Guitar Lessons London Blog P2
The second page of blog posts for the Guitar Lessons London Blog...enjoy!
So Sunday marked the end of this year's NAMM show, setting the tone for the rest of the year. For those of the guitar community out there who don’t know about the NAMM show, the National Association of Music Merchants or NAMM, hold a massive event every January in California showcasing the best new musical instruments and gear that the world has to offer...click here to read more!
Cracking songs that you have never heard!
Here at Guitar Lessons London we love to check out different music and bring you stuff that you probably have never heard! Here a three songs that caught my ears this week...click here to read more!
Bigfoot Engineering Octo Puss Prime
This is the latest pedal to come out of Bigfoot Engineering, a UK based pedal manufacturer with a penchant for creating great analogue fuzz and distortion pedals. Like the Thunder Pup, the Octo Puss Prime is another quality pedal...click here to read more!
There's only a few days left until the end of 2013, so we're pretty sure there's not going to be any last-minute gems released in the next couple of days. 2013 has been a fantastic year for Guitar Lessons London...click here to read more!
If you’re an avid NME reader, you’ll be well aware of the magazine’s blatant distress at the situation of guitar-based ‘indie’, ‘alternative’ and ‘rock’ bands in the UK charts. Long gone are the days when they consistently topped the charts: only ten years ago, the likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The Libertines and Kaiser Chiefs took centre stage...click here to read more!
Bigfoot Engineering Thunder Pup
The ‘Thunder Pup’ is Bigfoot Engineering’s new overdrive pedal, fresh off the production line this November. Bigfoot Engineering are a great independent pedal manufacturer and always combine quirky-looking designs with great tone and impeccable build-quality...click here to read more!
The Smiths: 'Not Like Any Other Love'
It’s no secret that here at Guitar Lessons London, we love The Smiths. Or rather, I love them and Matthew (the boss) begrudgingly puts up with my blissed-out ramblings. For me, they represent the pinnacle of British musical achievement: essentially four lads from the estates of Manchester, in only five years they rose from humble backgrounds to produce, what now is widely considered, the best British guitar music of the 1980s...click here to read more!
The Digitech Whammy changed the sound of the electric guitar since its release in 1989, opening up new sonic possibilities in octave and harmonization. Famously the pedal is used by the likes of...click here to read more!
Noisey review Skrillex's single Bangarang with the help of a some very opinionated music critics! An American artist known also by the off-stage name Sonny Moore rose to fame during 2010 with his catchy dubstep tunes...click here to read more!
John Frusciante Guitar Rig 2002
John Frusciante is famed for his guitar sound and here we explore the guitar rig Frusciante used during the By The Way era! Frusciante's classic warm yet snappy tones used in By The Way and Can't Stop can be contrasted to the more experimental pedal use seen in...click here to read more!
Matt Bellamy of Muse Guitar Rig 2000
Matt Bellamy has created some of the best lead guitar riffs of the last twenty years (Plug in Baby, Hysteria, Supremacy, Knights of Cydonia etc.) manipulating the sound of his guitar to produce some seriously strange and sonic sounds perfect for Muse's intaspace style...click here to read more!
Kurt Cobain's Nevermind era guitar rig was surprisingly sparse, purchasing only a few guitars, pedals and amps with the $287,000 advance from Geffen Records. The album's iconic grunge sound was produce by using a Boss DS-1...click here to read more!
Kings of Leon's Guitar Rig 2009
Kings of Leon guitar tech Nacho Followill takes us through the bands guitar and pedal set up just before they perform in Pittsburgh in 2009! One of the biggest rock bands of the last ten years since rising to fame in the early 2000s Kings of Leon use a dynamic range of effects to create their sound...click here to read more!
John Frusciante On Recording Dani California
John Frusciante takes us through the guitar parts and sounds he used to record their multi-double platinum selling single Dani California! Taken from their 2006 album and nineth studio album Stadium Arcadium Frusciante used various effects devices in order to achieve the textures and treatments in the song...click here to read more!
Tom Morello, famed for creating a distinctly difference electric guitar sound, amazingly only uses six pedals to do the job! Hired as the DJ within Rage Against The Machine Morello took many of these sounds onto the guitar, producing some wild sounds with his pedals still at "10, as they were when I first left the guitar store"...click here to read more!
Named after their beloved grandfather Leon, the three brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared and cousin Matthew formed Kings of Leon in Nashville, Tennessee at the close of 1999. Inspired by their unusual upbringing...click here to read more!
Signature Guitars: Gimmick or Godsend?
Every great guitarist needs a first-rate guitar to match. Fact. Keith Richards has his trusty Fender Tele’, Slash his Gibson Les Paul and Hendrix his upside-down Fender Strat’. Guitars are part and parcel of what makes a guitarist ‘great’, affecting not only their playing style, but also their tone. Take Richards for example...click here to read more!
About John Frusciante The Former Guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers
John Frusciante joined the RHCP when he was only 18 years old after the drug overdosed death of the former guitarist Hillel Slovak. Striving to emulate Slovak's sound Frusciante mixed energetic lead riffs with wacky rhythmic cord progressions as heard on the band's 1989 album, Mother's Milk. However...click here to read more!
