Rockosphere

Black Sabbath New Album - A Reunion Album after 34 Long Years

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Black Sabbath New Album! This is great news for solid Sabbath followers. After 34 years since they have recorded "Never Say Die" as original line up, finally the father of heavy metal is now working for their new album expected to be released in April 2013. Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and the prince of darkness Ozzy Osbourne, are working there butt off to make the album as interesting as possible.

These would be Sabbath's first new studio album as a reunited band since 1978. Actually this is not completely a reunion album because the original drummer Bill Ward has parted paths with the band due to contract issues. But seeing these three legend work together again is a big celebration to all Black Sabbath fans as well as to metalheads all over the world.

The Legendary Sabbath

Black Sabbath is considered to be one of the founding father of Heavy Metal and was featured on the documentary film Metal Evolution. Though during their early career they were not aware of such kind of music genre (Heavy Metal), most metalheads put the credit on them as pioneers of the genre. Sabbath is one of the most influential heavy metal bands in the history of metal. They have inspired many of the famous acts like: Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Pantera, Foo Fighters, Korn, Opeth, Lamb of God, and hundreds of other bands.

Black Sabbath was included in the UK Music Hall of Fame last 2005. And in 2006 they were inducted by Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The band's manager Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that Sabbath will be touring in 2013 in Australia. Aussie fans should be expecting to hear some of the classic hits like "War Pigs", "Paranoid" and of course the tracks from the new Album.

The Black Sabbath New Album has no official name yet and there is no definite list of songs that have been revealed as of this writing. Fortunately, I found one track that leaked from the album, the title is "God is dead". Enjoy the track and let me know what are your thoughts on Black Sabbath's new album by dropping your comment down below.

Photo credit - Tim Whitby, Getty Images

Unionbank Eon - Credit Card and PayPal Alternative

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:02:00 +0000

Unionbank EON! You might ask why I am writing about this! What is the relation to rock/metal? Actually nothing :) But I'm thinking that this post may help you somehow, so keep reading :)

In this internet era, most of us buy things or products online. It can be MP3 or CD of your favorite metal bands or perhaps a metal documentary DVD Metal Evolution from amazon. In these two blog posts - How to Download Premium Metal Guitar Lessons For Free? and Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free? I shared a little trick on how to download premium guitar lessons from guitartricks.com without spending any money. On these posts I mentioned that you need a credit card and PayPal for you to be able to sign up and download those guitar lessons.

However, the problem is that not all of us have a credit card or PayPal.

In the Philippines, it's not easy to get a credit card unless you have a stable job. With that problem, some of you was not able to grab the opportunity and benefitted from what I've shared. If you are one of those people who are very interested to download those guitar lessons but don't have credit card or PayPal, it's not the end of the world yet because I found four credit card and PayPal alternatives for you.

The four Alternatives

1. Unionbank EON Card

2. BPI My ePrepaid

3. Payoneer

4. BDO Ko-kard

Among the four, what I'm currently using is Unionbank EON card and we'll be talking more about this in a short while. I don't have experience using the other three cards so I cannot talk more about them. But they are also good credit card or PayPal alternatives so you might want to ask Mr. Google more about these services.

What is Unionbank EON?

Union Bank EON Card is a VISA Debit card that would let you do online transactions like money transfer, pay bills, and buy items/products online. It's different from a credit card because you need to deposit some cash on it first, before you can use it.

I got my Unionbank Eon card for almost 2 years now and so far it really helps me a lot. I use it to buy metal band t-shirts from the US, sign up for guitar lessons, book tickets, pay my bills, and purchase gadgets online.

My Unionbank Eon card is a great credit card and PayPal alternative. It totally replaced the purpose of my credit card so I decided of cutting off my HSBC and Citibank credit cards. I feel worry free using Union Bank eon because it's a debit card and it's a wise strategy from keeping you away from DEBT trap.

It's also much easier to apply for a Unionbank Eon card compare to credit card. They are not that strict on requirements and there's a greater chance that you'll be accepted even if you don't have a high paying job.

How to apply?

You have two options. One is to apply online by following these 4 easy steps down below:

Fill out.Fill out the necessary information in EON’s online application found Union Bank’s website: www.unionbankph.com. After filling out the application, you will be receiving an SMS and email notification of your reference number and selected UnionBank pick-up branch. Please take note of this information.

Visit.
After receiving your SMS and email notification, you may immediately visit and present your reference number to your selected UnionBank pick-up branch. (Link for list of current pick-up branches)
EON Visa Debit Cards that were applied through the online application are initially available at the following branches. More UnionBank pick-up branches will be available soon for your convenience.

Submit.
Please prepare and submit the following account opening requirements: P350 for your first annual fee, the original and photocopy of one (1) valid photo-bearing ID (list of IDs)

Enjoy!
Receive your EON Visa Debit Card in a single branch visit. Now you’re ready to start enjoying the many benefits your EON Visa Debit Card has to offer! Use it for PayPal, online and mobile banking, online shopping and more!

The second option is to go directly to Unionbank branch near you and follow the instructions found on this page - How to open an EON card?

After you have submitted the necessary documents during your application, wait 1 to 2 weeks then follow up if your card is already available for pick up. Once you have your card, be sure to deposit some cash on it then you are good to go to purchase items online. Hope this article help you and it would be great if you can share this to your friends as well. If you have questions about Unionbank EON that I have not covered here, feel free to put in the comment section below and I'll be happy to help you.

Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker Dead after a Motorcycle Crash

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:38:00 +0000

A Halloween that the Metal world would remember forever. 28 year old Mitch Lucker, singer for Suicide Silence passed away yesterday Thursday at 6:17 am, November 1, 2012. According to the police report, the young front man was driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle in Huntington Beach on Wednesday at around 8:55PM.

Without luck Lucker lost control with his motorcycle and crashed against a light pole. He was thrown away from his motorcycle and the bike kept moving until it hit a Nissan Titan pickup. There were no injuries reported with the occupants of the pickup.

Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker

Mitch Lucker was tremendously injured and was treated right on the scene by paramedics. Afterwards he was rushed to UCI Medical Center in Orange County and was treated with intensive care. However due to severe injuries he did not make it and take his last breathe Thursday morning.

As of the moment there's no final statement of the cause of his death since the police is still under investigation and the autopsy has yet to be conducted. The police are also looking for possibility if Lucker was under the influence of Alcohol.

Suicide Silence is a Deathcore band from Riverside, California. They've been active in the Metal scene since 2002 and was awarded with the Revolver Golden God award for "Best New Talent". The band was scheduled supposed to be to perform this coming November 24 at the California Metalfest VI in San Bernardino.

Below is the statement from Suicide Silence Official Facebook page:

There's no easy way to say this. Mitch passed away earlier this morning from injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident. This is completely devastating to all of us and we offer our deepest condolences to his family. He will be forever in our hearts.
R.I.P. Mitchell Adam Lucker - We Love You Brother

Here's a good memory that Mitch Lucker left us.

RIP brotha Mitch Lucker!

Topic: suicide silence Mitch Lucker death

Why Do We Have Different Tastes In Music?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:32:00 +0000

Have you ever wonder why your taste in music is so different from other people? Why there are songs that you love but others hate them? Or bands that sucks but to your friends they’re awesome.

One of the hit songs of 2012 was the song "Call me baby" by Carly Rae Jepsen. For many, this song is a great piece just perfect for disco lights in an overcrowded room. But for headbangers and metalheads, this is one of the most annoying and nonsense songs ever made. You can't complain why people have such bad taste in music because on the other side they might be thinking the same to you.

Scientist found out that our taste of music is driven by external and internal influences. We will discuss them in details on this post.

External Influences

Our family, friends, peers, media, office mates, band mates, music critics, famous music blog, and the people that surround us can be a big influence on the kind of music that we listen to. Would you believe that you like certain bands because your cool friends tell you that they’re awesome? Well for me, I do. When majority of your friends tells you that a certain band or song is awesome, there is a big possibility that you would also like that band.

When we hear a certain idea or thought over and over again, later on our brains tends to accept that idea and inject it to our subconscious. Eventually, that idea or thought will become our reality.

