Category: Music

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My 1st Window into Music

Most people can trace their interest in something back to a certain point in time, be that an event; a year; certain age etc.

It’s a question I hear on the radio listening to Mike Sweeny on Real Radio XS (Previously Manchesters Rock Radio) whenever he interviews someone “where did it start? what was the album that sparked it”

This got me thinking today, what was the period/album/style that got me hooked on music.

On reflection, I hadn’t taken a real notice of music until I was about 10/11 years old (1989/90), certainly not anything outside of a few Queen/Chris Rea or Shaken Stevens songs being played at home, but music was by no means a central focus in our house, and I was far to busy out in the fields, whittling wood, fishing, riding my bike and enjoying the great outdoors.

It was only when I got a back to back stereo and a walkman one Christmas that I actually sat up and took note of what was around me.

Albums that made a difference..

From there, I picked up Continue reading “My 1st Window into Music”

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Top 50 – Awesome Rock Gym Playlist

Ok, so you like/love rock music and you go to the gym. You want some high energy tracks that will get the guns working overtime, you’ve got a few in a playlist but you need some more! Take a look at the below, and see if there’s any you’ve not come across yet.

There are some non rock tracks that have slipped in there… but they hold their own in the gym ☺

This list has been constantly refined over the past 8 years! Any other that should make the list that I’ve missed off?… add a comment below.

Get inspired… get massive! Continue reading “Top 50 – Awesome Rock Gym Playlist”

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Etymotic MC3 – Impressions after a week

 Ok, so the back ground to this one is not of high end super expensive earphones but, one of best sound quality I could find at a budget. previously owned models were:

 i) an early pair of Sony ear buds which was my 1st experience of noise cancelling in ear phones

ii) Shure ec2 ear buds, 1st pair of what I would call expensive earphones

 iii) Apples in-ear buds, chosen because they were the only ones that supported the click functions at the time

 With me misplacing my set of Apple ear buds, I was on the market for Continue reading “Etymotic MC3 – Impressions after a week”

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A Quest Called Tone

This is something I’d like to think of as my tonal enlightenment! 🙂

My precursor story to getting the tones/sounds I wanted for both home practice and playing in a session with other guitarists and a P.A. In essence a few years back I:

a) Learnt that there was much more to plank spanking than just hitting the strings on the right notes and in the right order, there was this thing called tone!

b) I wanted to explore more sounds/tones that my kit (Hohner lx250 and Vantage VG15) couldn’t give me.

c) I bought a pocket pod for practice with headphones and to explore different sounds.

d) I found some sounds that I liked, bought a new guitar (Gordon Smith – Graduate Ref: [Post=”182″]) and started looking for a new amp to deliver the tone my guitar was capable of.

e) I stumbled across Continue reading “A Quest Called Tone”

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10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs… of my generation…

Everyone loves a list or two!! Here’s one of my favorites!

Here’s my personal 10 greatest Hard Rock songs of my generation… which we’ll loosely call the 1990’s and early 2000’s…. lets face it this list could have been a top 50! with the likes of Audioslave, Extreme, Alice Cooper, Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith, Janes Addiction,  Smashing Pumpkins and many more making their way on the the list….

1. Velvet Revolver – Slither
2. Metallica – Sad but True
3. Guns n’ Roses – You Could Be Mine
4. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
5. Pearl Jam – Black
6. Foo Fighters – Best Of you
7. Lenny Kravitz – American Woman
8. Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
9. Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name
10. Green Day – Basket Case

Disagree? Add your list in the comments and lets see what yout got!

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Ultimate Power Chord Rock Riffs

After scouring the internet for many a month for simple(ish) Power Chord Rock songs that will keep you ticking over in learning guitar as well as being fun to play… I’ve pulled together this list of songs that, in my eyes, are not only are great tracks but also should get you going on the guitar with just some basic theory on guitar playing…. (I’m sure you can dig out the Tab on ultimate-guitar.com yourselves). If you’ve got any other songs that you think fall in to this bracket then get them added to the comments section below!

Presidents of the USA – Lump
Papa Roach – Infest
Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away Continue reading “Ultimate Power Chord Rock Riffs”

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The Electric Guitar Lessons

Electric Sessions: \,,\ (..) /,,/

It started with Electric…
It rapidly improved with Acoustic…
And now its back to the roots R’n’F’n’R on the Electric Guitar again!

I won’t labour too much on the history of this as I’ve mentioned it in earlier posts [POST=321], but, I’ve now done the full circle from trying to play along with my mate when I was 13, giving up for 10 years, getting some electric lessons, playing in some Acoustic Lesson Sessions and now back to Electric Lesson Sessions, with what feels like a much better equipped skill-set and mindset… Continue reading “The Electric Guitar Lessons”

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The Acoustic Guitar Lessons

Once rainy afternoon in Bollington, we took the nipper swimming and when filling our boots with chocolate afterwards, my wife noticed an add on the notice board in the leisure centre:

“Adult Guitar Class. Play popular songs.
Tuesdays 7.30 – 9.30 p.m. at the Dog & Partridge.
Bollington.
Tel: Mark 07989 600001”

Well I gave Mark a call, and he promptly invited me down to come and watch half a session. Looked like just what I was after.

The sessions are Mark (Lineham) at the front with Continue reading “The Acoustic Guitar Lessons”

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The Acoustic Guitar

After learning a series of guitar solos on the electric guitar I found that there was a hole in my skill set! I could learn the tab for playing some awesome solo’s but when it came to stringing them together with some chords to play a complete song I started to struggle!

With this in mind, I started thinking that I should get an acoustic guitar and put in some proper chord work to get me underway.

To that end I got Continue reading “The Acoustic Guitar”

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The Guitar Order – Gordon Smith

Well about half way through my lessons I started to understand a lot more around the sounds from a guitar and what I wanted from my guitar. Which then prompted me to look in to buying one for myself and returning my brothers back to him.

After weeks of reading and looking through review web sites about Guitars, their sounds and other characteristics I got to the point where I felt I could ruck up to a Music shop and try some out and try and find one that was right Continue reading “The Guitar Order – Gordon Smith”