It can be tricky at times to categorise a song’s level for the purposes of guitar gradings as different players have different skill sets. Rockschool, who have been a popular go to for secondary schools for many years now, have just announed a new series of books that will help address this problem.

Rockschool’s ‘Hot Rock Guitar’ books feature 8 classic guitar tracks appropriate for each grade allowing students to play their favourite songs in exams.

8 classic rock songs. 2 versions of each track. 1 massive book.
Rockschool is about playing the styles of music you enjoy. The Hot Rock series of graded Guitar tracks feature 8 classic rock songs. The exam versions of these tracks can be used for rockschool grade exams. The full transcriptions are great for both guitarists and vocalists and can be used in the performance units for GCSE and A Level.

Each book features:

• An edited exam version of songs
• Full transcriptions with vocal line TAB and Standard Notation
• Fact files band and artist background information with recommended further listening
• Walkthroughs Hints and Tips on the tricky sections of the songs
• 2 CDs with full mixes and backing tracks exam versions and full transcriptions
• Introduction to tone authentic tone and amp setting suggestions for each track

Currently there are three books available for Grades 1, 2 and 3. The lineup of songs looks pretty good:

Grade 1

Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol
Jailbreak – Thin Lizzy
Living On A Prayer – Bon Jovi
Run To You – Bryan Adams
Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream
Wishing Well – Free
Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
Zephyr Song – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Grade 2

Enter Sandman – Metallica
Highway To Hell – AC/DC
Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
I Believe In A Thing Called Love – The Darkness
Supersonic – Oasis
You Give Love A Bad Name – Bon Jovi
Albatross – Fleetwood Mac
Resolve – Foo Fighters

Grade 3

Paranoid – Black Sabbath
Hey Joe – Jimi Hendrix
Cigarettes and Alcohol – Oasis
Ain’t Talkin About Love – Van Halen
Steady As She Goes – The Raconteurs
Golden Touch – Razorlight
Sex On Fire – Kings Of Leon
Wherever I May Roam – Metallica

Each book costs £22.50

The guys Lick Library have launched an exciting new interactive magazine called iGuitar:

Welcome to iGuitar, the first truly interactive online digital guitar magazine. With exclusive interviews and features on some of the most famous guitar players ever, there are also product and album reviews and if that wasn’t enough the magazine is jam packed with over 3 hours of exclusive video performances, interviews and reviews.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words we think that makes a moving picture worth ten thousand, so you’ll find a huge amount of video material in each issue – hours of tuition, expert reviews, interviews and with lots more to come over the months.

The first issue features an article on David Gilmour, an interview with Guthrie Govan and lessons from the fantastic Andy James and Rick Graham plus much much more!

Looks great, my only gripe is the fact it’s flash based which is an ‘issue’ when reading on the iPad but the magazine shows great promise and is raising the bar for what an online interactive guitar magazine should be delivering.

Jonathan Bloomer, mastermind behind the epic guitar blog guitarnoize.com, has just released a comprehensive eBook called ‘Shred Master – Exercises & Studies‘.

The book features tablature of 25 excellent lessons to help build finger strength and dexterity as well as right hand picking accuracy and speed.

What sets this book from the crowd though is the fact each lesson comes with a high definition video lesson showing you how to play each exercise!

Each lesson is clearly transcribed and logical camera placement enables the viewer to get a good clear look at both hands for mastering each exercise.

The sheer amount of material on offer should appeal to players of all levels from beginners to advanced and greatly improve anyone’s playing.

Exercises run the full gamut of modern techniques covering legato, string bending, string skipping, alternate picking, string crossing, economy picking, hybrid picking and tapping.

All this for only $12.99 or in other words $0.52 a lesson!

Check it out now.

Thanks to Mr Clark for the heads up, cool article in the Guardian about the upcoming 40th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, where Ed Vulliamy speaks to the people who knew him best:

The most precious insight comes from Etchingham. “People often saw Jimi on stage looking incredibly intense and serious. And suddenly this smile would come across his face, almost a laugh, for no apparent reason,” she says. “Well, I remember that very well, sitting on the bed or the floor at home in Brook Street. Sometimes, he would play a riff for hours, until he had it just right. Then this great smile would creep across his face or he’d throw his head back and laugh. Those were the moments he had got it right for himself, not for anyone else.”

