Prince plays guitar for Maria Bartiromo on CNBC in 2004. WQanna know how fun it must be to be him? Here you go.
Hear Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s “Au Clair de la Lune”, the earliest intelligible recording of the human voice, 1860
Dust-to-Digital proudly inaugurates its vinyl imprint Parlortone with the earliest intelligible recording of the human voice: an historic 20-second version of “Au Clair de la Lune” made in 1860, 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. This single-sided 45rpm record comes complete with an etched back, a descriptive essay and a reproduction of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s original “Au Clair” phonautogram.
The recording, part of the French folk song Au clair de la lune, was initially played at a speed that produced what seemed to be a 10-second recording of the voice of a woman or child singing at an ordinary musical tempo. The researchers leading the project later found that a misunderstanding about an included reference frequency had resulted in a doubling of the correct playback speed, and that it was actually a 20-second recording of a man, probably Scott himself, singing the song very slowly. It is now the earliest known recording of singing in existence, predating, by 28 years, several 1888 Edison wax cylinder phonograph recordings of a massed chorus performing Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt.
Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney’s Lost Home Movie From 1997
Here’s one of music’s most endearing couple, Paul and Linda McCartney hamming it up in front of a camera. According to the man who uploaded this onto YouTube, Larry Jamieson, it’s a “lost” home movie made by the McCartneys while holidaying in New Zealand sometime during 1997. Sadly, Linda McCartney died in Tuscon on April 17th, 1998.
How to arrange your guitar pedals, according to Steve Vai
Musician’s Friend and BOSS teamed up to present an exclusive live webinar featuring guitar icon Steve Vai that takes the mystery out of guitar pedal order.
Mass Appeal caught up with Post Malone as he did a bit of guitar shopping in New York City.
Mass Appeal caught up with Post Malone as he did a bit of guitar shopping in New York City.
Ever since Austin Richard Post dropped that “White Iverson” back in 2015, the industry has been trying to put a tag on his toe. But ever since we heard him singing Bob Dylan, we knew Posty had much more to offer than a dope crossover move. White rappers come a dime a dozen, but the Dallas-born music man-who fell in love with guitars while playing the Guitar Hero video game-refuses to be put in a box. The success of his debut album Stoney offered a mere glimpse of Posty’s potential. So when he passed through Mass Appeal HQ the other day, it seemed only right to introduce him to Rudy Pensa, the Argentinian guitar-whisperer whose created custom instruments for the likes of Mark Knopfler.
Pensa’s SoHo shop Rudy’s Music is a mecca for master musicians the world over. When Posty stepped in the door he found himself in guitar heaven. “It’s not a question of being a virtuoso,” said Rudy after watching Post flex. “It’s just playing the right notes at the right time. Taste is what it is. This kid has taste. If you don’t tell me what he was doing, I’d say he played guitar-not a rapper… It’s only the beginning.” After trying out a few custom guitars, and treating us to a taste of “Feeling Whitney,” Post copped a Louis Telecaster. But he walked away with much more. Plug in.
Watch How To Build A Custom Handcrafted Acoustic Guitar In This Amazing Doc
Meet Michael Greenfield of Greenfield Guitars, a musician who began tuning, repairing, restoring, and making guitars in the 70s and since then has become a seasoned luthier of bespoke guitars. Having experience with vintage and antique guitar repair and restoration, he brings a unique insight to his craft, creating personalized musical instruments and functional works of art for artists, collectors and those who deserve the very best.
His workshop is based in Montreal, where we visited over a period of 5 months, filming as he and his apprentice, Julien, transformed slices of spruce, ebony, mahogany, and other tree species into glistening guitars. It was all of our collective vision to present the process in the most candid, down-to-earth fashion, so in this hour-long documentary you will see all the glue, smudges, shavings, dust, and callouses. His guitars feature Florentine cutaways with spalted beech rosettes, violin-style body purflings and simple decorative purflings along edges, Laskin style arm rests and rib rests, amongst other features.
This documentary follows several different steel-string guitars from beginning to finish. As Michael puts it, the guitar still thinks it’s a tree until it receives its first set of strings and that is when the instrument is born. After many months of work, the magical moment when we hear a guitar’s first notes is like hearing a child’s first words.
Here’s The World’s Coolest Drummer. Literally.
Watch as The Hellacopters drummer Robert Eriksson performs a solo on a set of custom-carved ice drums. The drums hold up pretty well, except the cymbals.
Jazz Orchestra Eating Hot Chili Peppers. It Goes EXACTLY As You Think.
Chili Klaus & Aarhus Jazz Orchestra eats some of the hottest chili peppers on the planet while playing St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins. Peppers are consumed at the 01:05 mark.
Matt Parker’s comedy routine about spreadsheets is proof he can make anything funny
From the Festival of the Spoken Nerd DVD: Full Frontal Nerdity, here’s Matt Parker’s comedy routine about spreadsheets.
Go Behind The Scenes For The Making Of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”
This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. With over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide to date, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of the world’s most well known and well loved songs.
The single has been covered by everyone from Kanye West during his 2015 controversial Glastonbury headline slot, Axl Rose, Elton John and Pink to The Flaming Lips and Elaine Paige and forever immortalized again by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in the smash hit 90’s film, Wayne’s World.
To mark the anniversary, this weekend kicks off a month of celebrations and unique opportunities for fans to get involved all over the world.
This documentary features Roger Taylor, Brian May and Queen studio engineer Justin Shirley Smith discussing the making and history of hit single Bohemian Rhapsody.
This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. With over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide to date, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of the world’s most well known and well loved songs.
The single has been covered by everyone from Kanye West during his 2015 controversial Glastonbury headline slot, Axl Rose, Elton John and Pink to The Flaming Lips and Elaine Paige and forever immortalized again by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in the smash hit 90’s film, Wayne’s World.
From Inside The Rhapsody, taken from the ‘Greatest Video Hits 1’ bonus DVD of 2002, here’s the behind-the-scenes making of one of the greatest songs in history.