The famous American Author Napoleon Hill calls this phenomenon as Auto-suggestion. If you keeping hearing from the people around you that they like Megadeth because of blah blah blah and whatever reasons, what they’re doing is that they are planting in your subconscious mind the idea that "Megadeth is a great band".

Sooner or later when you think of bands, your subconscious mind would suggest to your conscious mind that you like Megadeth. Often times we like bands or songs primarily because of cultural influences but not because of the technicality of the music itself.

Based on my experience this is very true. I grew up surrounded by people who listen to rock/metal so no doubt why I like the same kind of music too. However, this may not be always true to everyone.

What if you ignore your outside influences?

Since our taste in music is somehow dependent on our outside influences, what if we take those influences away? What would be the kind of music that you would like? Would you still like "Laid me to Rest" by Lamb of God or would you prefer listening to Justin Bieber instead? :)

Pandora, an Internet Radio station aims to provide solution for this problem. They designed a computer algorithm that would help you find the kind of music that you like without the influence of other people. Pandora is a free service that would let you create your own station based on your personal taste of music. I haven't tried their service yet since you can only access their website if you live in the US.

Internal Influences

It includes emotions, feelings, beliefs, dreams, values and other factors that can be found within your inner self. These things define who you are, your character, your personality, and how you deal with people around you. Based on studies, your personality would tend to reflect on the kind of music that you like. Your inner self would resonate to your outside world and that affects your music preference.

I bump to an article just the other day about Music and Personality by Kendra Cherry. She mentioned there was a research conducted by two psychologists Jason Rentfrow and Sam Gosling. According to Jason and Sam, your top 10 favorite songs are enough to reveal your personality, whether you are an Introvert or an Extrovert.

Just to give you a little idea about introvert and extrovert. Extroverts tend to enjoy human interactions. They like parties, social gatherings, and community activities. On the other hand, Introverts are likely to enjoy time being alone and are not interested socializing with other people. Most introverts are archetypal artists, writers, sculptors, engineers, composers and inventors.

According to their research, extroverts would tend to like pop music and prefer to listen to top 40 hits. "While pop music lovers are hard-working and have high self-esteem, researchers suggests that they tend to be less creative and more uneasy."

I am an introvert kind of person and I was really amazed how their assessment fitted my personality.

This is their assessment for people who likes Rock / Heavy Metal - "Despite the sometimes aggressive image that rock music and heavy metal project, researchers found that fans of this style of music are usually quite gentle. They tend to be creative, but are often introverted and may suffer from low self-esteem."

My taste of music revolves around rock/Metal, loud, and aggressive kind of music. But after writing this blog post, I realized that If I take away my outside influences, I will find some new genre that I've never thought that I like. Songs of Jack Johnson, The Black Keys, Coldplay, The Fray, some Blues songs, Lily Allen and some bands that others may call gay would seems pleasing to my ear.

Now how about you? What if you take away those external influences, what kind of music would you listen to? Write down your answers in the comment box below. Just be honest to yourself, listen to want you really enjoy, and most of all have fun finding your real taste in music.

An Interview with Metallica's Lead Guitarist Filipina Mom

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:23:00 +0000

If you love metal, most probably you already know that Kirk Hammet (Metallica's lead guitarist) is half Filipino because his mother is Filipina. But most of us don't know more about his mother. Who really she is? Where she came from? And what she looks like?

I've been a hardcore fan of Metallica for almost 15 years now and I'm proud that Kirk is a half Filipino. Although he doesn't talk more about being a Filipino unlike Apl.de.ap who is very passionate in promoting his Filipino origin. But deep inside, a Filipino blood is running through his veins and that fact is undeniable.

Kirk Hammett of Metallica with his mom Teofila Oyao

As a Filipino and a Tallica fan, I've always been interested to know more about Kirk Hammet. About his family background and his personal life when he is not with Metallica. But I just don't have free time to do it. Thankfully, last weekend I had a vacant time so I sat down and did a quick search about him.

There's very limited information about Kirk’s family on the internet. If you look at his Wikipedia profile, they don't even have the name of his father. They just indicated "Irish Merchant Marine father."

Good thing they have little information about his Filipina mother. Her name is Teofila Oyao but many people preferred calling her "Chefela". I searched further and I found this video on YouTube posted by Adobo Nation. ADOBO Nation is a weekly magazine talk program for Filipino-Americans living in the US.

I found this video very inspiring. Chefela is a very supportive mom. He let Kirk's follow his dreams, gave her full support to his son since Exodus (1980–1983) up until Metallica (1983–present). She's been there since Kirk's first Guitar Lesson until the Grammy Awards.

We can get a little lesson from this video. For all of us, if you have a dream, work for it, fight for it and give your best shot. For parents, sometimes we need to listen to our sons and daughters dreams, not just our personal goals and dreams for them. May this video be an inspiration for all Filipinos around the world. How about you, what do think about this video?

Arcadia Philippines - Are They Just Another Copycat Metalcore Band?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:47:00 +0000

Arcadia Philippines, many Filipino metalheads are saying that this band has no originality, just a copycat of Parkway Drive and other famous metalcore bands. Are they really imitator?

Or Does people just hate them merely because their getting successful these days? I'm a fan of Arcadia but not an avid fan of metalcore and I'm not interested in the so called metalcore movement or anything like that. But I respect the genre and the people within the metalcore scene.

Arcadia Philippines

I hate seeing metalheads divided and debating each other of who’s the superior metal genre. That's only a complete waste of time.

However I do listen to metalcore bands like killswitch Engage, All That Remains, and Lamb of God. Yeah Lamb of God, I don’t know why people considered them as metalcore but for me they're just heavy Metal that plays heavy riffs good enough for a headbang.

When I first heard Arcadia, the first thing that came out from my head was killswitch Engage. And if you listen to their song "A Broken Portrait" then jump to 2:43, you will hear a riff that sounds very similar to the song "The End Of Heartache" by killswitch Engage. I cannot blame them, that riff is very cool and worth imitating for. It makes me raise my fist and stand my ground.

Here's the music video for "A Broken Portrait" by Arcadia. Jump to 2:43 and compare it to "The End Of Heartache", then you will see what I mean.

Here's "The End Of Heartache" by killswitch Engage

Are we not all imitators?

Human beings are great imitators. This is a very vital skill throughout the human evolution and this skill bought as here on what we are now. When we were babies, we were trained to imitate. Imitate to speak, walk, eat, and other stuff that a full grown human normally do. Humans are wired to imitate since birth and you might disagree if I say that we are all imitators.

In business world, imitation is a very profitable strategy. Have you ever wondered how Samsung overtaken Apple in terms of smart phones sales, it's because of imitation. Once again, it proves that imitation works.

In music industry, there are also a lot of imitators. This is a common phenomenon among musicians and there are some artists who are really serious about copyrights. One example is the Joe Stariani plagiarism case against Coldplay, accusing the band of copying part of Satriani's song "If I could fly". Sometimes a riff or tune can be copied accidentally and the artist doesn’t even know if there's already an existing song with similar tune. However, there are also instances that a tune is being copied intentionally.

Bands of the same feather sound together

Most often bands or artists in the same genre would have similarity in sound and style. I have noticed this with blues which is one of the roots of metal by the way. Most blues songs are using the 12 bar pattern and they sound very Identical. You can also notice similarities amongst songs within certain genres like reggae, hip hop, pop, NU Metal, trash metal, death metal, Gay Metal(Oops!) :),...etc. And of course metalcore is not exempted.

In the case of Arcadia, to me it seems like they copied the riff intentionally and they added some notes on it to sound a bit different. Although they did not copied completely but you can clearly spot the similarities. We cannot really conclude that they are a complete copycat metalcore band. Maybe this is because those famous metalcore bands have a very strong influence to them in terms of musical structure, style, and how they write songs.

I'm a fan of Arcadia and I respect them as artists, but to be honest I do admit that most of their songs have close similarities with some famous metalcore bands. However, I believe on this band and there is always a room for improvement. I just hope that they are also looking forward into that and they'll be injecting more creativity on their future albums.