Thanks to Thomas, a student of mine, for giving me the heads up an old but amazing thread over on gearslutz.com where the producer Michael Wagner talks about the recording of Extreme‘s classic album, Pornograffitti and engineer Bob St. John talks about following albums!:

the solos are NOT composites, but were recorded and punched in ala the old linear method; it was rare to have the solo recorded and go back and fix a small piece (besides there were some days i was getting a reputation as “eraserhead” i don’t miss the old analog method that much it was just the way we worked. i wish i could say how MUCH time we spent on each part, but that is so obscured in my memory at this point; i know that to record the typical solo was about 4-5 hours of work. although i can’t remember exactly…i believe we spent a little more time on the rhythm tracks; although they were doubled.

as far as people slagging nuno…look, i worked with the guy from when he was 16. complicated? sometimes. gifted…more than anybody here could know. royal pain in the butt? you KNOW it. it’s hard to fall off that pedestal…even if you keep climbing back up on it yourself =) but…to sit in front of that guy in the studio…watch his mind (and fingers) work…has been something i’ve rarely seen. to me…it’s not about those rippin’ guitar solos…but about his innate sense of harmony and rhythm. i have yet to meet someone with that command. i lived through schizophonic (and like extreme III and IV, was listed as co-producer but nuno has a VERY large shadow to stand inside…and to be honest, the records are more a product of gary and nuno’s imagination than anybody’s…and that includes pornograffitti and extreme I).

and from a link withing that thread the actual settings for Nuno’s ADA preamp on that album

Here are the real settings:
Overdrive 1 : 4.0 dist
Overdrive 2 : 5.5 dist
Master Gain : 7.5 dist
Bass : 12
Mid : 6
Treb : 6
Pres : 12
Voicing : .tube
FX loop : off

From the ADA it went into the McIntosh 2100 (transistor) poweramp and from there into a vintage Marshall 4×12 cab with the original G12H inside. At that time I normally used Fostex M11RP ribbon mics and Countryman Lavalier mics through a John Hardy M1 to record guitar.

Don’t know how I managed to miss this! But here is Guitar World’s Top 10 Shred Albums of All Time:

10) Greg Howe (Shrapnel, 1988) Greg Howe A funk-savvy speedster, Greg Howe injected the shred scene with some much-needed shake and soul. The funkdafied “Kick It All Over” kicks off the festivities, and the following track, “The Pepper Shake,” offers a spicy display of Howe’s legato and alternate-picking chops.

9) Speed Metal Symphony (Shrapnel, 1987) Cacophony Speed Metal Symphony, a mighty opus featuring first-chair guitar virtuosos Marty Friedman and Jason Becker, uses “speed metal” rhythm beds and shifting time signatures to help break up the cacophonous onslaught of all-out shred.

Michael Lee Firkins (Shrapnel, 1990) Michael Lee Firkins A unique shredder, Firkins employed hybrid picking, subtle whammy wobbling, and country-flavored intervallic leaps to craft some surprisingly listenable tunes.

7) Powers of Ten (Warner Bros., 1992) Shawn Lane From his debut, the now out-of-print Powers of Ten, to his fusion work on Tri-Tone Fascination, the late Shawn Lane exhibited a tremendous sense of melody, even while melting picks with his incendiary technique. If Eric Johnson were a pure shredder, this is what he might sound like.

6) Surfing With the Alien (Relativity, 1987) Joe Satriani Just how badass is Joe Satriani? Well, his list of students includes Steve Vai. And “Satch Boogie” was (and still is) the only shred tune that FM radio would touch. But the real highlight of this release is Side 2, which contains the gemini-like clean and distorted tones of “Circles” and “Lords of Karma,” as well as the clean-toned two-handed tapfest “Midnight” and the hypnotic “Echo.”

5) Passion and Warfare (Relativity, 1990) Steve Vai Remember the cute MTV video for Vai’s “The Audience Is Listening”? What school-age guitar player didn’t want to live out that fantasy? Melodic, flashy, humorous, and filled with hooks, Passion and Warfare is the bar by which all other instrumental guitar albums are measured.

4) Edge of Insanity (Shrapnel, 1986) Tony MacAlpine The album that launched Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records, Edge of Insanity shows off Tony MacAlpine’s fearsome shred chops not only on the six-string (“Quarter to Midnight”) but also on the ivories (“Chopin, Prelude 16, Opus 28”).

