Month: September 2023

I am someone that loves all kinds of music and that has certainly been prevalent this past week. Two artists that I have been listening to recently are John Mayer and Chris Stapleton – both of which are completely different genres of music. Mayer is a rock and RnB singer-songwriter and Stapleton is one of the biggest names in country music right now. Both artists are known for their dreamy guitar playing and amazing vocals.

For some time now, I’ve been a pretty big fan of John Mayer. Mayer has been around for quite some time, with his first album releasing in 1999. His name grew with his early hit songs “Neon” and “Your Body is a Wonderland”. My personal favorite songs by John Mayer are definitely “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and “Gravity”. Both of these songs are very complex and crafted beautifully. Mayer’s vocal performance in the songs are definite standouts as well. The thing that I love the most about these songs is the guitar playing – more importantly – the solos. For example, whenever Mayer performs “Gravity” live, he always ends the song with an amazing guitar solo that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. The solo is really out of this world and makes you feel like gravity is working against you- as the title and lyrics imply.

One of my more recent interests has been country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton. As a music lover, I have always admired country music and all of its many artists. I feel like country music has a certain vibe and feel that moves you in ways that other genres of music simply don’t. A prime example of this comes with Chris Stapleton’s music. Songs like “Starting Over”, “Tennessee Whiskey”, and “Joy of my Life” never cease to amaze me. The easy standout in Stapleton’s music is his voice. I think that Chris Stapleton has one of the best voices in music right now and I feel like this feels more true with each new song of his I listen to. Another big standout for me is his style of playing guitar. Stapleton uses a lot of unique chords and riffs that create an amazing feel.

Recently I have been learning a lot of Mayer and Stapleton’s songs on guitar. Learning these songs has been great because these songs are just fun to play. The uniqueness of them strays them away from other songs that all sound the same and are dull and boring. I will definitely continue to listen to both of these artists and encourage others to do the same.

One artist that I’ve been listening to a lot recently is Sublime; Sublime is a ska/reggae band from California who were apart of the surf rock and punk scene in the 1990s. They are most known for the hit song “Santeria” and their self titled album that came out in 1996. I’ve always been a big fan of Sublime and I’ve especially been a big fan of the ska and reggae genre of music. This style of music just has a certain vibe that is extremely special and unique. This past week, I took it upon myself to listen to the entire self titled album from 1996. From start to finish, I loved this album. Every track had an awesome vibe and overall sound. My favorite songs on the album are probably “What I Got”, “Doin’ Time”, and “Santeria”. The song “Santeria” is a classic song that I’ve been a fan of for a while now, however the other two tracks really struck me. “What I Got” is an awesome sing-along song that is insanely catchy. “Doin’ Time” is probably one of the most unique songs I have ever heard. I say this because this song is one of the last tracks of the album and after listening to the whole album, once you get to “Doin’ Time”, you are not expecting a song to sound like the way it does. The overall feel and vibe of “Doin’ Time” is completely different from every other song on the album and I love it.  Another song from the album that I loved is “Pawn Shop”. In this track, singer and guitarist Bradley Nowell puts his guitar skills on display.

The main reason why I wanted to listen to this album is that I wanted to learn how to play guitar in the same style as Sublime. Guitarist and singer Bradley Nowell, has a very distinct style of playing guitar. Learning Nowell’s style has been on my bucket list for quite some time, and after listening to the album my desire to learn it has definitely increased. The way he quickly and sharply strums the chords creates the reggae vibe and it also adds flair to the song. Since listening to the album, I have learned how to play “Santeria”, “What I Got”, and “The Wrong Way”. After learning these tunes I definitely now have a pretty good grasp on how to play guitar in the reggae style. I would definitely recommend this album or any of Sublime’s other work.

By far one of my biggest passions is music. I’ve been playing music since the fourth grade when I learned how to play the drums. For many years, the drums was the sole instrument that I played. It wasn’t until sophomore year in high school when first learned how to play the bass guitar. My friends and I formed a little garage band and when there was no one to play the bass I stepped in. One big thing that helped me pick up on how to play was already having an understanding of music and how it works. A lot of people always say “Oh I could never play and instrument, it seems way to hard”. In some ways, this may be true but nowadays, there are so many ways to learn how to play any instrument you desire. There are many online courses and books that you could find but, the best method of learning, is youtube tutorials. When I first got my bass, youtube tutorials on how to play different songs was my lifeline. My strategy on learning songs was that I first looked up the tab of the song, and if I was struggling, I would watch a video demonstrating how to play it.  So many people start learning an instrument and then instantly quit because they feel like they just can’t do it. I encourage anyone reading this who wants to take up an instrument to be patient, and trust the process because, soon enough you’ll start to figure it out and it will all become easy. Once I got a good feel for the bass, I started to learn how to play guitar. The guitar is definitely very intimidating at first because there are six different strings and a lot of different notes on the fretboard. The best piece of advice that I got from my one friend who plays the guitar is that the key to learning the guitar is chords. Learning guitar chords is the best thing that a beginner can do when first learning how to play. Knowing how to play chords will not only help you with moving your fingers on the fretboard but, it also helps you understand chord progressions and changing between note. I hope that this post inspires people to learn and instrument and to trust the process. Learning music is hard, I won’t deny that. However, there are so many ways to learn how to play an instrument nowadays compared to twenty years ago.