Raw Thoughts

Learn How To Play ‘Somebody Save Me’ by Cinderella on Guitar (Lesson Video)

Watch the video HERE

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

This is our first Tutorial Tuesday back after the first round of holidays for 2011, and to give thanks, and be grateful for all of our fans, this week’s lesson video is by request!

This is for Austin, but we hope you all rock it out!

Let Us Know What You Think.

Swift Keeps Rollin’

 

 

 

 

This guitar playing phenom is going to need a new house to store all the hardware she’s collecting these days. Another awards show, another bunch of wins for Taylor Swift. What can we say at this point, except congratulations from Raw Talent Guitar.

Here is the article on last nights American Music Awards from the Sun Sentinel:
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country sensation Taylor Swift came up the big winner at the American Music Awards on Sunday, claiming three trophies including the top honor, artist of the year. She tied for most wins with British singer Adele, who also earned three trophies for female pop artist, best album with smash hit “21″ and top adult contemporary performer.

But Adele, who came into the awards show as the most-nominated singer with four nods, lost artist of the year to Swift, who seemed genuinely surprised by the upset victory. “This is one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me,” Swift said. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to say. I did not think this was going to happen.”

Along with year’s top artist, Swift claimed AMA trophies for favorite female country artist for the second straight year, and she nabbed best country album with her “Speak Now.” Adele, who is recovering from vocal cord surgery, was not on hand to accept her awards. Rapper Nicki Minaj was the night’s other big winner with two AMAs in the rap or hip-hop category: favorite artist and best album for her “Pink Friday.” Minaj opened the show singing her smash hit single “Super Bass” in a metallic outfit that had two large speakers on her bottom, and after winning best hip-hop album for “Pink Friday” was overcome with emotion. “This one could actually make me cry,” Minaj said onstage before wiping away tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Elsewhere, the AMA awards were split among numerous acts. Rounding out the country awards with Swift were Blake Shelton for best male artist and Lady Antebellum best group. Maroon 5 picked up the honor for best pop or rock group behind current hit “Moves Like Jagger,” and Bruno Mars rounded out the pop category with an AMA trophy for best male artist. Among R&B acts, Rihanna grabbed best album with “Loud,” winning over ex-boyfriend Chris Brown and his “F.A.M.E.” Usher was named favorite R&B male artist and Beyonce best female. Finally, the Foo Fighters earned top alternative rock band, Jennifer Lopez was the top Latin artist, and Casting Crowns won for best contemporary inspirational act.

While awards are the major focus, the show brings out top acts to perform. Lopez put on two crowd-pleasing acts, one solo and the other with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am. Justin Bieber with his holiday song “Under the Mistletoe,” had fans singing in the audience, and Enrique Iglesias with his anthem “I Like How it Feels” had them hopping to the beat. Marc Anthony and Pitbull also rocked the crowd, and the show ended with LMFAO singing from their “Party Rock” album, dancing with Bieber, and stripping to their underwear.

The AMA awards is among the most widely watched of the annual U.S. musical honors at the end of each year. Next up on the list of key honors are Grammy nominations, which will be announced on November 30

Learn How To Play 7 Nation Army by The White Stripes on Guitar (LESSON VIDEO)

Watch the video HERE

If you want to learn to play a cool song in an alternate tuning, check out the video for How To Play The White Stripes’ “7 Nation Army”

This song is in the alternate tuning of open A, and we’ll show you how to tune your guitar to open A in the first part of the video.

After you retune your guitar to open A, and once you learn how to play 7 Nation Army, try placing your fingers in different positions.

Open tunings are great, especially if you’re trying to write a song and need to try something different.

For a great iPhone app, try the Guitar Toolkit.

Let Us Know What You Think.

Will Oasis Ever Reunite?

 

 

 

 

 

For you Oasis fans out there, you know brothers Noel and Liam just can’t seem to get along. We always hold out hope that somehow they could work it all out and perform together again. Rumors hit recently that perhaps it could happen, but Noel’s interview with MTV seems to have killed that.

Raw Talent Guitar fans know we feature Oasis on our guitar training software, because we’re fans and think the songs are great to play with.

Here is the interview from MTV News:
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Early Thursday (November 10), before Noel Gallagher stopped by the MTV Newsroom to talk up his just-released High Flying Birds solo album, brother and former Oasis mate Liam was quoted by NME as saying that Noel was “desperate” to reunite the band.

Given the sheer amount of acrimony between the brothers since Oasis split in 2009 (with the elder Gallagher citing “verbal and violent intimidation” as the main reason), this came as news to Noel, who told us he wasn’t desperate to have anything to do with his former band — now and forever.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” he sighed. “When I first started doing interviews [for Birds], a guy — we’ll refer to him as ‘a French guy’ — he asked me: Did I have any regrets about leaving Oasis? And I said, initially, that I did. And he said, ‘Oh, what about this solo project?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, but it would have been great’ — would have been, this is key, concentrate on this — ‘would have been great if we could have worked on solo projects and maybe got back together for 2015.’

