Steve Stevens is one of those guitarists who have many strings to their bow. Indeed, not only is he an outstanding soloist but also a composer who has signed several tubes Billy Idol among other things, not to mention movie soundtracks, his solo projects, etc..

Here's a Skype video interview recorded in February with Zane Carney, the awesome John Mayer guitar player. Zane has been playing with John on stage and in the studio for some time now. He also has a busy solo career with 2 very cool albums we talked about in the interview.

Note: sorry for the audio levels on the video recording.

I believe I first heard about Chris Sherland on the Six String Bliss guitar podcast. I read his book, Lead Guitar From The Inside Out and spent quite a lot of time with my iPad to get the most out of it. Here's an interview I did with Chris.

I really enjoyed reading this e-book with my guitar in hands.

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Greg Koch audio interview (aka @mansqwatch): a huge guitar player with humour

Here's a Greg Koch audio interview. Greg is a star on the Internet because of his countless awesome demos on YouTube but he is in fact much more than that.

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Ivano Icardi interview: all the passion of Italy on a Stratocaster

Here are the 12 backing tracks from Ivano Icardi's album "Walking with the Giants" : 75 Mb zip file

Please note that the file also includes an e-book with chord charts and transcriptions.

To allow you to study his music, Ivano has published on YouTube a series of cool videos where he shows at normal speed then at slow speed some key parts of his music.

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Here's the Skype interview I did with Peter Frampton, the legendary guitar player with the triple humbucker Les Paul. I had a blast talking to such a huge musician.

Masterclass App

We lost count of the smartphone/tablet applications that promise to teach you guitar. Unfortunately for many of them , the promise is far from being held. With Guitar Masterclass , it is a more pragmatic approach: learn to play the guitar popular songs.

The application does not promise you you will play like a god in 10 lessons or improvise like an old jazzman in 2 days , no. It shows you how to play in video a popular song on the guitar from beginning to end .

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Ivano Icardi interview: all the passion of Italy on a Stratocaster

As a complement for Ivano Icardi interview in this episode, here is a bonus package with two full backing tracks with chord charts and transcriptions in PDF :

Funky Mama
The Snatch (in video below)

Link to the 79 Mb zip file

List of files in the 73 MB zip file:

1 - Funky Mama - Backing Track.wav
2 -The Snatch - Backing Track.wav
Funky Mama - Chord Chart.pdf
Funky Mama - Lick.pdf
Funky Mama - Main Riff.pdf
The Snatch - Chord Chart.pdf
The Snatch - Main Theme.pdf
The Snatch - Solo.pdf

 

The Guitar Channel Video Chronicle

Here's a video chronicle in a magazine format packed with news, mini gear reviews and interviews from Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan who were in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs and Eric Bibb, a great bluesman who is about to release a superb album called Jericho Road.

Summary

News from The Guitar Channel
Giveaway to win the great book from Jean-Pierre Danel The Legend of the Fender Stratocaster
Mini gear reviews of picks : the Chicken Picks and the ergonomic Niglo
Eric Bibb interview (short version) - The long version is here for the Backstage pass owners

Support the show: get the Backstage Pass!

Here's the short version of the Richie Kotzen interview done when he was in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs (Billy Sheehan on bass, Mike Portnoy on drums) on Sept. 15th 2013.

Malina Moye
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Malina Moye interview: K*Yotic groove

Malina Moye sings well, plays lead guitar and is able to be a real performer on stage. An artist who puts a good dose of six strings in Funk, a style of music where our favorite instrument does not play a leading role in general, deserved an interview on The Guitar Channel.

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Backing Track – “Racing the World” Steve Vai

Here's the backing track for Racing the World coming from Steve himself.

You want to get the original backing track from Racing the World from Steve Vai for free, listen to his 2009 interview and benefit from the advantages described below? Get The Guitar Channel Backstage Pass!

Racing the World BT (1min extract) - Steve Vai

You want to get this backing track?
Get the Backstage Pass to download it and watch all the videos

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Richie Kotzen interview in Paris, France

Exclusively for the Backstage pass owners, here's the long 20min version of the Richie Kotzen interview done when he was in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs (Billy Sheehan on bass, Mike Portnoy on drums) on Sept. 15th 2013.

Premium Access

Backing Track – “Takeoff !” Poppy Street #Backstage

Here's a backing track related to the interview in French of Franck Grazziano in episode #210 where he talks about his great instrumental album with Poppy Street.

Link to the backing track for Takeoff !

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Yossi Sassi is a guitar player from Israël and when I listened to his album Melting Clocks I found he was able to create a very exciting mix of high powered instrumental guitar with oriental music.

