Thursday, October 28, 2010

Happy 69th Birthday, Hank!

Today, we celebrate the 69th birthday of one of England's famous guitarists, Hank B Marvin. Without him, we would not have stars like Eric Clapton and many others who were influenced by his style of playing, including yours truly. Back in the 60s, it is a fad for every schoolboy to know how to play the guitar and to later form a band. It is like a silent rule that to learn to play the guitar, the first piece one must learn how to play is the tune, "Apache" and you can never be a member of any band if you didn't know how to play the tune, even if you preferred to play the rhythm or the bass guitar, "Apache" is a must.

Hank has always been synonymous with the Fender Stratocaster guitar, cherry red in colour. His style of playing, which many tried to emulate and which took me years to perfect, includes the holding of the lever while playing. Until today, I have not seen many guitarists doing it, or they will have the lever removed. Playing a tune and using the lever at the same provides that special sound which is very typical of Hank's. Just watch him play in the following three videos.





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