Dean Guitars Shredder Search!
July 2, 2008
Seems online guitar competitions are the in thang at the moment :).
Dean Guitars have started up a competition called ‘Shredder Search’ with $10000 worth of prizes and ‘celeb’ judges, with the likes of Rusty Cooley, Vinnie Moore and Matt Corey etc.
So dust off those sweep arpeggios, fast alternate picking lines and diminished runs!
Meedle.
Spotted on truthinshredding that the mighty Andy James has already entered the competition with this assault on the senses:
Workshoplive: Satch Zone live!
June 30, 2008
Finally the Satch lessons from Workshoplive are now..err live!
Check them out here.
Guitar Idol 2008 Player and Judges Comments
June 19, 2008
From all things shredding, Laurie Monk over on thruthinshredding has created a cool player showing performances from each finalist at the Guitar Idol 2008 finals! Niceone Laurie!:
and the Judges comments on each performance have been posted up on alloutguitar.
Guitar Idol 2008: Gustavo Guerra winning Performance
June 16, 2008
Youtube video of Gustavo Guerra performing at the Guitar Idol 2008 finals:
Guitar Idol Winner!
June 15, 2008
Been completely out of touch recently due to many reasons but kudos to Laurie Monk for keeping tabs on Guitar Idol and reporting that Mr Smiley himself, Gustavo Guerra won Guitar Idol!!
Guitar Idol: The Final Majestic 12
June 2, 2008
Yay! We now have the final 12 for the Guitar Idol finals. Great to see Daniele Gottardo make the finals and nice to see a couple of my faves in there. Also I see a couple of cool audio entries I missed, Ben Randall and Jas Morris. The finals should be very interesting indeed, some have more experience than others, seeing these guys cut it live will be the ultimate decider.
Here are the final twelve (in no particular order) with a short paragraph from the judges on their decision:
An unashamedly melodic rock guitarist. Brazilian axeman Gustavo Guerra possesses great chops, tone, timing, control and feel – in short the complete package! The judges are all looking forward to seeing his grinning live performance!
This young Canadian guitarist much impressed from day one with his great command of a wide variety of techniques and guitar styles – from hot chickin’ pickin’ to slap guitar to full on shred – Chris has it all!
Tom Quayle impressed all the judges with his amazingly fluid technique, superb phrasing and melodic sophistication. Fans of rock fusion players such as Greg Howe, Brett Garsed as well as Guthrie Govan will love this UK player!
Muris demonstrates total control and possesses great tone. His entry displays his vast array of techniques, killer chops and complete mastery of the instrument. Muris just had to be included in the final!
This 15 year old has bluesy phrasing to die for – and his tapping, speed picking and sweeping isn’t too shoddy either!
The judges were impressed also by the ‘live’ performance on the video entry – Lyle is indisputably a kid who can pull it off in London. This was an honest performance from a natural and tremendously gifted young guitarist.
Fernando has an arsenal of mind blowing techniques and a genuinely new approach to tapping. Having won Guitar World’s Best Youtube Guitar Video in 2007, and on the evidence of his entry here, we just had to get Fernando to London. A true monster guitarist, watching him play live is sure to be an experience not to be missed!
Peter’s larger than life character translates into a highly individualistic and unorthodox approach to full on rock/metal guitar. We
are all looking forward to seeing how this translates to the main stage! Peter – You Rock!
Marc displays a great combination of Eric Johnson/Vinnie Moore type opening lines, building into a great classic rock type track with some choice Slash/Schenker style licks: epic ‘traditional’ rock soloing with class. Rest assured, Marc has made the final on merit!
Gustavo possesses fantastic touch and phrasing, great technique – and all with a
real rock attitude! He impressed with his real ‘rockstar’ approach and great natural flair, conjuring up memories of Jake E. Lee in his prime. Gustavo possibly has all the attributes to become a true guitar idol.
This 16 year old astonished the judges with his level of technical virtuosity at such a young age, coupled with a level of phrasing beyond his years. For someone who has only been playing 3 years, it is nothing short of miraculous and the judges are waiting with baited breath to see him pull it off live!
Jas was a late entry to Guitar Idol, but instantly caught the judges attention with his Eric Johnson / Carl Verhayen style approach to playing. Combined with his compositional strengths and sense of melody, this was enough to get Jas through to the final. A very polished performer, we have no doubts Jas will deliver in London.
Daniele Gottardo is quite simply an astonishing guitarist. A master of 8 finger tapping, similar to T.J. Helmerich, Daniele also displays a world class super advanced sense of harmony. To see him play live will be an unmissable event, and one we could not possibly pass up.
*update* - Some interesting input from Owen:
The results are down to the Alloutguitar guys, Licklibrary, Lion Records, The Guitar Institite, The London International Music Show London, Rockschool as well the promotional partners and sponsor companies - and in the end those 12 were the highest scorers able attend.
Dimitri Nalbantov actually got the highest score of all and couldn’t make it - Silvio Gasquez and Andre Noronha were also asked. Many others were very very close: literally a matter of a couple of points here and there.
In the end, for whatever reasons, a lot of people didnt quite get there: we will personally contact many of these players, and all will receive an e-mail from the competition later thanking them and explaining things.
A Full list of The Top 50 with comments from the judges is being prepared over the next couple of days that explains things.
Roll on the Final!
Owen
markmcguigan.com: New theme
May 30, 2008
You may have noticed that I’m now just about up and running with a new Wordpress theme.
When things went a little wrong with the old theme ( still no idea what happened even after trawling through the code ) I browsed many many themes looking for a suitable replacement. I just couldn’t find anything that I liked so I took the step of looking through the premium themes aka ones you pay for. 
Yes I *paid* for this theme I am using now. Outrageous I know. Having left the murky world of Software Engineering few years ago after 8 years of pain I am past the point of coding things from scratch. Especially these days with what little time I have.
So, things will do for now but I’ll probably tweak things further, colour scheme, logos etc.
Here’s to a new chapter at markmcguigan.com!
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