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Bass Guitar

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With early versions appearing in the 1930s, the modern bass guitar was invented by Leo Fender and marketed beginning in 1951 as a cheaper, more portable, and louder alternative for double bassists playing in dance bands.

The bass guitar comes in two variants: the solid-body electric bass guitar and the hollow-body acoustic bass guitar. Both are traditionally tuned like a double bass, with the same four lowest strings (E’-A’-D-G) as a guitar, but an octave lower.While the electric bass guitar is always amplified outside of personal practice settings, confusingly, the acoustic bass guitar can also be amplified electronically via pickups, usually in performance settings. The acoustic bass guitar is “acoustic” because its main amplification is its resonant, hollow body.Both the electric and acoustic bass guitars originally and typically have fretted fingerboards, which enable ease of intonation. Fretless bass guitars enable swooping glissandi, which can approximate the sound of the double bass

Drums

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In Queen, Roger Taylor is the drummer and adds that extra flavor that is needed or you have no band! Drummers are also essential because they keep the beat to the song, and they also can make sounds unlike any instrument. It may be one of the easier instruments to learn, but hard to master.

Drums appear with wide geographic distribution in archaeological excavations from Neolithic times onward; one excavated in Moravia is dated to 6000 BCE. Early drums consisted of a section of hollowed tree trunk covered at one end with reptile or fish skin and were struck with the hands. Later the skin was taken from hunted game or cattle, and sticks were used. The double-headed drum came later, as did pottery drums in various shapes. The heads were fastened by several methods, some still in use. The skin might be secured to single-headed drums by pegs, nails, glue, buttoning (through holes in the membrane), or neck lacing (wrapping a cord around the membrane overlap). Double-headed drums were often directly cord-tensioned (i.e., through holes in the skin). Modern European orchestral drums often combine two hoops pressing against each head (one rolled in the skin, the other outside) with indirect lacing (i.e., to the hoops).

Drums typically have conspicuous extramusical functions—civil, message transmitting, and, particularly, religious. Credited with magical powers, they are frequently held sacred. In many societies their manufacture involves ritual. In East Africa, offerings such as cattle are made to the royal kettledrums, which not only symbolize the king’s power and status but also offer him supernatural protection.

The drum sound is produced by the vibration of a stretched membrane (it is thus classified as a membranophone within the larger category of percussion instruments). Basically, a drum is either a tube or a bowl of wood, metal, or pottery (the “shell”) covered at one or both ends by a membrane (the “head”), which is usually struck by a hand or stick. Friction drums, a class apart, are sounded by rubbing.

Electric Guitar

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History

The first electrically amplified stringed instrument to be marketed commercially was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, who was vice president. The maple body prototype for the one-piece cast aluminum “frying pan” was built by Harry Watson, factory superintendent of the National Guitar Corporation.[4] Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro–Patent-Instrument Company), in Los Angeles, a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker(originally Rickenbacher), and Paul Barth.In 1934, the company was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company. In that year Beauchamp applied for a United States patent for an Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument and the patent was later issued in 1937

To produce sound, an electric guitar senses the vibrations of the strings electronically and routes an electronic signal to an amplifier and speaker. The sensing occurs in a magnetic pickup mounted under the strings on the guitar’s body. A simple magnetic pickup looks like this:

This pickup consists of a bar magnet wrapped with as many as 7,000 turns of fine wire. If you have read How Electromagnets Work, then you know that coils and magnets can turn electrical energy into motion. In the same way, they can turn motion into electrical energy. In the case of an electric guitar, the vibrating steel strings produce a corresponding vibration in the magnet’s magnetic field and therefore a vibrating current in the coil.

Queen – Show Must Go On

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  • Guitarist Brian May wrote this while lead singer Freddie Mercury was dying of AIDS. It was Mercury’s last official album with Queen, and when it was released, very few people knew he had the disease.

    The lyrics are about the need to press on and make the most out of life while you can still enjoy it. It is inevitably comment on Mercury’s worsening condition, and his attitude towards life – May noted his incredible courage in the Days of our Lives documentary. “He never moaned, he never said ‘my life is s–t, this is terrible, I hate it,'” said May. “He had incredible strength and peace.”

