Metal act, Angra's axeman, Kiko Loureiro have a special treat for guitar heads all around the globe as he has a new guitar lesson video that's really interesting for aspiring guitarist. On the video that was done by TheRockHouse, Kiko will be explaining and giving a cool method about transitioning from rock to playing fusion by using Lydian modes.

The full lesson is being packaged on a 2 DVD format with about 2 hour of exclusive and cool guitar tips and tricks from Kiko. This is surely an awesome thing for guitar players, especially if you looked at the teaser video below, the lesson looked to be a great one, oh to get your hand on this cool guitar lesson just checked them out at www.musiciansfriend.com or www.RockHouseMethod.com.

Personally I like Kiko's playing a lot, he is one of the metal guitarist that plays a cool fusion stuffs yet still have the spirit and rocking character in his playing. Not only that from what I see in the teaser, the lesson that the Brazilian born guitarist is a unique and inspiring stuffs, practicing and using modes is always a lesson that many young guitar players have problems understanding it.

about the DVD lesson, here is what the company has to offer from Kiko's stuff:
"Kiko's two-DVD set, "Creative Fusion: Beyond Power Chords & Pentatonics", contains over two hours of lessons in which he shows rock players how to incorporate fusion elements into their playing and helps them expand their guitar vocabury by understanding new concepts."

Just read an interesting news that might also attract other guitar players all around this world, as it involved a chance for guitar players to play in a movie and even to make music for the film. The news came from this site, which is a movie site announcing that a new documentary movie to be titled "Six Strings" and will be directed by James Smith is searching for guitar players to play a role on the film.



Reading from James' explanation about the film, it surely would be an interesting opportunity for guitar players all around the world as they will have a media that will help them to share about their profile and may even lead them to further success. According to the director, he is not limited himself to look for a guitarist from his a certain country but all axeman from all over the world with unique stories and playing style are aloud to join.

Here is a statement about what kind of guitarist are James looking for the movie:
"I am searching for six guitarists from around the world who have incredible stories to tell. They will form part of the documentary and may have the opportunity to contribute to the music within the film. I am looking to find passionate people who maybe have developed a unique playing style or have an incredible story to tell about guitar music - how it transformed or changed their lives and more about the mystique and influence of the instrument - the more extraordinary, heart rending or radical, the better!"
more details about the term can be viewed at the site.

Haven't seen much of a movie about guitar players lately, my mind only gets back at Steve Vai's involved movie with the Karate Kid boy, Ralph Macchio, "Crossroads". I really hope some really talented guitarist with amazing story and experience can be picked, so it would be a great musical movie about guitar playing.

Still in the stage of promoting his latest outing "Deep South", Firehouse's guitarist Bill Leverty shares to music fans, his newest music video taken from one of the album's single, "Trouble So Hard". Bill premiered his new clip via his official YouTube page on January 29 and really it is a pleasant surprise from him, especially that he had his birthday on the next day.

The new video is actually Bill's second clip from his new album, previously he already premiered "Boll Weevil" as the first one. The song, just like all the tracks from "Deep South" is an old single that was cover by the guitarist as a part of his record's theme which is covering all of his favorite classic Southern songs.

Aside from the video, through his newsletter Bill also reveal that he also gives a special discount for fans that wants to buy his merchandises by giving a special password deep (for username) and south (for the pass). To get this special prize when you log in to this link , just click the mech section, than select the VIP section then you'll get a special prize from Bill.

Not only still busy promoting his album, Bill will be kept busy too this year as he will be hitting the road again on February to tour with his band Firehouse. All the tour list and schedule can be found on Bill's official site or the band's official site too, just support and enjoy Bill and Firehouse's work guys.!!

An exciting news for guitar heads and music fans, especially those who admire the legendary Jimi Hendrix as the latest news confirms that a new single from the guitar master's upcoming new album has been premiered online. The new song is titled "Valleys of Neptune" and it is one of the tracks that will be on the new record filled with Hendrix's previously unreleased material, the album itself is being named the same as the new single.

