10 Times Invited Fans Absolutely Crushed It on Stage
Bands bring their superfans on stage with them all the time, but occasionally they strike gold. Here are our 10 favorite times fans absolutely crushed it.
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10 Bizarre Yet Functional Guitars That Are More Than Just Gimmicks
Everyone knows about the Strats, Teles, and Les Pauls. These guitars are ubiquitous in the rock world. In fact, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a guitarist who’s been playing for over ten years who hasn’t at some point owned or dabbled with one or all of those classics. Yet no matter how much we…
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Spider Hands: Writing with a Deadly Genetic Disorder
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…
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5 Compositional Elements That Define the Music of Ennio Morricone
You know these iconic sounds of movie Westerns, now dive deeper into the makeup of Ennio Morricone’s signature works via these five compositional elements.
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Let’s Get Weird: Crazy Pedals for Crazy Guitarists – Distortion
Distortion, or dirt, as us cool guys call it, is not only used in loud garage rock. In fact, it’s used in every genre of music under the sun. It’s that crunch on the guitar, that huge, fuzz sound, the broken amp effect. There are three major types of distortion: fuzz, overdrive, and distortion, as well…
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Album Histories Monthly: Joan Jett – ‘I Love Rock ‘n Roll’
Welcome back to our new series on Flypaper, Album Histories Monthly, which brings you the story of a single album each month, in the month that it was originally released. Last month, we covered the Replacements’ 1984 goofball-punk classic, Let It Be. This month: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n Roll Release Date: November 18, 1981 “Looking…
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The Best Guitar Music in the World Is Coming from Agadez
It was late 2009 when I got my first taste of Agadez. Searching a relatively primitive YouTube for new music to explore for an ethnomusicology class, I came across a four-minute clip that would change my perspective on the electric guitar for years to come. Recorded in 2004 by Sublime Frequencies founder Hisham Mayet, the…
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Bang for Your Buck in a Box: A Rainbow of Great Guitar Pedals Under $200
With the explosion of boutique guitar pedal manufacturers in recent years, there’s never been a better time to get that certain sound under your stage toes. But it’s also in the nature of specialty pedals to be, well, specialized. In addition to being less versatile, they also tend to be a bit more expensive. Here…
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Tone Timeline: Using Delay as a Secondary Instrument
When it comes to playing an instrument, especially in a live setting, there are hundreds of different sounds you can create through the use of effects pedals. One of the most popular and versatile effects is delay. Dozens of major brands have produced stompboxes with settings and delay variations such as analog, digital, tape, tap…
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The 9 Most Common Mistakes Musicians Make When Learning to Play Electric Guitar
By Natalie Wilson As a guitar teacher, I see a lot of common mistakes in my beginner students. While it’s okay to have lofty goals and aspirations, all too often, beginner students get discouraged early on by not being able to achieve the tone, smoothness, and power of famous guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric…
