Boy, you sure don’t hear enough about this sort of thing. Paul Rubenstein is an NYC-based elementary school teacher who teaches music to his students in a clever way. They make guitars together. Previous classes have constructed more-or-less standard guitars. No doubt loads of fun for kids. This year, however, he did something just a [...]

Update: July 12, 2009
According to the Toronto Star, United Airlines has agreed to donate $3000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Dave Carroll had insisted that any compensation he receive from United be donated to charity. Dave Carroll did a nice thing to drag United kicking and screaming back to the planet of human [...]

This is great stuff. Here’s Guillaume Estace playing the Cantina Theme from Star Wars IV on a Chapman Stick.

I tried playing one of these things years ago at Berklee. It ain’t easy!

Speaking of Steve Vai… He offered a tribute of sorts to the late-great Michael Jackson on June 27 at the Meinl Guitar Festival in Germany. Here is Steve Vai  with Andy Timmons covering Beat It:

(via musicradar.com)

Here’s a little treat for you–an interview with the master, Steve Vai. Steve recently gave a master class in London and released Naked Tracks, a great gift to guitarists in my opinion.

Slide guitar master Arlen Roth has a great standard-tuning slide-guitar lesson posted at Gibson.com:
Playing slide guitar in standard tuning – as opposed to an open chord tuning – is very different, and quite difficult because you have to take extra care in damping the strings. When you play slide in an open chord tuning, you always [...]

AcousticGuitar.com is giving away a sweet-looking Martin MC-28 Steve Howe Special Edition acoustic:
This year, Howe and C.F. Martin & Co. collaborated to create a new model inspired by the early 1980s MC-28, the one Martin that’s been a mainstay in Howe’s guitar rack for decades. The MC-28 is notable for its grand auditorium cutaway body, [...]

Now this is Guitarbalooga! (That parrot has no rhythm at all…)

Gibson.com has posted an interview with one of rock’s guitar legends: Leslie West. One thing that always strikes me about Leslie West is the fact that he became a legend with one tune. True, it just so happens to be one of the coolest guitar tunes ever, Mississippi Queen. I can’t think of any other [...]

Great! Here’s a 31-video playlist:

Michael Manring is an incredibly talented bass player who has been recording for almost 30 years. Democratherald.com posted an interview with Michael yesterday:
You’re known for the innovative things you do with guitars, such as de-tuning strings while playing. When did you decide to start messing with the bass?
MM: Well, the cool thing about the bass [...]

Here’s a little bit of EVH goodness for you, a rare recording of EVH with brother Alex playing an elongated version of the keyboard solo 1984 (the intro before Jump):

Chris Carter, an electronic musician from the band Throbbing Gristle, produced this nifty-sounding tribute to the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop using a crack-load of guitar pedals wired up in feedback loops (the video gets much better about halfway through). The BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop was founded in 1958 to provide sound effects for radio programs.

(via boingboing.net)

David “Guitar Shorty” Kearney is a 69-year-old blues guitarist influenced by some of the greats like B. B. King, Guitar Slim, T-Bone Walker, and Earl Hooker. Raised in Florida by his grandmother, David’s professional career began when he was just 17 with a featured slot in a local 18-piece orchestra. In addition to earning him [...]

Check out the latest prodigy video coming through the tubes:

He’s Yuto Miyazawa and he’s 9 and he’s one friggin’ happy kid meeting Ozzy! That’s heavy metal goodness right there. I hope the kid does make it into Ozzy’s band one day.
Yuto’s been playing for 6 years and is largely self taught. In 2008, after playing [...]