The new track is being posted exclusively by Spinner.com, and you can just listen to it there and hear the amazing Hendrix's music style that made him such a legend. The tune is great, the vibe is just awesome, really a classic masterpiece that deserve to be heard to today's music society, honestly I am curious to hear more songs from the new record as it looked to be a cracking record.

Talking about the album, along with "Valleys of Neptune" it will have in total of 12 studio recording tracks that are material Hendrix has never really put in any of his album. This special record is a project conducted by Experience Hendrix LCC and Sony Music's Legacy Recording as a media to preserved and share the guitarist's legacy. The full album is being set to be released on March 9, 2010, while the song will be officially dropped to the market as a single on February 2.

The songs from the record itself is said was recorded after the "Electric Ladyland" time and will set the fans to hear how Hendrix is moving into a new direction after Ladyland. Explaining about the recordings origin, Experience Hendrix's catalog editor John McDermott said, In the aftermath of 'Electric Ladyland,' he made a series of recordings with the original Experience. When they effectively stopped working as a three-man recording unit, he brought in [bassist] Billy Cox -- this album captures that transition. We don't want to over-dramatize it. This is that missing period of time."

Here is the official track listing for "Valleys of Neptune" the album:
1. "Stone Free"
2. "Valleys of Neptune"
3. "Bleeding Heart"
4. "Hear My Train a Comin'"
5. "Mr. Bad Luck"
6. "Sunshine of Your Love" (instrumental Cream cover)
7. "Lover Man"
8. "Ships Passing Through the Night"
9. "Fire"
10. "Red House"
11. "Lullaby for the Summer"
12. "Crying Blue Rain

Richie Kotzen has previously announced that he is preparing to go for another tour in April, just before enjoying clips from his upcoming performances, I managed to find some cool videos of Richie recently. The first one is his performance at NAMM 2010, which is something that many guitar fans have been searching and another one is the latest video of the maestro made by Guitar World.

Both videos are exceptionally cool and awesome, the Live performance that he did at NAMM was clips of his private show at the event, where he played for a new acoustic guitar company LAG Guitars. The video will give you chance to see and hear Richie's amazing live acoustic performance especially his bluesy and soulful voice, for you information the ex Poison and Mr. Big guitarist played LAG Guitars, Tramontane guitar model.

Meanwhile, the second clip is something that surely many guitar heads especially Richie's fans would really like to see, which is a clip where the guitar master show and explained all the details about his gears. On the clip, RK, give all the details needed about his awesome Fender Telecaster series, his new ZOOM pedal, and off course his amps oh he definitely played some crazy shredding stuffs as always.

After confirming to the public that he is starting his new album's recording process, guitar legend Steve Lukather add some more details regarding the recording process of his upcoming solo record. Revealing the news via his official site, Luke talked about how his first day at the studio is going so smooth.

Stating about the things he do on his first day in the studio Luke stated, "Well day one could not have gone better! We cut the first one, a tune I wrote with Steve Weingart and we cut #2 also a song I wrote with CJ." He also added, "It is GREAT to be in the studio with my band, Steve, Carlitos and Eric "biggie" V. Steve Macmillin's sounds are fantastic and I am so excited already."

Beside working on to record news songs for his upcoming album ,Luke also revealed that he also has another thing that kept him busy this start of the year, which is practicing for his upcoming Asia tour. "I am gonna be workin my ASS off till I leave for the Japan/Asia tour and I am up early studying THAT music then poff to the studio to cut my stuff and I am still hiking-running everyday (unless it is raining) and life is great," Luke said.

According to his current list, Luke will be starting his Asia tour on March 1 in Tokyo, Japan, in which he will be performing there until March 5. After that he will travel to some countries in South East Asia, such as Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore before ending his current dates on March 18 back in Japan, this time it will be Osaka.

