Oz Rock Guitar Duets

Globalisation, through its many means, including the internet and also faster and more economic travel, has made the musical marketplace a very different place than it was when the traditional music education practices were established in Australia. Furthermore, since the middle of the twentieth century, each new generation has sought after, and/or created, a musical genre to call their own in a way of rebellion against the generation that came before them. The current youngest generation of music listeners now have instant access to music from any part of the world and as a result the entire art-form has become much more globalised and less localised than ever before. Therefore current music education techniques need to not only reflect this multicultural slant but also embrace it. This research project will investigate the educational methodologies encompassed within instrumental music instruction, specifically guitar tutorage, in other cultures around the world with a focus on ascertaining the particular elements that educators and students consider excellent. The intention is to identify two or three successful methodologies and propose ways of incorporating these practices into a more holistic approach to instrumental guitar tuition in Australia as a way of integrating internationalism into the curriculum to better prepare current music students for a future global musical marketplace. This presentation reflects research currently being conducting within a Masters of Education (International) program at Charles Darwin University.

2021

This study offers a coherent account of the evolution of composition for the classical guitar in New Zealand, which is exemplified through the performance component of the DMA. The exegesis reveals this evolution through the critical analysis of archival material, the examination of historical developments, and the interviewing of twelve key people who were active in the classical guitar scene from the late 1950s to the present day. It also reflects on the author’s commissioning and/or performing of fifteen major works for guitar by nine New Zealand composers. It examines the drivers that shaped the development of New Zealand guitar music, the factors that led to the creation of key compositions and the role performers have played through collaboration with composers in an attempt to create a significant body of distinctive works. Key findings include identifying that certain important New Zealand composers were, in fact, ahead of their counterparts in other comparable countries in ...

2020

Audio (A) 1.3 Misty Moses (Departure EP) Audio (A) 1.4 Slow Blink (Departure EP) Audio (A) 2.1 This Woman's Work (Music Video) Audio (A) 2.2 Slipstream (Live Music Video) Audio (A) 2.3 Orchard (Music Video) Audio (A) 2.4 Crazy Love (Live at Stormont) Audio (A) 3.1 DADF#AE Solo Guitar Improvisation Audio (A) 3.2 DADGAD Solo Guitar Improvisation I Audio (A) 3.3 DADGAD Solo Guitar Improvisation II Audio (A) 3.4 DADGAD Solo Guitar Improvisation III Audio (A) 4.1 A Lotus on Irish Streams (McLaughlin) Audio (A) 4.2 Tir na nÓg Introduction Audio (A) 4.3 Orchard (Ensemble) (Live at SERC) Audio (A) 4.4 Tir na nÓg (Ensemble) (Live at SERC) Audio (A) 5.1 Orchard (Orchard EP) Audio (A) 5.2 Lila (Orchard EP) Audio (A) 5.3 Tir na nÓg (Orchard EP) Audio (A) 5.4 Cloudbusting (Bush) (Orchard EP) Audio (A) 5.5 Lotus Feet (McLaughlin) (Orchard EP) xii List of Audio Examples (Folder B: Thesis Examples):

"Through the Looking Glass" 41st Musicological Society of Australia Conference, 2018

This paper provides an overview of the existing literature relevant to my PhD project examining Australian extreme metal bands, their practices, and opinions about the distinct characteristics of Australian extreme metal. The process of preparing a literature review has highlights the diversity of this music, which often resists homogenous classification, and reflects complex relationships regarding culture and identity. As such, one aim of this paper is to explore the existing literature that underpins my exploration of Australian extreme metal. This discussion will be divided into three main domains: the emergent field of metal studies; work that has been carried out on the presence and detail of a unique Australian identity and sound in Australian music; and specific texts that discuss metal music in Australia. The second aim of this paper is to offer my current hypotheses about what sets Australian extreme metal apart from other global styles and the implications that this has for understanding Australian culture. My goal is to contribute to a broader discussion on Australian music, offering one small piece of a larger puzzle, rather than positing conclusive and definitive answers to the questions raised by the literature.

