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"Once synthesizers flooded the music industry in the '80s, music production effectively became an arms race of who could use the most cutting-edge sounds to produce a hit first. Conversely, new forms of music could practically be defined by their new sounds. The piano and organ presets were used in 1990s house music, beginning with Madonna's 1990 single "Vogue". The powerful Korg M1 was just the instrument for these times, providing a diverse set of sounds that helped forge diverse genres. When house music first took to the Billboard charts, tracks like “Show Me Love” by Robin S. and “Rhythm is a Dancer,” by Snap! hinged on the sexy, simple tone of the M1's organ preset. Madonna, as always, changed with the times and used the M1 to great success on her hit “Vogue.” Yet, somewhat hilariously, the most well-known example of the M1 doesn't even occur in popular music — the goofy slap bass sound used in the Seinfeld theme song was not played on a bass, but on the M1."

"The Prophet 600, released in 1983, was the first synth to offer MIDI connections, opening a new era of inter-connectivity that would become essential for all future electronic instruments."

"As far as where we’re going in the future, I think we’ve gone as far as we can with the ‘gods of speed’ thing. We’re starting to get into slower stuff, going for longer songs, as opposed to the blast aspect. Also, the noisy, industrial stuff is coming more to the forefront. If you’re familiar with our latest album [Harmony Corruption], I think you’ve got a good idea as to our new direction. We’re getting into real painful noise; I just want to annoy people at the moment."

"Like Tony Banks, Rick Wright (pictured on the right) was less a showy player than a musician who knew exactly which notes to play and which to leave out. His training and love of jazz made him one of Pink Floyd’s most musically-gifted members and his sensibilities can be heard on the wistful piano of "Us and Them." He was no slouch with a synthesizer, either. His performances with EMS VCS3 and Minimoog on the band’s classic Wish You Were Here have become etched into rock history. Musicians are still trying to suss out how he achieved his sounds on "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond." An effortless player, Wright was the breath that kept Pink Floyd alive."

"The '90s also saw the release of the first major keyboard sampler, Ensoniq's ASR-10, which would quickly redefine the sample work in hip hop, first by way of the Wu Tang Clan's RZA's complex soul chops, and then via Timbaland's and The Neptunes' pristine, minimal productions from the tail end of the '90s through the mid-2000s."

"The Korg Triton, more than embodying the sound of the 2000s, embodies an important style. Sensing the need for an all-in-one production studio, Korg created an instrument that was a synthesizer, a rhythm machine, a sampler and a mixing studio with pristine audio quality, all in one box. The Neptunes beat on Clipse's “Grindin'” is the perfect example of the machine's cool efficiency and powerful ability to groove. Of course, the Triton was less of a trendsetter than a swan song for powerful keyboard instruments, as the '00s also saw the rise of software synthesizers and digital DAWS or recording studios. In turn, the workstation format of the Triton was moot within just a few years."

"One can hardly skim a music magazine without seeing mention made of Mr Rudess. He has achieved fame as a keyboard virtuoso, a feat that seems almost impossible in a post-punk world.Yet the man’s skills are undeniable. He studied classical piano at Julliard at the age of nine before becoming enamoured of the synthesizer as a teenager. His first solo album earned him a Best New Talent award in a Keyboard magazine poll before he joined up with the Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater, with whom he still plays."

"I know, sir, that Bengali is a provincial language, but, so far our state is concerned, it is the language of the majority of the people of the state and it stands on a different footing. Out of six crores and ninety lakhs of people inhabiting this state, four crores and forty lakhs of people speak the Bengali language. So, sir what should be the state language of the state Pakistan? The state language of the state should be the state language which is used by the majority of the people of the state, and for that, sir, I consider that Bengali language is lingo franca of our state.... So we are to consider that in our state it is found that the majority of the people of the state do speak the Bengali language, then Bengali should have an honored place even in the central government."

"As much as [Led Zeppelin's] hard hitting beats and powerful guitar riffs embodied the era when rock and roll hit its peak, Jimmy Page in his leather pants embedded with dragons holding up his double neck Gibson and belting out the solo to the epic "Stairway to Heaven" is an image to put to the music."

"It takes a special sort of engineer to build a great guitar amplifier. They must have a sure scientific knowledge of circuit design - but also a great set of ears and a certain gut feel for what will sound great. And, as if that isn’t enough, they need to be gigging guitarists, too, so they understand what players want from amps and pedals and how they can build pro-grade amps to survive the road."

"As much as their hard hitting beats and powerful guitar riffs embodied the era when rock and roll hit its peak, Jimmy Page in his leather pants embedded with dragons holding up his double neck Gibson and belting out the solo to the epic "Stairway to Heaven" is an image to put to the music."

