melody makers  

Minggu, 28 September 2008


Slash was born on July 23, 1965, in Hampstead, London,[5] to a White, English father and Nigerian mother. Slash's mother, Ola Hudson, worked as a costume designer for David Bowie, and his father was an artist who contributed live ensembles for famous musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.[6] Slash was raised in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, until the age of 11 , when his parents relocated the family to Los Angeles, California in the mid-1970s. His parents separated and he lived primarily with his mother. He was given the nickname "Slash" by family friend Seymour Cassel because he "was always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another."[7][8]
After deciding to form a band with friend Steven Adler, Slash decided to pick up the bass. This is due to the fact that Steven had declared himself lead guitarist. Slash stopped in at Fairfax Music School and told the receptionist he wanted to play the bass. He then met his teacher Robert Wolin. Robert told him to learn he would need a bass of his own. Slash went home and asked his grandmother and was given a worn-out, single stringed flamenco guitar. After hearing Robert play "Brown Sugar" by ear Slash realized that the guitar was his calling. He subsequently dropped out of Crespi Carmelite High School to focus on music. In a Rolling Stone magazine article, he remarked:“ My big awakening happened when I was fourteen. I'd been trying to get into this older girl's pants for a while, and she finally let me come over to her house. We hung out, smoked some pot and listened to Aerosmith's Rocks. It hit me like a fucking ton of bricks. I sat there listening to it over and over, and totally blew off this girl. I remember riding my bike back to my grandma's house knowing that my life had changed. Now I identified with something.[9] ”
In 1983, Slash formed the band Road Crew with childhood friend Steven Adler. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan.
When Road Crew disbanded, Slash joined a local band known as Black Sheep. Headed by Willie Bass, the band shared an agent with another new group known as Hollywood Rose. In 1984, both bands opened for Christian metal band Stryper. After the show, Slash and lead singer Axl Rose were introduced to one another by a friend. The two quickly became friends, and several months later, Slash and Steven Adler were invited to join with Axl Rose, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin as the band, Guns N' Roses.

Mattew Bellamy

Bellamy was born in Cambridge, England. Bellamy's father, George, was the rhythm guitarist in the 1960s rock group The Tornados, who were the first British band to have a U.S. number one, with "Telstar".[2] Bellamy's mother, Marilyn, was born in Belfast, and moved to England in the 1970s. On her first day in England she met Mr Bellamy, who was at that time working as a taxi driver in London. They moved to Cambridge, where Matthew's older brothers Paul & Will were born, followed a couple of years later by Matthew himself. In the mid-1980s the family moved to Dawlish, Devon where Matthew attended Westcliff Primary School. The family then moved to Teignmouth, Devon where Matthew attended Teignmouth Community College and then Exeter College. He moved in with his grandmother when his parents divorced and it was whilst living there that he started playing the guitar and piano with Trey,his best friend at the time.[3]

Kirk Hammett

Born on 18th November 1962 in San Francisco to a Filipino mother and an Irish Merchant Marine father [2] Kirk Hammett attended De Anza High School in Richmond, California.
As a child and teenager, Hammett showed great interest in his older brother Rick's extensive collection of guitars, Rickenbacker basses and hard rock records, including material by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and UFO. One of his biggest musical influences was Jimi Hendrix, and Hammett was quoted as saying he wanted to be Hendrix. Hammett has also been known to perform parts of Hendrix's songs during his guitar solos.
Hammett took up the guitar for the first time at the age of fifteen, beginning with a Montgomery Ward catalog special and little more than a shoebox with a four inch speaker for an amplifier.
After picking up a 1978 Fender Stratocaster, Hammett attempted to customize his sound with various guitar parts, eventually falling for a 1974 Gibson Flying V. He also took a job at Burger King to raise money for a Marshall amplifier.