3) Mind’s Eye (Shrapnel, 1986) Vinnie Moore Only one year after Yngwie unleashed his fury on U.S. shores, Vinnie Moore responded with the “Oh yeah? Check this out” release Mind’s Eye. On “Daydream,” Moore demonstrates his grasp of classical themes and motifs; then, on “The Journey,” he shows he can do it with “feel.”

2) Live: Extreme Volume (Shrapnel, 1988) Racer X In the mood for a steaming bowl of notemeal? Check out this 1988 live release from shred poster boys Paul Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet. The best part? There was no pretense of cultural significance with these guys; Racer X was simply speed for the sake of speed.

1) Rising Force (Polydor, 1985) Yngwie Malmsteen I’m laying it on the line right now: Yngwie J. Malmsteen was, is, and always will be the greatest shredder of all time. Hell, he invented the genre with his 1985 debut. The standout track “Far Beyond the Sun” was far beyond what any guitar player had ever imagined possible.

Interestingly I have eight of those ten albums, with two being hugely influential on my playing.

Check out this great article from the fantastic Musician Wages website entitled “What I Learned at My Record Label Job“.

The author, Cameron Mizell, writes about his time at Verve Records and what he learned from working with various departments such as digital production, strategic marketing, design, manufacturing and distribution etc.

One way to understand the whole process of selling records is to actually start with the Sales department suggesting a new angle on a product, such as a reissue series, that they feel will do well at certain retailers. Then the A&R, Creative, and Production departments jump into action to make the product a reality. Sometimes this involves creating exclusives for particular accounts (such as a Borders’ version with a bonus track). Exclusives are usually added to the schedule last minute and involve some quick manuvering through the processes mentioned above.

Forgot to blog this when the June Edition of Premier Guitar was published, luckily the RSS feed just popped up with the article .

Informative post from Tony Pasko talking about how speakers affect your overall sound as well as the common wattage vs volume problem:

The thing you want to consider is that what you like or dislike about your guitar tone could very well be the speaker—it is after all 40 percent of your tone. Picture your amplifier as a sports car. Now picture your speakers as the tires. The wrong speaker in an amp is like having bicycle wheels on your sports car. That’s how important the speakers are.

Wattage vs. Volume
This is a huge misconception among musicians. These two ratings are not the same. 50 watts isn’t half as loud as 100 watts. Wattage really comes into play when you start considering your function—how many watts is going to produce the level of volume you need for band practice, or playing a club?

Great post up on the Rock House Blog looking at the different types of neck woods:

Rule 1: Good wood is paramount in achieving good tone. Always select quality pieces, if the wood is cheap the tone will suffer, and you will run into neck stability problems.

Rule 2: Wood is a living thing and the grain is telling a story of how it was cut, how it will dry, and how it will age. Knowing how to read the grain will save you from purchasing a lemon, or selecting the right piece that will bring you a lifetime of performance.

Via Guitarnoize, you can now read through an online digital version of Guitar Player Magazine called GP2.

GP2 presents those expansive tutorials from GP’s “All About…” series that details the science and applications behind essential tone tools such as speakers, tubes, pickups, whammy bars, and effects processors. And while every issue of GP2 offers current interviews with legends, hit makers, and new and edgy hot shots, we’re also including classic articles dredged up from the exhaustive 42-year-old Guitar Player archives. Here, guitar zealots can peruse the first “tone and technique” discussions with Hendrix in 1967, or Clapton when he was in Cream, or Jimmy Page when Led Zeppelin was just starting to explode, or even one of the only guitar interviews George Harrison ever gave.

As a resource for gear news and reviews, artist interviews, guitar lessons, and comprehensive how-to’s, the monthly GP2 digital magazine offers a stunning bounty of data to help guitarists sound better and play better. It’s like a massive warehouse of guitar goodies delivered to your computer screen each and every month!

And the really cool thing here is that GP2 is absolutely free.

Here’s what’s in the inaugural issue of GP2…

COVER STORY
• Roundup – Five affordable flat-tops

ARTIST FEATURES

• Rock: George Lynch
  Metal: Meshuggah

CLASSIC INTERVIEWS

• George Benson, 1974
• Jeff Beck, 1975

GEAR

• Egnater Rebel-20
• Roland Mobile Cube & Cube Street
• EVH Wolfgang
• Richmond Belmont & Dorchester
• All About… Pickups

MASTER CLASS

• ‘80s Rock Boot Camp

SESSIONS

Interactive guitar lessons powered by TrueFire.

Great news! Guitar Player articles are always top quality.