Random and not of much significance, But I want to learn how to play the sitar.

So I know this is pretty random and doesn't really relate much to class at all, but it still pertains to music so here goes.

 

I've been playing guitar for about 9 and a half years now and I'm absolutely in love with it.  I took lessons for about 4 years and now I just dabble. I'm very heavily influenced by styles of playing from the 60's and the 70's, although I love pretty much all styles in general. Some examples of musicians who have greatly influenced me are Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Eddie Hazel, Lou Reed and George Harrison- The lead guitarist from The Beatles. 

 

Aside from wanting to somehow resurrect him from the dead , marry him and potentially bear some zombie george children, I just honestly loved his style of guitar playing. The thing I loved most about it was how much it evolved over time. You have Please Please Me, which is early, poppy, original-Boyband styles, then you have Revolver, which features a trippy, backwards recording of a guitar solo featured in Tomorrow Never knows- A song based on the Tibetan book of the living and the dying. During the time when Rubber Soul was being produced, george harrison became very interested in classicsal Indian music, bought a sitar and contacted Ravi Shankar to teach him.

 

Ravi Shankar is considered to be the most well-known contemporary music musician and a master of the sitar. He was born in 1920 in Varanasi, a state in india off the banks of the Ganges River. He met George Harrison in the sixties and was his Sitar teacher. Shankar and Harrison became great friends and collaborated with each other on various music projects, such as George Harrison's concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Here's a video of George getting a lesson from ravi <3 

 

This is a sitar. They're used mainly for classical Indian music, but have appeared in popular music. Bands in the sixties have featured the use of sitar in their music, such as the Kinks, the Yardbirds and The Beatles. They differ immensely from guitars in various ways. Sitars have moveable frets and can have up to 23 strings, whereas Guitars' frets cannot move and generally they have 6-12 strings. One of my goals in life is to have a basic understanding of all of the strung instruments, including violin, banjo, Mandolin, ukulele(I already play), Cello and , of course, the Sitar. The Sitar is my main goal because, from what I've heard, it requires an amazing amount of patience of dedication to play. So being able to play the sitar would feel like such a big accomplishment for me. Also, I very much love the sound of the Sitar. I would recommend listening to The Spirit of India, which is an album by Ravi Shankar that features simply beautiful and amazing Sitar playing. Sitar is very, very soothing and great to listen to when you're in deep thought, trying to concentrate or while you're just chilling out. 

Please take some time out of your day to listen to this

A Blog about Tommy. Because We're talking about Musicals.

                         Since we're talking about musicals, I figured I'd talk about Tommy.
                                                                                         

  

Tommy was originally an album by the Who (Who are totally not American. whoops) It came out in 1969 and was their fourth album. One interesting thing about Tommy is that it was one of the first big concept albums, which basically means that all of the songs on the album share a common theme or tell a story. Some other well known concept albums include Pink Floyd's The Wall and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

 So needless to say, The story of Tommy was so bizarre and awesome that a broadway show and movie were made. So I'm sure that if you're still reading this, you may be interested in hearing what, in fact, Tommy is about. Okay then. Here goes.

 

Meet Tommy. He's our protagonist of the story. As a child, Tommy never got to know his Dad because he was "killed" during a war before the time he was born. Tommy and his Mom (Portrayed by Ann-Margret) decide to go to a holiday camp for some R&R, where they Meet Bernie, the owner of the Holiday camp and Tommy's future stepfather (Oliver Reed) So eventually Tommy, his mommy and uncle Bernie shack it up together. But then, one night, Tommy's Daddy comes back. Freaked out by what they make out to be a zombie-freak-daddy guy, of course Mom and Bernie's initital reaction is to kill him. But Tommy sees this! So they Tell him basically that he didnt hear it, see it and he wont say anything to anyone about it. So he becomes deaf, dumb and blind!! The rest of the story is about his parents' endless attempts to cure his bizarre condition and well...I won't say anymore.

 But here is a picture of Tina Turner, who plays the Acid Queen. <3

The 27 Club. Because it has to do with music. And it's just plain spooky.

So for this week's blog, I've decided that I'm going to talk a little bit more about the 27 club. I mentioned it when we were discussing Robert Johnson last week, but didn't really get too into it.

The 27 club refers simply to famous musicians, usually rock, who have all died at the young age of 27. The five main members include Jimi hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. However, the list goes on. As mentioned before, Robert Johnson also died when he was 27, and I'm super duper excited that he's portrayed as some kind of devil-angel-god thing in this picture :)

So we'll do this chronologically:

1) Robert Johnson (May 8, 1911-August 16, 1938)


Blues musician; once referred to as, "The most important blues singer that ever existed", by Eric Clapton. His cause of death is unknown, but there was a rumor that Johnson was hitting on another guy's wife, so that guy decided to poison his drink.

