Student Spotlight: Isaac Verbeck

This edition of "Student Spotlight" is on 16 year old Isaac Verbeck. Isaac has been playing guitar for about 2 years now and has been taking lessons from me since February 24, 2011. Isaac starting playing for a couple reasons. His brother played and that inspired him. He also liked how portable a guitar is to carry around verses say a keyboard. He also just really liked music! Along with his brother playing, his dad plays numerous instruments. His brother does alot of singing and theatre. His brother currently goes to college for singing. Some of his favorite guitar players are Brad nowell from the band Sublime and the guitar players from the band "Slightly Stupid." His dream guitar, and this is a first for this answer, is a high end nylon string acoustic guitar. he wants one because the sound is just great on one. I asked Isaac if he could play a gig anywhere on Earth where would it be. He replied " I would want to play somewhere in Orange County California. That is pretty much the birthplace of any good ska and punk and I just absolutely love those styles of music." Isaac has had a chance to check out a couple of live concerts. He has seen Reliant K, lots of local bands in different areas and various other regional bands. He has some gigging experience too. Isaac was in a band called "Of all the people" and they got to do a couple of gigs with them while he was still in high school. If his band could have played with any band of his choosing what would he pick? He dreams of being on the monster tour called "Warped Tour." Warped tour is a staple of summer concert touring with some of the best and biggest bands out there. That reason and the fact that that tour has so many styles of music on it are reasons why he would dream of being a part of Warp Tour.I also asked him " If you could pick any band in history to be a guitar player for, who would it be?" He replied quickly with " Van Halen!!" Why? Again he replied quickly " Its Van Halen!!! Come on!!! Is there really any other reason???" Isaac also plays a bunch of other instruments. He plays the bass, ukulele,sings and even played the trumpet back in middle school. Isaac is out of high school and is currently working on getting into Augusta State University and getting a computer science degree. Isaac plans on keeping up with music and sees himself continuing making music tracks and posting on the Internet because he loves doing it and its fun. Isaac has got alot from his lessons with me but the thing that has stuck with him the most is screwing around with arpeggios. He loves doing it and has a ton of fun with them. Some advice he has for anyone starting out is to learn 4 chords and learn every song you can with them. I have had a blast working with Isaac. he is a good kid with a ton of creativity. He is going to be musically active for many years and i am looking forward to hearing it! So heres to you Isaac......Keep Rockin........Keep Playin.......and keep Having Fun!!!!!

Spotlight licks: Scott Terry

this edition of "spotlight licks" is brought to you by musician extraordinaire, scott terry. scott is a multi instrumentalist who plays, harp, guitar, banjo, mandolin and countless others. he has played with some world class musicians. he has played with the legendary bluegrass out fit the lewis family, was guitar tech for smash country stars heartland, is endorsed by martin guitars, jammed with earl scruggs and countless other great musical endeavours. he is going to demonstrate moving up on the neck, playing various voicings of the A chord and throwing in some smokin chicken pickin licks based on the A minor and A major pentatonic scales. he even throws in some chromatic notes while going up. he has some great hybrid picking throughout,has some huge bends, some great pull off licks and ends on a cool banjo-esque lick. have fun with this one. he breaks it down slow at the end of the video. that is the prime time to pick up what he is doing. if you have a tough time break it down to learning it a section at a time. consider a section of licks the area in one position of the A chord. as he moves up to the next position of the chord that is the next section and so on.

Student Concert: May 12th Earthfest

It's that time of year again. That time when the students get to get on stage and strut their stuff. This year it will be at the Columbia County Ampitheatre. It is a family event that is celbrating the planet Earth. The students will take the stage at 11:00 a.m. Performances will include Gaia Colafrancseco, Brian Yonn, Blake Sloan, Carter Kight and Taylor Temples and a group performance with Alex Cooke, Chris Marks and his brother Anthony Marks. I can not wait for this. The kids always have a blast and do an outstanding job. I would like to thank Rob Boggs for setting this up for us and providing the sound system for the event. The ampitheatre is located at 630 Ronald Reagan Drive Evans Ga. Its off Washington road behind the library. If you hit the Evans Walmart you went to far. So be sure to be there, tell a friend and be ready to have a good time.

