@NeilZaza – Neil is a good friend and a great guitarist. Check out his website, Christmas Show and his newest project. Currently working on a new album it promises to be full of really good guitar stuff.
@TheRockHouse – If you are into players like Alexi Laiho, Oli Herbert and Alex Skolnick, then these guys are for you. They make some of the best instructional DVD’s out there. We are happy to be working with them this year.
@JohnHorneGuitar – One of our most versatile teachers, John keeps busy teaching practice in Ohio. He has taught for NGW for a few years now and it is always a great hang.
The reason I am a musician is because of the Dave Matthews Band. Period.
In August of 1995 I had just returned from a backpacking trip in New Mexico when I received tickets to see Dave for my 14th birthday. My best friend and I saw them at Palmer Auditorium in Davenport Iowa. It was one of the first times I was allowed to go to a concert by myself.
At the time DMB were becoming more well known due to their two hit singles “What Would You Say” and “Ants Marching”. The main reason I went is because I heard they were pretty cool from some of my friends.
Here is the set list from that night:
Seek Up
Proudest Monkey>
Satellite
Two Step
The Best of What’s Around
#41 >
Dancing Nancies >
Warehouse
Rhyme and Reason
Lover Lay Down
What Would You Say
Recently
All Along The Watchtower
Ants Marching
E: Little Thing (Tease) >
Typical Situation
Tripping Billies
I distinctly remember hearing “All Along the Watchtower” and thinking “So that is who wrote that song.’” I was completely clueless, but I couldn’t believe the energy that a great band could put out.
From that moment on I wanted to play guitar.
Since then I have seen Dave in various formats (both with the band and solo) in most of the big Midwest venues. Each and every time it brings me back to that incredibly hot and sweaty gymnasium in August of ‘95.
Yesterday I listened to their new album “Big Whiskey and the GrooGroux King”. It is the first album since the death of Saxophonist LeRoi Moore last August. From the first listen it strikes me as one of the best (if not the best) DMB studio album of all time.
Next week I am taking my wife to see them for the first time. She has never seen them before. I don’t have any doubt that she will enjoy the concert, as far as deciding to quit everything and play guitar, maybe not.
But you never know.
If you have a favorite Dave Matthews Band concert experience, I would love to hear it.
There has been a lot of talk lately about how much value the #followfriday hashtag on Twitter has been. Does it really make you check out someone solely on the mention of their name?
I thought of instead of just referring people to my Twitter Guitar Directory, I could write a short post each Friday about a few people on Twitter who I enjoy reading about.
Sometimes 140 characters just isn’t enough.
@fretbase – One of my favorite guitar blogs. Fretbase is a somewhat under the radar discovery for me. Not only do they have a great news feature of the site, but they have a fairly extensive database of artists and songs with links to what gear they play and where you can download the songs (iTunes or Amazon).
@sixstringlounge – Six String Lounge is a blog/community started by Mark Lee, who is the guitarist in Third Day. SSL is an amazingly deep site with articles on guitar heroes, lessons and much more. The video lessons for beginning guitarists are very well done and a great place to start.
@matthewwarnock – Dr. Matthew Warnock is a great jazz guitarist currently residing in Illinois. On his website, he has many great resources including a great list of free PDF chord melody arrangements. Matt also contributes to quite a few publications including Just Jazz Guitar, Modern Guitars and MusicEdMagic.
As Director of Marketing and Artist Relations for NGW, it is my job to keep tabs on what are in the latest guitar magazines, and what guitarists are receiving the most attention. We advertise in all the major mainstream publications, and several niche magazines. It is interesting to me how the guitar magazines (which aren’t huge publications in the grand scheme of the magazine industry) are effected by the current economic conditions.
In speaking with our students at several campuses, I found out that younger students lean more towards Guitar World and adult students are split between Guitar Player, Premier Guitar and Fretboard Journal (which is an AMAZING new magazine). Acoustic Guitar Magazine seems to be split fairly evenly among the age demographics among the students I talked to.
This year we had 8 page spreads in both Guitar Player and Premier Guitar. As far as I know, no company in recent memory has had such a large presence in a single issue. Both PG and GP have considerably different circulations and even target audiences. I respect Premier Guitar for their focus on a missing aspect in the mainstream guitar media. They focus largely on gear with some educational content. Most of their covers feature some type of gear. Outside of Vintage Guitar Magazine (which has a smaller circulation, I believe) they have the most gear coverage than either Guitar Player or Guitar World.
How does the coverage that these magazines give to products or artists translate into popularity?
I can honestly say that if I wasn’t for my job, I would probably rarely read these magazines unless there was something very specific I was looking for. For products such as guitars and amps, it would be relatively easy to see if an increase in press coverage equals more sales of that particular product. For artists, it’s much more abstract.
If you read about a particular artist in the magazine, does that motivate you to either buy a CD or go to a show?
Obviously who is on the cover is very important to the magazines. How many times have you seen Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, or Eddie Van Halen on the cover? Trust me, it isn’t because they have something new to cover (for the most part).
My opinion is that there isn’t a single magazine that is representative of guitarists as a whole. Each magazine has it’s own niche and that is great.
What are your opinions are the current guitar magazines?
Here is one of our new videos with some of our alumni and faculty describing why they think the National Guitar Workshop is so great. Forgive the self promotion, but I truly believe that NGW is one of the best musical experiences around.
