Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar


Book Description

'Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar' is a collection of in-depth Q&A interviews with fifteen of rock music's greatest, most under-rated guitarists. Many of these musicians have achieved worldwide success in the music business as members of famous bands, yet their individual names and faces often go unrecognized. 'Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar' goes behind the scenes of some of the greatest classic rock music of all time to tell the true stories of bands like Kiss, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Heart and Yes, from the perspective of the people who lived to tell it all.




Guitar Player Presents 50 Unsung Heroes of the Guitar


Book Description

(Guitar Player Presents). Everyone knows the legends Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Beck, and all the other six-string giants but the evolution of guitarcraft wasn't forged purely by uber-famous players with large cultural footprints. Scores of lesser-known pioneers such as Tommy Bolin, Danny Cedrone, Tampa Red, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe contributed vast numbers of licks, riffs, solos, tones, compositions, techniques, and musical concepts that inspired generations of guitarists and advanced the art of playing guitar. Their stories are as critical to modern guitar music as is electricity or amplification. Any guitarist seeking to devise a unique and individual sound should study the wacky, off-kilter, unfamiliar, and criminally underutilized creative concepts of the unsung greats, straight from the pages of Guitar Player magazine.




Inside Rock Guitar


Book Description

(Guitar Educational). Inside Rock Guitar traces the lives and licks of the 30 greatest electric rock guitar pioneers of all time. Spanning four decades, this authoritative book and audio package by acclaimed music historian Dave Rubin captures the styles and historic insights of legendary, trail-blazing guitarists who changed the face of rock forever. Inside Rock Guitar provides stylistic music examples in standard notation and tablature, access to audio demonstrations of every music figure, and many rare photos. Guitarists covered include Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Kirk Hammett, Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, Yngie Malmsteen, Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Slash, Pete Townshend, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Angus Young, and more!




Rock 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Rock Music


Book Description

Embark on an exhilarating journey through the heart and soul of rock music with 'Rock 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Rock Music.' From its humble beginnings rooted in blues, jazz, and folk traditions to its explosive evolution into a global phenomenon, this book offers a captivating exploration of the genre's rich history, diverse subgenres, iconic figures, and profound impact on culture and society. Delve into the roots of rock, traverse the classic rock era, dissect the anatomy of rock instruments and techniques, dissect lyrical themes, and unravel the legacies of legendary artists. With meticulous detail and passionate insight, each chapter illuminates key facets of rock music, inviting readers to discover the magic and significance of this enduring art form. Whether you're a seasoned aficionado or a curious newcomer, 'Rock 101' is your ultimate companion for unlocking the mysteries and marvels of rock music.




The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of Music


Book Description

Lonnie Johnson (1894–1970) was a virtuoso guitarist who influenced generations of musicians from Django Reinhardt to Eric Clapton to Bill Wyman and especially B. B. King. Born in New Orleans, he began playing violin and guitar in his father’s band at an early age. When most of his family was wiped out by the 1918 flu epidemic, he and his surviving brother moved to St. Louis, where he won a blues contest that included a recording contract. His career was launched. Johnson can be heard on many Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong records, including the latter’s famous “Savoy Blues” with the Hot Five. He is perhaps best known for his 12-string guitar solos and his ground-breaking recordings with the white guitarist Eddie Lang in the late 1920s. After World War II he began playing rhythm and blues and continued to record and tour until his death. This is the first full-length work on Johnson. Dean Alger answers many biographical mysteries, including how many members of Johnson’s large family were left after the epidemic. It also places Johnson and his musical contemporaries in the context of American race relations and argues for the importance of music in the fight for civil rights. Finally, Alger analyzes Johnson’s major recordings in terms of technique and style. Distribution of an accompanying music CD will be coordinated with the release of this book.