In Utero by Nirvana: A comparison between the Litt and Albini Mixes
After Nirvana had competed the recording sessions for their third studio album In Utero the feedback from their record company was less than good. "The grown-ups don't like it", Cobain reported, having been told that his songwriting was "not up to par", the sound was "unlistenable", and that there was uncertainty that mainstream radio would welcome the sound of Steve Albini's production. Nonetheless...click here to read more!
The Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Innovation
So it is a month since the Rolling Stones finished the last leg of their 50 and Counting Tour in Hyde Park, which I was fortunate enough to attend on 6th July. Richards, Jagger and company have been around for half a century and are firmly part of the musical establishment, so it's easy to forget that they were once pioneers at the forefront of British musical innovation...click here to read more!
Modern Guitar Heroes: The Blues Revisited
For the last 50 years, every decade seems to have produced at least a few so called ‘guitar heroes’. The ‘50s had Chuck Berry and B.B King, the ‘60s Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. In the 1970s, Led Zep and The Ramones propelled Jimmy Page and Johnny Ramone to fame...click here to read more!
Why is the Stone Roses reunion gigs in Manchester this weekend so significant?
Who are the Stone Roses & why is their reunion gigs in Manchester this weekend so significant? As Ian Brown walked onto the rain sodden stage in Manchester last night in front of 75,000 fans, beginning the Stone Roses first major show in over 16 years, it occurred to me that many younger guitarists might not know the true significance of this epic gig...click here to read more!
There is no better place than London to look to for inspiration, with some of the biggest rock bands in history having formed in the city. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the most famous bands to have come out of London...click here to read more!
Check out the new blink-182 rockumentary showing the bands latest tour for their 2011 album Neighborhoods. The AT&T Rockumentary: On the Road with blink-182...click here to read more!
London is one of the best cities for live music, and here at Guitar Lessons London we have compiled a list of some of the top venues to choose from. No matter what genre you like, from rock to pop, there is something for everyone...click here to read more!
Jimi Hendrix Woodstock 1969 Guitar Rig
Jimi Hendrix's 1969 performance at Woodstock has gone down in rock history as one of the most famous gigs of all time. Hendrix, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, guitarist of all time performed at the hight of his fame...click here to read more!
There are roughly two types of guitar owner. Firstly, there are those who are fascinated by tweaking, experimenting and tinkering with their guitar to find out the best pick-up combinations, action, and bridge position etc. And then there are those who are too scared to tamper with their beloved guitar in case they break it...click here to read more!
Recording and Rehearsal Studios in London
It is always a great moment for us at Guitar Lessons London when our students feel ready to take what they have learned in our guitar lessons further by recording their own music, be it a few guitar riffs, or a whole album. Choosing the right recording studio for you can be tricky, so we have put together a list of some for you to choose from...click here to read more!
Brandon Boyd of Incubus Recording "Warning"
An amazing Youtube video of Brandon Boyd of the American rock band Incubus recording the vocal track for the song Warning. Warning, taken from their forth studio album Morning View...click here to read more!
Here at Guitar Lessons London we are always being asked by our students which are the best guitar shops London has to offer. Well, to help you find out, here is the low down on London's top guitar stores for all levels of guitarists and all sizes of budgets...click here to read more!
Dave & Taylor give us a tour of Foo Fighter's own studio, Studio 606! Littered with platinum records and guitar equipment the studio is a dream facility for any guitarist...click here to read more!
When writing guitar riffs by yourself, often alone in your house, they can all sound a little "flat" and uninspiring. Like everything you write is, well, boring! It is such a common problem that musicians have mentioned to me that I thought I would write a short post explaining a few reasons why this is...click here to read more!
Solid State vs Tube Amplifiers (A Very General Introduction)
If you’ve just bought an electric guitar, and you haven’t got an amp already, you’ve probably discovered ‘solid state’ and ‘tube’ amplifiers on the internet, got fairly confused and googled ‘what are the differences between solid state and tube amplifiers?...click here to read more!
A count down of some of favourite new underground bands for the year...click here to read more!
Why Everyone Should Learn to Play a Musical Instrument
The Chinese philosopher Confucius said long ago that music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. Playing a musical instrument has many benefits and can bring joy to you and to everyone around you...click here to read more!
Electric & Acoustic Guitar
I cover all styles on both electric and acoustic guitar, enabling my guitar students to learn through the playing the songs that they love. Whether that is rock, pop, jazz, funk, blues, folk or anything in between we can cover it in our lessons. I have taught many beginner students over the years, developing a fantastic course of foundation lessons to enable my students to learn how to play the guitar at a pace that suits them.
For more advanced guitarists I offer lessons to ensure that you reach that next level on guitar, whether that is improving improvistation, nailing solos or gaining a more rounded approach to playing guitar to a professional standard.
To book your first lesson or simply find out more about my guitar lessons in London send me an email or call 020 8058 5470.
I was a fairly new guitarist when I went to Hawi. Hawi got me play the music I liked, giving me confidence in my playing, coupled with the fact that you will be learning from one of the premier guitarists in the country. - Dean, Essex