“But obviously, that’s not a story, and journalists being the cunning foxes that they are, he thought to himself … ‘If I just say “could” and “would,” mon dieu, I have myself a story!’ ” Gallagher continued. “So that goes all the way around the Internet, and then it’s like this mythical reunion is going to take place. … It isn’t going to take place. Do I look desperate? No, I’m not desperate at all.”

While he’s primarily in the States to begin the promotional cycle for the genuinely quite excellent High Flying Birds album with a run of shows in major markets (Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco), Gallagher knows there’s always going to be fans who want nothing more than a full-blown Oasis reunion — preferably in 2015, the 20th anniversary of their massive (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album. But for that to occur, Gallagher joked he’s going to have to endure some rather dark times in the very near future, because desperate, he most certainly is not.

“I will say this, though: If I need the money, I will do it,” he laughed. “I don’t need a lot of money, though, and here’s hoping I won’t anytime soon. No, I’m not desperate. My sh–’s not gone down the toilet yet.”

Black Sabbath Announces New Album, Tour

 

 

 

 

 

Black Sabbath, the band that launched Heavy Metal in 1970, is releasing a new album in 2012. The lineup will be the same as the original that created a genre – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler. Amazing news, what a great way to start a new week. I know, we have no Black Sabbath songs on our Raw Talent Guitar training software, but licensing is a killer!

Check out the release from CNN’s website:

As expected, the four original members of Black Sabbath — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — announced recently they will reunite and tour in 2012, including a headlining set at the Download Festival in June. The surprise news was that the reunion will include a new album, produced by Rick Rubin, due next fall.

Host Henry Rollins, who introduced himself at the famed Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip as the “press liaison,” talked about the impact of the band, both generally and in his own life. “I was a very alienated young person,” Rollins said, “and when I heard Black Sabbath I realized my life had a soundtrack. I realized there were people out there using music to make great statements. When I heard ‘Iron Man,’ high school became powerless over me. This is true outsider music.”

Then Rollins brought Rubin and the four Sabbath bandmates to the Whisky stage, where they’d played 41 years earlier to the day. Rollins hosted a Q&A before the band answered questions from the assembled press corps. “Why now?” Rollins began. Osbourne summed it up: “It’s just time,” he said. Those sentiments were echoed by Iommi, who said, “It’s now or never. We get along great. Everything’s really good.”

The band also credited Rubin’s persistence for helping get them back in the studio. “He phoned us every five minutes,” Iommi joked. “I’ve known Rick for many years,” Osbourne added. “He wanted to do it a long time ago.” With the album and tour not due until next fall, it’s clearly early in the process. But the quartet has begun rehearsing. Rubin said it sounds like the four guys in Black Sabbath getting together and playing, and Butler agreed.

“It’s really back to the old Sabbath style and sound,” he said.

Hank Williams Jr. at the CMA Awards

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hank Williams Jr. may have associated President Obama to Hitler, thereby banning himself from Monday Night Football and questioning his judgement, but he definitely has a sense of humor.

Check out the article from Yahoo.com and see how Hank handled himself with show hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. By the way, that’s an awesome collection of guitar players right there – if you’re into it we have great lessons of country style playing in Raw Talent Guitar.
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Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood have been hosting the Country Music Association Awards for four seasons running now–and fans have come to expect a slam-dunk comedic opening routine from the duo every year, synopsizing the year’s buzzy events (both country-related and otherwise).

This year–the pair really outdid themselves, plus gave the audience a big surprise! As most country-news aficionados expected, Underwood and Paisley chose to target the legendary Hank Williams Jr. right off the bat, making fun of his recent controversial appearance on Fox News, in which he compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler–that resulted in his being banned from ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

“Are you ready for an awards show?” sang Paisley, spoofing the famous “are you ready for some football?!” line from Williams’s decades-old football anthem, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over tonight.” Underwood, feigning shock, gasped and informed Paisley he could not sing that song; explaining in a whisper as to why it’s taboo. Paisley, after giving a mock gasp, then launched into a spoof of Hank Jr.’s tune “Family Tradition.” “Why do you drink…before interviews?” he and Underwood improvised. “Why do you smoke…before interviews?” They finished up with the clincher: “You can get drunk and start carrying on, but you can’t compare the president to Hitler.”

While the audience howled with laughter, a shadowy figure appeared from behind the hosts–which turned out to be none other than Hank Jr. himself.

“Got anything to say?” quipped Paisley to Williams, to which Williams deadpanned, “Nope.” Amid yet more raucous laughter from the crowd, all three musicians then broke into “All My Rowdy Friends,” resulting in cheers and a standing ovation.

The 45th annual CMA Awards took place Wednesday night in Nashville’s Bridgestone arena. Early winners for the evening include Song and Single of the Year for the Band Perry’s “If I Die Young.”

