by admin on January 9, 2010
I’m sure you’ve already heard a lot about The Beatles 2009 remasters. They’ve got a huge amount of of hype considering that they are essentially re-releases of music that most people who are buying them already own.
As someone who grew to love The Beatles music from their 1980s CDs I think that their great song writing and their great performances are far more important than variations in sound quality from one format to another but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t excited about the 2009 remasters. After all, I had heard plenty about how the ’80s discs were not of the highest quality since digital mastering was in it’s infancy at the time and audio engineers of the time just didn’t have the same advanced tools and knowledge that they do today.
But hearing the original mono mixes for the first time was even more exciting than hearing those remasters for the first time. Until the new Beatles in Mono box set was released I had never heard some of the greatest Beatles albums the way they were originally intended to be heard. It can be difficult to understand today since we are so far removed from it, but at the time mono was the standard way to listen to music. Stereo was mostly the domain of hi-end “audiophiles” who, for the most part, had little interest in popular music (although The Beatles both directly and indirectly have changed that since then. )
It was (and still is) a really wonderful listening experience to hear Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band how the band and George Martin first mixed it (and how the majority of Beatles fans originally heard it) in the ’60s. There are easily noticeable differences in these mono versions when compared to the stereo versions that I had previously been used to. It’s not so much that they’re better (because I often prefer the stereo mixes) but that they sound different. I love being able to hear those differences.
Along with the box sets (stereo and mono) there’s also an all digital version of The Beatles in Stereo which is known as The Beatles USB. This is actually the very first release of the legendary band’s music in the mp3 format but there’s actually something more exciting than just the inclusion of their entire catalog in remastered stereo in high quality mp3s (although that is cool, isn’t it?) What is that more exciting thing? That the USB flash drive also includes 44. 1kHz/24bit FLAC files.
These 24bit FLAC files are actually of higher quality than 16bit CD files which means that The Beatles USB actually contains the highest quality version of The Beatles remasters available (until, of course, the remastered catalog gets released in 96kHz/24bit or even 192kHz/24bit on DVD and/or blu-ray in the future. )
Of course these remasters haven’t been only been made available for listening, they’ve also been made available for playing with The Beatles Rock Band. And if you’re someone who automatically think you’re not interested in video games, I beg of you to keep an open mind. This is a really fun game. I am not someone who plays video games normally, but I absolutely love The Beatles Rock Band. It’s fantastic.
The Beatles Stereo & Mono Remasters are both essential to any Beatles fans collection. The Beatles Remasters have been long anticipated and by all accounts The Beatles Remasters exceeded all expectations.
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by admin on December 10, 2009
One of the big events in fingerstyle guitar playing many years ago was the publication of a music book called “Beatles For Classical Guitar”. This was the world’s first attempt to mix the simplicity of the Beatles’ tunes with the complexity of classical guitar technique.
One of the first things that fingerpicking guitar players who were not trained in classical guitar playing noticed was that the fingerings to some of the tunes were much more difficult to execute than they had been used to. But no pain, no gain. The trickier arrangements indicated how much more musical richness had been found in these more complicated arrangements of familiar songs.
Some guitar players thought that a book of classical guitar arrangements of the work of The Beatles was just a gimmick. They expected that a minimal amount of work went into these arrangements just to produce popular music for the “egghead market”. In fact the songs are all substantial arrangements that many classical guitarists find extremely satisfying to play.
People who loved the Beatles’ music found that the songs had not been rendered unrecognizable in the process of arranging them for fingerpicking. The songs were arranged for guitar players who could read standard musical notation and they were not the kind of arrangements that could be played right through on sight the first time you saw them. The pieces asked you to pay some attention and make some effort. Once you get the feel of the way the songs have been interpreted you can let your familiarity with the songs guide you as you play.
Some guitar players are going to feel cheated by the fact that there are not tabs but the pieces are a bit too complicated to be translated into tab effectively. Guitarists who are used to playing using sheet music will be gratified that the music is not made more complicated by the addition of a tab line.
Here is the list of songs:
Across The UniverseAsk Me WhyCome TogetherCry Baby CryDay TripperFor No OneFrom Me To YouHello, GoodbyeHere Comes The SunI Don’t Want To Spoil The PartyI WillI’ll Follow The SunI’m A LoserI’m Happy Just To Dance With YouI’m Only SleepingI’m So TiredIn My LifeThe Long And Winding RoadMaxwell’s Silver HammerNo ReplyNowhere ManP. S. I Love YouPenny LaneSomethingThings We Said TodayThis Boy (Ringo’s Theme)Two Of UsWhile My Guitar Gently WeepsYesterdayYou’re Going To Lose That Girl
You might be surprised by the inclusion of some of the tunes in a collection of guitar solos. So go ahead and try them out.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.
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