The harmonica, also known as the French harp, is a small wind instrument held in hand while playing. It can be played by inhaling and exhaling through several air slots. Kids love playing these because they’re easy to learn and provide fun entertainment and lively music. Also, harmonicas are small so they can easily be carried in a shirt pocket or pants pocket. Many adults love them for these same reasons!
The most common key on the harmonica is C. Harmonicas that are played in the Appalachian South only play a diatonic scale, but not chromatic intervals that are between diatonic scale tones. Therefore, these harmonicas are typically sold in various models based on keys. For instance, there are G-harmonicas, D-harmonicas, C-harmonicas, and so forth.
Harmonica Construction and Sound
In the past, harmonicas were usually made of wood. Today, many harmonicas are constructed from injection-molded plastic. There are also high-end harmonicas that are built from metal alloys, silver, or Lucite. The harmonica’s sound is often based on the materials it is made of, with each material giving its own unique sound. For example, blues harps or marine band harps are made of soft wood that resists moisture and create a rich, unique sound.
Types of Harmonicas
Harmonicas come in many different types and styles. These are often chosen by players according to the type of music they would like to play. Some harmonica players enjoy performing at events as soloists or with a group or band. The cross harp is often used in blues music, but can also be used in many types of music. It is a diatonic harmonica that is played in a key that is actually seven half-steps up from the harmonica’s main key. For example, if the harmonica were tuned in C, it would actually be played in G.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hardcore was originally acclaimed as dirt, quick and bustling punk-rock, which emerged in the US in late 70-ies through early 80-ies. The hard-core bands, including Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Jerry’s Kids posed as founders of hardcore.
Until 80-ies, hardcore appeared to be peculiar of ear-teasing, short and quick songs of approximately 1 to 1.5 minutes with presence of social lyrics. This stage completed due to bands’ tendency either to split up or, to, simply, shift to different musical style. Those times hardcore is labelled the old school hardcore.
Some bands, including Earth Crisis, All Out War, Strife, following the old school hardcore, enriched their music with combination of slow melodies and metal elements, which, thus, committed to establishment of the new school of hardcore.
The others, like Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Embrace however, applying restrictions to “hardness” in their music, developed the new styles of grunge and emocore, respectively. The emocore boasts the peculiar features of emotional performance, melodic and soft back-vocal, minor chords as well as typical behaviour on stage.
Read the rest of this entry »
The very first guitar I ever played was a Candy Apple Red Fender Stratocaster. It was love at first touch. I wanted that guitar SO bad. I grew up listening to Eric Clapton, David Gilmore and Jimmy Hendrix, and during my college years I was a huge fan of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The Fender Stratocaster was the guitar of choice for these incredible guitar players and many more.
My tasted in guitars evolved as I learned, and I discovered that every guitar had their own personality in my hands. Some were sassy and bright, others were bad and loud, and still others just wanted to sing the blues. One of the coolest parts about owning a music store was being able to play thousands of different guitars of all makes and styles.
But my roots have always been with the Fender Strat. The secret to the amazing tone for the Strat lies in the traditional single could pickups, two piece body and the types of tone woods used to make the guitar. Fender offers the same pickups played by Jimmy Hendrix, or Eric Clapton. Fenders custom shop ’69 pickups will do the trick, or if you’re into Stevie Ray Vaughn you need Fenders Tex-Mex specials.
Probably the best way to play the same guitar as your guitar heroes is to purchase their signature model. Fender has signature models available for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, Robin Trower, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson and more.
Rather a “c” or “v” neck dressed up in maple or rosewood, nothing feels like a Stratocaster and nothing plays or sounds the same. In everyone’s life a little rain must fall, and in every guitarist life a Stratocaster must be played.
Read the rest of this entry »
What would you think about someone who wanted to become an awesome finger-picker but most of their practice was focused on using a pick? You’d think they were crazy right? And rightly so! But believe me it’s more common than you think. Heck…even I’ve been guilty of this more than a few times! I think we all sometimes fall into the trap of practicing things without thinking exactly WHY we are practicing them.
So what’s the cure for this? I can give you the cure in three words…
Big Picture Thinking
What’s this? Put simply it means looking at the WHYs and WHATs before looking at the HOWs. It’s looking at the overall picture before becoming focused on the details. Let’s take a look at an example to make it clearer…
Let’s say that you would like to learn to shred. Rather than just jumping in and practicing some random exercises, let’s go through the big picture thinking process.
**Step One** Why
In this step you write down exactly WHY you want to become a shredder. Think of all the reasons and write them down. This is really important. Your reasons why help keep you motivated and enthusiatic about working towards your goal. In fact, I can almost guarantee that without a strong, exciting and compelling why you will give up before you reach your goal!
Read the rest of this entry »