    The song’s placing as the final track on Innuendo is notable, as it’s likely that the band thought that this might be the last album Mercury would be healthy enough to perform on before his death. In the sessions, he made enough recordings to provide the band with material to release the posthumous 1995 album Made In Heaven. This was used in the movie Moulin Rouge. It is performed in an operatic style by Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman in a scene that sets up the climax of the movie. In a 2005 poll by digital TV channel Music Choice where 45,000 adults across Europe were asked which song they would like played at their funeral, this was the favorite.

The Beatles- Hey Jude

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Paul McCartney was on a long drive in his Aston Martin in July 1968 when he began singing the song that later became Hey Jude. He wrote this as “Hey Jules,” a song meant to comfort John Lennon’s 5-year-old son Julian as his parents got a divorce. The change to ‘Jude’ was inspired by the character ‘Jud’ in musical Oklahoma! one of McCartney favorite shows. However, there is another, more sinister, interpretation based on the fact that the German word for ‘jew’ is jude.

This was the Beatles longest single, running 7:11, and at the time was the longest song ever released as a single. However, it had been meant to go into usual fade at about 3 minutes like other songs. But something strange happened — Paul flew off with the word better, turning the ending into a magnificent extravaganza.

Hey Jude was recorded between July 31 and August 1, 1968, at Trident Studios, London, with a 36 piece orchestra whose members clapped and sang on the fadeout (for which they earned double rates). It was released on 30 August.

This song hit #1 in at least 12 countries and by the end of 1968 had sold more than 5 million copies. It eventually sold over 10 million copies in the United States, becoming the fourth-biggest selling Beatles single there.

John, unaware of how badly his divorce was affecting his son, and not realizing Paul had written this for Julian, actually believed that the line You were made to go out and get her was Paul imploring John to get Yoko Ono.

Nirvana

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Nirvana, American alternative rock group whose breakthrough album, Nevermind (1991), announced a new musical style (grunge) and gave voice to the post-baby boom young adults known as Generation X. The members were Kurt Cobain (b. February 20, 1967, Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.—d. April 5, 1994, Seattle, Washington), Krist Novoselic (b. May 16, 1965, Compton, California), and Dave Grohl(b. January 14, 1969, Warren, Ohio).

From Aberdeen, near Seattle, Nirvana was part of the postpunk underground scene that centered on K Records of Olympia, Washington, before they recorded their first single, “Love Buzz” (1988), and album, Bleach (1989), for Sub Pop, an independent record company in Seattle. They refined this mix of 1960s-style pop and 1970s heavy metal–hard rock on their first album for a major label, Geffen; Nevermind, featuring the anthemic hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” was the first full expression of punk concerns to achieve mass-market success in the United States.

Nirvana used extreme changes of tempo and volume to express anger and alienation: a quiet, tuneful verse switched into a ferocious, distorted chorus. In the fashion of many 1970s punk groups, guitarist-singer-songwriter Cobain set powerful rock against sarcastic, allusive lyrics that explored hopelessness, surrender, and male abjection (“As a defense, I’m neutered and spayed,” he sang in “On a Plain”). Imbued with the punk ethic that to succeed was to fail, Nirvana abhorred the media onslaught that accompanied their rapid ascent. Success brought celebrity, and Cobain typecast as a self-destructive rock star, courted controversy both with his advocacy of feminism and gay rights and with his embroilment in a sequence of drug- and gun-related escapades—a number of which involved his wife, Courtney Love, leader of the band Hole.

Like Nevermind, the band’s third album, In Utero (1993)—which contained clear articulations of Cobain’s psyche in songs such as “All Apologies” and “Rape Me”—reached number one on the U.S. album charts. By this point, however, Cobain’s heroin use was out of control. After a reputed suicide attempt in Rome in March 1994, he entered a Los Angeles treatment center. In a mysterious sequence of events, he returned to Seattle, where he shot and killed himself in his lakeside home. Subsequent concert releases, notably Unplugged in New York (1994) and From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996), only added to Nirvana’s legend.

Queen

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Queen, the British rock band whose fusion of heavy metal, glam rock, and camp theatrics made it one of the most popular groups of the 1970s. Although generally dismissed by critics, Queen crafted an elaborate blend of layered guitar work by virtuoso Brian May and overdubbed vocal harmonies enlivened by the flamboyant performance of frontman and principal songwriter Freddie Mercury. The members were Freddie Mercury (original name Farrokh Bulsara; b. September 5, 1946, Stone Town, Zanzibar [now in Tanzania]—d. November 24, 1991, Kensington, London, England), Brian May (b. July 19, 1947, Twickenham, Middlesex, England), John Deacon (b. August19, 1951, Leicester, Leicestershire, England), and Roger Taylor (original name Roger Meddows-Taylor; b. July 26, 1949, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England).

