Book The Musical Instruments of Prog Rock

It's already 6 out of 6 taking together the English and the Spanish versions of the book!

"Incredible piece of work!!!
Breathtaking comprehensive and with love to the details!
It is full of details and informations but still easy to read and enjoy, with lots of anecdotes, pictures and illustrations.
Not only for the musicians but for all of you who love (progressive) Rock music.
Listening to good music while enjoying the illustrations and pictures in this great piece of work is good entertainment!
Unrestricted buying advice;-) "

“The Musical Instruments of Progressive Rock ” is an absolutely amazing book that has surprised me greatly. Mainly for its originality, I have never seen a music book where the protagonists are the instruments and the musicians are secondary actors. A book of 286 pages illustrated with more than 500 pictures. The author of this work is Gerard Bassols, an amateur multi-instrumentalist and progressive rock lover.

Musical instruments have changed dramatically from the 1960s to the present day. But on that road, the trip has been magical and that is what this fantastic book tells us, reviewing in an entertaining way the most relevant instruments on that journey, telling us how the most emblematic ones work and leaving us anecdotes of the experiences of the musicians with them.

The structure of the book is divided into groups of instruments. Starting with keyboards, then guitars and basses, drums and percussions, to finish with other instruments and sound effects. Almost half of the book is dedicated to keyboards, which is more than logical since it is the type of instrument that has presented the most evolution and variety over the last 60 years. From the Chamberlin to the current Nord keyboards it goes through the emblematic Mellotrons, Moogs, Hammond, ARP, Farfisa, Fairlight, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha DX, keytars, sequencers and many more; during the course of the pages we will review the evolution from monophony to polyphony, the discovery of MIDI… in a time journey where you can discover curious artifacts and where comments and photos related to the musicians are interspersed, with people like Tony Banks, Rick Wright, Jon Lord, Jordan Rudess, Geoff Downes, Pete Bardens, Edgar Froese, Jean Michel Jarre, or like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson who acquire greater prominence, since they contributed in a decisive way in the development of this type of instruments.

In the guitars section, obviously the Fender and the Gibson are the best known, with special attention to the Stratocaster, the Telecaster and the Gibson LP, ES and SG. But there's also room for Ibanez, Rickenbackers, acoustic guitars, 7-string guitars, controller guitars, devices like the E-bow, Lap Steel guitars, and many more. As for the basses, the Fender obviously, the Rickenbacker, fretless basses, basses with 5 or more strings, as well as the Moog bass pedals or the headless basses and guitars so fashionable in the 80s. There’s also an entry for guitars and basses of multiple necks. In this section we find details about Brian May, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Hackett, Robert Fripp, David Gilmour, Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Greg Lake, Roger Hodgson, Mike Oldfield, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Tosin Abasi, John Myung, Phil Manzanera, Jaco Pastorius, Guthrie Govan, Billy Sheehan, John Paul Jones, Mike Rutherford , Tony Levin, Steven Wilson, Alan Holdsworth, among many others.

As for the drums, he dedicates less space to them, initially defining its components and some more detail to some special percussions, such as rototoms, octobans, electronic drums very fashionable in the 80s, Paiste coloured cymbals and other curious drums and percussions. Alan White, John Bonham, Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Keith Moon, Stewart Copeland, Terry Bozzio, Mike Mangini, Phil Collins or Carl Palmer to whose drums he dedicates a special section, are some of the names that appear in this area of ​​the book.

Finally, a section on other instruments and sound effects makes us visit the harp, the violin, the flute (of course, with a photo of Ian Anderson in his iconic position), the saxophone where Mel Collins cannot be missing, the harmonica which already reminds us of Supertramp's “School”, the bagpipes, the talk box and the vocoder. The sound effects come from the hand of the pedals and pedalboards, in an overview since it is a very personalized subject for each musician. The book concludes with the Frippertronics developed by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno.

The book focuses on progressive rock, bands like Yes, EL&P, Genesis, Rush, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Marillion, Camel, Big Big Train, etc ... are the protagonists, but we will find a multitude of references to bands that, although they have done some progressive music, they are not pigeonholed within the style itself. We talk about bands like Queen, Roxy Music, Deep Purple, The Police, Uriah Heep, Elton John, Tangerine Dream, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, Jean Michel Jarre, Steve Vai, etc ... therefore, as I said before, this book will satisfy even lovers of pop, rock, jazz, etc ... I have really enjoyed reading this book while listening to the songs that were mentioned, paying attention to the instruments used in them.

"The Musical Instruments of Progressive Rock" is a must book for every lover of this musical genre and highly recommended also for any music lover. Although talking about instruments may seem something excessively technical and boring, the author explains each one of them clearly and simply, in such a way that it satisfies both the musician and the non-musician. In some more complex instruments, he goes in an easy way to explain technically how they work, highlighting these parts in a box in case someone does not want to go into such details. Every fan of music in the last 60 years and every musician should have this magnificent book. If you love music, you like instruments or want to give a gift to a musician or music lover friend, this book is a guarantee of success.

Highly recommended.”

https://www.amazon.com/Musical-Instruments-Progressive-Rock/dp/8413385997

http://www.metalsymphony.com/los-instrumentos-musicales-del-rock-progresivo-gerard-bassols-circulo-rojo/