Few words to end this post "Imitation is good but once abused, it becomes annoying"

BTW just a little info, there are two other bands called Arcadia. One is a pop group and the other is a metal band from Australia. So if you want to more about the Filipino Arcadia, be sure to Google these keywords "Arcadia Philippines" or "Arcadia Band Philippines".

Featured Band 002: Vulture Kult

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:15:00 +0000

For the past weeks, I received a lot of requests asking if I can feature their bands here in Rockosphere. It feels great to know that many are interested to be part of this blog.

It's also awesome because I got a chance to review new rock bands and listen to fresh music and ideas.

Unfortunately, I cannot feature all the bands and just pick up those bands which I feel worth featuring here in Rockosphere.

Vulture Kult

One band that got my interest was Vulture Kult. When I first heard their song "Electric Medication", Ozzy Osbourne was the first thing that came out in my head. Why? Listen to their songs and you will know why. Click here to listen to Vulture Kult's songs.

Band Bio:

If you think there's no edge left in modern rock, you haven't heard Vulture Kult. Conceived in the spring of 2008, Vulture Kult is a child of the cold Canadian prairie wind and snow from where they hail. Born from the discontent of pointless cliques so prevalent in the current music scene, VK forced themselves to take a different road and see where they would end up.

The result is pounding drums, guitar riffs that light up the dark night sky, and vocals that will rip a hole through your chest. Sometimes sleazy, but always raging, Vulture Kult will tell a story that you will understand and enjoy to the fullest.

Come listen to the new era of the two-piece Rock n' Roll sound and escalate your expectations.

Band: Vulture Kult

Location: Saskatoon, Canada

Style: Rock N' Roll, Punk, Sludgy Metal

Similar to: Fugazi, Stooges, Black Halos, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin

CD: Don't Let Rock n' Roll Ruin Your Life

Release date: July 2, 2012

Production: Recorded and mastered by Kelly Rudoski

Press contact: james@independentmusicpromotions.com

Sites: http://vulturekult.com/, http://vulturekult.bandcamp.com/,

http://www.facebook.com/VultureKult

Accolades: 24 Canadian college radio chartings with 1st album (Self titled),
Played with Black Mastiff, Western Canadian tour this Fall.
Band members:
Hans Bielefeld - Guitars and Vocals
Bradley Friesen - Drums and Vocals

Featured Band 001 : Well Hung Heart

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Earlier this month I received an email from Grow Vision Studios about the band Well Hung Heart. An Alternative blues infused rock trio band based in Southern California.

The band is composed of two British and American singer Greta Valenti from Louisiana.

I was asked if I could feature them here in Rockosphere. But before I said yes, I reviewed first the band profile and personally I like blues based kind of music so they got my interest right away.

I also found out that Grow Vision is the creative mind behind the Papa Roach music videos for songs “No Matter What” and "Burn". And this really makes me very excited to feature them here in the blog.

Without further ado, here’s the full bio of the band and down below is the video of their lead single "Devil" from Their newest album "Young Enough To Know It All". You can download some of their songs via souncloud for FREE! by clicking here - Download Well Hung Heart Songs.

Band Name: WELL HUNG HEART

Origin: Orange, California, United States.

Genre: Blues rock Alternative fusion

Website: http://www.wellhungheart.com/

Members: Greta Valenti

Robin Davey

Phil Wilson

Keith Richards once proclaimed, ""If you don't know the blues, there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music"".

There is no mistaking the bluesy undercurrent that forms the bedrock of Well Hung Heart's raw and uncompromising Rock sound. British born guitarist Robin Davey cut his teeth with the Blues elite, jamming onstage with the likes of Buddy Guy and recording with Mick Jagger. Davey quickly secured a place as the youngest ever inductee into the British Blues Hall Of Fame, and has built a reputation as an eclectic and cutting edge musical mind.

Singer Greta Valenti grew up amongst the deep-rooted musical traditions of New Orleans. Though the two's early years were spent on opposite sides of the Atlantic, they have both found common ground in their passion for the raw honesty of music, delivered in its most unprocessed and unrestricted form.

With a dose of Hendrix, and a nod to PJ Harvey, Well Hung Heart is just as comfortable channeling Nirvana as they are Leadbelly or Led Zeppelin. Greta Valenti's pint size frame belies her vocal range. From whispered tales of regret, to frenzied screams of intent, she is often found onstage clamped to Daveys' back in an attempt to bring him crashing to the floor. Or alternatively throw him a curve ball, should he try and play the same solo twice.

Well Hung Heart record just as they play live - stripped down to the core, void of multiple takes and studio trickery. With Davey handling simultaneous guitar and bass duties, and fellow Brit Phil Wilson on drums, Valenti is left to lead the three piece in an assured but unpredictable stomp through their take on the Blues, Rock and Roll, and its many subsidiaries.

Well Hung Heart finished off their first year in existence with high profile shows both sides of the Atlantic. Appearing at London's prestigious O2 Academy, and the Make Music Festival in Pasadena, opening for Grimes, Grouplove and Cults.

Their debut album ""Young Enough To Know It All"" is set for an October 2012 release and features the lead single ""Devil"".

Well Hung Heart acknowledge that though their influences might stem from the roots, their approach to finding an audience is very much in the present. With a series of self-directed YouTube videos establishing the band's presence, Well Hung Heart have managed to build a burgeoning fan base, both with their blistering live performances and their creativity in the digital age.

The Easy Way To Understand The Blues Scale

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:57:00 +0000

Have you ever wonder why there are so many blues scales? There is E blues scale, b blues scale, A blues scale, and so on. The problem with these variations is that it makes very confusing especially to beginners.

Blues scales

Understanding the blues scale is very important and failure to do so may lead to frustration. It is easy to get overwhelmed with so many scales when you just starting out.

However, if you just take time to understand the basic principle behind the blues scale then you'll realize that it is just as easy as ABC.

In this post I will do my best to explain the blues scale in the simplest way and hopefully once you finished reading, you will fully grasp the principle behind the blues scale.

By the way, if you want to download quality blues scale guitar lessons for FREE, please check out my article Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free? by clicking here!

Blues scale is called hexatonic because it is made of 6 notes. Now the question is "where these 6 notes came from?" The notes were derived from the minor pentatonic and the minor pentatonic came from the major scale. Now you’re confused!

Let me explain this really simple. Remember the do re mi fa so la ti do thing that your music teacher taught you back when you were still a little Guy.? That's the major scale. It is composed of 7 distinct notes plus the 8th note which is just a duplicate of the first note. Take 5 notes of from the major scale and you'll have a pentatonic scale.

To be specific, take the 1st, flat 3rd, 4th, 5th, and flat 7th note out of a major scale then you'll have a minor pentatonic scale.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Octave

C major scale C D E F G A B C

C minor pentatonic C Eb F G Bb C

Shown above is an example of a major scale in the key of C and how C minor pentatonic extracted from the C major scale. Take note that This principle can be applied to any key and not just in key of C. Don't be confused with this.

You can have major scale and minor pentatonic scale in key of A,B,D,E,F,and G. Basically to get a minor pentatonic, you just omit the 2nd and 6th notes out from a major scale then have the 3rd and 7th flatted and you'll have a minor pentatonic scale. Here's another example in the key of A.

A major scale A B C# D E F# G# A

A minor pentatonic A C D E G A

Now from the minor pentatonic, we can extract blues scales out from it. If you look at the pentatonic, there are only 5 notes. Of course the word "Penta" means five. But in a blues scale we should have 6 notes. So we need one more note to complete the scale and that note is the flat 5th. The note arrangement of blues scale is 1st, 3rd, 4th, Flatted 5th, 5th, and 7th. You can notice that the notes are just the same with minor pentatonic except for the added flatted 5th.

So to make it simple, a blues scale is just a minor pentatonic with added flatted fifth.

That flatted 5th is also called the blue note and that makes all the deference when being played with other notes. If we apply the principle of the blues scale pattern from an A minor pentatonic, your A blues scale would be A, C, D, Eb, E, G, A.

You see you just need to copy the minor pentatonic scale then add the flat 5th on it, that's simple.

A major scale A B C# D E F# G# A

A minor pentatonic A C D E G A

A blues scale A C D Eb E G A

We have already answered where does blues came from musically. The next question is "Why there are so many blues scales? Basically, we only have one blue scale and that is the 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7 but you can apply this pattern to any key so you'll have many blues scales.

