Guitarist

A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar by singing or playing the harmonica.

Techniques

The guitarist may employ any of several methods for playing the guitar, depending on the type of strings used (either nylon or steel), and including strumming with the fingers or a guitar pick, melodic flatpicking, and finger-picking.

Art

While music is an art form in itself, playing an instrument such as the guitar has long been a popular subject for painters. One of the more famous examples is the painting Degas's Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar by Edgar Degas, which was painted sometime between 1869–72 and is currently owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Notable guitarists

Despite perceived tendencies in mainstream music diffusion, to Rock music and electric guitar, notable guitarists arrived from other genres and different variations of the guitar instrument.

Guitar Player

Guitar Player is an American popular magazine for guitarists, founded in 1967 in San Jose, California, United States. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1967. The magazine is currently edited by Michael Molenda. Guitar Player is a part of the Music Player Network.

Contents

A typical issue of Guitar Player includes in-depth artist features, extensive lessons, gear and music reviews, letters to the magazine, and various front-of-book articles.

Guitar Player TV

In May 2006, the Music Player Network partnered with TrueFire TV to launch an internet-based television station for guitarists. It provides content similar to that of the magazine such as interviews and lessons. Guitar Player TV is provided at no cost to the user because of advertising and sponsorship.

Guitar Competitions

Guitar Player has a yearly competition now called "Guitar Superstar", which used to be the "Guitar Hero Competition".

Guitar Player (album)

Guitar Player is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Tal Farlow. Sides 1 and 2 were recorded in October 1955 while the other half of the double album wasn't recorded until September 1969. It was released in 1974 by Fantasy Records as The Return of Tal Farlow.

Tracks

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

B.B. King

Riley B. "B.B." King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015) was an American blues singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists.

King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" along with Albert King and Freddie King. King was known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows.

King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 14, 2015 from complications of Alzheimer's disease along with congestive heart failure and diabetic complications.

Early life

Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation called Berclair, near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King. He considered the nearby city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his home. When Riley was 4 years old, his mother left his father for another man, so the boy was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.

The Guitar Player

The Guitar Player is an album by British guitarist Davey Graham (then Davy Graham), released in 1963. It was his first LP after releasing the EP 3/4 A.D. two years earlier. The distinguished session-musician Bobby Graham (no relation) plays drums on the album.

"I started to play the guitar about seven years ago, while I was still at school- homework always gave in to music, so I was no genius! As soon as I got home, I would put on a blues record- Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Slim, Champion Jack Dupree and Muddy Waters and many others as well as modern jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Charlie Mingus and Thelonious Monk, who are still my favourites.

When I got tired of the city and a job suffocating in an office, I went to Paris and sang and played in the streets to cinema queues and up and down the French Riviera. I must admit I was very glad when I was invited to play in night clubs where I could put down the plectrum and play finger style as I still do. Every summer for three years I would break the chains of a job (anything from librarian to crate-humper) and leave for the continent, taking £5– the fare to Paris, freedom and the sun of the Cote d’Azur. When I came back to England in the winter of 1961, I started to get more regular work playing in folk song clubs, and got my first “break” playing as accompanist along with Alexis Korner for Shirley Abicair, the Australian folk singer on broadcasts for radio, a TV series and a concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

The Guitar Player (Vermeer)

The Guitar Player is a 1672 painting by Jan Vermeer, on display in Kenwood House, London as part of the Iveagh Bequest. In 2012 Kenwood closed for renovations until autumn 2013, and the painting was on display in the National Gallery for this period, next to their own two Vermeers. It was returned to Kenwood House in late December.

On February 23, 1974, the painting was stolen from Kenwood House, and held for a ransom of over $1,000,000US in food to be distributed on the Caribbean island of Grenada, or else the painting would be destroyed by those who had stolen it. It was recovered by Scotland Yard in the cemetery of St Bartholomew-the-Great, in London's financial district, on May 7, 1974. Although the painting showed signs of dampness, it was otherwise undamaged.

Further reading

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