That Was The Year...

flat top guitar specifically for the massive Century of Progress International exhibition in Chicago. It features a headstock and fingerboard covered with pearloid (celluloid plastic) giving it a very modern appearance although the sound of the instrument suffers as a result. It’s a pretty guitar with spruce top, curly maple back and sides, round soundhole and a tortoiseshell scratchplate. The bound head and neck features rosewood blocks with pearl diamond inlays and the guitar has a sunburst finish. is introduced to the public and the London Passenger Transport board begins operations by unifying multiple services; battersea Power station begins generating electricity; the Milk Marketing board is introduced and the british Interplanetary society is founded. Cricketer Donald bradman scores 103 runs against the controversial bodyline tactics adopted by british bowlers in the second Test but england goes on to regain the ashes. is so fascinated by Vega’s electric banjo and the stromberg-Voisinet pickup he leaves his top position at Gibson to start his own company with former Gibson board member, Lewis Williams. The new company, Vivi-Tone produces an electric hollow-body archtop guitar designed to forsake the natural acoustic properties and concentrate on the sound produced by the vibrating strings by means of an electromagnetic unit mounted beneath the bridge. as adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor and after only two days in office dissolves the reichstag (Parliament). Hermann Goering bans Communist meetings and introduces the Gestapo secret police; Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany and Joseph Goebbels is Nazi Germany’s Minister of Information and Propaganda. a popular lyric about these four is written and sung to the tune of the Colonel bogey March. Winston Churchill warns of the dangers of German rearmament in his first public speech. depression but in a rousing inauguration speech, President franklin D roosevelt proclaims: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”. but it’s also suffering a natural disaster from a series of violent dust storms around south Dakota where topsoil is stripped by the wind. after the storms abate the area becomes known as the Dust bowl. Gene autry orders the very first Martin D-45 dreadnought acoustic, one of only three made with a 12-fret neck. only 91 will be built prior to World War II. The bound rosewood body features a solid spruce top and abalone purfling. Martin adds a pearl signature inlay on the bound ebony fingerboard for autry but the rest have snowflake inlays. In 1994 Martin offers a limited run of 66 guitars that faithfully replicate autry’s original purchase. You can approach this in various ways. Em Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) will work, as will E maj Pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#), although the latter works best on the I chord (E9) and V chord (B9). Mixing in some E Mixolydian (E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D) works perfectly for the I chord (E9). G minor Pentatonic (G-Bb-C-D-F) and G Blues (G-Bb-C-C#-D-F) are good starting points but try some more colourful scales. The chord

G-Bbmaj7-Cadd9Abmaj7, progression is:

so try G Mixolydian (G-A-B-C-D-E-F) on G chords,

(G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F) G Dorian on Bbmaj7

and Cadd9, and G Phrygian (G-Ab-BbC-D-Eb-F) Abmaj7.

on the Count the subdivisions of this 7/8 groove track as 1-2-1-2-3-1-2. It’s in F#m, but harmonically speaking it’s quite open, so try a variety of scales: F# Dorian (F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E); F#m (F#- G#-A-B-C#-D-E); F# Phrygian (F#-G-A-B-C#-D-E) and F# Mixolydian (F#-G#-A#-BC#-D#-E). F# minor Pentatonic and F# Blues scale also work great! Try mixing C major Pentatonic (C-D-E-G-A) and C minor Pentatonic (C-Eb-F-G-Bb) for a start. One additional jazzy colour to catch is the A7 in bar 8 of the 12-bar cycle. Perhaps have a go at outlining an A7 arpeggio here (A-C#-E-G), or use D Harmonic minor (D-E-F-GA-Bb-C#),

which also works perfectly. Additionally, see if you can whip out an F# Diminished

(F#-A-C-Eb) arpeggio in bar 6 for the F# diminished chord. due to a partnership with London Underground. The Tube Map Strat boasts the unique ability to get you home after a gig, courtesy of its Tube map finish. It comes as TFL and the London Transport Museum celebrate Transported By Design, a programme of events and exhibitions on good design in transport networks. 50 Fender Tube Map Stratocasters have been produced, each priced at £599 and available to pre-order from the London Transport Museum Shop.