Having not heard anything in quite sometime, guitar legend Steve Lukather came out with an exciting updates regarding his music projects this year. Revealing the news on his official site, Luke shared to the public that he is currently working on some special stuffs such as a record he calls the "6 String Theory" and also a new solo album.

Providing more details about the "6 String Theory", Luke stated that the record is a project which will consist performances from various guitar players with different styles. "I am doing a "6 string theory" record. It is a recod with guitar players from EVERY style from BB King , Keb Mo, Mike Stern, Andy McKee, John Scofield, Vince Gill, Guthrie Govan and Lee Ritenour, and some 'secret cats" I will reveal soon," Luke said about the project.

Meanwhile, telling details about his upcoming record, the guitar virtuoso only said that he is starting the work for his new solo record on Tuesday and that it is planned to be dropped this year. Confirming this news, Luke said, "I also start MY new solo record next Tuesday and I have some really great tunes and I am way up for it all. My new record will drop in the Fall."

Aside from working on new records, Luke also stated that he also has other agenda that will keep him busy for this year, which is touring. The former TOTO guitarist said that he will be travelling to Japan/Asia this march and has his schedule booked till summer. So it looks like the maestro, won't be having as much as off time as people might imagine, but surely I can't wait to hear all the secrets Luke is about to give for music fans.

Just as many guitar heroes do, neo classic king, Yngwie Malmsteen also share a moment of his time attending the annual NAMM show this year. As many guitar heads know, Yngwie is there giving support, promoting and endorsing his gears, Seymour Duncan and Fender guitars, not to mention he has just released a new pick-up collaborating with Seymour which is called the YJM Fury.

At the Seymour Duncan booth, Yngwie explain a bit about the process on creating his new pick up the YJM Furry to the company's representative in a short interview. On the interview, the guitar legend explained his involvement in the new pick-up creative process.

It wasn't a big surprise knowing that Yngwie is very-very involved in creating the new product as many people knew that the guitar virtuoso have had previous experience working as a guitar craftsman during his youth. Surely with the Swedish born guitarist's personal involvement, Seymour Duncan is assured that guitar fans that loved Yngwie's guitar playing and sound would be checking up the YJM Fury.

Just running in to this totally kicked new music video of Orianthi featuring Steve Vai which has been premiered on the net, and I can say it is one hell of an eye-catching guitar video to watch, especially for you guitar heads. It's a long time since, I personally sees a guitar instrument music being made an official clip and Orianthi, who is also the late Michael Jackson's latest guitarist just does this thirst quencher for me.

The clip is actually being set in a pretty simple concept as it shows the two guitarist playing the songs in front of a plain white background with the addition of huge amps. Off course with Steve on, the video always looked cool as he does that stylish pose in playing that well, most of guitar heads always sees from his live performance.

Honestly, I have only knew about Orianthi and from what I see, she is one hell of a guitarist, her stroke is strong, the tone is good just simply cool, although I would pretty much need to see her live first to give more judgment. However, seeing and hearing "Highly Strung" which she work with Steve, it's surely that she has an awesome quality as the harmony of the track is very-very good.

From the making of video of "Highly Strung", I kinda see that Steve is also enjoying a lot working with Orianthi, as he has that excited look on his face during the video making and enjoying it a lot. Overall, I think the track is a great one and the video makes it more fun to check out, really gives me the will to check out more tracks from the chick guitarist.

After finishing the 2009 with a host of tour to all kinds of venues all over the world, guitar virtuoso, Richie Kotzen looks set to start the year in a similar fashion as he already confirmed an early tour dates for this new year. According to the guitarist's official site, he has revealed Brazil as the first country that will have the privilege in seeing guitar master's performance this year.

The news stated that Richie, will be staging his first show of this year on April 23 in Sao Paolo and set to end the Brazilian road trip on April 29 in Curitiba/PR. However, there is always a chance that the current schedule would be changed whether there will be pre-shows or post- dates for tour. So whenever there are new dates, I will surely post them for all you guitar heads, as info.

