Violent Entity Music Project

Country guitar lessons in these days of the world wide web are now popular all over the world. If you are wondering what the fuss is about I will just mention some aspects of country guitar playing that excite the interest of music fans and guitar enthusiasts alike. This article will focus on a couple of the more individualistic guitar styles in country music and also talk a little about the Telecaster – the country musician’s guitar.

First let us look at a guitar style that has entered the country genre through blues and rock. The slide guitar, also known as the bottleneck guitar is a lyrical way of expressing feelings through guitar music. It was developed in the early twentieth century by the early blues players, and popularized by young white rock and blues players in the nineteen sixties. Now there are many country guitar players who see the musical possibilities in this style of playing. The key to this technique is sliding an object along the guitar strings to make a whining or wailing sound. This presents the guitar player with many opportunities to play notes that fall between the frets of the guitar as well as imitating the sound of a singing voice.

The term “bottleneck” refers to the practice of many slide guitar performers of producing the sliding sound by fitting the neck of a bottle to their first or second finger. Popular wisdom has it that other players used the blade of a knife. Modern slide guitar players usually go to a music shop and buy a slide. You can play slide guitar with the guitar held in the normal playing position or with the guitar in your lap. A player can use an ordinary steel string acoustic guitar tuned in the standard way or to an open chord, or a resonator guitar which has a distinctive metallic sound well suited to slide playing.

Another guitar style used by country guitar players is chicken pickin’, developed to high art by Walon Jennings. It is used in lead guitar solos and involves the guitar player pulling on the string with his right hand fingers and at the same time damping the string with his left hand. Most country guitar players use a plectrum or thumbpick to play bass notes in conjunction with chicken pickin’ on the treble strings.

Chet Atkins is a country guitar player who was adept at the chicken pickin’ technique but he was most well known for his adaptation of the Travis picking technique. Merle Travis developed an impressive solo playing technique using his thumb to pick bass notes and his index finger to play melody or filler notes. Chet Atkins was so impressed with Travis’ solos that he assumed that Travis was using his second and ring fingers in addition to his index finger. This mistaken assumption led to a whole new generation of country guitar players inspired by the Chet Atkins style.

If you want to take country guitar lessons you should learn about the typical sound that is associated with country guitar music. While rock and roll has as many sounds as there are guitar players, country guitar has its own sound. This is due to most country players opting to stay with the clean, unadorned sound of the Fender Telecaster. The “Tele” had a sound that made aspiring guitar players sit up and take notice combined with a design that made it a dream to play. It is a solid body electric guitar with two pickups, and was the first electric guitar to be successfully produced and sold on a large scale.

In the early days of the electric guitar both rock and country guitar players wanted to be heard by the audience without feedback interfering with the sound of the guitar. The Telecaster filled the bill when it came out in 1950 and has remained a popular choice for solo guitarist ever since. Country guitarists noted for being enthusiastic Telecaster players include Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, James Burton and Merle Haggard.

How many times have you heard a new or familiar song on the radio but didn’t know who it was? You might know a part of the lyrics, the artist or the name of the song. That’s when the power of the Internet can help. There are many sites available to help you find all of the song information that you need. Information such as artist name, song name or album name can be found by doing a simple search.

One such online lyrics database has over 130,000 new and classic titles. Rock, rap, reggae, pop, R & B and country music are all represented there. You can use their search feature for a keyword search, or browse by artist alphabetically. Their database is very simple to search and easy to use.  Many times they willa lso have album art included with the lyrics.

Now the next time that sound comes on the radio, you’ll be confident that you understand the words and the meaning of the song. You might even enjoy that song more now that you understand it better. It often feels good to know all of the words while everyone else is humming away! 

Pink Floyd, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tool, Korn, Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney lovers will all find something of interest. Your favorite music lyrics are only a click away!

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven

“When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.” ~Edgar Watson Howe

When Bill Monroe, widely regarded as the “Father of Bluegrass”, released the Blue Moon of Kentucky (1947) he could not imagine what was coming ahead. Country music, a raw music with a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, drums and trumpets conveyed a message of freedom reflecting the poverty-smacked inhabitants of Southern Unites States.

Simple, yet powerful lyrics like “Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shining, shine on the one that’s gone and proved untrue; Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shining, shine on the one that’s gone and left me blue…” reflect the sadness of an abruptly-ended relationship, which is looking for nemesis under the blue moon light

Johnny Cash, a distinctive country music persona, well-known for his deep voice and his dark clothing, otherwise known as The Man In Black, or the boom-chick-a-boom or the freight train, and religiously starting his concerts with the introduction “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”, released another smash hit of country music, Ring of Fire (1953).

Ring of Fire remained in #1 of the US Charts for seven consecutive weeks. Its straightforward lyrics like “Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring, bound by wild desire I fell into a ring of fire”, anchored by melodic strings and slight trumpets, made Ring of Fire one of the best 30 Country songs ever written. Encompasses the soul of Johnny Cash, talking about love, faith, and the agonies of a love affair, Ring of Fire is a little diamond in the history of country music.

Male dominance in the country music scene was interrupted by a distinctive mountain soprano with colorful dress code and conducive figure.

Dolly Parton, a Tennessee born female country music singer, songwriter, actress and author achieved multiple Grammy-award winning, 25 #1 hit singles in the US country charts and 42 Top Ten country albums in the history of country music. Her big hit Heartbreak Express (1982)describes a woman, who leaves her boyfriend and a strained relationship, departing on the “Heartbreak Express” feeling independent and free to choose her destiny. A completely revolutionary song.

As time went by, the Texas trio Dixie Chicks achieved multiple Grammy-award winning (Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, Best Country Album and Best Country Performance by a Duo or a Group) being the highest-selling female band in the history of music with a record sales of over 36 million albums.

There’s Your Trouble (1998) was a traditional twang with soft melody, instrumental anchorage, foot-tapping rockabilly and pop harmony reflecting Chick’s instrumental virtuosity. The song had made a great impact as Dixie Chicks, famous for their outspoken political comments, have insulted George Bush for his political acts and the war in Iraq.