Joe Satriani - Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock
Tomorrow, April 1, marks the release of Joe Satriani’s new album, Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock. As I mentioned last week, Joe has been releasing a podcast a day for the past week or so with samples of each song from the new album. The last podcast was released today, and now all podcasts are available online. I’ve listened to each of the podcasts, and I think this album is going to be very good; I can’t wait to hear the full songs! Hearing the stories behind the songs has brought a little extra life to the songs, although they sound great on their own. You can watch the full video for “I Just Wanna Rock” on the www.satriani.com Web site.
Links
It’s been a beautiful weekend here in Nashville, if a little cold. Happy Easter!
Artist News
Joe Satriani Podcast - Joe Satriani is doing a daily podcast featuring a song off his album for each day until the release of the album on April 1
Vox Satchurator - Speaking of Joe Satriani…details of his first pedal collaboration with Vox have been released. You can view a video of Joe discussing the pedal here
Allan Holdsworth - Interesting interview with Allan Holdsworth (via Rich Murray)
Liquid Tension Experiment reunion tour - It looks like prog-rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment will be doing a brief tour this summer. I hope this results in a new album
Free Downloadable Paul Gilbert song - Mascot Records, the European label releasing Paul Gilbert’s new album, has provided the song Bultaco Saturno as a free download on their site
Andy Timmons Band Clinic and Tour Dates - Andy Timmons will be touring Europe this Spring and will also be performing at a Mesa Boogie clinic in April
Dweezil erupting on Guitar Rig - Video of Dweezil Zappa showcasing some of the features of the software product Guitar Rig. This summer, Dweezil will be touring again as Zappa Plays Zappa
Guitar Idol - A competition to find the hottest new guitarist
General News
Celemony - Recording software that enables you to modify individual notes from chords. Watch the video to find out why this is so interesting (via David Neal)
Introducing FretQuiz!
One of the most important things you can do to improve as a guitar player is to learn all of the notes on the fretboard and where each note is located. To that end, I’m extremely excited to announce the release of FretQuiz, a software quizzing application for learning the notes of the guitar fretboard!
Some features of FretQuiz include:
- 132 Questions
- Detailed Explanations
- Question Review
- Score Reports
- Score History
- View more features
Free Trial! Download a free trial to view a small sample of questions and see how FretQuiz works.
Introductory Pricing! You can purchase FretQuiz for an introductory price of $19.
System Requirements: FretQuiz runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista computers.
Have a guitar- or music-related blog? Contact me to find out how to get a free review copy of FretQuiz. Note: Please include a link to your blog.
If you have any questions about FretQuiz, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Four Questions
A local sports talk radio station has a weekly segment they call “Four Questions,” where they ask four interesting (and sometimes silly) questions, ostensibly about sports, but also about general culture. I thought that might make for a fun idea for this site, so here are four guitar-related questions:
1. If you had to give up the guitar in favor of another instrument, what instrument would you play?
2. Which Yardbird do you prefer: Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck?
3. Which of the six guitar strings could you live without?
4. Humbucker or Single-coil?
My answers are:
1. I’d probably move over to the bass, but if I had to give up fretted instruments altogether, I think I’d take up the drums. I enjoy being part of the rhythm section.
2. Definitely Clapton. Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck are undeniably great, and they all make timeless music, but Clapton’s music and guitar playing just speaks more to me.
3. If push came to shove, I could probably live without the B string. In a rock context, I’m more of a rhythm player than a soloist, but I think I would need the high E string to add some high harmony to the lower strings.
4. It really depends on what kind of mood I’m in, but until last year, I didn’t own a guitar with humbuckers, so I guess I would choose single-coils if I had to choose between the two. I do love my Strat.
Guitar Instructor
Recently, several other bloggers have mentioned the Web site GuitarInstructor.com. If you’re not familiar with GuitarInstructor.com, as its name implies, it is a guitar instruction site. What makes the site fairly unique is that it features video lessons by guitar legends, such as Eric Johnson, Keb Mo’, John 5, and others. You can purchase videos a la carte, which I think is a great way to buy videos. Video lessons are $1.99.
Another unique aspect of the site is a la carte song transcriptions. They have many song transcriptions by popular artists, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. Song transcriptions are generally $0.99-$1.49 each.
GuitarInstructor.com also features video lessons of songs by popular artists. Like the other aspects of the site, the song-based video lessons are pay as you go, with the lessons costing $1.99 each.
The site sounded interesting, so I thought I’d check it out in depth. I’ve recently been listening to some old Metallica tunes from their Ride the Lightning album. I had learned how to play part of “Fade To Black” when I was younger, and I wanted to learn it again. It just so happens that this was one of the song transcriptions available on GuitarInstructor.com, so I decided to purchase it.
Song transcriptions are delivered in PDF format. GuitarInstructor.com uses Sibelius Scorch to deliver and protect the content of the song transcriptions. You get one chance to print the transcription, so it’s important that you ensure that your printer is set up and working before trying to print the transcription. However, this is a minor quibble, and after purchasing the transcription, it was extremely simple to load and print it.
Based on my somewhat limited experience with GuitarInstructor.com, I’d recommend it to someone looking for pay as you go pricing on guitar lessons and guitar transcriptions. The site was extremely simple to use and offers a wide variety of lessons and songs.
Lenny Kravitz - It Is Time For A Love Revolution
I recently picked up It Is Time For A Love Revolution by Lenny Kravitz, and so far I’ve been very impressed. I think it’s the best album he’s put out so far.
I recently read that other than a few guitar solos and the saxophone parts, Kravitz played all of the instruments on the album. Apparently, he’s done this for all of his albums, but I’d never heard about it until recently. Very impressive!
Like all of Kravitz’s other albums, this latest album melds classic rock from the 60s and 70s with funk and modern rock. Some people criticize Kravitz for being too much of a throw back, but I personally dig it. Sometimes, it can become a little tired, but It is Time For A Love Revolution breaks through and remains fresh throughout the entire album.
The album is funky, rocking, and laid back all at the same time; an excellent blend of the old and the new. If you’ve enjoyed any of Kravitz’s music in the past, then you’ll like It Is Time For A Love Revolution. If you’ve never been a fan, then maybe this latest album will change your mind. I’ve really been enjoying it over the past few weeks.
-
-
About
Welcome to my guitar blog! My name is Josh, and this site is my attempt to celebrate the guitar, its history, and its players. Read more...
-
Subscribe in a Reader
-
Subscribe by E-mail
-
Blogroll