2/25/05
I will be competing again in this years Guitar Center GuitarMageddon contest. I have had a blast doing this for the past few years and it's always nervewracking and exhilerating at the same time.
My day to compete is Tuesday March 8th.
For those not familier with this contest....here is the basic premis:
You pick up a CD at Guitar Center that has 18 tracks on it. Usually two per style. Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Country etc.
You sign up for 1 of 10 slots they have available each week for four weeks.
You choose to jam over one of any of the 18 tracks you want. Each track is about four minutes long. After that you have an optional two minutes to do an unaccompanied guitar solo.
You are judged in several different categories such as originality, technique, how well you play over the backing, stage presence, creativity etc.
The winner of each weekly store round proceeds to the store finals to face the other three winners of that store. Some stores will pick two winners per week to make 8 in the store finals.
Same rules apply there. The winner of the store finals wins a gift pack with a box of strings, cables, picks and other small items.
Each store winner then goes to the regional finals to face all of the other winners from stores in their region. Usually 8 regional locations and about 10 - 15 players per event.
The winner there gets some good stuff. Last year was an Ovation acoustic, a couple of electrics, a Crate Blue voodoo stack and some other cool stuff.
That winner goes to the National FInals to go agaisnt the remaining seven finalists. The winner there gets whatever Super Gigantic prize they advertise.
Once you have won the Regional round you are then Not elligbale to compete in any future guitarmageddon events. They will usually ask you to be a judge the next year.
Also, the judges are NOT Guitar Center employees. Supposed to be impartial third party people. Usually other respected musicians in the area.
Now, as to my experience. I was lucky enough to get to the regional finals the first year and got runner up to my good friend Michael Earhart. That was actually the beginning of our friendship even though I had been taking my equipment to his shop for repairs for several years.
I loved ever second of it but I have to say that I was pretty surprised at the level of players up to the Regional rounds. I was so nervous the first round, I asked if I could go first just so I wouldn't have to follow a Petrucci or Vai clone. Once I played, I was blown away at just how unprepaired most of the other players seemed to be. Everyone had at least a week to work and play thru the tune they wanted to use and I would say probably only two out of ten had anything worked up for it. Most didn't even seem to know what key it was in much less keep things interesting for four minutes!
Most didn't even use the optional two minutes to do some free form stuff.
It was similar in the store finals. Some of those winners you had to wonder just what their competition was like for them to get this far.
This was very strange to me considering I'm in Dallas! You would think that it would be swamped with smoking players. Who knows, maybe tougher this year.
Anyway, once at the regionals which was held at the Hard Rock cafe on a Friday night, place was packed...the players there were much closer to what I expected in the first two rounds. All deserving of being there. Many (6 I think) played to the same mid tempo rock track which I thought was a disadvantage for them esp after the judges have heard it over and over. I lucked out and no one else used the backing I picked.
One little secret two of the judges did fill me in on was that they are looking for ORIGINALITY. They said if you were going to get up and blow thru a bunch of Yngwie licks and sweeps you probably would not stand much of a chance. They didn't care how long you practiced to be able to do that, it has been way overdone, They were interested in style and phrasing and creativity.
So thats my 10 cents on it. I am stoked and can't wait to give it a go this year. As close to feeling what it's like being an NFL player in the playoffs making a run for the Super Bowl as I will ever get.
Anyway...I'm spending a lot of time in the working on my piece for this year. Keeping my fingers crossed and I will give detailed reports from the competition.
Now....back to the woodshed.
