How Marfan Syndrome killed my music career, replaced it with a writing career, and helped me see the connective tissue flowing through everything. “You have spider hands,” the doctor said. Known formally as arachnodactyly, it was the thin, elegant structure of my hands that — along with the abnormal curvature of my spine, and my generally…
Compared to most instruments, the modern guitar is a relatively new instrument. While classical instruments like piano, brass, and woodwinds all have hundreds of years of pedagogy behind them, the language of guitar music and how we learn to play is new and constantly changing. Today, we can find chords to any song on the internet…
It’s easy to romanticize the lives of famous musicians. From larger-than-life rock stars to groundbreaking pioneers of sound, and dazzling technical virtuosos, we look up to our musical heroes and strive to live and create the same way that they do. But no one is free from the potential disasters that lurk around every corner.…
Lester William Polsfuss, the given name of guitar-maker Les Paul, was a legend. His technological innovations, as a result of a sheer addiction to tinkering, were vast. They include multi-track recording, overdubbing (which he famously called “sound on sound“), tape delay, reverb, phase effects, and “the log,” more commonly known as the solid-body electric guitar.…
Welcome back to Fundamentals of Guitar Anatomy, my four-part series examining the literal ins and outs of your electric guitar. So far, we’ve covered wood types and body styles, and today I’d like to cover all the different kinds of pickups available at your disposal, how they work and how they create different tonal shapes. An…
Welcome back to Fundamentals of Guitar Anatomy, my multi-part series examining the ins and outs of your electric guitar. In the last lecture, we talked about body styles, and that knowledge will help you to grasp this one, as we’re going to be talking about the different types of wood used for guitars and their effect. The…
Welcome to the Fundamentals of Guitar Anatomy. This is a four-part lecture, so take your seats, bust out your axe and grab a magnifying glass, because we’re going to examine all the ways your guitar’s sound can take shape through design and hardware (if you’re ready for next-level sound sculpting, try adding some pedals). First, I’d…
