Music Appreciation
BY PAUL GILBERT
Paul Gilbert purposefully began playing guitar
at age 9, formed the guitar-driven bands Racer
X and Mr. Big, and then accidentally had a No.
1 hit with an acoustic song called “To Be with
You.” Paul began teaching at GIT at the age of
18, has released countless albums and guitar
instructional DVDs, and will be remembered as
“the guy who got the drill stuck in his hair.” For
more information, visit paulgilbert.com
CHOPS: Intermediate
THEORY: Advanced Beginner
LESSON OVERVIEW:
• Discover the secrets of the
blues scale.
• Experiment with different articulations such as hammer-ons,
pull-offs, and slides.
• Learn about the beautiful dissonance that is Shostakovich.
CLICK HERE to hear
sound clips of
these examples.
If Bach is the Beatles, then Mozart is the Rolling Stones, and Beethoven is the
Who. And maybe Shostakovich is Metallica.
These sorts of statements are sure to ruffle
the feathers of anyone with an opinion
about these legendary artists. But my real
goal is just to make you curious enough
about Shostakovich that you’ll listen to his
Fifth Symphony.
If any composer was hired to write a
piece of music with the ferocious drama
of heavy metal combined with the erudite
firepower of classical music, you could
not expect better results than the first 12
seconds of this piece and all that follows. I
especially like the chords in the third movement. They are utterly beyond my knowledge of music theory and shocking in their
beauty and occasional dissonance.
Shostakovich lived in a dramatic time
and was threatened with arrest and worse
if he didn’t write something that met the
approval of the state. In modern times,
you can sometimes hear rock musicians
complaining about the unfairness of record
companies or music downloading … ha!
We’re not sent off to Siberia if we don’t
write a hit. I’d say that the rockers of today
have it pretty good, and I appreciate that,
being one myself.
I appreciate Shostakovich’s fiery intros
and chords, and I appreciate living in a
culture that allows just about any form of
art, but if I could turn all this appreciation
into currency, how would I spend it?
Fig. 1
4
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Fig. 2
Fig. 2
44 &
oe
J
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ÍÍÍÍÍÍ oeoe oe b oeoeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe oe b oeoe ˙
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