L'attirail

Ever looked at your guitar and wanted to throw it in the bin?

I’ve been there! I know exactly how you feel, believe me! There are times I want to scream in frustration because my fingers will not do what my brain is so blatantly telling them to do!

But then, I’ve been playing for years and sometimes I still get that. I still sometimes feel like I could throw my guitar out of the window. But I never have. The reason? Well because I love music and believe that harming a musical instrument is something akin to sacrilege. Sad I know, but then, thats me.

Mentality

To begin playing guitar, you must approach it with the same mindset as you do your career. To do well and succeed, I must work hard, while at the same time, I must have fun! Remember that playing guitar is not all about work. Sometimes it’s nice just to pick up your guitar and lazily strum a few songs, be it alone, or with your friends.

Practice

Practice makes perfect.

Yes it does. That old cliche was repeated to me by my teacher time and again. Work the scales, work the scales, she used to say. But the reasoning became clear after only a couple of weeks (even though she carried on telling me for years!). When you have practiced scales for a couple of weeks, you will find that the first ones you started with are imprinted in your mind, much like your computer login information. It just sticks.  Read more...

When people hear the word guitar, they may think of brands such as Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, and Martin. However, the Taylor acoustic guitar is one of the most popular and best sounding guitars on the market today. If you have ever played or heard one yourself, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The Taylor acoustic guitar was created by Bob Taylor back in 1974, when he was only 19 years old. At that time, he was working for a guitar manufacturer called American Dream. When the owner of that company decided to sell, Bob Taylor jumped on the opportunity as fast as he could, knowing that the guitar industry is where he wanted to continue his work. He named the company Westland Music Company (because it was located in the western United States.

Nowadays, there are two factories in which a Taylor acoustic guitar is created, run by around 550 employees total: one in El Cajon, California, and the other in Tecate, Mexico.

Taylor does manufacture a few solid body electric guitars, but their main focus is on acoustic guitars.

There are currently several series of Taylor acoustic guitar available on the market today, from the 3-series through the 8-series, as well as the 810/910 and LKSM models. These guitars are available in four different styles, including dreadnought, grand concert, grand auditorium, and grand symphony.  Read more...

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features World’s Fastest Guitarist/Graduate Violin Virtuoso/unique and phenomenal shred guitar & violin virtuosity on Classical Masterpieces from Beethoven, Bach, Paganini, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bazzini and Rossini.

Beethoven’s “5th Symphony” (The MOST famous notes in Classical Music!)
“The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee” (performed at 300 BPM!)
Paganini’s “Caprice #24″ (Kat Shreds on VIOLIN & GUITAR!)
Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto #3″ (Kat Shreds on 6 guitars!)
Plus insane metal music videos (blood, torture and mayhem!)

Contact:  Karen Thomas, Thomas PR, 631-549-7578

“Beethoven’s Guitar Shred” DVD is distributed worldwide by MVD and is now available through major retail stores, iTunes and other online stores, with a Suggested Retail Price of .95.

Just about a half century after his passing, Django Reinhardt still remains a legendary figure in the annals of jazz guitar. To this day, his incendiary guitar playing stands up to that of present day virtuoso jazz guitarists such as Joe Pass, Pat Martino, Johnny Smith and George Benson. Author James Lincoln Collier in his publication “The Making of Jazz”, called Django “the most outstanding guitarist in the history of jazz”. When you take into account the army of jazz guitarists he has inspired, he may very well be. His groundbreaking style of playing – combining European influenced scales and chords with jazz music rhythms was unheard of during his time. He was among the very first of the European jazz musicians who could cop the jazz feel correctly and he left an historical footprint on the world of jazz guitar music. His major influence was session guitar player Eddie Lang (the first major jazz guitarist) and he learned Lang’s European based chordal techniques and took them one step further.  Read more...

In 1961, jazz guitarist George Benson got his break through an unexpected opportunity. Hammond organist Brother Jack McDuff was passing through with his trio minus the guitarist. Benson was immediately recommended to fill in and he ended up “subbing” for the next three years while undergoing the most challenging phase of his jazz guitar music career. Though he had a superb sense of time and a deep groove, his harmonic and melodic knowledge was lacking and he did not know how to read music! With McDuff’s constant encouragement Benson studied hard and acquired the necessary skills. In the meantime he met jazz guitar music giants Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, and Wes Montgomery. Wes became virtually a mentor to the young, up and coming guitarist. Prestige Records took notice of his impressive jazz guitar chops and in 1964 Benson recorded “The New Boss Guitar of George Benson With the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet”. The publicity and critical acclaim persuaded him to go it alone and he formed his own quartet in 1965. Along with most other jazz musicians of the time, the group scuffled in the clubs until Columbia Records talent scout extraordinaire John Hammond heard him and signed him to the major label. Preferring to feature him as a vocalist during those trying times for jazz, Columbia had him sing several tunes on his two albums. In 1967, Benson left Columbia for Verve Records where he recorded two albums.  Read more...