MTV Europe Awards Streaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, is there any way we could get MTV to just play videos?  If you know a way, let us know at our website, Raw Talent Guitar, as this stunt looks exactly like that – a stunt, and it’s rumored to have been pulled off by MTV for press. In any case, here is the article about MTV’s on-stage naked man host from Metro UK:

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The Heroes actress was presenting the award for Best Song when the mystery man suddenly appeared using his hands to cover his groin.

Hayden asked the intruder: ‘Dude, what are you doing?’

The man, who spoke with a Northern Irish accent, said he thought he would ‘do a streak’.

He added: ‘Apparently the only way out is back that way.’
After Hayden apologised, he said: ‘It’s not your fault. So um, enough about me, you were in that show Heroes’ yeah?’

When the mystery streaker told her he was a big fans of the show, Panettiere told him to ‘grab a pint with us after’.

He replied: ‘I would love that. Um, I don’t have my phone on me though. You know what. I’ll just leave you to it and I’ll see you at the after show.’
The naked man shouted out ‘She was a cheerleader’ referring to Hayden’s character Claire Bennet in TV show Heroes and jumped up and down before running off stage.

The incident sparked speculation on Twitter that the naked man was a publicity stunt organised by MTV.

IWetBiebersBed said: ‘But next time a naked guy appears on stage at the EMAs, mtv should make sure that its Justin.’

Hayden ended up presenting Lady Gaga with the award for Best Song for Born This Way.

As Gaga hugged Panettiere, she gave the actress a cheeky pat on the bum.

Steven Tyler made into Cabbage Patch Doll

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first saw this doll, a Cabbage Patch version of Steven Tyler, I thought Chucky.  However, its for charity, so we’ll go with it.  I just don’t know about stuffing this under the tree for the kids – you might freak them out.

Here is the article from the Boston Herald courtesy of Raw Talent Guitar…

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Steven Tyler, the trash-talking, potty-mouthed Bad Boy from Boston has been transformed into a cuddly Cabbage Patch Kid — but don’t think that’s going to make the Demon of Screamin’ change his ways.

Just as Tyler became one of six celebs who were transformed into one-of-a-kind Cabbage Patch dolls for charity, the “American Idol” judge gave a crazy-you-know-what interview to Paris Match in which he chatted about sex, drugs, lesbians and the near breakup of his band before he went back to rehab and got clean.

Tyler told the French mag that he wanted to write his autobiography, “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?” before “ending up with a bag of drugs” in an unmentionable place, “surrounded by two naked lesbians in a hotel deep in the heart of Minnesota.”

Which sounds like a bestseller to us, but what do we know …

Tyler also opened up about the depression he felt after falling off a stage in South Dakota, the culmination of a series of bad breaks that sent the repeat rehabber back up the 12 Steps at the Betty Ford Clinic.

“I fell on stage, I almost died … and not one of the members of the group called me,” he said. “I am Italian, so sensitive. That indifference hurt me. Especially since my mother died, my two last kids left for college, my treatment for hepatitis C was intense, months of hell, my two dogs and my cat died too. And my wife left me! It was too much! I needed to rest myself in a clinic. I spent eight months crying. I seriously cried when they prescribed me antidepressants … it isn’t my nature, depression. I’m the leader of Aerosmith, dammit! I was lost.”

Clean and sober again, Steven is one of six celebrities, along with Al Roker and Katherine Heigl, whose trademark features have been made into one-of-a-kind Cabbage Patch Kid dolls by JAKKS Pacific Inc. in honor of National Adoption Month. The dolls are currently up for auction on eBay, with proceeds going to the Children’s Action Network, an adoption awareness program that helps children in the foster care system find homes.

Steven’s doll, according to the website, is “rock ’n’ roll inspired in every detail, “from the choker necklaces, bead bracelets and tight jeans to the printed rocker T-shirt and curly, highlighted hair. …” It comes with a mike stand with Tyler’s signature scarf tied around it, but no drugs or groupies …

GWAR Guitarist Found Dead

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly we must say goodbye to Cory Smoot, the longtime guitarist for GWAR who was found dead on the band’s tour bus.  No cause of death has been determined, however the band has vowed to continue on in honor of his memory.  For those of you that are Beavis and Butthead fans, those two were huge fans of GWAR.  RIP Cory from Raw Talent Guitar…

Here is the article from The Hollywood Gossip website:

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Sony Music Picks New Chief

 

 

 

 

 

We like to be positive at Raw Talent Guitar, but we don’t know about this hire. Sony Music, a division expected to lose over $1 billion this year, picks Doug Morris (formerly of Universal Music) to turn around its fortunes. Mr. Morris, at over 70 years old, presided at Universal during their stubborn refusal to adapt to the digital age – he once called ipods “repositories of stolen music”.

We blog about the four major music labels because we care – we want them to continue finding and signing acts, and hopefully they can make money and stay in business. And we think they’ve learned a very, very hard lesson about labeling their consumers as criminals. Well, we hope anyway.

Here is a link to the article from the New York Times.