Most musicians know that practicing can sometimes become tedious. However, few musicians realize how much practicing it takes to become a concert classical musician. More specifically, to become a concert classical guitarist. Glenn Kurtz knows the level of dedication that it takes to attempt to become a performing classical musician. In his book, Practicing: A Musician's … [Read more...]
lala – 6-Month Review
It's been about six months since I signed up with CD-trading service lala, and overall, I'm still pleased with the service. I've made almost 90 trades so far, so I thought I'd give another review since I've had a chance to get a pretty good view of how the system works.* As I mentioned above, I'm still pleased with lala overall. However, I do have some nits to pick. … [Read more...]
Magazines Put Out To Pasture
Guitar World has recently, and quietly, shut down operations on several of their magazine properties: Guitar One, Guitar World Bass, and Guitar World Acoustic. As a former subscriber to Guitar One, I figured the magazine had been shut down when I started receiving Guitar World issues with the "best of Guitar One" included, although they never indicated the magazine had actually … [Read more...]
Peavey Limited-Edition Orange County Chopper Guitar
Peavey has recently announced the availability of the limited-edition guitar that was created in conjunction with Orange County Choppers (of American Chopper fame). The guitar was featured, along with the motorcycle created for Peavey by OCC, on two recent episodes of American Chopper; the episodes were titled "Custom Shop Meets Custom Shop." Truth be told, I'm a big fan of the … [Read more...]
Eli Cook
Twenty-one-year old Virginia-based blues guitarist Eli Cook is interviewed in the September 2007 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Cook plays both acoustic and electric blues. He manages to channel influences Alice In Chains and Son House, oftentimes within the same song, to create a unique, and modern, blend of the blues. In 2005, Cook released a solo acoustic album titled … [Read more...]