Photo thanks to John Steven Fernandez

Devil Music: Why Metal Is Considered Evil?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:41:00 +0000

"Metal is devil music". "It is the work of the Devil". "Heavy metal is devil worship music." Or worst "Heavy Metal is the devil". These are some of the famous lines you would often hear from people who positioned themselves as religious.

Devil's Music?

I grew up listening with Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera. Then came death metal such as sinister, Dismember, Napalm Death, Sepultura and others.

As a young boy growing up with metal, I wonder if I'm worshiping the devil by listening to the music and this really puzzled me for many years.

By the way since we are talking about metal here, if you are interested to learn about metal guitar playing for free, then you might want to visit my blog post for this by clicking on this link Little trick to Download Premium Metal Guitar Lessons for FREE!

But what's really makes metal the devils music?

Why these people would consider this beautiful type of music the work of the devil? Is it the lyrics or there is something else? In order to find out, let’s go back from the beginning. Back to the time when heavy metal doesn't exist yet.

Trace the root and you'll know its history.

Most metalheads firmly believed that heavy metal was conceived through the creative minds of the band Black Sabbath. Though there are other metalheads who consider Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as the pioneers of heavy metal, but still Black Sabbath wins the majority.

The Devil and Music

In the midst of the industrial revolution in Great Britain, Black Sabbath draws from its womb in the rough streets of Birmingham. But the very critical point of heavy metal history is when Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi incorporated the Flatted 5th in many of their songs which later became their signature sound. Little did he know that because of his heavily usage of the tritone, it would revolutionarize the rock music industry forever. The flatted 5th is also called the Devil's Interval or tritone.

Iommi is not the first man to discover the tritone. Long before him and black Sabbath, The Tritone has already known by classical composers during the 19th Century. The Roman Catholic considered the Flatted 5th to be devil music so this was suppressed by the church during the middle ages. In modern day, Black Sabbath did not escape the critique of the church and the public. They were banned and were forced to play underground in England.

So the answer why metal is considered to be evil is because of the flatted 5th note or the tritone.

The funny thing is that Iommi never had an intention to make their music to be some kind of devil worship music. In fact in one interview he said, "When I started writing Sabbath stuff it was just something that sounded right. I didn't think I was going to make it devil music.

Where the hick the term "heavy metal" came from?

Originally, black Sabbath is a jazzy blues rock band but because of the devil's note they developed a new kind of genre. No one knows what kind of genre they were playing at that time. Too heavy to call it blues rock or Psychedelic rock. In an interview with Iommi in a heavy metal documentary film Metal - A Headbanger's Journey, he said that he already heard the term heavy metal but he doesn't even know the meaning of it.

Many metalheads believed that the term Heavy Metal was inspired by the industrial revolution in UK where there are huge factories processing heavy metal ore and they relate it to this new breed of music.

The heavy metal soon evolve and being split to several genre. It evolved from just musically evil to both musically and lyrically evil. The evil thing is the favorite topic to many death metal and black metal bands in the 80's up to present. Maybe because the topic about the devil and music grabs attention to the public and make the bands popular. But there are some Norwegian black Metal band literally worships the devil on their lyrics and on stage, to the extent that they even actually burn down Christian Churches. These guys are really taking being evil to the next level and not just a plain marketing strategy.

However, many of heavy metal bands today doesn’t use the devils note and doesn't have evil lyrics but still considered to be satanic. Why? Simply because their music are so loud, they have long hairs, their wearing black t-shirt (with skulls on it), and most of all, their body is wrap with tattoo! Crazy! Isn’t it?

In my own point of view, there is no such thing as devils music. The flatted 5th is just part of the music and I simply love the way it sound. Heavy metal is just another form of music and it can be evil or not. I think the thing that makes a song evil is the lyrics and not the music itself. Any type of music can be evil. One can worship the devil by making evil lyrics in a pop song, hip hop, orchestra, and even national anthem.

To wrap things up, lyrics, appearance, and misconception of the close minded religious people makes metal the devil music.

Smashing Pumpkins Live In Manila August 2012

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:41:00 +0000

Good news to all Filipino Alternative rock fans out there! American Alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins is coming in Manila on August 7, 2012 for their Oceania Global Tour.

This big event will be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The band has been in the music industry since 1988.

Some of their greatest songs are 1979, Tonight, Tonight, Today, bullet with butterfly wings, and many more. I hope they will visit Cebu next time because I'm pretty sure there are many hungry fans craving to see them here in Cebu.

Anyway for those who have time and money of course, this is now your chance to see Smashing Pumpkins play live.

Blues Scales: How To Learn Blues Fast And Easy?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Blues Scales are one of the most important things that a blues guitar player must learn.

Its easy to memorize the blues scale but the real problem here is how to apply those scales, create blues licks and play blues in a more musical way.

You see, you can play the whole blues scale but may not get that bluesy sound.

Do you know the reason why?

It is becuase you need to have a combination of several notes on the blues scale and not just playing the whole scale. Proper blues techniques are essential in order to play the blues scales in a more musical way.

Blues techniques such as; string bending, slide, vibrato, phrasing, Orchestration, and many more, helps create that bluesy feel.

"You want to learn blues guitar scales (or blues in general) fast and easy?

You Need A Teacher!"

The best way to learn blues scales and the techniques above fast and easy, is to get a blues guitar teacher. Getting a guitar teacher is quite expensive. If you can't afford to get one, your best bet is to go for Online Blues Guitar Lessons.

Online Guitar Lessons vs. a Guitar Teacher

Online guitar tutorials are less expensive compared to hiring a guitar teacher. You can get an online guitar lessons for as low as $14.95(monthly subscription). What's great with online tutorials is that it offers Easy access and convenience. It's online so you can watch it through your computer in the comfort of your home.

You can also access it anytime and anywhere in the world as long as you have internet connection. Convenient because you can download the videos in your local Hard drive and watched it over and over again until you fully undesrtand the lesson.

Unlike with a guitar teacher that you need to set a schedule and in most cases you really need to visit his shop. However, the good thing of getting a guitar teacher is that, you can talk to him personally and he can guide you while you are actually doing the lessons.

But if you value more convenience and savings, then you go for an Guitar lessons online.

GuitarTricks.com is one of the great online guitar tutorial websites today. I've been a student of guitartricks and I must say that their doing a great job in producing quality guitar lessons especially in Blues. Another good website is JamPlay.com. I've read great reviews about jamplay, though I never try it personally. I recommend that you check this websites too.

Can I get free Online Blues Guitar Lessons?

There are lot of blues guitar lessons in youtube but most of them are crappy, poor quality videos created unprofessionally. But what if I tell you that you can get premium blues guitar lessons videos and blues scales tab from guitartricks.com for FREE? This sounds great, isn't it?

YES! You read it right! You can download Premium blues lessons from guitartricks.com that's worth $14.95(monthly subscription), absolutely for FREE. To know more about this, please visit this post Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free?

Alright! I hope this post helps you in your long journey of learning to play the Blues. They said that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". And I think your first step is to learn the blues scales.

Photo thanks to rocketjim54.

Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 08:39:00 +0000

Memorizing the blues scales is not enough. You need to apply blues guitar techniques to play the blues like B.B. King. And to learn those techniques, you need to get a Blues Guitar Lesson.

But, you might say - I don't want to spend money for a guitar Lesson, can I get it for free? Well congratulation! You have come in the right place because in this post I will share to you How to Download Blues Guitar Lessons for FREE.

Master the blues scales like B.B King

It’s easy to find free guitar lessons on the web these day's. There are a lot of websites available out there that will teach you beginner to advance guitar techniques for free.

And if you love to watch videos rather than reading articles, YouTube is absolutely for free. However, the problem with free stuff is that most of the time it's low quality and maybe that's one of the reason why their giving it for free.

But what if I tell you that you can get FREE blues guitar lessons with high quality content and in high definition videos? This sounds great, right?

Have you ever heard about GuitarTricks.com? If you do, most probably you already know that it's a paid guitar tutorial website. I first stumbled with guitar tricks almost 4 years ago but I never had interest on them because I don't want to pay $14.95 for monthly subscription.

