Chris Matthews | |
---|---|
Birth name | Christopher John Matthews |
Born | Western Australia, Australia |
Origin | Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
Genres | Country, blues, rock 'n' roll |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitars (acoustic, 12-string, lap stell), banjo |
Years active | 2001–present |
Website | chrismatthewsmusic |
Christopher John Matthews is an Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released four albums and toured nationally. His style of guitar playing incorporates unorthodox finger picking techniques and alternate tunings; he sings with a baritone voice.
Christopher John Matthews was born in Western Australia. At the age of 13, in Perth, Matthews started learning electric guitar and played heavy metal. [1] He later recalled, "The first thing I learnt was the solo from Metallica's 'One'." [2] From the age of 17 he was performing country music regularly for two-and-a-half years before touring the west coast to Darwin and then to Townsville. [1] Early in 2004 he relocated to Melbourne, where he played at various local venues. [1] By that time he was using an acoustic guitar or 12-string slide guitar with a stomp box. [1]
By December 2010 he was based in Kununurra and was one of 20 finalists in the Tamworth Toyota Star Maker Quest for 2011. [3] During the previous five years he had toured nationally five times. [2] In April 2013 his five-track extended play, Five Songs for Six Strings (2012), had two tracks played regularly on national radio, "Getting Things Done" and "That's What They Call Learning". [4]
By June 2015, Matthews had released four albums and toured nationally. [5] His style of guitar playing incorporates unorthodox finger picking techniques and alternate tunings; [2] he sings with a baritone voice. [6] [7]
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, in modern forms usually made of plastic, originally of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the 19th-century minstrel show fad, followed by mass-production and mail-order sales, including instruction method books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but 5-string and 4-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 21st century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, but was also used in some rock, pop and even hip-hop music. Among rock bands, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Some famous pickers of the banjo are Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs.
The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string acoustic and electric guitars, both of which use metal strings. Classical guitars derive from instruments such as the lute, the vihuela, the gittern, which evolved into the Renaissance guitar and into the 17th and 18th-century baroque guitar. Today's modern classical guitar was established by the late designs of the 19th-century Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres Jurado.
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.
The ukulele, also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
John Graham Mellor, known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, formed in 1976. The Clash's second studio album, Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978), reached No. 2 on the UK charts. Soon after, they achieved success in the US, starting with London Calling (1979) and peaking with Combat Rock (1982), which reached No. 7 on the US charts and was certified 2× platinum there. The Clash's explosive political lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude greatly influenced rock music in general, especially alternative rock. Their music incorporated reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, and rockabilly.
An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term autoharp was once a trademark of the Oscar Schmidt company, but has become a generic designation for all such instruments, regardless of manufacturer.
A twelve-string guitar is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in octaves, with those of the upper two courses tuned in unison. The gap between the strings within each dual-string course is narrow, and the strings of each course are fretted and plucked as a single unit. The neck is wider, to accommodate the extra strings, and is similar to the width of a classical guitar neck. The sound, particularly on acoustic instruments, is fuller and more harmonically resonant than six-string instruments. The 12-string guitar can be played like a 6-string guitar as players still use the same notes, chords and guitar techniques like a standard 6-string guitar, but advanced techniques might be tough as players need to play or pluck two strings simultaneously.
Michael Alden Hedges was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. He was known as a virtuoso who used unorthodox playing techniques, and much of his output was classified as new age music. Hedges died in an auto accident, and won a posthumous Grammy Award for his album Oracle.
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.
Charles Thomas Johnston is an American musician. He is a guitarist and vocalist, known principally as a founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter for the rock group the Doobie Brothers, as well as for his own solo career. He has played off and on with the Doobie Brothers for 50 years, in several styles.
The Mescaleros were the British backing band for British singer, musician and songwriter Joe Strummer, formed in 1999, which issued three albums prior to Strummer's death in 2002.
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking. The term "fingerstyle" is something of a misnomer, since it is present in several different genres and styles of music—but mostly, because it involves a completely different technique, not just a "style" of playing, especially for the guitarist's picking/plucking hand. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking except in classical guitar circles, although fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. The terms "fingerstyle" and "fingerpicking" are also applied to similar string instruments such as the banjo.
The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Schecter, Burns London and many other companies have produced electric baritone guitars since the 1960s, although always in small numbers due to low popularity. Tacoma, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Martin, Alvarez Guitars and others have made acoustic baritone guitars.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to guitars:
The chitarra battente is a musical instrument, a chordophone of the guitar family. It is similar to the 5-course baroque guitar, but larger and typically strung with five double strings, traditionally made of brass, but currently - steel. Nowadays it is typically used by folk musicians, mainly in the southern Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, and Campania, as well as in other areas of southern Italy; in past centuries the instrument was found in most of central and southern Italy.
The Mexican vihuela is a guitar-like string instrument from 19th-century Mexico with five strings and typically played in mariachi groups.
Maestro Guitars is a guitar manufacturing company based in Singapore. It is best known for creating custom-made acoustic guitars and ukuleles. The founder is Ho Zen Yong, a former Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate. Their instruments are used by professional Italian musician Franco Morone and were also used by guitarist Paul Ponnudorai.
Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Dave Matthews Band, which was released by RCA Records on June 2, 2009.
Burlesque: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released by Screen Gems, Inc and RCA Records on November 19, 2010. The soundtrack consists of ten songs sung by the film's stars, American singers Christina Aguilera and Cher; Aguilera sang eight of the tracks, while Cher performed the remaining two. The album is inspired by jazz music style, in style with Aguilera's fifth studio album Back to Basics (2006), but contrasting to her then-recent release Bionic (2010), which was recorded concurrently with Burlesque. Burlesque served as Cher's first album since the release of Living Proof nine years earlier.
Hamish Anderson is an Australian blues rock guitarist, songwriter and singer. He has shared the stage with B.B. King. He has released two EPs. His debut album Trouble was released on 21 October 2016. He was the last person to open a show for B.B. King before he died. In December 2016, Hamish was named as one of the 10 Best New Artists of 2016 by Yahoo! Music.