New Articles and Featured Content

Instrumental Guitarist Records Solo EP

Swedish Guitarist Plans To Leverage Skills

Instrumentals Highlighting The Low End

Microtonal Musician Explores 19 & 34 Tone Guitar Music

Eclectic Instrumental CD Oozes Raw Energy

Part two of our e-mailbag dump, answering some of the most commonly asked questions about releasing and promoting records.

Paul Abbott discusses the phenomenon of sound.

Highlighting the ways that other instruments and their players can profoundly effect us.

Putting yourself in the shoes and sticks of the drummer.

As far as instrumental goes, when you can`t sing yourself, you tend to write without a vocal part in mind. If you could add vocals to it, that would be one thing, but I decided that I would like the guitar to shine through on what I was doing. So I decided to make the project instrumental.

Progressive Instrumental Guitarist Releases EP-CD

Delivering Impressive Guitar & Heartfelt Music

Two-Handed, Melodic Mood Music

Guitar Company Releases Instrumental Artist Collection

Heavy Metal Guitar Instrumentals

Duo Creates Stylistic Melting Pot

Hard Rock Group Looks To Enter The Popular Mainstream

Dedicated Guitarist Plans Solo Instrumental Project

Four-Piece Instrumental Group Releases First CD

Instrumental Heaviness With An Emphasis On Composition

Demon On The Fretboard Releases CD

Guitar Student Demos Instrumental Compositions

Furiously Fast French Guitarist Seeks Producer/Sponsor

Authentic, Hard-Edged Blues/Rock

Killer Texas Trio Releases First CD

Instrumental Blend Of Rock And Fusion

Melodic Songwriting Meets Intense Guitar Riffs

Bassist, Drummer Combine With Fusion Greats

Guitarist Paul Kuntz is back with some thoughts on how to avoid that feeling of being `lost without a map`.

Kick-start your musical development with these essential tips from Curtis.

Learn the essentials of the swept arpeggio from one of the masters of the technique.

Gerry Magee begins his multi-part series on expanding your mind, as well as your fretboard, with the benefits of thinking like a composer.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is someone else's job. As an independent artist, the ball is in your court.

For Europe my music is not aggressive enough and in the US I didn`t have anybody to present it to. So rather than making so-called industry contacts and "wait until it happens" I decided to do it myself, which turned out to be much faster and got me and my music much more respect. I highly recommend a musical statement such as this to all musicians who intend to be a part of this complex industry.

I hope my music, although there are no words, communicates and reaches people on an emotional, spiritual and entertaining level. I try to incorporate various instrumentation, and contemporary compositional influences.

We have tried to record as much of our playing as we possibly can, both in practice and "jamming" sessions, and when we perform live, to give ourselves some feedback. When playing it`s very difficult to listen to yourself because you`re too busy thinking about what`s going to happen next, while in critical listening you concentrate on the blend of what has just happened. By listening to recordings of ourselves we can pick out the improvisational parts that work well, sound great, or have promise, then try to concentrate on developing them.

Acoustic Progressive Jazz Meets New Age Fusion

Guitarist Blends Progressive & Neo-Classical Influences

Guitarist Makes Mark In Music Mecca

Instrumental Rock For The Hungry Heart

Trio Releases Instrumental Rock Demo

Duel Guitars, High-Tech Shred

Electric Release From Multi-Instrumentalist

Maniacal Instrumental Madness With An Elfin Flavor

In the last few years I`ve made a record for a major label that didn`t get released. Then I signed with a indie label. I thought the majors were the bad guys, and this label would give me more attention. WRONG! To make a long story longer, the small label had bad distribution and never paid a bill, let alone the tour support and promo budget.

I knew what I wanted to do but there were no labels dedicated to the guitarist as the artist, but only to the guitarist as a shred meister. I read an interview with guitarist Glenn Phillips, who has released ten albums independently. I realized from his comments (about the music industry) that the only way to reach my goal was to follow his example.

CD recorders (or burners) are great in any studio. Should you consider releasing your next CD on CD-R.

Progressively Minded Guitarist Blends Metal, Funk & Rock