But recently, I found a little trick on how to download guitar lessons from Guitar tricks for free. I was completely blown away when I discover this because these are premium high quality guitar lesson videos and their just giving it for free. What I really like are the tutorials for several popular blues songs and dissecting the styles of some of the greatest blues artists ever lived.

Aside from videos, you can also download blues scales tab and blues chords. And i'm sharing this to you because I know this will help you to play the blues scales in a more musical way and will jumpstart your blues guitar playing.

Who The Heck is Guitar tricks?

Just to give you a little background about Guitar tricks. They are one of the oldest guitar lesson web sites on the web. For over 10 years, they've been providing quality video guitar lessons, tutorials with tabs and notation, guitar tips and tricks, awesome tools like metronome and online guitar tuner, the interactive forums, and a lot more.

They have 46 instructors all over the world that specializes in different guitar styles. No matter what is your skill level or what style of music you’re interested in, acoustic, classical, blues, rock, metal, you name it, guitar tricks got something to teach you.

Now that you have checked the quality of the video which you can get inside guitartricks.com, let me ask you - do you like what you see? If you do, follow the steps on this video below.

Steps on how to download Blues Guitar Lessons from guitartricks.com:

We don't know how long this free trial will exist, so download those guitar lessons NOW while they're still available, and make the most of your blues scales.

Photo thanks to hugochisholm.

How to Download Premium Metal Guitar Lessons For Free?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 29 May 2012 05:29:00 +0000

In this article I will show you how to download Metal Guitar lessons. These are premium guitar lesson videos and most of them are in High-definition so the quality is really superb. Normally the value of this online guitar lessons is $14.95 and that's monthly subscription. But the good news is that you can download these lessons for FREE in a legal process.

YES! You heard it right it’s absolutely free. When I first heard this, I was totally surprised because I know these are quality guitar lessons and their giving it for free. And that's just awesome.

Now, let me explain this. The way it works is that you sign up for guitartricks 14 day free trial guitar lessons online. You need to have a credit card or a PayPal account to subscribe.

UPDATE - If you don't have a credit or PayPal you can try Unionbank Eon - Credit Card Alternative. Unfortunately, this option is only available if you live in the Philippines.

Within those 14 days you will be able to access all of their guitar lessons and download videos as well as guitar tabs of those lessons.

Your credit card or PayPal account will not be charge for the first 14 days. Only when the 14 days is over, that’s the time guitartricks will start charging you $14.95 as monthly subscription. But if you don't want to spend money, you are free to cancel your subscription anytime within 14 days. Perhaps you cancel it on your 13th day, it’s really up to you. Of course on that span of time, you could have downloaded a lot of videos already.

Aside from Heavy metal guitar lessons (or metal in general), there are also other musical style to choose from such as acoustic, jazz, classical, country, rock, blues and many more.

So! Let's get started. You have two options here, either you watch the video, OR follow the steps right down below. Either way, it will take you to the process of downloading the guitar lesson videos. But I highly recommend that you watch the video because it's easier to follow when you see the actual pages.

9 Easy Steps To Download Free Metal Guitar Lessons

Step 1. Sign up for guitartricks 14 day free trial guitar lessons. Click this link 14-day Free Trial. You need to enter your username, password, and email address.

Step 2. Set up your payment details, credit card or PayPal (Watch the video above for detailed instruction).

Step 3. Check your email inbox and look for an email from support@guitartricks.com with a subject "Welcome to Guitar Tricks Full Access". Open that email and click on the first link like shown in the image below.

Step 4. This window will open. Log in to your account using the username and password that you have entered in step 1.

Step 5. Once you have logged-in, this page will open. In the left side, click on "Metal".

Step 6. This page will open. Click on "Metal Master List".

Step 7. Another page will open where you will see the list of metal guitar lessons. Choose the lesson you want to download. Let’s see you want to learn shredding, so click on "Essential Shred Licks".

Step 8. Another page will open. Click "Begin Tutorial".

Step 9. This page will open. Select the topic you want to download. Let's say you want to download the "shred standard" lesson. Click on it, then click download, and the download will start.

Maximum Number Of Download Per Day

You are only allowed to download 15 metal guitar lesson videos per day. But that’s okay. Because 15 videos per day times 14 days, you will be able to download a total of 210 videos and that’s for free. For me that’s already a BIG advantage in my end.

Aside from videos you can also download the tabs of the guitar lessons. They also have jamtracks where you will be able to play a backing track and you can practice riffs along with it. But this is not downloadable.

How To Sign Up If I don’t Have A Credit Card Or PayPal?

If you don't have credit card or PayPal account and you’re from the Philippines, I have another way for you. Just send me an email to john.rockosphere@gmail.com and I will send you the instruction on how to sign up without using credit card or PayPal. However, if you are from US or other countries, sorry I don't have other options for you as of this moment.

How To Cancel My Subscription?

Now if you want to cancel your subscription, it's pretty simple. Go at the top of the page of your guitar tricks account and click on the button "Account". When you are already on your account, look for "cancel Billing" then click on it. That's simple!

If you have questions or having issues in downloading the videos, please leave a comment right down below and I'll be happy to address them. You may also send an email to john.rockosphere@gmail.com. And in order for me to response in a timely manner, please put in the subject Metal Guitar Lessons.

Axl Rose Vs Kurt Cobain - Who Really Started The War?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:32:00 +0000

Axl Rose vs Kurt Cobain conflict has been debated for quite a long time. Who started the fight? Who started it all? As an avid Nirvana fan, I got curious of this matter so I did a research.

I dug up the internet and found so many stories about it. There are different versions of the story behind Kurt Cobain vs. Axl Rose, and this story that I'm about to share to you is just one version among them. I choose this version because this is the most common and many believed that this holds the true story.

Axl Rose vs Kurt Cobain

An Invitation That Was Rejected

It all started with a rejection. In an interview with Dave Grohl (nirvana's drummer, now Foo Fighters lead vocalist) he said that, at the start Axl Rose was a big fan of Nirvana especially the Album Nevermind. Because Axl admires Nirvana, he wanted them to open for Guns N Roses and Metallica concert tour.

So Axl contacted Kurt Cobain to invite Nirvana to play with them on the concert. Kurt got pissed off because Axl keep calling him nonstop. "Fuck, Axl Rose won't stop calling me.!" - Kurt Cobain's line.

Nirvana never had an interest of playing with guns n roses for some reason. So literally Nirvana REJECTED the invitation of Guns n Roses to play with them.

Kurt didn't like to play with Axl Rose and started saying bad things about Axl during band interviews. And then Axl fight back and said bad things to Kurt too. The conflict worsened. Until the MTV Music Awards of 1992, where both bands where invited. During the event, Axl had a really bad mode and it happen that Axl and his body guards passed by where Courtney love and Kurt are sitting. Courtney jokingly yelled at Axl, "Axl will you be the godfather of our child".

Axl got pissed off and told them "you better shut up bitch' then look at Kurt and scream “you better keep you wife shut or I will take you to the pavement".

The intensity builds up between the two bands. The Kurt Cobain Axl Rose became nirvana vs. guns n roses fight. And Duff McKagan(Guns bassist) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana's bassist) had almost got into a fist fight. From there the war between the two bands went on and on.

Personally, I'm a big fun of Nirvana and based on the story above, apparently Nirvana started the war. But I don't really care if they started it or not, that was a long time ago and Kurt has been long dead. But the reason why I bought this up because up to this moment many Guns and Nirvana fans are still debating like crazy on this issue.

These are some of the lines you would read in forums, which sounds really crazy.

"Axl is awesome and the only best thing Kurt Cobain ever did was die"
"Kurt is much better composer than Axl"
"Glam is superior to grunge"
"Axl is gay"

I cannot blame the fans for being loyal to their idols but I think this topic is not worth debating anymore. I believe it was just a minor misunderstanding but because they're still young and aggressive during that time, so the situation got worse. In fact, not so long ago the bassists Duff McKagan(Guns) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) had exchange apologies to each other and are very good friends now. I think the same thing would happen to Axl and Kurt if Cobain is still alive today.

