Anderson

Scottish songwriter, singer, guitarist and flautist Ian Scott Anderson was born on August 10, 1947 in Dunfermline, Fife. Spending the first half of his childhood in Edinburgh in 1959, Anderson moved to Blackpool in the North West of England and graduated from the Blackpool College of Art. Anderson’s stint with music began while reading copies of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express. Along with school friends Barriemore Barlow (drums), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Michael Stephens (guitar), Anderson formed ’The Blades’ in 1963. This soul and blues band had Anderson on vocals and harmonica. He gave up his ambition to play the electric guitar and took up playing the flute.

Ian Anderson is notably identified as the front man of the popular band Jethro Tull for almost 40 years. He has recorded a number of critically-acclaimed projects with his own name and also made guest appearances in the works of other artists’ work. Anderson’s style as a flautist involves flutter tonguing and sometimes singing or humming (or even snorting). He began working with simple bamboo flutes in 1990 and made use of techniques like hole-shading and over-blowing to create note-slurring and other expressive techniques. Anderson also plays a number of other musical instruments which include bass guitar, bouzouki, acoustic and electric guitar, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles. Ian Anderson’s guitars are available online.