John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American guitarist best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He has produced (along with his bandmate Mike Portnoy) all Dream Theater albums since their 1999 release, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. Petrucci was named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist. GuitarOne ranked him as the 9th Greatest Shredder of All Time.
Petrucci first played guitar at the age of eight when he noticed his sister (who was taking organ lessons at the time) was allowed to stay up past her bed time to practice. He soon dropped it when his plan failed. At age 12, he began playing again when he was invited into the band of his friend Kevin Moore, who would later become the first keyboardist of Dream Theater. Petrucci began to practice in earnest whilst exercising physically. He was a largely self-taught guitarist who developed his skills through attempts to match the skill of his idols, who included Steve Morse, Steve Howe, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Al Di Meola, Alex Lifeson and Allan Holdsworth. He has jokingly referred to his guitar idols as "the Steves and the Als".[1]
Petrucci attended Berklee College of Music in Boston with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). These three in addition to another childhood friend of Petrucci and Myung, Kevin Moore (Keyboards), formed the band Majesty, which would later become Dream Theater.
While Dream Theater is what Petrucci is most commonly associated with, he is also a part of the project band Liquid Tension Experiment and has appeared as a guest on several records by other artists such as the Age of Impact album by the Explorer's Club.
Petrucci has released a guitar instructional video, "Rock Discipline", which covers warm up exercises, exercises to avoid injury while playing, alternate picking, sweep picking, chords and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing. Petrucci also has a book named "Guitar World presents John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom", which was compiled from columns he wrote for Guitar World magazine, bearing that same title.
In 2001 he was invited by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired him to record a solo album. Suspended Animation was released on March 1, 2005, and made available for order from his web site. He also appeared on the 2005, 2006 and 2007 G3 tours.
Petrucci also wrote and recorded two instrumental soundtrack songs for a Sega Saturn game titled Digital Pinball: Necronomicon. Each track is roughly two minutes long and they are simply titled "Prologue" and "Epilogue". Petrucci is an avid Sega Saturn gamer, and has revealed in interviews that he never tours without one.[citation needed]
In 2007, John Petrucci went on G3 tour again, this time with Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.
Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic.[2] Petrucci is married to Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have 3 children, SamiJo and Reny (who are twins), and Kiara. He is also an avid fan of bodybuilding and dedicates much of his off time to weight training. [3]
John Petrucci won the "Guitarist of the Year 2007" award recently in Total Guitar Magazine.
He is a voting member of NARAS.

Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is a guitarist and recording artist from Austin, Texas. Best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, New Age, and country and western elements into his recordings.[1]
Guitar Player magazine calls Johnson "One of the most respected guitarists on the planet."[2] Johnson composes and plays not just instrumental songs, but also sings and plays piano.
Widely recognized for his guitar skills, Johnson's stylistic diversity and technical proficiency have drawn praise from Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Allan Holdsworth, Larry Carlton, Steve Morse, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, Jeff Baxter, Prince, B. B. King, Rusty Burns, Joe Satriani and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. His critically-acclaimed, platinum selling 1990 recording Ah Via Musicom produced the single "Cliffs of Dover," for which Johnson won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[3]

Joseph "Satch" Satriani (born July 15, 1956 in Westbury, New York, U.S.) is an American guitarist and former guitar instructor. He is heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.[1] Since 1990, Satriani has used his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is widely sold in stores.[2] He also has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour.[3] Later, in 1994, Satriani was also the lead guitarist for Deep Purple.[1] Satriani has also worked with a wide range of guitarists from many styles, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Kirk Hammett and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts.[4]

Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (pronounced /ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn/ in English) (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30, 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.[citation needed]

Steven "Steve" Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960 in Carle Place, New York) is an American instrumental rock guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer. After starting his professional career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai would also record and tour in Zappa's backing band starting in 1980. The guitarist began a solo career starting in 1984 and has released 13 solo albums as of 2008. Apart from his work with Frank Zappa, Vai has also recorded and toured with numerous musical artists including Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations with the intent to showcase, as Vai describes: "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments.".[1]

Tom Morello

Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and as the acoustic artist The Nightwatchman. He was featured as one of 20 guitarists in Rolling Stone's "The Top 20 New Guitarists" article. An outspoken political activist, he was also ranked #26 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". [1]

Jimmy Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix) (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter whose guitar playing was a considerable influence on rock music.[1] After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival.
Hendrix helped develop the technique of guitar feedback with overdriven amplifiers.[2] He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King, and Elmore James,[3][4][5][6] rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, as well as by some modern jazz.[7]
Carlos Santana has suggested that Hendrix's music may have been influenced by his Native American heritage.[8] As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects for rock recording.
Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage "Blue plaque" was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry, and Rolling Stone named Hendrix the top guitarist on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.[9]

Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Santana Alves (born July 20, 1947) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican rock musician and guitarist. He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which created a highly successful blend of rock, blues, salsa, and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin percussion such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone also named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003[1]

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