There's no point of arguing which of the two bands is better because in the heart and mind of a fan he knows who’s better. If you ask a Nirvana fan, 99% he would say that Nirvana is better than Guns. On the other hand, a Guns n Roses fan would always say that Guns is superior to Nirvana.

The judgments are being sabotaged based on the personal perception of the fans and not the technicality side of the artists. The topic is like a maze with no exit so I think it's time to quite, stop arguing and respect each other instead.

Now, tell me how you feel about this crazy Axl Rose vs. Kurt Cobain thing?

Guitar Tuning Online - What Is The Best Online Guitar Tuner?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:24:00 +0000

Guitar Tuning Online offers a lot of benefits to guitar players especially to beginners. Two major advantages are Easy access and Economical. Easy access because you can access it fast and easy through the internet. Economical because it's a free tool.

There are a lot of online guitar tuners today and it's just a matter of finding which one is the best. I'm sure you don't want to waste your time on those crappy online guitar tuners. You want to get the best online guitar tuner out there and you deserved only the best.

In this article, we will going to look at top 3 online guitar tuners:

gieson.com
proguitartuner.com
JamPlay.com

I know there are other free online guitar tuners in the web but these 3 are the ones that I think may help you in large scales.

Let’s start with gieson.com guitar tuner. One of the most popular and trusted site when it comes to guitar tuning online. It's pretty accurate, very user friendly, and offers different kinds of tuning such as standard tuning, Open G, Drop D, C6, D minor, and a lot more. The downside is that you can only tune by ear.

The way it works is just like tuning your guitar with a keyboard and you need hearing skill to do this which is not really friendly for beginners.

The second one is the guitar tuner online from proguitartuner.com. It has a vintage look user interface which makes it pretty cool. Just like gieson tuner, it offers different kinds of tunings.

But the good thing in proguitartuner is that you don't need your ear to tune your guitar. What you need is a microphone. The way is works is you pluck the guitar string near to your computer and the built-in mic of you pc will receive the tune and the tuner will display the note of that string.

You can find the detailed instruction on how to use this online guitar tuner on their website.

The last but not the least is the online guitar tuner at JamPlay.com. Just like proguitartuner and gieson guitar tuner, it also allows you to have different kind of tuning like standard tuning, Open G, Drop D, and all that stuff.

But what's really makes jamplay unique is that it is a sort of combination of the two mentioned online tuners. It would let you tune by ear OR tune using a microphone which they also called digital tuner. So you have two options, tune by ear or digital tuner using a microphone.

Also works as electric or as acoustic guitar tuner. The guys behind Jamplay guitar tuner really did a good job in providing solution to the problems of guitar players. They made guitar tuning online so much convenient and easy. Whether you are a complete beginner or advance guitarist, this one might work great for you.

Talking about jamplay, If you are interested to fast track you guitar learning, you might want check their online guitar lesson which is great for any level (beginner, intermediate, and advance).

Online Guitar lesson

Another thing that really makes Jamplay an awesome guitar tuner is its user interface. Very convenient and easy to operate. You would instantly know the current note you are playing and the frequency of that note.

I can say that JamPlay is the Best free online guitar tuner in the web today.

Why JamPlay Is The Best Guitar Tuner Online?

What’s best for me may not be best for you. For me jamplay is the best. Why? Because I have used it personally and I found out that it really works for me. That's me and my own point of view.

Will it also work for you?

Maybe, maybe not! In order to figured that out is to try the 3 guitar tuners (even other online guitar tuner) and find out what really best for you.

It's up to you to decide what's the best guitar tuner online. My job here is to just recommend what's works for me but I'm not saying that you should use this. You are free to try other guitar tuning online tools and see if it will work for you.

Acoustic Guitar Tuner - How Can I Tune My Acoustic Guitar Fast And Easy?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:56:00 +0000

When I was learning the guitar, I haven't heard about Acoustic Guitar Tuner then. I was in second year high school when I first tried to play the guitar. No guitar teacher, No mentor, whatsoever. With a little help of a music magazine and chords illustration on it, I learn to play the guitar by myself.

Acoustic Guitar Tuner

Guitar tuning was one of my biggest problems. My neighbor knows to tune the guitar but I'm just too shy to ask him a favor. So I just figured it out by myself. I was frustrated and about to give up until one day I found a guide on acoustic guitar tuning.

But even if I have the guide, still it is a very time wasting and painful process since no one is telling me if I'm doing it the right way.

To cut the story short, I learn how to tune the guitar by ear but too much time was wasted. If only I knew about guitar tuners back then, my progress could have been on the fast track in just few months. I learn it the hard way and it doesn't mean that you will also learn that way.

Good for you, it's much easier to learn anything these days because of the internet.

Generally, there are two ways of tuning an acoustic guitar, one is tuning by ear and the other is using an electronic acoustic guitar tuner. Tuning by ear includes methods such as, Harmonics, Pitch Pipes, 5th Fret Method, Tuning Using a Keyboard or Piano. Good hearing skill is essential in order to use these methods. If you are a complete beginner, tuning by ear might be a problem.

Focus On Playing Instead Of Tuning

Please don't get me wrong, tuning your guitar is very important. Every time you pick up that guitar, first you should tune it properly before start playing. You'll just get discourage if you keep on playing and your guitar is completely out of tune.

Now you might ask why focus on playing when tuning is also a very important skills to learn. This is really getting a little bit confusing right?

But here's a simple explanation. If you are a complete beginner, don't dwell too much time on tuning your guitar. Yes! It is very important that you tune your guitar first but do it as quickly as possible so you can have more time to practice.

The more you practice, the more you develop your hearing ability. The more you play the guitar, the easier for you to learn how to tune by ear.

So How Can I Tune My Acoustic Guitar Fast And Easy?

Your best bet is to use an electronic acoustic guitar tuner.

One really good electronic guitar tuner that I can recommend is Korg AW-2G. It comes with a clip that's optimized for attaching to a guitar headstock. It’s a cable free tuner with double ball-joint allows multi-angle positioning.

Korg guitar tuners are well known to musician as very accurate tuners. It is one of the most trusted brands when it comes to acoustic guitar tuning.

Other Good Electronic Guitar Tuners:

If you want to receive more acoustic guitar tips and tricks or rock updates straight to your inbox, then subscribe to our list below. Just enter your Name and Email address and click "Subscribe".

Now if you don't want to spend money yet on a guitar tuner then you can opt for an online guitar tuner. Jamplay guitar tuner is one of the best out there. It's fairly accurate and it's a free Online Acoustic guitar tuner.

Photo thanks to mhx under a creative commons license.

How To Be A Metalhead - How Can I Dress Like A Metal Head?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:21:00 +0000

In my first article about How to be a metalhead, I gave you the 7 easy steps to follow to be a metalhead. In this article we're gonna focus on one of the 7 steps, which is how to dress Metal.

If you haven't read my first article, go ahead and read it first before you proceed on this article. Click this How To Be A Metalhead?

Dressing like a metalhead is not easy as 123, compared to hip hop and pop fashion. You cannot simply wear the latest trend in fashion out there. You need to follow some set of rules. Metalheads has a culture of being anti-fashion and anti-commercialism. We don't want to follow the "In-thing". We just want to be different from the rest of guys in the mainstream.

How To Be A Metalhead

The Metal Look In The 70's And 80's

During the 70's and 80's, Rob Halford (Judas Priest Vocals) popularized the biker look which is more on leather jackets, black band T-shirts, belts detailed with silver, black boots, black jeans, and of course long hair.

The Metal Look In The 90's

There was a little change during the 90's. A lot of meatalheads cut their hair and they preferred short haircut instead of long hair. Short hairs with massive goatee were the metal thing during this time and of course black t shirt, black jeans and all that stuff. James Hitfield of Metallica is one great example.

Metalhead Look Today

There are 29 Heavy Metal Subgenres (Wikipedia) and today how to be a metalhead and to dress metal would depend on the subgenre that you are in. Becuase there are many heavy metal sub genre and has various style of clothing, let's just focus on this 3 Metal Sub Genre.

