Wonderful Tonight by Pattie Boyd - The Enhanced iBook

It was the most famous love triangle in the history of rock 'n' roll, spawning one of the most iconic songs of all time and arguably, the best known guitar riff ever.

Mention the name Pattie Boyd, and most people over the age of 40 will know who you mean. Mention the word 'Layla' and younger, puzzled eyes light up. Any child learning guitar wants to play those opening notes.

Pattie Boyd's story is extraordinary. It epitomizes the wild excesses and free love of the sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll years, an era which ignited in the early sixties and had burned out by the early 1980s with most of the protagonists either dead or hopelessly addicted to alcohol, drugs, or both. Bands that did remain were ripped apart by in-fighting between surviving members. Hard rockers throwing TVs out of trashed hotel room windows were replaced by fluffy New Romantics who would never tear through a hotel lobby on a motorbike for fear of wrecking their hairdo or smudging their makeup.

Memorabilia from the sixties and seventies changes hands at auction for increasingly ludicrous amounts of money and Pattie Boyd clearly has a trunk load of it. This 'enhanced' version of her autobiography, 'Wonderful Tonight' (the original paper version was oddly named Wonderful Today in the UK) is packed full with letters, photographs, drawings and images that apparently haven't seen the light of day for decades.

The opening chapters tell of her childhood years - usually a dull necessity in an autobiography - but before flicking forward to the juicy bits, it's worth taking a look at her childhood photos. Presented as a movie slideshow, Pattie talks through a series of snaps, just like a friend showing you their photo album. It's an original approach that is repeated later in this iBook with a collection of photographs of The Beatles in India, with the Maharishi.

A photograph of George & Pattie with Frank Sinatra is accompanied by an audio description of how they joined Sinatra in the studio for his 'one take' recording of My Way.

Further into the iBook, she talks about the cover shot of George's solo album, Living in The Material World, explaining that the chauffer and nanny were simply part of the set.

Beatles' anoraks, or indeed anyone interested in that era, will be fascinated by memorabilia such as postcards written by George to Pattie whilst on tour with the Fab Four, George and Pattie's marriage certificate, a childlike Christmas card created for Pattie by George and even George's concept for his own record label.

A letter written by George to Pattie whilst in New York for the Concert for Bangladesh has also been given the audio commentary treatment. In his letter George writes that the journey on the SS France to NY was not as much fun as the previous one on the QE2. Pattie explains that Tommy Cooper had entertained them on the QE2 voyage. Why does George write that he has seen a washbasin but doesn't know if they can afford it? Surely he was one of the richest rock stars on the planet! Pattie explains that they never carried money and had no idea if they were rich or poor. Cleverly, the presentation allows the reader to listen to the commentary then read the letter.

Most magical of all perhaps is a letter written by John Lennon that has been buried in a drawer for almost forty years. In the letter he talks of the grass outside their window (Central Park), that thankfully he doesn't have to mow. He describes an amazing new invention he has discovered - the Polaroid camera - and how the picture leaps out of the camera and develops before your very eyes. He suggests Apple (The Beatles record label which was causing them huge grief at that time) should be given to the lowest bidder or sent to animal slaughter, and talks of spending old age in the Wilfred Pickles Memorial Home. It really is Lennon at his eccentric best.

The story that everyone wants the inside track on is what exactly went on between George Harrison, Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton, and this iBook version lays it all on the table. She tells of how a letter arrived addressed to 'Dearest L...', which she assumed was from a crackpot fan; of how Eric sat her down, played her a tape and it was the most powerful song she had ever heard and she knew it was about her. The song, of course, was Layla. At this point you can touch your iPad screen, connect to the iTunes store, listen to Layla and buy it, if amazingly, you don't already own it.

The lunacy of the period between 1970 and 1974 when George and she finally divorced is extraordinary and difficult to keep track of. Popular opinion was that Harrison and Clapton fell out and there was much animosity between the two, but in this iBook Pattie produces a note from George to them both which seems to give his blessing to their affair.

Besides the letters the iBook contains another Christmas card, this time drawn by Eric. Were these 70s rockers so desperate to cling to their childhood that they created greetings cards like over exuberant primary school children?

Ronnie Wood, who allegedly had an affair with Pattie during the George / Eric kerfuffle, gives his take on this special enhanced version of the book with a video foreword, and pops up later in the book to talk about a drawing he did of Pattie at Friar Park (the Harrison mansion).

Wonderful Tonight, the enhanced iBook, is an exceptional example of what can be done with Apple's iPad platform. The subject matter and accompanying content really do lend themselves perfectly to the 3D eBook treatment and the use of clever techniques (such as commentary on photo slideshows) works very well.

Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson

Book Review: Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson

This book is an astonishingly good book except for the audio content that comes with it. I believe that the audio content could have been organised in a more easy to understand way.

There are two CDs that come along with the book and the first one consists of audio tracks, one for each week which plays the different licks that you require for the week. This helps you to hear them out and understand the sound by getting accustomed to it. It is important that you go through all the lessons in order to get to any other lesson that you want and this sometimes gets a little annoying.

Timing is one of the most important things required for being a good guitarist and CD 2 helps you with that by using the number of metronomes and different rhythms that it contains. Go through the book to understand how to go about and mix and match both the CDs together in order to optimize its usefulness. You can play the licks first in order to memorize them and then play the metronomes for the rhythm. Although changing the CDs again and again for licks and rhythms makes it a little annoying but if you keep your head about, then it is worth the effort.