"Four capacitors, three resistors, one germanium transistor, plus a boost pot, two jacks, a switch, and a battery, and there you have it – the most vaunted and most valuable effects unit ever created! But as with so many collectibles, complexity isn’t necessarily an indicator of value ($825,000 for a 1918 “inverted Jenny” postage stamp anyone?), and the Rangemaster has several blue-chip factors in its camp. For one, original examples are very rare; two, Eric Clapton, Brian May, and Tony Iommi used one; three, this simple box of bits does something absolutely luscious to your tone."

"You can't miss with a Fulltone pedal, especially if it's the OCD. There's also a new improved version now, called OCD V2 which provides players not only with better sound quality but also with a better dynamic response. The only downside here is the use of Comic Sans font, which is a deal breaker for some."

"The wah pedal (which in many cases is probably the award-winning Cry Baby by Dunlop) is one of the most original and easily identified guitar effects in the world. Nothing sounds cooler, and few sounds transcend genres so easily as the wah pedal."

"If you're looking to wade into Joni [Mitchell's] musical waters, open D is an essential first step. Often, you see the same Joni songs transcribed in open E, as it's the same tuning one step down, and just requires different capo placement."

"Claudio Monteverdi, a composer who bridged the Renaissance period and the Baroque, can be justly considered one of the most powerful figures in the history of music."

"With Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Baroque music reached its zenith. The prosperous, cultivated world of contemporary Venice shines through all his works, composed with innate craftsmanship."

"This tuning can be heard on quintessential Fahey tracks lie "Sunflower River Blues" and "Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt" among many others."

"Arcangelo Corelli was the main founder of modern orchestral playing and the composer who fashioned two new musical forms, the Baroque trio and solo sonata, and the concerto grosso."

"Georg Philipp Telemann was probably the most prolific composer in musical history. He wrote almost as much as Bach and Handel put together (and each of them wrote a perplexing amount) including 600 French overtures or orchestral suites, 200 concertos, 40 operas and more than 1000 pieces of church music."

"Here comes the infamous monster, the crusher of toan (yes, toan), the evilest of all the evil, the filthiest of all the filth – Metal Zone (pronounced "Zoan"). The legend goes that whoever designed this pedal was obsessed with hornet nests and decided to replicate the sound. The result was so frightening that only trvest of the trve metallers were brave enough to use it and produce some of the most scooped toans ever. But it was only when the trvest metaller from the North (most metal place on Earth btw), the mighty Ola Englund, decided to plug it in the FX return of his Satanistic amp that we heard this pedal's trve potential. Ola made Metal Zone great again and got Nobel Prize for it (trve story)."

"Combining bass lines with chords can be an effective way to perform solo or accompany a singer or other instrumentalist. This technique is often employed to thicken up parts in a setting where there's space to fill. While common among jazz guitar players, it is equally suitable in other styles of music, and lends itself very nicely to blues playing."

"The hippie movement was about a lot of things — drugs, love, peace, anti-establishment, anti-war — and at the forefront of the movement was the music, psychedelic rock."

"What made [jazz guitarist Joe Pass] so unique and great was his chord-melody style playing combined with fingerpicking and impeccable improvisational skills."

"Playing parts that act as a counterpoint to the lead guitar is a fine art – Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford and Izzy Stradlin from Guns ’N Roses [...] are masters [of the technique]."

"The occasional chord from a different scale - or key - can give your progressions an element of surprise. Borrowed chords are an easy way to achieve this - these are simply chords taken from the parallel minor or major key. So if your sequence is in A minor, you would borrow chords from A major; if you're in D major, you'll take them from D minor, and so on."

"A normal C major chord is C-E-G, but you can easily change it to E-G-C, called the 'first inversion', or G-C-E, the 'second inversion' - the bass note has changed, but it's still the same chord, with the same root note, C. This can be used to create much smoother chord sequences."

"Take a normal major or minor triad - it doesn't matter which - and move its third up to play a perfect fourth, and you have a suspended 4 chord, or sus4 (root-5-7). Because it lacks a third, the chord sounds neither major nor minor, with a spacey, ambiguous feel. It's often followed by the regular major or minor chord, creating a satisfying resolution."

"Songwriters, guitar players, and Nashville. That’s a tight-knit trio."

"It makes sense that a shortcut system to convey chord progressions efficiently would emerge from Music City."

"E major is one of the easiest chords to play on the guitar, and as the lowest pitched major chord in standard tuning it carries considerable heft."

"If it's jazzy sophistication and smouldering sensuality you're after, it's time you tried seventh chords..."

"The so-called “wrong notes” people might tell you to not play are sometimes the ones that sound amazing against the riff and really make your playing stand out. Take Marty's playing on Megadeth's "Rust In Peace." He is throwing in all kinds of exotic scales and interesting note choices all over the place."

