Hello Explorers,
Welcome to The Weekly Learning Vault. I’m Philippa – the Innovations Manager at The
Guitar Social. I’ll be guiding you round the vault this week. As you can see, there are a great
many precious things here – if you look up to the walls and ceiling, and in the iron chests.
Please be careful about where you step and what you touch, as there are some rather
unusual security measures put in place by the deposit protection unit.
This vault is where The Guitar Social team keeps valuable learning gems, so, as you are our
trusted explorers, we thought we would show you round some of the important artefacts
that we are keeping down here.
Elvis Costello interviewed by Conan O’ Brien
This exhibit was discovered and deposited by Thomas. Within it, Elvis Costello discusses his
new book ‘How to Play Guitar and Y’ with the Late Night Show’s longest running host and
guitar fan, Conan O’ Brien.
This hour-long conversation focuses on the power of three and four chords, and the beauty
that can be found in the simpler corners of music. This is good for all, but especially useful
for anyone that might have found themselves stressing over the F chord or thinking
themselves left behind for not getting all of theory.
You can listen here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5F2dVAZv0ziXAievzPBiGQ?si=r7aHRshwRUGPYPH1FdJW7
A
‘Dead Flowers’ Guitar Lesson
In this YouTube tutorial, David Pots teaches you how to play ‘Dead Flowers’, a song
originally on the 1971 ‘Sticky Fingers’ album by The Rolling Stones. However, the version
taught here has a more guitar-focused sound. It is the acoustic, stripped-back Townes Van
Zandt version which featured in the closing credits of ‘The Big Lebowski’.
You can learn to play it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jROWArwvnnI
Bowie on Eno on Bowie (not literally)
This gem reveals rare audio interviews from 1977. Bowie and Eno talk about each other,
their working methods and techniques, and give some interesting insights into the
limitations and approaches which spark creativity. These interviews were recorded during
Bowie and Eno’s Berlin years – a time which produced three amazing albums – Low (1977),
Heroes (1977), and Lodger (1979).
You can listen to the recording here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHHBZMgsXDA
Brian Eno on How to Beat Creative Block
More gems from Eno. Here, he discusses his Oblique Strategies cards with a BBC interviewer
and explains how they can shake up the creative process, help you work through a mental
block, and stop you going into autopilot and making the same thing again and again.
Check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tURRSJ-q4bg
That’s all for this week. We’ll come back down here for another explore next Thursday and
look at some more exhibits.
Happy learning,
