Reviews - Live4guitar | Online Guitar Community

It's that time again, yet another Guitar Idol final where we get to see an array of guitarists from around the world to do battle for that coveted title - "Guitar Idol".

This third competition has been plagued by misfortune to say the least. Lot's of false starts and postponed deadlines, lots of reschedualing of events and fighting to actually get a live final. At long last, Lick Library have sprung to the rescue and hosted a full day event at London's Relentless Garage. Read on for a full review.

Jason Becker Benefit - Not Dead Yet! Part 3

At last we reach the final part of our coverage on the Jason Becker Not Dead Yet 2011 festival. Hopefully you've enjoyed what I've been able to share with you so far and hopefully this has spurred you to go out and check out some of these guys. So far we've covered some pretty hot names like Andy James, and Daniele Gottardo but these guys are samll fish compared to the names we have in this last instalment; so read on and be inspired. There's a lot to tell you about the artists involved in this part of the show, but as always we're here for Jason, so allow me a minute to highlight some ways in which you can get involved and help out.

Jason Becker Benefit - Not Dead Yet! Part 2

Here we are, back for part two on the Jason Becker "Not Dead Yet 2011" show in Amsterdam. Part one saw some great players that you may not know of, along with a couple of big names. This part will feature some of the biggest names in the game, who need no introduction. There are some many players here with such unique voices I couldn't help but include some of their greatest licks just so you can dig a little deeper into their style. And no article on Jason would be complete without some coverage of the master's licks, so read on for an analysis of some of Jason's greatest recorded moments - just don't let it stop here!

Jason Becker Benefit - Not Dead Yet! Part 1

I've been playing guitar for a very long time now, and during that time I've been through everything from punk, rock and shred to country, funk and jazz. In each of these styles there are names that come up again and again and they're all names I've spent a lot of time studying, but throughout college there was one name that dominated my complete being, one name that displayed nothing short of technical mastery and effortless beauty. A name that was ahead of the game by a decade when he was 16 and one that continues to push guitarists to be the best they can. That name is Jason Becker.

This is our first ‘Product-Review and Giveaway’ for Live4Guitar where our community are given the chance to win small goodies, like the products we’re giving away today. We’ll being doing one of these again in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out on our site, or on Twitter and Facebook.

The Sanyo Pedal Juice a power supply pedal that runs from a 9v rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery contained within the pedal. You'll then be able to run a huge chain of 9v pedals directly from the pedal for seemingly limitless hours.

This one is definitely worth a look as a tool for convenience, an investment and even an upgrade for a mains supply unit. So let's look a little deeper into this absolute gem and see if it's the one for you.

So let’s start by explaining: It’s not often I’ll write a gear review, but it’s been this way to maintain my integrity as a gear snob! As I’ve explained on various websites in the past, when it comes to gear I’m very much of the “no expenses spared” camp. This is what we do, it’s our passion and our life – you wouldn’t see Monet working in Crayola or Gordan Ramsay serving up KFC in one of his dishes would you? I’m not going to waste your time telling you about every little piece of gear I get sent unless it’s something that REALLY catches my ears and I’m happy to use night after night.

If you're a guitar teacher you will certainly be familiar with this scenario. You're preparing a lesson for a student and its all there - you've used sibelius/powertab/guitarpro to write out all of your material, there are licks, exercises and maybe even chord diagrams. If you're like me - you will meet that inevitable frustration when you cant draw scale diagrams, well the good people at Neck Diagrams www.neckdiagrams.com finally have your solution. Of course, there is a lot more to this program than just being able to draw a few scale diagrams, so lets take look at it in depth.

Monkey Fest - “The Monkey Lord” or Rob “Chappers” as he's also known, managed to pull it off this year with some help from his manager, Dan Davies, and several generous sponsors such as Marshall Amplifiers, Blackstar Amps and Andertons Music. The festival, which is the first of its kind, was held at the Bisley Pavilion, near Guildford in England, and features: a camp site, a hall (where the stage was set) and several shooting ranges that provided us with an early wakeup call each morning. Over 250 people attended - some coming from as far as Denmark and Canada to gorge themselves on the endless supply of tasty notes coming from the jam-packed stage. Several artists shared their musical knowledge with the audience, not something that you come across often at festivals, but this festival was about learning and interacting, and not just about watching and idolising. There are too many talented musicians for us to mention them all but we'll do our best.

Book review: Intervallic Fretboard - Towards Improvising on the Guitar

If you’re one of those that use “memorizing frets” approach when learning songs, solos and improvisation, we have a book that can completely change your fret board knowledge. Written by Ashkan Mashhour and Dave H. Murdy, this book will teach you understand all those tricky things on the guitar and never get lost when improvising. Intervallic Fretboard - Towards Improvising on the Guitar came to our hands for a review and will be one of the prizes for our next Live4guitar competition.