In other news, Richie himself as many other musicians and guitar heroes does this January, also appear and visit the NAMM show. On his site, the guitarist shared his joy on attending the event, which he called as it was "Like a school reunion of sorts", not to mention on his myspace status, he also revealed that he was amazed by the performance of a guitar player at the show.

Here is the current Tour Dates for Richie Kotzen:
Apr/23rd - Blackmore Rock Bar - São Paulo/SP
Apr/25th - Teatro Odisséia - Rio de Janeiro/RJ
Apr/28th - Drakkar Music Hall - Porto Alegre/RS
Apr/29th - Hangar Bar - Curitiba/PR

Guitar legend, Steve Vai has an interesting project on his sleeves as the latest report stated that he is teaming up with a famous music developer for games, WaveGroup. The company that is responsible for contributing music for games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, will surely give music and games fans lots of delight with the partnership announcement.


This partnership, will surely give Rock Band fans a chance to play and listen songs from Steve and most surely could attract the guitar virtuoso fans to play and look for the game. The former Whitesnake guitarist himself is excited about the project and felt really happy that his songs can be shown in the game.

Revealing his excitement about the project, Steve said to the press, "WaveGroup is the premiere production team for interactive music videogames and I was thrilled to partner with them on my songs. Now I can jam with people in the comfort of their own plastic!"

Meanwhile, the company also express their delight in managing to secure the partnership with Steve as through their President/CEO, WaveGroup stated, "We're honored to be working with such amazing musicians, and bringing their music to Rock Band Network. Our job is to make the music look and feel authentic in the Rock Band environment. As musicians ourselves, we go to great lengths to make the experience of playing these songs fun and engaging."

Former Guns 'N Roses guitarist, Slash appeared at this year's winter NAMM 2010 and was caught by Harmony Central's people and being asked to share the story about his relationship with Marshall Amps. To the interviewer, the renown guitarist reveal the story on what made him got into Marshall at the first place, which you can see for yourself below.

Not only sharing about his thing with Marshall, on the interview the guitar master also reveal things about his upcoming projects, on which he explain the details about his new album which is finished and set to be dropped in April. Moreover, regarding the upcoming new record, Slash also said that he is currently gearing up to do all the things needed for the promotion of the new album such as setting up tour, getting the record deal done and other marketing stuffs.

Aside from that, another interesting that Slash also did a special thing at NAMM which is announcing his new Marshall amps design with Marshall which is called the Marshall AFD 100. According to Slash himself the AFD 100 was made based on the sound that he manage to put out on G'NR's "Appetite For Destruction" record, which many people really wanted to try out after the record comes out.

As many people probably knew that the sound that Slash did for the album has become something that lots of people especially young guitarist want to imitate for some years. Now, it seems that the Marshall guys along with the guitar master himself is trying to make it easy for guitar heads that really wanted to copy the sound or at least making it as their basic raw sound for their guitar playing.

Music has been known as a media that can unite and even help in bringing peace to the world and off course the people behind all of that would be musicians. Lots of musician has been known for their care of peace, among those that had been acknowledge recently another well known musician received a special award due to his commitment for shouting out peace, and the man is Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page.

It was pretty much a surprise for Jimmy himself as reports from LedZeppelinnews stated that the guitar legend received the U.N.' Pathways to Peace award during his press conference announcing his inclusion for the Peace concert set to be held in Beijing this April. The award itself was the first time being given away, even though the intention of holding and giving the award is actually been considered from some time ago.

Revealing the reason the U.N. is giving the award to Page, the organization's representative Michael Johnson said to the press, "We've been asked to give awards over the years but never have done so until this day. We're doing this because musicians have a global impact on the world, and we also know that people who use their name and fame for peace building need to be honored."

Meanwhile, the guitar hero himself, despite being honored by receiving the award, humbly said that the award din not only goes to him but to music in general. "Although this award has my name on it, this is a tribute to the power of music and its positive effect. Music has been the most powerful language to reach the hearts of people around the world. During my career, I've experienced the connection and harmony that music can bring," Page said.