A Guide to Popular Music Reference Books


Book Description

A guide to locating information on popular music and the people who create it, this volume is designed as a desk reference—to locate answers to specific questions and to direct library users to key resources. More than 400 comprehensive titles are carefully annotated, describing content, scope, and special features. The focus is on the musical styles that have developed measurable commercial success through recordings and live performance. Along with academic titles, many important titles from the popular press are included, as well as selected electronic resources. A necessary reference tool for any library, scholar, student, and popular music buff. The work covers bibliographies, indexes, discographies, dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographical resources, directories, almanacs, yearbooks, and guidebooks on styles that include jazz, swing, Tin Pan Alley, country, gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, soul, rockabilly, rock, heavy metal, musical theater, and film music. Its extensive appendices feature discographies and bibliographies of individual artists and ensembles. A detailed index combining authors, titles, and subjects makes cross-referencing easy. The entries are modeled after the immensely useful The Guide to Reference Books.




The Popular Music Teaching Handbook


Book Description

The function of print resources as instructional guides and descriptors of popular music pedagogy are addressed in this concise volume. Increasingly, public school teachers and college-level faculty members are introducing and utilizing music-related educational approaches in their classrooms. This book lists reports dealing with popular music resources as classroom teaching materials, and will stimulate further thought among students and teachers. It focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles). Building on two recent publications: Teaching with Popular Music Resources: A Bibliography of Interdisciplinary Instructional Approaches, Popular Music and Society, XXII, no. 2 (Summer 1998), and American Culture Interpreted through Popular Music: Interdisciplinary Teaching Approaches (Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000), this volume focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship that is available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles).




We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001


Book Description

(Book). Nirvana, the White Stripes, Hole, the Hives all sprang from an underground music scene where similarly raw bands, enjoying various degrees of success and hard luck, played for throngs of fans in venues ranging from dive bars to massive festivals, but were mostly ignored by a music industry focused on mega-bands and shiny pop stars. We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 tracks the inspiration and beautiful destruction of this largely undocumented movement. What they took, they fought for, every night. They reveled in '50s rock 'n' roll and '60s garage rock while creating their own wave of gut-busting riffs and rhythm. The majority of bands that populate this book the Dwarves, the Gories, the Supersuckers, the Mummies, Rocket from the Crypt, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Muffs, and the Donnas among them gained little long-term reward from their nonstop touring and brain-slapping records. What they did have was free liquor, good drugs, guilt-free sex, and a crazy good time, all the while building a dedicated fan base that extends across America, Europe, and Japan. Truly, this is the last great wave of down-and-dirty rock 'n' roll.




Listen to the Blues!


Book Description

Listen to the Blues! Exploring A Musical Genre provides an overview of this distinctly American musical genre for fans of the blues and curious readers alike, with a focus on 50 must-hear artists, albums, and subgenres. Unlike other books on the blues, which tend to focus on musician biographies, Listen to the Blues! devotes time to the compositions, recordings, and musical legacies of blues musicians from the early 20th century to the present. Although the author references musical structure, harmony, form, and other musical concepts, the volume avoids technical language; therefore, it is a volume that should be of interest to the casual blues fan, to students of blues music and its history, and to more serious blues fans. The chapters on the impact of the blues on popular culture and the legacy of the blues also put the genre in a broader historical context than what is found in many books on the blues. The book opens with a background chapter that provides an overview of the history and structure of blues music. A substantial, encyclopedic chapter that focuses on 50 must-hear blues musicians follows, as does a chapter that explores the impact on popular culture of blues music and musicians and a chapter that focuses on the legacy of the genre. A bibliography rounds out the work.




British Rock Guitar


Book Description

The guitar has become the most emotive musical instrument of the last 50 years of rock and roll. From the early days when wannabee stars fashioned homemade guitars out of old tea chests, to today's sophisticated instruments the impact has been phenomenal. In this book, Mo Foster, one of the industry's most prestigious bass guitarists, and renowned producer, composer and session musician draws upon his own recollections and those of some of the greatest exponents of the rock guitar, from Hank Marvin to Eric Clapton and Brian May. Once managed by Ronnie Scott, Foster has recorded and toured with many of the world's biggest musical icons including Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Gerry Rafferty, Van Morrison and George Martin. In this insightful, passionate and humorous book Mo Foster has written the definitive history of the importance of the guitar in the development of British music over the last 50 years.




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