2) Brian Jones (February 28, 1942- July 3, 1969)

    

















The founder of and guitarist for the Rolling stones; found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool. Coroner's report stated,"Death my misadventure", but his liver and heart were heavily abused my drug and alcohol use.

3) Johnny Allen Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix) ( November 27, 1942- September 8, 1970)

Considered to be the greatest electric guitarist of all time; popularized the wah-wah-pedal; stud-muffin. Choked on his own vomit after partying too hard; took 9 sleeping pills( Normal dose was half of a pill)

4) Janis Joplin <3 (January 19, 1943- October 4, 1970)


"The Queen of Psychedelic Soul"; Painter, dancer, musician..an artist; Overdosed on heroin and alcohol

5) Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943- July 3, 1971)
  
Frontman for the Doors, Poet, filmmaker, Adonis; was found dead in the bathtub of his French apartment by his wife, Pam. There is no official cause of death, but many believe that his heart stopped due to a Heroin overdose.

6) Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967- April 5, 1994)


Leader and guitarist for Nirvana; "The spokesman of a generation" (Generation X- Generation change after the baby boomers) One of the "Godfathers of grunge;" committed suicide by shooting himself.  A not was found to his childhood imaginary friend saying that Cobain hadn't "felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now"

7) Amy Winehouse ( September 14, 1983- July 23, 2011)

  

Singer/songwriter; first British woman to receive 5 grammys. Died of alcohol Poisoning.

So there you go. There's more on the list, too. But these are the most well-known members of the 27 club. Books exist about all of these members. If you're interested in learning more about Jim Morrison and the Doors, Oliver Stone directed a movie called, "The Doors"( I know. Creative.) starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. It's pretty interesting and it offers a glimpse into the life of Jim Morrison, who was absolutely crazy. <3

The Doors Movie- Peyote Trip

A Blog about Robert Johnson. Because he, too, was American...and Awesome

So I thought it'd be fun to blog about Robert Johnson this week. Who was Robert Johnson you ask? A badass, that's who. Robert Johnson was a blues musician who was born in 1911 and died in 1938. He is known as a master of the Mississippi Delta Blues, which was a style of blues that was born around 1920 and is characterized by the use of Harmonicas, slide guitar played on steel guitars and fiery and passionate vocals.

 

Robert Johnson. How cool is that?

Johnson was born in 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. around 1932, Johnson would play on street corners and in front of Barbershops. He played popular music, along with his blues compositions. In 1936, Johnson started recording in a hotel in San Antonio, Texas called the Gunter Hotel. He recorded in room 414 and played his guitar facing the wall because it made the music louder while recording. Johnson called this, "corner loading". 

Kind Hearted Woman Blues

Robert Johnson has inspired many of today's most well-known musicians such as Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc..  Eric Clapton once said that Johnson,"..was the most important blues singer that ever lived".  I chose to write about him this week because he was just plain awesome and rock music probably wouldn't be the same without him. Thanks, Robert Johnson. <3

Eric Clapton- Crossroads

Free- Crossroads

John Mayer- Crossroads

Rush- Crossroads

Cream- Crossroads

And of course, The original. Robert Johnson- Crossroads

A Blog about Beck. Because He's American

So when I first discover that I like something, I have a tendency to become sort of obsessed with it until something else comes along for me to become obsessed with. Currently, I'm going through a Beck phase. So for my first blog, I will talk about him.

Beck was born in Los Angeles, California in 1970.  His first big hit, "loser", came out in 1994 on the,"Mellow Gold" album. Beck has experimented with various styles of music, ranging from his earlier punk-influenced albums to bluesy, acoustic music. He's even written some country music, such as his song, "Rowboat", which was actually covered by Johnny cash (You know you're cool if Johnny Cash has covered your music).

Johnny cash talks about Beck
I guess the reason I like Beck so much is because he has tried out so many different styles, which is very evident when listening to the several albums that he's released over the years. My personal favorite album of Beck's would probably be, "Sea Change", which is primarily just acoustic. If you're interested in listening to Beck's earlier, funkier, punkier material, Mellow Gold is probably your best bet.

Also, Beck has very recently contributed some of his songs to a new video game called Sound Shapes, a game in which the music played in the background acts as the obstacles that your character must overcome to reach the end of the stage. I found this to be particularly rad.

Sound Shapes- "Cities"