Firewind of Oz…

A while ago, in this post about Zakk Wylde having to cut short his “Pedal to the Metal” tour due to a rare blood condition, I mentioned that Ozzy Osbourne had a new guitarist. Ozzy, or course, used to hire Zakk for guitar duties, but apparently that was making him sound too much like Zakk’s [...]

February 15, 2010 at 5:04 pm | Music News and Opinions | No comments

Les Paul Comes Back to Life!

…No -before you ask- I’m not talking about the famous musician who was in his 90′s and inspired the design of one of the most recognised guitars in rock history (sorry!); I’m talking about one of my favourite guitars, which somehow became broken last year. Well, I say somehow, it was kinda careless of me [...]

February 1, 2010 at 8:34 pm | Music News and Opinions | No comments

Guitar Hero Lessons?

Recently, I wrote a post called “Is Your Guitar Hero, Your Guitar Hero“, comparing the game “Guitar Hero” to actual, real-life guitar playing. I was trying to highlight the fact that there are several differences between the game and the instrument. So I was quite surprised to read this article about a guitar teacher in [...]

January 23, 2010 at 3:59 pm | Music News and Opinions | No comments

Is Your Guitar Hero Your Guitar Hero?

As a guitar teacher, I’m constantly hearing comparisons between “Guitar Hero” (the game where you hit buttons on a guitar shaped controller in response to lights) and actual guitar technique. There are a few similarities, but also many differences and I thought it would be useful to make a list. This should benefit those of [...]

January 18, 2010 at 2:35 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Music News and Opinions | 2 comments

Guitar Prodigy?

So, this being England in the winter, everyone has had to deal with copious amounts of snow (and trust me, this country doesn’t work very well in the snow!). Looking outside my window, there is still a foot (30cm) of snow covering everything and this is after it’s been sitting there -melting- for the last [...]

January 8, 2010 at 6:27 pm | Music News and Opinions | 1 comment

Pure, Raw, Unadulterated ROCK!

Imagine the scene: three hairy, bearded rockers in a hot, sweaty practice room, somewhere in the English town of Reading. Armed with only a humble tape recorder and a couple of dynamic microphones strategically placed in the centre of the room, they go about capturing the powerful, heavy beast that is their unique sound. That [...]

December 31, 2009 at 4:13 pm | Music News and Opinions | 3 comments

Christmas Sheet Music

OK, so it’s almost that time again: Turkey, Christmas pudding, guy with fat red suit, feuerzangenbowle…however you chose to celebrate in you own country there will be one thing in common for all of us: friends and relatives. Whether it’s you’re Gran and Grandma coming over tell you how much you’ve grown, or you’re closest [...]

December 23, 2009 at 11:24 am | Music News and Opinions | No comments

Old Woman Blues, Next X-Factor Star?

Recently, on YouTube I came across this video of an old lady from Belarus playing the guitar with a lightbulb. The guitar is out of tune, and you can only vaguely make out the melody, but I don’t care. I think this video is great. I can’t even tell if the passers by are giving [...]

December 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to, Music News and Opinions | 5 comments

Why Do We Even Need Barre Chords Anyway?

This post is a response to “Bar Chords: Do You Have to Learn Them” posted on another guitar-based blog called “Not Learning Guitar” by Gary Fletcher. I agree with alot of what is said in the post, but there are a few points I would have to clarify for anyone reading it (guitar-technique related points, [...]

December 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to, Music News and Opinions | No comments

Strum Along

I once remember being asked a question by another guitarist, and to be honest, he had a very good point. The problem was the point of view that he was asking the question from. I had the a similar perspective to him before I found the answer, and this is one of those things that [...]

December 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Music News and Opinions, Practicing and Practice Routine | 1 comment

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