was on the market for about $5.5 million, and has reportedly been purchased by Lady Gaga. Among the […]
Continue readingCharlie Drayton is a unique and special player in that he’s equally adept and in demand as a drummer and as a bass player, so his perspective is that of the total rhythm section. Charlie’s long and eclectic list of credits includes such names as Herbie Hancock, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, […]
Continue readingDo superstars hear music differently from the rest of us? Do they organize their musical thoughts differently? How much does this contribute to the physical dexterity? These are the things that neuroscientists want to know (as do the rest of us), and Daniel Levitin, a cognitive psychologist at McGill University, managed to go a bit down […]
Continue readingOrdinary items in our everyday lives can be used as instruments, and perhaps the best example of that statement is this video from The Bottle Boys. The German group has turned playing songs on beer bottles into a career as they’ve traveled all over the world to give concerts over the last 10 years. Here […]
Continue readingOne of the most iconic guitar songs from the 70s is Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing,” which features Mark Knopfler’s soaring clean Strat solos and fills. At one time or another, most guitar players have tried to cop some of the licks from this song, only to discover that you can’t really get the same […]
Continue readingIf you ever wondered if a word was “Metal enough” for a song lyric, there’s a study that evaluated the lyrics from 222,623 metal songs that can tell you. The data set included songs from 7,364 bands spread over 22,314 albums. The research was amazingly comprehensive, but it was done privately by a single data scientist for […]
Continue readingIt used to be that if you wanted a custom neck, color or pickguard on your new guitar, you either started with a stock model and fitted it with aftermarket pieces, or it had to be ordered through a dealer and you had to wait a few months until it was delivered. It was a […]
Continue readingA few years ago I was speaking with an accomplished songwriter friend and I told him that I had just seen Paul McCartney in concert and how it was an 11 on a scale of 10. ” Of course, that’s like seeing Beethoven,” he replied. Yeah, Sir Paul may eventually be viewed that way, but […]
Continue readingI’ve always been a huge Who fan and just as big a fan of producer Glyn Johns work. This video is from an interview at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, November 19, 2012, and focuses on the recording of the seminal Who’s Next. What’s especially interesting is how many of the main parts in […]
Continue readingDoes the type of music we listen to provide clues to our personality? Empirically you’d say yes, but there’s a study that confirms that the music genre that we prefer goes a long way in outlining what we’re like in our daily lives. For better or worse, this is what the study found. Blues fans have […]
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