Well, it’s generally accepted that a tribute act will dress up as the band they are ‘impersonating’, whereas a covers band will just play the music. Some covers bands play the music of many artists and some specialise in a particular artist or band.

These days it’s hard not to find a tribute act for just about any well known artist or band. I’m taking a look at the Rolling Stones tribute and cover acts in the UK and there are plenty to check out!

You might be wondering why there are so many tribute acts around the world? Are these musicians all in tribute acts just for the love of the music? Well, some are, but there’s a lot of money involved here, particularly for the tribute acts.

Think about it. Let’s assume that you’re an ardent Rolling Stones fan. If you want to see the Stones live then you have to wait until they’re touring, which can be every 2 or 3 years, or sometimes longer. Then you have the problem of the large venue. In order for the Stones to meet the demand for tickets they have to play in some very large venues. I’ve seen the Stones at Twickenham for example, and even with the big screens it’s hard to see what’s going on without a pair of binoculars, or £500 to buy a good seat at the front. Even if those front row tickets were only £5 each, they are still limited in number.

So that’s where the Rolling Stones tribute band come into the picture. They give us a flavour of the ‘real thing’ but we can see them without having to go to a venue like Wembley Stadium. We know they’re not the Rolling Stones, but we also know they’re going to play the music and look a bit like the real thing. Some of the tribute acts have got the whole ‘tongue in cheek’ show off to a fine art. It’s family entertainment on your doorstep and they play your favourite songs, at a local venue, and you won’t need to sell your art collection to be able to afford to see their shows. Expect to pay about £15 for a good seat as opposed to £500 or more for the real thing!

Thank heavens for the Rolling Stones tribute acts – they’re keeping live Rolling Stones music alive!

For more information visit www.stikkyfingers.co.uk

Why should a guitarist use an open tuning?

Most guitarists never experiment with open tunings, which is shame, because there’s a whole new world out there awaiting those guitarists who are bold enough to invest a small amount of their time. Open G Tuning is my favourite, partly because the Rolling Stones have used it extensively throughout their career.

Retune your guitar…..

To change to open g we only need to detune 3 strings, the 1^st (thinnest), 5^th and 6^th strings. Tune the 1^st string down a tone to D – check it against your 4^th string (which is a D). Do the same for the 6^th string, down a tone to D – check it against your 4^th string. Then finally tune your 5^th string down to G – check it against your 3^rd string (which is a G). If you have a Line 6 Variax guitar you can program both tunings into the guitar, which means you can change tunings at the flick of a switch! Very handy indeed!

The early bluesmen used this tuning a lot, and it has a very distinctive sound.  It has been described as a ‘bright’ tuning and also a ‘harmonic’ tuning. You’ll notice that when you have retuned you have 2 strings tuned to G and 3 strings tuned to D. That fact alone will make the chords sound very interesting. Personally, if I’m retuning my acoustic guitar to open g tuning, I will tune the top (thickest) string to G rather than D, which adds an even more interesting tone in my opinion.

When using open g tuning on my telecaster I take the top string off completely – as Keith Richards does. As Keith says ‘it just gets in the way’.

Lastly, remember the capo! Even in open tuning a capo on say, the 5^th fret will lead to even more interesting chord variations and that will make things sound ‘sweet’ too. Playing chords in this tuning can be as easy as using one finger to fret all the strings on say the 5^th fret, which produces a nice C chord.  Using the Am7 shape aswell will yield the two most common shapes that Keith uses in open g tuning.

Check out http://www.stonesmusic.co.uk for more information

The Rolling Stones have been writing and recording songs since the early sixties. They have a very distinctive sound which is hard to copy. When was the last time you heard your local band play a Rolling Stones song? Did it sound like the Rolling Stones, or was it just a poor imitation? Read on if you’d like to be able to play Rolling Stones songs and make them sound authentic!

In the early sixties the Rolling Stones were just a cover band, playing other people’s songs. Gradually they began to write their own songs, probably because they realised that if they wanted to be successful they had to have original songs. Nobody ever made much money playing other people’s songs in those days. In those early days they were using standard tuning on their guitars, only later did they add open g tuning (probably around 1969). If you’re learning to play guitar then you’re almost certainly using standard tuning. All the early hits are played in standard tuning. So, for example, you can play Satisfaction, All Over Now, The Last Time and Not Fade Away (although this has a 12 string guitar in standard tuning). Pick any track form one of the early albums and you’ll find that the guitars are in standard tuning.

Honky Tonk women is the first example of open g tuning, followed by Brown Sugar, Tumbling Dice, Street Fighting Man and then on to Start Me Up. You Can’t Always Get What You Want is recorded in open e tuning with a capo on the 8^th fret, but it too is normally played in open g when played live.

Tuning your guitar to open g is easy enough, here’s how to do it:-

To change to open g we only need to detune 3 strings, the 1^st (thinnest), 5^th and 6^th strings. Tune the 1^st string down a tone to D – check it against your 4^th string (which is a D). Do the same for the 6^th string, down a tone to D – check it against your 4^th string. Then finally tune your 5^th string down to G – check it against your 3^rd string (which is a G). Keith usually takes the top 6^th string off, so you might want to do that too.

If you now strum the guitar from the 5^th string down you have a G chord! No fretting required, which is why it’s called open g tuning!

You can see in the picture above that Keith only has 5 strings on his guitar. If you would like to know how to play Honky Tonk Women in open g tuning then go to http://stonesmusic.co.uk/songs/

Next you’ll need to learn a few chords in open g tuning, but they’re really quite easy to learn. Then you too will be able to play Rolling Stones music in their authentic style!