The 2010 Winter NAMM has already started, and among the first guitarist that present and explaining his new gear was Dave Mustaine who revealed his new gear to Harmony Central on January 14. To the reporter, Dave give his insight on the reason he chooses and uses Marshall amps and also revealing details about his new amp model the Megastack.



Revealing about the reason he pick Marshall, Dave said that the legendary amp is the most suitable gear that can fit with the music he is playing (trash metal) and even heavy metal in general. Not only that, Megadeth's frontman also believes that some other newer amps hasn't really manage to capture the same heavy sound that the classic Marshall would give as the other gears would pretty much sounds like alternative metal than heavy metal.

Meanwhile, sharing details about the Megastack, Dave revealed that the idea to design and create the amp was based on the things he needs for practicing guitar not essentially design for live performance. The former Metallica member also said that he believes, Marshall already has such a great performance for live shows, so the Megastack was invented to give another option for guitar players in getting great sound when they are practicing back stage.

Guitar hero, Gary Hoey looks set to spark the 2010 with some exciting projects that will definitely give the music fans something they should be waiting for. Revealing the programs on his official newsletter, Gary stated that there are two major things that he will be doing in this early 2010 which is performing at NAMM off course and also joining the amazing star studded Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp, which will be starting on February 23-28 this year and one of the musician that will join gary is Chikenfoot' singer Sammy Hagar.

On his scheduled appearance at this year's NAMM, Gary reveal that he will be doing two appearance at the event, which is on Thursday, January 14 and also on Saturday, January 16. On Thursday, the guitar maestro is scheduled to do some meet n greet and maybe performance at his Fender booth while on Saturday he will be representing his GHS strings booth.

Meanwhile, regarding his induction at the Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp, it looks to be something that music fans might be anticipating about as at the event not only that he will be teaming up with Sammy, the guitar maestro will also be joined by Michael Anthony and Ace Frehley. The event itself will be held on Los Angeles, Calif and will feature lots of musical stuffs by the musicians involved such as jamming, recording and also performing live shows off course.

An interesting news comes from, shred guitar legend, Yngwie Malmsteen as he has just unveiled a new gear to the public that he will be using on his classic Fender strat. The new product that Yngwie released is a new pick up that he worked with Seymour Duncan called the YJM FURY.

An interesting and exciting news arrives from guitar virtuoso, Vinnie Moore as he has revealed that he will be touring this year with his band to perform songs from his solo albums. This news was announced on the guitarist's official site stating the destination of the upcoming trip which is Europe and revealing that the tour actually would be the first real tour that Vinnie did in Europe as a solo artist.


Moreover on the site, Vinnie also stated that for the tour he will be accompanied with great musicians on his band that will definitely attract lots of music fans especially guitar heads. The musicians that will be joining the UFO guitarist are: Mike DiMeo (Keyboards and Vocals), Aquiles Priester (Drums) and Lars Lehmann (Bass), those names are definitely people that have had their share of admirers.

As an additional information, despite that Vinnie has just dropped a new solo record last year, titled "To The Core", the guitar virtuoso confirmed that on the upcoming tour he and his band won't only play songs from the new record but also favorite tracks from previous albums. Not only that, according to the announcement of the guitarist's site, it would be likely that Vinnie will also be performing some cover tunes, especially with having Mike as one of his band members.

Guitar legend, Steve Vai once again proved that making quality music can always gets you fair share or rewards even in the realm of profit. This surely can be seen from the guitar virtuoso's latest achievement in which he managed to have his latest outings a live DVD titled, "Live In Minneapolis: Where The Wild Things Are" which according to Blabbermouth have been certified Gold in U.S. and Canada.