Student Spotlight : Collin Castillo

This edition of "Student Spotlight" is on a very up and coming musician, Collin Castillo. He has been playing guitar for 5 years and has been taking lessons from me since October 2010. Collin got into playing guitar because he saw someone playing and really liked it. His Mom and Dad , at one time, sponsored a band. The band was called " The Fifth." He thought what they did was awesome and wanted to jam. His parents thought it was a phase at first but 5 years later it was no phase! Collin is a 7th grader at River Side Middle School. He plans on going to college for 4 years and hopefully getting to do some music while there. His favorite band of all time is Alice in Chains. He says Alice is one of his dads favorites and that's how he got into listening to them. He doesn't really have a guitar he wants or a "dream" guitar. He plays no favorites with them. He just loves guitars. He has been to a few concerts in his young life too. The best and favorite one he has seen has been Alice In Chains. His mom took him to Atlanta to see them. Seeing that concert is what made him want to be in a band. If Collin could play guitar for any band, new or old, one that is still around or will never be around again, that band would be 90's king's of grunge, Nirvana. He says they are a cool band and he loves all their songs. Collin is currently the guitar player in his church band at Alder's Gate church. They practice every Sunday and Wednesday and play a gig 1 or 2 times a month. Being in this band landed him his first ever real gig. It was about 6 months ago and Alder's Church band kicked some butt! if he could play any gig anywhere in the world Collin would play the Super Bowl.Why? "It is the biggest gig you could ever have and everyone would get to see me play!" Some of Collin's favorite guitar players are Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Perry and Jerry Cantrell. Collin comes from a somewhat musical family. His Aunt Cindy plays everything- piano, guitar, ukulele to name a few. His Great Granny played piano. His uncle by marriage is a heck of a musician, Noel Brown.Noel is an Augusta legend! His mom and dad are huge musical fans and have gave him all the support a young music man could dream of. Why did he start taking lessons? He said "I really like guitar and thought it would be a cool fun thing to do. I really loved it once i started. It's my time to get my escape and have fun." What has been the thing he has got the most use from from lessons? Collin said " You showing me all the chords and their different shapes and learning all the notes on my fretboard." Collin Castillo is a great kid with a huge enthusiasm for music. He is bright and an all around good person. He works hard to be a good player. He continues to impress me week in and week out. He is gonna do great in life when he grows up, as a person and a musician. So here's to you Collin........Keep Rockin'.........Keep Playin'.........and keep Having Fun!!!

Spotlight Licks: John Berret ....the baby edition

This edition of "Spotlight Licks" is brought to you by me, John Berret, a guy who loves being a guitar teacher here in Augusta Georgia. The lick is a beast. It is based in E minor and moves from one end of the neck to another. I have put numbers beside each section of the tab so that I can break down each part and tell you about it. In the beginning, on part 1 you are doing some country-esqe pull offs. Be sure to have your 1st finger kind of anchored on the 3rd fret of the high E string.This lick ends on a slide up to the 5th fret with your 1st finger. In part 2 you start out the same as one but end pulling off on the E and B strings ala Randy Rhodes. Part 3 is identical to part 1. Part 4 is a flurry of pull offs on the E and B strings. Part 5 keeps with the randy rhodes pulls off but takes it to the G string and ends with a 1/4 step bend on the G note, 3rd fret, of your low E string down to an E power chord. Part 6 takes us up the neck. We are using the D and G strings on this. Watch my fingerings in the video and try and use the same as I do. The most important part of executing this part is the use of "outside picking" throughout all of this part. Part 7 is in the same vein as part 6 with the outside picking and how the lick is constructed except that you will use your pinkie to slide up from the 12th fret to the 14th fret and then pull off back to the 12th fret. Take it real slow to get this part. On part 8 you have some wide stretches that contain hammer ons and pull offs ion the same lick. This part is ripped right out of a page of Dimebag Darrell's playbook. Be sure to do this slow and take your time getting it right and smooth. Part 9 is descending arpeggio that goes back up and slides down. Part 10 is in the same vein as this. The last part, part 11, ends it on a nice little bluesy, pentatonic run that ends with the same 1/4 step bend on fret 3 of the low E string as we did in part 5. Take your time and go slow on this one. Once you got it start milking as many licks out of it as you can. Have fun and enjoy!!!!!