Members of two bands composed of university and art-school students combined to form Queen in London in 1971. Aided by producer Roy Thomas Baker, Queen shot up the international charts with its third album, Sheer Heart Attack (1974). A Night at the Opera(1975), one of pop music’s most expensive productions, sold even better. Defiantly eschewing the use of synthesizers, the band constructed a sound that was part English music hall, part Led Zeppelin, epitomized by the mock-operatic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Britain’s top single for nine weeks. Spectacular success followed in 1977 with “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You”—which became ubiquitous anthems at sporting events in Britain and the United States. The Game (1980), featuring “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust,” was Queen’s first number one album in the United States. Their popularity waned for a period in the 1980s; however, a stellar performance at the charity concert Live Aid in 1985 reversed their fortunes commercially. Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, and the band issued its final album in 1995. Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Aerosmith

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Aerosmith, American heavy metal band. One of the biggest arena-rock attractions of the late 1970s, Aerosmith became even more popular with its career revival in the mid-1980s. Principal members were lead singer Steven Tyler (byname of Steven Tallarico; b. March 26, 1948, New York, New York, U.S.), lead guitarist Joe Perry (b. September 10, 1950, Boston, Massachusetts), guitarist Brad Whitford(b. February 23, 1952, Winchester, Massachusetts), bassist Tom Hamilton (b. December 31, 1951, Colorado Springs, Colorado), and drummer Joey Kramer (b. June 21, 1950, New York City).

Formed in 1970, the Boston-based band played bluesy, swaggering rock most reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. (Indeed, vocalist Tyler—the band’s driving force, along with guitarist Perry—resembled Mick Jagger.) Their later work also incorporated country music influences. Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976) were multimillion sellers, but substance abuse and a dearth of creativity led to a period of inactivity for the band in the early 1980s. In 1986, two years after the return of Perry (who had left the band in 1979), Aerosmith returned to the limelight when Run-D.M.C. made a rap version of the band’s 1975 hit “Walk This Way.” Converted to sobriety, Aerosmith produced the multiplatinum-selling albums Permanent Vacation (1987) and Pump (1989). The latter featured the Grammy Award-winning “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and it marked a return to the hard rock success of Toys in the Attic. The band followed with Get a Grip (1993), an album that generated a pair of Grammys for the singles “Livin’ on the Edge” and “Crazy.” During this time, Aerosmith was a constant presence on MTV, and the group won numerous music video awards. The band’s next release, Nine Lives (1997), reached the top of the Billboard album chart, and the single “Pink” garnered a Grammy.

Later albums include Just Push Play (2001) and the blues tribute Honkin’ on Bobo (2004). In 2008 the band starred in the console video game Guitar Hero Aerosmith, in which players could perform some of the group’s greatest hits in a variety of virtual settings. A public feud between Tyler and Perry in 2009 fueled rumors of a possible breakup, with Perry suggesting that Aerosmith would find a replacement lead singer. Tyler underwent drug rehabilitation, returning to front the band for a summer 2010 tour, and he later served (2011–12) as a judge on the reality television show American Idol. Aerosmith released Music from Another Dimension! in 2012, and the band continued to tour thereafter. In 2001 Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Rolling Stones and Some of their songs

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Hi! This blog is to get to know famous rock bands, and I wanted to start with The Rolling Stones which is my favorite.

The band was formed in London,1962 by Mick Jagger(lead vocalist) and Keith Richards(guitar and back vocalist). The other members are Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. They make music in blues and rock. The band has so many awards and nominations, like the best rock album, best traditional music album, and best live band. Their most famous song, “Paint it, black” has an interesting story. In the 18th century, sporting house’s doors were painted to red. A man who loved a woman from that house did not save the woman and caused her to die. That’s why in this song there are lyrics like “I see my red door and I must have it painted black”

Let us learn their other one of the famous song “Gimme Shelter”‘s story. There were Vietnam War in those years and the band wanted to give a free concert to cheer people up. However, in this concert, many fights were outbroken because of a stampede. Even there were dead people. “War, children, it’s just a shot away”

Their other most known songs are Angie, sympathy for the devil, wild horses, brown sugar, beast of burden… Rolling Stones was always in the top 10, among the most famous rock bands. I definitely suggest you to listen their at least one song.