Guitar

I love pedals, and I love sticking them to a piece of plywood with Velcro. Here is the pedalboard that I built for my performances at the Ibanez Guitar Festival. I tested it out in soundcheck yesterday, and it sounds amazing. Starting from the right (where I plug in first) is an H.B.E. UFO Fuzz Octave, an Empress Effects Para EQ, an MXR Distortion +, an MXR Phase 90, an MXR Custom Audio Buffer, an H.B.E. stereo "Three Hound" Chorus, and of course a Voodoo Labs 230v Pedal Power 2 Plus to power everything on European voltage.

Before placing the pedals, I did some experiements with placement, and found that the UFO sounds better at the beginning of the signal chain. The EQ also sounds better when it's before the distortion pedal.

Keep stomping!

Paul

In honor of Paul Gilbert's one year anniversary of teaching online guitar lessons at ArtistWorks, we're giving away a free Ibanez guitar! This one is extra special though, because it's coming straight from Paul's personal guitar collection.  That's right, you may even recognize it from some of the Video Exchanges!  It will be signed by Paul of course, and something you'll be able to cherish forever.  If you're one of Paul's students here you'll automatically be entered to win.  Any new students who sign up June 15-July 15th will also be entered. 

Here's what else is happening:

• 25 original students still members will get a special "Paul Gilbert is My Teacher" T-Shirt
• 25 new students who enroll between June 15th and July 15th will also get T-Shirts

More details to come!

Read More

"The G Run is probably the most important element to define Bluegrass rhythm as a style." - Bryan Sutton

Bryan Sutton spends a lot of time focusing on ways to embellish basic rhythm patterns in his Bluegrass guitar lessons, and in his guitar lesson he breaks down "The G Run".  The G Run is a very important technique for bluegrass guitarists to learn because it embodies the classic Bluegrass rhythm and helps defines the end of a phrase, verse, or chorus - you'll hear it again and again in Bluegrass songs. Read More

Our resident classical guitar teacher Jason Vieaux was interviewed recently by KING FM in Seattle Washington. The interviewer Sean MacLean is obviously a big fan of Pat Metheny because starts off with asking Jason about his Pat Metheny tribute CD, "Images of Metheny", which came out in 2005.  They discuss the influence Pat Metheny has on Jason's playing and how it manifests with his classical guitar playing. When asked why he chose to do a Pat Metheny tribute CD, here's what Jason said:

"The emotional content of the music I think is sometimes missed by a lot of his detractors, because the music on the surface sounds very nice a lot of the time. But there's just something about it… I think a lot of emotions are evoked in the best of his music, and they're very subtle." - Jason Vieaux

Check out the classical guitar performance below and click here to listen to the interview.

Read More

We just added a series of new guitar lessons from Bryan Sutton, these are all new additions to the Improv Workshop.  It's the 3rd installment of guitar lessons dealing with improvisation using the rhythm from the song "Ragtime Annie".  This latest block of guitar lessons gets into a more advanced treatment using chord voicing to embellish the rhythm section.  There are 4 full instructional guitar lessons as well as an additional performance video with all the new techniques combined. Click on the picture above to jump to it or find it in the Improv Workshop. 

We just added a series of new guitar lessons from Bryan Sutton, these are all new additions to the Improv Workshop.  It's the 3rd installment of guitar lessons dealing with improvisation using the rhythm from the song "Ragtime Annie".  This latest block of guitar lessons gets into a more advanced treatment using chord voicing to embellish the rhythm section.  There are 4 full instructional guitar lessons as well as an additional performance video with all the new techniques combined. Click on the picture above to jump to it or find it in the Improv Workshop. 

Never pass up the opportunity to make some guitar faces.

I just finished designing some new picks for my Great Guitar Escape camp. If you want to do some in-person jamming with me, and see amazing performances and workshops with Andy Timmons, Mimi Fox, Scotty Johnson, Tony Spinner, Adam Fulara, and myself, then this is the place to be.

http://www.greatguitarescape.com/instructors.html

And you'll get some free picks! (and other goodies and giveaways as well.)

I hope to see you there in July!

Thank you,

Paul

Thanks to everyone who tuned into the Paul Gilbert #GuitarChat with GuitarKadia! For anyone who missed it, GuitarKadia has posted a full recap of all the tweets.  Some great questions were asked, check it out by clicking on the image!

Read More