since i cant get the video to load click on this to go to youtube to watch it and play along with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGMRgdIJFbU&feature=youtu.be

Check This Out:Gibson Guitar Day w/ Ministry

This Thursday, March 22, at Rock Bottom Music Augusta is Gibson Guitar Day!!!!! We will be having insane sales on all things Gibson and will be doing a Gibson guitar clinic with Mike Scaccia from the band Ministry and Rigor Mortis. I LOVE MINISTRY!!!! The Psalm 69 album was one of the best of the 90's. The guitar sounds on it have inspired me for years. The songs are timeless......come on Just One Fix and Jesus built My Hot Rod are insane!!!!! Along with mike doing a clinic Rock Bottom will be giving away a $1200 Epiphone Les Paul that is killer looking and killer playing and giving away a kick butt acostic guitar too! Look for all kinds of other stuff to be handed out also. The clinic starts at 7:00 on Thursday night. There are no sign up fees and no cost to come. Its free gat nap it!!!!!! All ages are welcome too. There is also no cost to get in the running for one of the guitars either. Rock Bottom is located in downtown Augusta Georgia on the corner of 8th and Broad Streets. Make sure you stop down at 7:00 and catch this. It will be educational, awesome, fun and you can get some very cool free stuff. These clinics have been hits in the past so be there or be square!!!!

Product Review: Planet Waves "O-Port"

This product review is on the company Planet Waves new product, the "O-Port." It is used to enhance the sound of an acoustic guitar and help with feedback when used through a p.a. system or acoustic amp. It is just a piece of plastic the is somewhat bell shaped that goes in the sound hole of your acoustic guitar. It is very easy to install. You just loosen up your guitar strings, bend it in half and install it with the big end of the bell facing the bottom of the guitar. There is a break in the top outside of it (the end that faces up, small end of the bell) that sits where the neck of your guitar goes. There are two sizes for the O-Port, big and small. I used the big one so that I could try it on two different acoustics that I have. I used it on one of the cheapest guitars on the market, an Epiphone DR-100 and I used it on a very expensive one, a Taylor 810. Lets get down to business.

The O-Port claims 4 main things right on the box. 1)fuller sound 2) better clarity 3)more volume and 4) suppressed feedback.

On the Epiphone DR100 i used it on I instantly noticed a huge increase in volume. I used it for 3 days in my lesson room with my students. With every single student i had to play softer. It made it a ton louder for sure. I also noticed it made when I soloed louder too. Every note was pumped up in volume and you could hear every note great! It was almost like it compressed the sound of the notes and made every single note on the guitar , open strings up to the highest register, equal. It made a cheap guitar sound a ton better. It definitely made it sound more high dollar than it really is! Without a dought it made every chord sound fuller too. So far every thing it said it did, it did in spades.

On my Taylor it did the same thing as it did on the Epiphone. One of the biggest complaints I have about my Taylor is when I solo it drops in volume hugely and the notes get lost in the jam. This little device helped for sure. It made the notes I played while soloing stand out and able to keep up with the guitar I was playing with. It did make the guitar sound louder when playing chords. It did a little bit to make it sound fuller when playing rythym. It really couldnt do too much in that respect with the Taylor though. This guitar is one of the best out there for sounding full and rich to begin with. It did its best work on the single notes.

The verdict on this product.........Great!!!!!!! Most players out there dont have a 2-3000 $ acoustic to be playing. It will do wonders for budget guitars and mid grade guitars. Hell, it made a $100 Epihpone sound tons better. These thing s go for around $25 and is worth it. Even on a $3000 Taylor it did some improvement. It also doesnt alter the look of your guitar either. Those other feedback sound hole thing a ma bobs clog up your playing hole and suppress the acoustic guitars natural sound. I didnt play it through a guitar plugged up to test the feedback stopping capabilities. The physics of the O-Port are solid enough to know it will help with it. It is worlds above the other sound hole feed back pluggers. It will help any guitar out there in some way shape or form. For the price its a no brainer. Stop down at Rock Bottom and get one. If you are an acoustic player it is a must have, so get it!!!!