Trash Metal - Leather jackets, denim jackets, skinny black jeans, black boots or black leather shoes, with sleeve or sleeve less black t shirt. The common stuff was skinny jeans and black t-shirt. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal are Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax

NU Metal - Many Metalheads would insist that NU Metal is not part of Metal but let's face the truth, one of its core music component is from heavy metal. Basically it is a fusion genre which is a combination of alternative metal, grunge and hip hop. NU Metal style clothing has a touch of hip hop, like loose fit jeans, big t shirts, rubber shoes, and hats. NU Metal bands - Korn, Slipknot, many more.

Black Metal - Common theme of black metal is anti-Christianity so they are portraying satanic ideology and images. Black metal fans usually wears make up, long hair, leather wrist band with silver spikes on it, belts detailed with silver, black leather jackets, black boots, black jeans, Sleeveless black shirt. Black metal bands are Venom,

Mayhem and Darkthrone.

There is also another metal subgenre called Unblack Metal which is the opposite of Black Metal and its main theme is Pro-Christianity. Famous unblack bands are Horde, Antestor, and Crimson Moonlight.

The Common Gear in Metal

Though there are a lot of metal genre and ways of how to be a metalhead, but one common thing in all subgenre is black t shirt. So if you are going to a metal concert and not sure what to wear, just grab that black t shirt in your closet and your good to go. Just remember that metal is not about fashion but PASSION.

It doesn’t matter if you really look metal yet do not understand, appreciate, and respect metal. The thing here is that don't pretend. Just be who you are and don't wear those stuff if you are not comfortable or else you'll be labeled as a poser.

By the way if you want to receive rock updates straight to your email inbox, then subscribe to our list. Enter your name and email address below and click "Subscribe".

I'm sure there are other style of dressing metal that I haven't covered here but more or less this is the basic foundation on metal clothing which part of the process on how to be a metalhead.

Photo thanks to rinkjustice under a creative commons license

Electronic Acoustic Guitar Tuner - Why Should I Need This?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:32:00 +0000

There are many old guitar hands who insist not to use an electronic acoustic guitar tuner and that the only way to tune a guitar is to do it by ear.But, for a beginner, that can be a problem.

For most people new to guitar playing, tuning by ear is a skill that hasn't been developed yet.

Ear tuning is a skill that can take years of practice to develop, and hone to a skillful level. For that reason, among others, an acoustic guitar tuner is one of the first accessories a new player should buy. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that learning to play the guitar can sometimes be frustrating enough without having to worry about learning to tune your instrument by ear.

Investing in a good tuner will save you a lot of frustration and a lot of time. Time that could be used more profitably learning to play your instrument.

Choosing your electronic acoustic guitar tuner will be determined more by price , I think, because there are so many styles and price ranges to choose from. You can find a free Online Acoustic Guitar Tuner, although, with these you still must depend upon your ear to tune correctly.

You can even find a free acoustic guitar tuner download, but again, that only lets you hear the notes for each string and you still have to tune by ear. There are several moderately priced tuners to choose from which will do the job quickly and accurately, saving you time and frustration.

As with most purchases, you'll need to do some research, especially in the lower price ranges, to ensure the quality and to determine if that particular tuner is capable of doing what you need.

Electronic Tuners

Probably, the two most popular types of acoustic guitar tuners today are the electronic tuner and the clip on tuner. Electronic acoustic guitar tuner, usually digital, are small tuners that incorporate a highly sensitive microphone to pick up sound when a string is plucked.

A digital pointer will indicate left or right of 90 degrees to indicate which way the string needs to be tuned, with the pointer at 90 degrees indicating that the string is in tune. These tuners will vary greatly in price and quality. Prices can range from $10 or less and up to several hundred dollars.

Some will have features such as pitch pipe features, digital metronomes and others depending upon brand and price, but, for $30 to $40 you will be able to find a very good tuner that will fit your needs.

Clip On Tuners

Another type of acoustic guitar tuner that is very popular is the clip on type. This small tuner is just clipped onto the guitar, usually on the headstock, and tunes by picking up vibrations when a string is played. They are not affected by any noise around them since they do not use an integrated microphone to pick up the sound of a played string.

For that reason, they are very popular with bands during gigs and tuning sessions. These also can vary greatly in price, but a good, accurate clip on tuner can be found in the $30 to $50 range. Of course, you can spend a lot more than I have described here if you want, but, for the beginner and the recreational player the tuners in these price ranges will be more than adequate.

Summing Up

Back in the day, tuning by ear, using a tuning fork or using pitch pipes were about the only options, but, using a good electronic tuner gives very accurate results, and is much less time consuming and frustrating. That's why, in my opinion, the first accessory the beginning guitarist should buy is a good electronic acoustic guitar tuner.

Special thanks to Gavin Tapp for the photo.

Guitar Tuning Online - Where Can I Get A Free Electric Guitar Tuner Online?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Guitar Tuning Online is now becoming so popular to guitar enthusiasts as it provides flexibility and ease of use. But the main advantage of an online guitar tuner is that it's FREE. As the famous line says "The Best Things in Life Are Free."

Okay so much for that, let's go straight to our main topic "Where can I get a free guitar tuner online?

But before you proceed, let me asked you - are you using an acoustic guitar? If YES! Then I would suggest that you should read first this article Where Do I Find An Online Acoustic Guitar Tuner? This is my first article about Guitar tuning online and it is mainly focused on acoustic guitar tuning.

Free Online Guitar Tuner

There are lots of online guitar tuner websites out there in the internet today, but let me give you only two. Why these two? Because these are the most accurate and user friendly guitar tuners I found in the web so far.

JamPlay.com Online Guitar Tuner - This tuner offers two options. First is to tune by ear and second is to tune using a Digital tuner. Tuning by ear is basically matching the sound of the guitar tuner and the sound of your guitar string.

Guitar Tuning Online

This method is the same as tuning you guitar with a Keyboard or a Pitch Pipe which requires hearing skills.

Digital Tuner

So if you don't know yet how to tune by ear then the second option Digital tuner is excellent for you. What’s great with Digital tuner is that, you will see the actual notes that you are playing.

You will know instantly by looking on the tuner if you already hit F# just like in the image above. Click here to tune guitar online via JamPlay.com.

Gieson.com Guitar Tuner - As the website's description "An online tuner to help you tune a guitar by ear", which means that you only have one option here - tune by ear. This is also a good Guitar Tuning Online tool.

You can have different kind of guitar tuning such as standard tuning, Drop D, Drop C, Drop A, Open G, Iris, and a lot more. Works for electric/acoustic guitar tuning and it has a very clean and attractive user interface.

Which one is the best?

Both of them are great guitar tuners but personally I prefer to use JamPlay Online Guitar Tuner because you have two options, tune by ear or tune using the digital tuner. Tuning by ear is a time consuming method if you lack of hearing skills.

While using the digital tuner, you can tune the guitar fast and easy. Imagine how much time you will save if you use the digital tuner. If you use that time to practice this could speed up your learning process.

However, don't be too dependent on digital tuner. I would also recommend that you should learn how to tune the guitar by ear as you go along. Tuning the guitar by ear is an important skill that a guitarist must learn.

But if you are a complete beginner, don't take too much time on this instead focus on learning to play your favorite songs so you will be inspired to keep the ball rolling. If you keep on playing the guitar, your hearing skills will gradually improve and by then it would be easier for you to learn how to tune by ear.

I suggest you try both and you choose what's best for you. Get started now! Visit JamPlay by clicking this link here --> Online Guitar Tuner and enjoy your Guitar Tuning Online.

Where Do I Find An Online Acoustic Guitar Tuner?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 02:58:00 +0000

Finding a good Acoustic Guitar Tuner Online is a pain in the ass, isn't it? I know, because I've been there too. You bang your head on the computer for several hours and end up disappointed because you can't find a really good online guitar tuner.

Most of them are crappy and not accurate. Some notes are flats and some are sharps. Which is impossible for you to play perfectly in tune.

Other online guitar tuners will have you click through several web pages and then at the end will surprise you with a shopping cart (What? I thought it’s FREE!).

Well, worry no more because I found a simple solution for you!

After several hours of surfing the net, I finally found one good free online acoustic guitar tuner and it is the guitar tuner tool available at www.jamplay.com.

