Last year in Guitar World magazine, ubershredder Yngwie Malmsteen recalled his journey to America, a country he called “truly the land of opportunity.” He came off the plane with a guitar, an extra pair of pants, and a dream, and since his breakthrough, many other European guitarists came over hoping to follow in his footsteps.
Sometimes the best notions are those that come in the night and are based on the mind’s process of incubation, that arrive seemingly spontaneously, but in a rush of problem-solving insight.
Dweezil Zappa has been rather busy over the past couple of years. Both out of choice and out of need he decided to analyze and study pretty close to everything pertaining to the music of his late father, Frank Zappa, the legendary musician, composer, arranger, producer, film director, political activist, and bandleader.
The story of how I met jazz-guitarist Adam Smale is a funny one, at least from our perspective it is. Growing up a few miles apart, though a decade apart in age,
George Lynch has inserted himself into the annals of rock history with a career spanning over 30 years. Largely recognized for his Grammy nominated work with hard rock-metal group Dokken, George has also embarked on other collaborative and solo works to broaden his range of playing and creativity including Lynch Mob and Souls of We.
By: Rick Landers During the mid-60s, the US music scene was overwhelmed with rock groups from England, to the point where the phrase “British invasion” entered the American lexicon. In response, one homegrown U.S. group emerged to fill the airwaves with a new and unique sound that became known as folk rock. The Byrds. The […]
Born the grandson of immigrants in 1915, Lester William Polfuss exhibited an inborn Germanic talent for analytical thinking at a precociously early age.
Guitar International was recently invited to take a tour of luthier Dan Koentopp’s Chicago workshop. We spent the afternoon checking out Dan’s tools, several guitars he had in the works and hearing about his journey as an up and coming custom-guitar builder.
Over the course of its forty-year history, Rush has emerged from it’s beginnings as a rock band to becoming an institution of rock culture. They’re one of the few bands that have not only survived for over four decades, but have done so with the same line-up of band members. That feat is a true anomaly in the turbulent and ego-driven world of rock music. With over thirty-million records sold worldwide, award-winning videos and legions of hardcore fans, perhaps the most impressive thing about the band’s career is the manner in which they have navigated their own course. While other bands worried about mainstream success, Rush focused on mastering their instruments and musicality to make the best records possible.
There are few guitarists alive today that are more accomplished or easily recognizable as Lee Ritenour. With a resume that reads like every budding guitarists wildest dream, Ritenour has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in music during his fifty years as a guitarist. After beginning his professional career at the age of sixteen,
