I recently started teaching again. I take on a few pupils from time to time - and there's been about a five year gap since I last taught. My two younger pupils - 7 and 11 respectively - have never heard of the Beatles! Can this possibly be? It's interesting to see though what music from my generation is still trickling through - probably via games and being a song/s played in a series / movies.
The Beatles - gone and lost in the mists of time?
That's sad. The games/series stuff is cool but not at the expense of the Beatles.
I suppose it tells us how people are listening to music these days. Less for the sake of it and more as a side effect of other entertainment.
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I've always tried to encourage my nephew who is 12 to play guitar with no success whatsoever, then beginning of this year he heard the Beatles, and wanted to start playing out of the blue. He is Beatles mad! He's now moving on to Buddy Holly and he's guitar chops are coming on. I'm showing him a few pointers but he seems determined to do it himself. He's the kind of kid that doesn't like too much attention, so I let him get on without too much fuss, but its fantastic to watch.
Brilliant! I think it's a very good place to start. Rich in so many layers of music making.
Here's an interesting video on The Beatles guitar techniques - lots of interesting little snippets:
lindsmuse Absolutely, its amazing how its captured and initiated that guitar gene. My sister says he listens to them 24/7. And Buddy Holly, only because the Beatles used to play Holly in the beginning. I've never played him Beatles so I don't know where he heard them?
It's incredible. I am listening to this Beatles video and it is GOLD. Thanks Bill. Wish I had time to go back and absorb and really apply. Fantastic that people are studying Beatles techniques. Better still, hearing all those cool licks and chord combinations again. They were truly inspired and an amazing combo of musos - getting it right at just the right time it seems ... for Beatles fans at any rate.
Bill-Rosenberg this video is great!
Methinks we need a Beatles challenge ?
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I prefer these guys ?
studmissile Isn't it amazing how different this sound is and they were around in the same time. It seems they didn't have the same influences at all as the Beatles, or they did but interpreted differently - maybe it's a difference between US and UK culture (and that's complex). But what they shared to some degree was this positive, happy kind of vibe that they were sending out. Then along came slightly heavier sounds ... not knocking those btw.
Very, very different but Brian was/is a musical savant. I've always found his work aurally mesmerizing.
10 days later
All this talk about the Beatles music, of course it was brilliant. Have a look on YouTube at "The MonaLisa Twins". They are two drop dead gorgeous really nice young girls who do their own versions of Beatles covers as well as other groups from that era. Both girls sing and compliment each other as well as play multiple instruments. They have an amazing webpage, will respond personally to you if you write to them and have a lot of videos on the net to look at for free. They also had a 2 year residency at the Cavern Club as well as playing with some major bands and a tour to Finland so can't be too bad. In one of their videos, you will see a busload of people travelling from Liverpoole to London just to see them perform again, quite a long journey. To me as a ballie from that generation, they breath life back into this music
5 days later
For some reason these guys kind of have that Beatlesy thing going on. I especially like this version. Incidentally found this as the Outro track to a fantastic series 'Patrick Melrose' - Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock). Had never listened to Blur before. I think Lennon may have liked this back in the day ?
4 days later
I'm just lovin' this cover - might seem like heresy to have a soprano doing the vocals, but I just dig the energy going on in this track. Drummer is particularly busy, yet with tasty dynamics.
Fantastic covers of Beatles songs - so respectful and tasteful (all of the above). Amazing to think that people with such talent were moved to go to the trouble of making this music.
I can just remember sitting around a radio with friends in a lounge somewhere listening for the first time to 'Ticket to Ride' and us all freaking out ? I don't think I could ever convey that magic. I guess it's the same as hearing Little Richie for the first time or Be Bop music, Big Band ... It was the fact that we could only hear them over the radio (and then later on vinyl). They were so distant from us and so rare. Factoring that into cover music is impossible. I wonder if radio is what created the magic - and all that scratchy tinniness. Whatever it was, the guitar went with it and always does. It travels so well.