You can locate the free guitar tuner app on their tool tab but you can also access it directly by clicking this link here JamPlay Acoustic Guitar Tuner

Online Acoustic Guitar Tune

Just a friendly reminder, you can't rely on any free guitar tuner online so don't expect too much on it. The tuner at JamPlay.com is sometimes not perfectly accurate because this may depend on your mic and input/output hardware configuration.

But the good thing is that it's more accurate than any other guitar tuners out there in the internet.

Anyway it's free and it's a good value to help beginners get started and rock on. You can always purchase a high quality electronic guitar tuner as you go along in your guitar journey.

Why you need a guitar tuner?

Basically, you need a guitar tuner to achieve fast and accurate tuning. If you are a beginner, your learning rate will also increase as this will enable you to tune the guitar quickly and accurately resulting to have ample of time for practice.

Guitar tuner is not only for beginners because most of professional guitar players are using guitar tuner for accurate tuning and avoiding delays during concerts.

Guitar tuners are available for both acoustic and electric guitar. However, on this article let’s focused on the acoustic guitar tuner.

There are several ways of tuning your acoustic guitar. But these five below are the most common methods being used by most guitarist today.

Harmonics
Pitch Pipes
Electronic Tuner
5th Fret Method
Tuning Using a Keyboard or Piano

Basically, these methods above are ways of tuning the guitar by ear except for the electronic tuner. Tuning by ear is one problem that you might encounter when you are just starting out.

Don't worry too much if you can't tune by ear properly in your first few attempts. This is a common problem that every guitarist will experience and you can add me on the list.

Slash and Kirk Hammett might have the same problem with you before they became guitar heroes.

So if you are a beginner, your best option is to use an electronic guitar tuner rather than tuning it by your own ears. But I would recommend that you would also take time to learn how to tune using your ear as this is a very important skills that a guitar player must have.

Why you should go for an online guitar tuner?

There are lots of electronic guitar tuners available in the market today at very affordable prices. But before spending you precious bucks on them, I would suggest that you use a free online acoustic guitar tuner first.

It is a smart move to try a free tool first before spending money, doesn't it?

I can't stress this enough, it's better to see for yourself. So why don't you head on to www.jamplay.com right now and give a try this cool Acoustic Guitar Tuner.

How To Be A Metalhead?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:48:00 +0000

How to be a metalhead is a long way of discussion but let me give you 7 easy steps that you need to know to be a real metalhead.

1. Love Metal - this is the most important factor that a metal head should have. If you don't love metal and just pretend that you love the music because your friends like it too, then you are considered as poseurs.

Poseurs are fake! It might be a fan or an artist who just pretend to be metalhead but do not understand the philosophy or values of the subculture.

You want to be a metalhead? Then love metal first and be sincere about it. Being metal comes from the heart.

2. Get to Know Metal - If you know the history of metal you'll understand the music and people that surround it.

You don't need to know the very detail of every heavy metal music sub genre. But by knowing its background you'll know the reason why you would want to be a metalhead.

I highly recommend that you watch these two documentary films Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and Metal Evolution. Sam Dunn (the actor) travel around the world to explore the long-misunderstood art form and to dig down the history of metal. On these documentaries, you'll be able to learn where heavy metal came from, the musical style that influenced metal, and how the metal evolved through decades and came up with new sub-genres.

3. Listen and Appreciate Metal - First, listen to different Metal sub genre, from Old school metal like Black Sabbath to modern metalcore like Killswitch Engage.

Then next figure it out what subgenre you really like the most and give your full support on it. Don't just listen to the vocals but also be aware of the whole key components of the band. Appreciate guitar solos, bass solos, and drum solos.

4. Support the Music - Attend local metal concerts and feel the music. Buy albums and avoid illegal downloading and piracy if you can. In this way you’re not only helping the artists but also helping the Music to be alive in the next coming years.

Hangout with other metal heads as they can also give you tips on how to be a metal head.

5. Play the Music - Metal heads exist because of music. It is the core component of being a metal head. And 7 out of 10 metalhead wants to actually play the music rather than just listen to it. It is a plus factor if you know how to play metal.

Playing some heavy riffs or perhaps kicking off that double pedal is just an amazing feeling of power and masculinity. Learning music now a days is much easier than before because of the internet. You can even get PREMIUM metal guitar lessons for free if you just be serious in digging the net. However, you don't need to be a musician to be considered as metalhead. As I said it's a plus factor but it is not necessary.

6. Dress Metal - Metalhead clothing evolved for decades. In the 70's and 80's, Rob Halford (Judas Priest Vocals) popularized the biker look which is more on leather jackets, black band T-shirts, belts detailed with silver, black boots, black jeans, and of course long hair.

But in the 90's lot's of metal heads cut their long hair and one good example is James Hetfield (Metallica).

Today, metal fashion depends on the heavy metal music sub genre. Metalcore is more on black skinny jeans and black metalhead band t shirt. While Nu metal clothing is influenced by hip hop. It's up to you what to follow whether the 70's style or the modern one.

It all boils down to the metal sub genre you are interested in. This is a very long topic so I'll discuss more about it in my coming post as a supporting article on how to be a metalhead.

7. Stand On What You Believe - Other metal heads may tell you, don't listen to NU Metal because its crappy hip hop. Or don't listen to Metalcore because they’re gay. Well I tell you, DON'T listen to these close minded people.

Every music genre is unique and deserved to be respected. Be true to yourself and listen to your inner voice. Don’t go with the flow, stand to what you believe and most of all, enjoy Metal Music.

Aside from the key points mentioned above, there are a lot of factors need to be considered.

But just follow these 7 steps and you'll be fine because these are the basics and very important steps you need to know on how to be a metalhead.

Photo thanks to MarkScottAustinTX's.

Rockosphere - Is There A Good Website For Finding Information On Rock/Metal Music?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Rockosphere is all about Rock Music and its subgenre. You might wonder what is the meaning of Rockosphere. From the root word rock (relating to rock music) and Sphere which is a Greek word means World, combining the two will give us Rockosphere which means "World Of Rock"

Hi I'm John and I welcome you to The World of Rock. Rock music is my passion and as a rocker I always wanted to follow a music website that only talks about rock.

Rockosphere

The problem was I could not find one and if there is, usually it is not updated. Most of the music blog today focused on the mainstream Pop and R&B because these are the most famoes music genre today.

I know the feeling of going to a music website to read about my favorite rock band and end-up getting articles about Justin Bieber.

There is nothing wrong about the artist and I respect him and his fans. The thing is that, their providing you information which is out of your interest. It's like you are asking for an apple and their serving you a banana.

So I decided to create this website which is dedicated only to rock music, to entertain and give service to fellow rockers like you.

What to expect with Rockosphere over the next couple of weeks?

History of rock music

How to be a metal head

How to dress metal

Online guitar lessons free for beginners

Rock band reviews

History of Rock Music

It's always a good idea to know a little background of what you love most. We love and believe on rock music and it's great to know the history of it. We will dig the root by dissecting the family tree of rock music.

How to be a metal head

You might be a rocker but a not a metal head. This topic is a little bit confusing especially if you are new to the rock world. So to clear this up, we will define what metal head is and you will find out the difference between a rocker and metal head.

Most of all on this section we will talk about, how to be a metal head and what it takes to be metal.

How to dress metal

If you are already a metal head and still don't know how to dress like metal then Rockosphere is the place to be. I will be posting articles and videos showing you how to dress like a real metal.

Over the coming weeks I will also launch Rockosphere Merchandise Metal where you can have access to genuine and exclusive metal clothing and gears.

Rock Band Reviews

Know more about your favorite rock band. Find out there real life experiences outside the stardom.

Online guitar lessons free for beginners

Nine out of ten rockers want to learn the guitar. However, most of the rockers don't bother to learn the guitar because getting an instructor is expensive. But deep inside is the burning desire to strum that string. If you are one of these rockers, I have a good news for you.

You can learn guitar for free online. I will team up with the best guitar instructors in the industry to give you quality guitar lessons for FREE.

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Thank you for visiting this page and once again welcome to the world of rock, welcome to Rockosphere.

Photo thanks to Fadza Ishak under a creative commons license