Premium Access

Backing track – “Drive” Yossi Sassi

The Backstage bonus for the interview of Yossi Sassi is the original backing track for the song called Drive

Link to the backing track for Drive in MP3 format
Zip file with all the backing tracks from 2013

David Wallimann

I found David Wallimann through his awesome YouTube channel so when I heard about his excellent book Guitar Methods Made Easy I contacted him to organize an interview. You will discover in this interview how he wrote his book, how he developed his approach of modes and many other things.

At one point or another in their learning life all the guitar players are exposed to modes without always understanding everything and above all without actually integrating all the wealth that they have in their playing, at least that was my case.

Archives
Premium Access

Backing tracks archives

2014 backing tracks
+ Ivano Icardi "Walking with the Giants" full album (75 Mb)
2013 backing tracks (link to the 44,5 MB ZIP file)
+ Dance of the Aristocrats - The Aristocrats (interviews Guthrie Govan and Bryan Beller)
+ Gary's Gone - Fred Chapellier (interview in French in episode #203)
+ Takeoff !

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Bryan Beller interview (The Aristocrats): one of the best bass player of the moment

After Guthrie Govan in last episode, it is now the turn of Bryan Beller, also a member of the Aristocrats to answer my questions. I had already had the opportunity to interview Bryan in this episode, this time we talked about "Culture Clash" The Aristocrats 2nd studio album, his role as bassist scene behind Joe Satriani and many other things.

Extracts from "Culture Clash" played before the interview:

Cocktail Umbrellas
And Finally

As the last time we spoke via Skype, it was a lot of fun to interview Bryan who is very open about how he approaches music.

Pro Backstage Pass from The Guitar Channel

Here's a 3 minute Backstage Pass video with all you want to know about it and why you should get one to amplify your passion for the guitar.

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Top 10 interviews as of July 2013

Ranking by download since 2009 (interviews accessible via the Backstage pass)

Popa Chubby interview
Bjorn Berge interview
Paul Gilbert interview
Paul Reed Smith interview
Eric Bibb interview
Nuno Bettencourt interview
Marty Friedman interview
Steve Vai interview
Paul Gilbert interview (2009)
Donal Gallagher interview (Rory's brother)

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The Aristocrats - Culture Clash

As an appetizer for the interview of Guthrie Govan I will publish next month for the release of the second studio album of the Aristocrats, here's a special audio message from Guthrie himself to you :

Guthrie Govan - The Guitar Channel rocks !

 

In June, The Guitar Channel pumps up the volume!
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Fan of guitar and instagramer? This challenge is for you! The principle is simple: you post a single photo of a guitar on Instagram with the tag #tribegram_guitar and you subscribe to @theguitarchnnl on Instagram.

The best photo (judged by me) will win the box DVD / Live CD The Aristocrats.

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When I stumbled onto Mika Tyyskä (aka Mr Fastfinger) in Hall 4.0 of the MusiMesse, I immediately asked him to do a video interview and he accepted at once.

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Jonathan Bloomer interview from Guitar Noize

As I say often, there will never be too many blogs and podcasts about guitar, that's why I am very happy to present you with an interview of Jonathan Bloomer who manages the excellent Guitarnoize I am a big fan of.

Yes, we both talk about guitars. No, we are not competitors.

For the release of his solo album Transition I had the pleasure to meet Steve Lukather for a video interview. I have fond memories of playing over and over a VHS tape (yes, I am that old) where Steve explained his licks so you can imagine I was quite thrilled to meet the man himself.
Subjects discussed during the interview
+ His new guitar, the Luke III from Ernie Ball Music Man
+ The recording of his latest solo album Transition (which I think is great)
+ His guitar playing over the years
+ His current projects
+ And many more

Free Content

Simon McBride interview (@smcbridemusic)

I was very happy to interview Simon McBride (aka @smcbridemusic) via Skype as his music kept on showing up when I did some listening in shuffle mode to go through all the music I receive.

And each time it happened I said to myself  "I really MUST have this guy in the show!".

That's the method I use: I hit play and if the music I hear interests me I take a note.

Free Content

Richie Kotzen interview

For this episode I am very happy to present you with an interview from guitar super star Richie Kotzen (aka @Richie_Kotzen) himself! He was in Paris a couple of weeks ago for a concert and I had the opportunity to meet him right before the gig.

I cannot recommend enough his latest CD "24 Hours" which is shock full of good songs, excellent singing and awesome guitar parts.

Extracts from his album "24 hours" played before the interview:

+ Get It On
+ 24 Hours
+ I Don't Know Why
+ Help Me

Richie's guitar pics right before the show (notice the

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