R&R Radio

01/11/2024

14/04/2024

Please join the Albumism team in celebrating Al Green’s musical legacy and share your personal memories of him with us.

07/04/2024

A cartoon by Matthew Diffee.
See more from this week’s issue: http://nyer.cm/39L23Qa

31/01/2024

Thinking Of Retirement, Think Again!

05/01/2024

Alice Cooper with Keith Moon sharing a cocktail on the hoods of their Rolls-Royces on Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, June 1976. Photo by Eddie Sanderson.

18/12/2023

The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was around the age of 30 when the magazine New Musical Express ranked him atop its annual list of “rock stars most likely to die” within a year. He would hold the position, uninterrupted, for a decade. And yet, half a century later, the musician remains alive, active, and gearing up for a tour, which will take him to 16 cities next year and be sponsored by the AARP. Today, Keith Richards turns 80.

In 2010, on the occasion of Richards’s new memoir, David Remnick revisited the life and career of the seemingly indestructible musician. Richards was then but a wee lad of 66, famous for having been one of the most avid drug users in the history of rock and roll. Half book, half brand extension, Richards’s memoir is an entertaining, rambling monologue, a slurry romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price. “Maybe *you* can’t always get what you want,” Remnick writes. “The rule doesn’t apply to Keith.”
http://nyer.cm/4Zzi63I

07/11/2023

The Characteristics Of A Good Solo

GUITAR CHEFS.

A common mistake amateur guitar players make when soloing is keeping the entire performance the same.

In terms of intensity and excitement, this kind of solo could be represented by a flat, horizontal line.

This is dull, boring, and not fun to listen to.

So how can you fix this problem and solo in a musical way?
Here are some of the characteristics of a good solo:

1. Treat your solo as if you were writing a story. Intro – Build up – Climax – Outro.
2. Make use of contrasting material or sections
3. Leave space for the music to breathe
4. Make use of rhythmic variation
5. Include several techniques to make things interesting or impressive
6. Vary the volume and register in different sections

All of these things will add shape, meaning, and interest to your solos.

Just because you’re improvising doesn’t mean that the music doesn’t need to say something. Audiences want to be taken on a journey and this is how you’ll get them to keep listening.

52 Week Guitar Player is closed until mid-December.

We’ll only be accepting 100 students when enrollment reopens.

Join the waiting list now dammit. https://brandondeon.com/survey-page2

(now is the perfect time since we JUST CLOSED on Oct 1st and you’ll be super early)

Okay, bye.

- Brandon

31/10/2023

Supertramp (1975)

22/10/2023

02/10/2023

In Memoriam TOM PETTY!!
Thomas Earl Petty
(October 20, 1950 - October 2, 2017)
Singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader whose music was a staple of rock radio for nearly four decades, fronted roots rock Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers ("The Waiting," #19, Mainstream Rock #1, 1981), issued three solo albums with several hits, including "Free Fallin'" ( #7, 1989), joined supergroup The Traveling Wilburys ("Handle With Care," Mainstream Rock #2, 1988) and reformed the predecessor band to The Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch, in 2007, recorded and toured with The Heartbreakers until his death from cardiac arrest on 10/2/2017, age 66

07/09/2023

With heavy hearts 💔, we bid farewell to a legendary electronic pop pioneer, Gary Wright. Wright played a huge role in synth history by helping to bring synth music to pop radio with his hit songs “Dream Weaver,” and “Love is Alive” off of the “The Dream Weaver” LP.

The song “Dream Weaver” featured an entrancingly otherworldly synthetic sound that distinguished itself from the other tracks on the radio, this sound was created by none other than the string synth, the ARP String Ensemble. This innovative string synthesizer offered musicians the ability to play chords, a departure from the predominantly monophonic nature of early synthesizers! Wright’s “The Dream Weaver” was revolutionary because other then live drums, all instruments on the LP were electronic keyboards, aside from one guitar part thanks to Ronnie Montrose. Apart from his success with “The Dream Weaver”, Wright was also a valued member of Spooky Tooth and contributed his exceptional skills to the works of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, as well as numerous significant session and soundtrack projects over the course of his lifetime. Fly high, Gary 🕊.

📷: Gary Wright live in Detroit, Michigan - February 1976. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)

30/08/2023

Debbie Harry before Blondie working as a Pl***oy bunny in New York’s Pl***oy Club. From 1968 to 1973, she waited tables while rocking the signature bunny ears, black corset and white cotton tail until a chance meeting with future bandmate Chris Stein.

28/08/2023

❤❤❤

02/08/2023

Prince, Paisley Park, 1988⁠. Photo by Joel Bernstein⁠.

31/07/2023

🌹💀🌹

01/07/2023

Jack Nicholson, 1969 ❤️