Kids make electric guitars - If they can, you can

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is - in the words of Ninja from Die Antwoord - unexpected. The ending soundtrack of the video is so bloody cool, it all but brought tears to my eyes. But then I am a big old softy. I'm not going to say too much - just check out what's going on here. I hope you enjoy it and it inspires you.

David in Barcelona - Happy new year. Off for a break. Back in 2011.

[Thanks, David, for all your great posts this year. Although we've blogged about these Brooklyn kids making their own electric guitars before, it's fantastic stuff and does bear looking at again! - G L Wilson]

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Why don't girls play guitar? asks the BBC News Magazine. Which is a strange generalization, I reckon, because the trend over the last few years seems to be that more girls than ever have been taking up the guitar. Haven't they? They must be building all those Daisy Rock, Luna, Fender Hello Kitty, and Kramer "Jewel" guitars for someone, surely? However, it's a pity that the marketing departments of some of these companies seem to think that in order to appeal to the female market a guitar needs to be pink or hideously cutesy in some way.

Bad Hair Decade

This guitar instructional VHS video was purchased for 20p in a charity shop. Blimey! The 80s were certainly a scary decade. Just look at that hair!

But never fear! I'm glad to report that not only is Wolf Marshall still going strong but also that his hair is looking so much better these days.

Brooklyn kids make electric guitars

How cool is this? For several years now, Paul Rubenstein has been showing schoolkids in Brooklyn, New York, how to make electric guitars.

The kids each design, cut out, build and paint their own six string creations. They even get involved in the electronics side of things, winding their own pickups and building amps too!

Music lessons weren't like this back in my day. We used to have a "music trolley" laden with beaten-up drums, tamborines, glockenspiels, and those most hated of noise-makers, recorders. A ghastly discordant racket was the result. We could only dream about guitars.

What better way to get kids interested in music than to explore the science of how a musical instrument such as the guitar works, to take the hands-on approach and build these instruments, and then to play and record them?

Congrats to all the kids for their cool designs, and to their teacher Mr R for dreaming up the scheme in the first place!