"If you listen to Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave,” you can hear this scale in action."

"This scale is the same as Phrygian dominant except for the natural 7, which this scale has. Any time you are improvising over a chord progression that has major chords that are a half step apart, this scale (as well as the Phrygian dominant) is a good choice. The Gypsy scale is cool to use when you're going for that whole snake-charming, exotic, "magic carpet ride" sound. Blackmore captured it very well on many tunes. “Gates of Babylon” by the Ronnie James Dio-fronted Rainbow is a good example."

"The family is the cradle of true love, true life, and true lineage, and the foundation for realizing God's purpose of creation."

"When you live with a grateful heart, everything around you looks beautiful. It makes you happy. Then you can't keep it to yourself and share your happiness with others."

"Harmonic minor is always a very cool choice and a favorite of mine. It’s great to use when you’re improvising or coming up with song ideas and lead parts. So many impressive players have made great use of it in their songs—guys like Uli Jon Roth, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Vai and many others. Mozart also was a big fan."

"When discussing progressive metal, Dream Theater might be the quintessential band."

"Just as you can stack an extra third on top of a triad to add the seventh, you can keep piling thirds on top to introduce ninths, elevenths and thirteenths. Intervals this large give us the same notes as a second, fourth and sixth, just one octave higher."

"[The SH-1000] hosted a set of rocker switches across the front, labelled with instrumentation such as tuba, trumpet and harpsichord, operating in a monophonic capacity. By today’s sonic standards, it was all very limited indeed, but it has gone on to be described as something of a design classic, being particularly popular with the vintage-retro enthusiasts out there."

"In 1973, the Yamaha Corporation decided to enter the fray [synthesizer market], with the incredibly large and organistic stylings of the GX-1. Also described as the dream machine, it became an enormous hit with artists such as Keith Emerson and Stevie Wonder, with Stevie using it as a mainstay of his classic album Songs in the Key of Life."

"Tom Oberheim had been working on a module called the Synthesizer Expander Module, or SEM for short. While overtly monophonic, Oberheim placed four of them in a keyboard housing to create the Oberheim 4-voice."

"Whilst the 808's place in history is undisputed, it's worth noting that several other drum machines drove early hip hop and house music, notably the E-mu SP1200, Oberheim DMX, and others, and though these are held in esteem, none ever became household names in the same way. Clearly there's something about the way these Roland machines sounded. As ever, there's something about Roland!"

"In 1972, a new company called Roland Corp. appeared, with the very first product in the shape of a drum machine. It was styled to include a music stand made of wood, the concept being that you could place it on top of your home organ or piano, and provide a drum-box accompaniment for your ivory-based noodlings."

"The concept was slightly different to that of the Moog modular, offering modules that were larger in scale, forming complete voice signal paths. There were four modules, the first two being synth voices, one with a keyboard and one without, while the other two modules comprised a mixer and a sequencer. By today’s standards, it’s a little like happy families, with complete vintage systems demanding exceptional price tags. Once patched altogether, it was a powerful Japanese sound, that formed that backbone for much of the early output from bands such as the Human League. You could even finish the system off with a stereo pair of speakers, designed to provide an all-in-one solution."

"Although he started out on acoustic, it was with Muddy’s transition onto the electric that captivated the music world, with the hulking bluesman using a slide alongside open G tuning on many of his greatest tracks, including ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘Honey Bee’. Waters was also noted for his immense vibrato, and was famous for rolling up the volume knob prior to his solos to create eardrum shattering levels of distortion to cut through the mix and write himself into history."

"Like several names among the boutique crowd, Dave Friedman established his reputation by modifying and hot-rodding amps, particularly Marshalls, and had several prominent clients (Steve Stevens and Edward Van Halen among them) before establishing his own line of ground-up amp designs. As you might expect, Friedman’s offerings therefore follow a generally Marshall-inspired theme, often incorporating as standard equipment the modifications that he added to original amps for more than 25 years."

"I must admit, I'm happy with the guitars I use already. To be honest, it sort of does what it says on the tin type of thing. I've tried lots of different guitars over the years, but I just always loved Fender Precision. I tried different ones. I tried the Jazz and I tried loads of basses over the years, and they all got their own elements and good things about them. It's not like whatever. But I think you just have to find your own thing, really. And the position just always felt right for me."

"The founder and leader of Bay Area thrash stalwarts Exodus, Holt isn't always listed among the metal greats. Perhaps because Exodus never enjoyed the consistent mainstream success like other bands of its ilk -- notably its buddies from Metallica. Still, Holt is one of the most severe metal guitarists around (especially when it comes to his solo work)."