I think that an independent audio track for each lesson accompanied by the licks as well as the metronomes and rhythms would have made for a better and more useful CD. Having said that the book is still immensely useful as is. The book contains each of the lessons along with the musical notes, the tabs and the chords plus the strumming and picking patterns. The same techniques are practiced on again and again meaning that every Monday will be an alternate picking exercise while every Tuesday will be string skipping exercises and so on. All this and more makes this book to be one of the best guitar books available in the market and I would advice any guitar student to use it.

Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson is a smart and natural way to improve your guitar technique and is highly recommended by myself and my friend who has played guitar for over 15 years.

Justin Bieber - First Step 2 Forever: My Story

Book Review: Justin Bieber - First step 2 forever

Fans of Justin Bieber know that there are a number of books on him and his life, some even unauthorized. The book in question here though is one which has been made by Bieber himself, that is, the information in this one comes straight from Bieber and nowhere else. There are pictures and posters of Bieber in this book but read the inside cover carefully to locate them. If you are a collector then this might be more useful to you, especially if you have the first edition.

Contents

The book contains a statement that every female fan is Bieber's "favourite girl" and a reason for each of them. There is also information on how to get in contact with him and enjoy his concerts.

There is information on his life and his rise to the top. The book also goes over his relationship with Usher and much more.

There is a complete chapter on his hometown and birthplace along with his parents and their divorce. The life they led financially and other stuff.

Then the book goes into more personal details about the artist and his family, how he spent Christmas with them by exchanging gifts in a very extraordinary fashion and he throws some light on how it all worked.

His mother's admitted mistakes and change in her once she got into the church and the importance of God in his life.

The book covers more aspects of Bieber's life and his stardom in addition with YouTube details where Bieber originally got his fans from. It even contains a page which is full of tweets from the artist's Twitter page and then there are the numerous pictures of him in between different actions and positions. The poster which comes along with the book is not a very big one but it does the job for any fan, and there are also close up pictures of Beiber himself with his very well known and distinctive hairstyle.

All in all a really great book for any Belieber, a well written one that takes the reader into Justin Bieber's personal little world.

Learn Guitar Tabs Fast - It Is Easier Than It Looks

There have been a few skills I've set out to learn in my life, and by skills I mean more than just a trade or profession. Take boxing for example, where the friend who decided to teach me based on his extensive history of training champions earlier in life. We went out and bought a heavy boxing bag and spent a fun afternoon hanging it at my home. When it came time to teach me what to do, he smiled, got in his car and just as he was driving off, he told me to punch the bag 1,000 times and then to call him back. And so I did, and when he returned he told me to now punch it 2,000 times, but for me to take note of how my arms now naturally come up and for my fists to be ready to do business with the bag.

The same happened when I took up dancing, and there my teacher had to first teach me how to listen to music - at first the beat, and then later the rhythm. She defined dancing as any movement of my body that is in time with the music, and so tapping in finger on the bar or my foot in time to the drummer was dancing - albeit at a most basic form. After understanding this "process of learning", I realized that in both the cases of learning boxing and dance it was all about muscle-learning my physical movements until my muscles developed their own memory of what to do and when.

My current project of learning guitar is not different in that my journey is one of developing a muscle memory so that my fingers will be at the right tabs and the right time for my efforts to make great sound. Yes it will take a little time, but when I know the underlying process to learning the new skill, then my progress. In order to learn guitar tabs fast, I found it wise to buy the right book and in my resource box you will find a link to a web-site which reviews many such books. To learn guitar, you mostly need to learn guitar tabs fast and putting in the right amount of time with the right structure to your practice, and you'll be there around the camp fire impressing the ladies in no time at all.

Fingerstyle Guitar Method: Step-By-Step Lessons and 36 Great Fingerstyle Songs - Book Review

Fingerstyle technique is one of the most exciting ways to play the guitar. It's a technique that will enable you to turn the guitar into a complete solo instrument playing several different parts at the same time. If you've been looking for an easy to follow fingerstyle guitar course, than the "Fingerstyle Guitar Method: A Complete Guide With Step-by-Step Lessons and 36 Great Fingerstyle Songs" from Hal Leonard Publication would be a good book worth checking out.

Although the book is not for the complete beginner, it does start off with a topic on how to choose a guitar before moving on to fingerpicking basic and builds on them using the styles of great artists such as The Beatles, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Adrian Legg, and many others as examples. Lessons on fingerstyle solo guitar arrangement are broken down into two parts, with the melody of 'Silent Night' being introduced as you learn how to turn a melody into a complete solo guitar arrangement by adding other element such as bass and additional notes. In between these two parts, the use of a 'Capo' and playing on 'Alternate Tuning' are discussed. The second part features lesson on a more advance solo guitar arrangement that incorporates the use of the newly learn techniques.

The 104 pages book also features fingerstyle arrangement to 36 songs although it would've been nice if all the songs were completely tabbed. Nevertheless, about a dozen were completely tabbed, enough to keep you busy for some time. Included with the book is an audio CD that contain all audio to examples and the featured songs which are; Dust in the Wind, Fire and Rain, Georgia on My Mind, You've Got a Friend, Imagine, Tears in Heaven, What a Wonderful World, Annie's Song and Yesterday among others.

Overall this is a good book for anyone who already been playing for a while and ready to expand their playing technique beyond strumming.