Six favourite

WHEN I AM composing and arranging music, I like to think as an orchestrator. As the guitarist, I try to represent just about everything that’s in the arrangement — the drum syncopations, horn parts, k

Zaytoun Songs by JS Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell and Sayed Darwish et al Haitham Haidar (tenor), Sylvain Bergeron (archlute), Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud) et al Athene ATH 23027 51:44 mins In medieval Spain

DURING THE LAST week of November 1963, the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released in the United Kingdom. That same week, a young Brit named Laurence Juber started playing guitar. It wouldn’t

Edge of the Storm Works by Bacewicz, Britten and Weinberg Telegraph Quartet Azica Records ACD-71381 74:08 mins The turbulent, destabilising and demoralising impact of the Second World War hovers uneas

LAST MONTH, I talked about how I devised the primary riffs in the title track to my 2023 album Hard Wired, which is played in drop D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). I’d now like to share some

IN A 1992 Guitar World feature that celebrated the release of Spinal Tap’s reunion album, Break Like the Wind, it was reported that lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel had been, at some point during the band’