This achievement really perfected Steve's fine year in 2009 as he also manage to get one of his song from the Live record, "Now We Run", being nominated for Grammy Awards to take the "Best Rock Instrumental" category. Surely if the track manage to win the Grammy, it would surely be the icing on the cake for Steve's amazing achievement. The award show itself is being scheduled to be done on Sunday, January 31 at the Staples Center, L.A.

Beside releasing his new live DVD on 2009, Steve actually have been busy doing his latest new project which is touring for his Master Class program dubbed the Alien Guitar Secret, that also becomes a huge success. In those time surely, the guitar legend doesn't have lots of time to record a new solo album under his label Favored Nation, however in order to make things up Steve reportedly will be heading to studio starting this January to record a new album.

Confirming about the plan to make a new record, Steve's label released a press conference not so long ago stating: In January, Steve will be going into the studio to record his first solo album in six years. Stay tuned to Favored Nations.com and Vai.com for updates and more big news for 2010!"
Congratz to Steve Vai with all of his achievement and also this 2010 is being marked as the 30years of the guitar master's musical career.

Guitar virtuosso, Chris Impellitteri is always known for his consistent shredding basics on playing guitar and the guitarist never seems to stop doing it. Having just dropped his band's latest album, Chris recently put up a new video of him playing some crazy solo lick at lighting speed.

On the short clip that was being posted on Impellitteri's official MySpace blog, you can seen how Chris has never lost if's appetite for shredding. Playing a cool solo on his new Dean guitar signature series, the guitarist looked to be enjoying every note that he pick and play.

Meanwhile, Impellitteri themselves (Chris' band off course) have just released a new album in 2009 which was being titled "Wicked Maiden". The new record still shows the basic musical style that Chris and his band mates always wanted to bring to the music audience.

Guitar legend, Steve Morse does know how to work out on all of his project together as it's proven by his latest decision to put his latest duet project with Sarah Spencer on tour together with his solo band Steve Morse Band (SMB). The news was confirmed on Steve's official site stating that Sarah, along with Bill Evans and Ron Spencer will be opening his SMB's shows on their upcoming tour this January.


According to the announcement, Sarah and Steve who are working on an album called "Angelfire" will be performing songs from the new record on three venues of SMB's January tour. The venues that have been confirmed are the shows on January 14,15 and 16 all in California (more detail of the venues can be viewed below).

The collaboration between Sarah and Steve itself is being set as an acoustic pop kind of thing that sounds interesting as you can hear the samples of the upcoming album at angelfire's official site. Despite the details, honestly I haven't managed to figure out whether Angelfire is the album of Sarah and Steve or it is also the name of their duet project.
As an addition if you guys happens to be in town and has the time to check out the SMB's tour which also has Angelfire as the opener, you can bought the new record there as I don't think it is officially released yet.

Okay here is the full details of venues and date for the SMB tour plus three shows with Angefire as the opener:
Thursday January 14, 2010
Redondo Beach, CA

Friday January 15, 2010
Agoura Hills, CA

Saturday January 16, 2010
San Juan Capistrano, CA

Sunday January 17, 2010
Orangevale, CA

Tuesday January 19, 2010
Petaluma, CA

Wednesday January 20, 2010
San Francisco, CA

It looks like guitar hero, Greg Howe, isn't prepare to sit tight and enjoying holiday longer than usual as he already had tour plan this year. According to the news on Greg's official MySpace blog the guitarist reveal that he will be performing again in Greece this year.


On the blog, Greg stated that he will be performing at two shows in Athens, Greece and that he will not actually be doing a solo performance on those upcoming gigs. The guitar player confirmed that he will be joining Yiorgos Fakanas band to play as a guest guitarist on those two shows.

Despite only playing as a guest guitarist, still I believe that Greg's upcoming performances is something worth waiting and watching for music fans in Greece, especially after he already make his mark at the same city last year. The guitar virtuoso definitely has made a great impression as he is being tapped to play again at the city not to mention being a guest guitarist for a local band.
So for those music fans or guitar freak in Greece, just check the show out and you won't be disappointed.