Yesterday, when i wrote the blog about how approaching my practice sessions with a good attitude, i picked up my Guitar and had a really great session. I was learning from a book on "Rockabilly" guitar by " Fred Sokolow" and watched some good old videos on You Tube. I have been learning "Shaking all over" originally by "Johnny Kidd and the Pirates", later covered by "The Guess Who" and "The Who", it's got a really great guitar riff and it is fun to play. I watched some great old videos on You tube, Johnny Brunette, doing " A Train kept a rollin" which "Aerosmith" does a great cover of as well. Some "Elvis" ,"Gene Vincent" and "Eddie Cochran". What i love about the whole "Rockabilly" 1950's Music, is that it's somewhat easy to learn, but challenging enough to help me grow as a Guitarist. It's also the Music that started "Rock and Roll", a blend of Blues, Country.Pop, Gospel and Folk. By studying a certain genre of Music and getting focused on it's History, i created a sense of excitement into my learning. I wrote out a 20 song Set list of songs that i wanted to learn from the 1950's. I have two Gretsch Guitars and a Fender Telecastor, which are great for learning "Rockabilly". When you look at the 1960's Music, you can see how all the popular Bands cut their teeth on the "Rockabilly" music. Without "Elvis"and "Chuck Berry" and all of the other popular Artists, you wouldn't have had "The Beatles" or "The Rolling Stones" doing their Covers of all those Bands. Music in the 1970's carried on that "Rock and Roll" tradition, "Status Quo" took "Chuck Berry" and supercharged it. Listen to "Caroline" or "Rockin' all over the world" to hear what i mean. So one thing leads to another, by zeroing in on a certain style of Music to study, you open up a huge body of work thats interrelated. So thats what i did, and man was it fun!