This preliminary study for a PhD thesis discusses the voices from Australian and international researchers on the topic of contemporary popular music education. The research focuses on guitar pedagogy and the preparation of university graduates for professional integration into the music industry. The popular music industry has seen an increasing rate of change since the inception of popular music courses in Australian universities. Research is being conducted into popular music education topics including industry relevance, pedagogical techniques and delivery modes. Three voices that need to be heard to ensure unification and a relevant pedagogy are those of the musicians, the educators, and the end product consumers. This study reviews the latest discourse from various sources to discern what the research voices are saying about this. Online education has the potential to unite geographically disconnected voices in a symbiotic pedagogical setting. A second aim of this study is to bring together research into this important, and developing, field of music education from both international and Australian voices. A previous study found that the global guitar culture places little or no value on the Australian voice and the education of Australian musicians was seen to have played a significant role in this situation. The third aim of is study is to find out if this is being discussed at all, and if so by whom? Searching for the themes and gaps this study unifies the various researchers' voices into one overview.

Habilitation (Higher Doctorate), 2025

This research examines the role and practices of the electric guitar in rock music in terms of playing styles and techniques, technologies, and various relevant cultures. With a portfolio of three books, four articles, and three chapters, the research analyses the affordances and limitations of harmonic distortion for solo and rhythm guitar playing in rock music from its beginnings to contemporary practices, with a particular focus on virtuosity and ‘shredding’—the (often) ostentatious display of technical prowess. Concerning technology, the research explores the musical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of equipment choice and acquisition (including the so-called ‘gear acquisition syndrome’), advances in guitar and amplification technologies, and the creation of an effective and expressive guitar sound in record production. Finally, the research documents how playing practices and equipment use are negotiated in mainstream and niche cultures, focusing on more recent scenes prevalent on the internet. The portfolio, as a whole, fills significant gaps in current (electric) guitar scholarship by examining topics relevant to practising guitarists from a musicological perspective, as opposed to 1) common approaches in popular/cultural studies that tend to ignore issues of playing and technologies in favour of issues related to identity, society, and the environment, and 2) computer science and engineering approaches that quantify the material reality of the instrument with little regard to playing and guitar culture.

The acoustic guitar and its predecessors in the Baroque and Classical period have proven a popular instrument for performance, composition and general entertainment and for many centuries hence. The popularity has increased exponentially in popular culture since then introduction of the guitar in Blues Music of Deep South America in the beginning of the twentieth-century and furthered through the 1950’s Rock and Roll movement and is now often viewed as a synonym of Popular music. However, as will be demonstrated it is not merely an instrument for accompaniment or purely jovial entertainment: a wide range of Western art music composers and composer-guitarists have paved the way for a whole new range of performance techniques for the instrument.

Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 2003

Thesis Eleven, 2023

The Easybeats' 1960s career is viewed as being in two halves. In the first, they played pop songs composed by Stevie Wright and George Young. The group was incredibly successful in Australia spawning the term Easyfever to describe the adulation heaped on them by mainly teenage girls. In the second half, the group go to England and Young starts writing with Harry Vanda. The group had one huge international hit 'Friday On My Mind' and then their popularity declines as their audience loses interest in the group's more complex music and seemingly sophisticated lyrics. In this article I argue that the earlier songs can be read in terms of power pop avant la lettre and that a continuity can be discerned between the earlier songs and certain key later songs as Vanda and Young begin to develop a harder melodic rock sound anchored in power pop aesthetics that will be the template for AC/DC, a group that included Young's two younger brothers, and which helped define the generic form of Oz rock. I argue for the importance of Snowy Fleet's Merseybeat experience in the creation of the early sound, analyse the group's appeal for teenage girls and discuss the later song 'Good Times' as a melodic hard rock precursor of the kind of music played by AC/DC.

Proceedings of The 21st Century Guitar Conference (2019 & 2021), 2023

This volumeʼs contributions grew from 20 of the 94 scheduled keynotes, lectures and lecture-recitals of the first and second editions of The 21st Guitar Conference. Five items stem from the inaugural edition (2019, 44 contributions) and 15 from the second edition (2021, 50 contributions). 1 This conference is unique in that it is centered on contemporary guitar research, performance and pedagogy. 2 Previously, guitar research had gained increased visibility thanks to the International Guitar Research Centre, launched in 2014 (Stephen Goss, President), which regularly (co-)organizes conferences on guitar research; and Soundboard Scholar, launched in 2015 (Jonathan Leathwood, Editor)-currently the only journal (to our knowledge) dedicated to guitar research. We hope this volume brings awareness of the work being carried out and promotes further research.