Like many rock guitarists, Eddie Van Halen had a huge impact on my playing. He was the first guitarist whom I wanted to sound like. A short time later, I began listening to a musician by the name of Randy Rhoads, who played in Ozzy Osbourne's band. Rhoads eventually became my favorate guitarist. He had everything that I wanted to hear in a player; technique, speed, and most importantly, feeling. In my humble opinion, Randy Rhoads "composed" some of the most memorable guitar solo's ever! they not only showcased his incredible playing ability, but they fit the harmonic structure of the music perfectly and actually made the songs sound better! After only two albums with Ozzy Osbourne, "Blizzard of Ozz", and "Diary of A Madman", Randy Rhoads was tragically killed in a plane crash on March 19, 1982.

The next guitarist to have a significant influence on me was Yngwie Malmsteen . Around 1984, he was being touted as the next big thing in the Musician trade magazines. I first heard of Yngwie Malmsteen when he was featured in the "Spotlight" column of Guitar Player magazine. Within a year he emigrated from Sweden, Joined an L.A based metal band called Steeler, recorded one eponymously titled album with them, then teamed up with former Rainbow vocalist Grahm Bonnet in his new band,Alcatrazz.

My first exposure to Yngwie Malmstten's playing was from listening to Alatrazz's "Live Sentence" album. I was literally floored by his playing ability, guitar tone, and musical ideas. Randy Rhoads, and Ritchie Blackmore(Deep Purple, Rainbow) may have made use of exotic scales, as did Ulrich Roth (Scorpions' lead guitarist from 1974-1979, he was a pioneer in the use of diminished and harmonic minor scale patterns in his guitar solo's) but Malmsteen's use of these heavily classically influenced devices became a key element in his playing style. He utilized these baroque era cliches to the point were many of his instrumental compositions actually sounded like classical symphonic works performed by a heavy metal band.

And then there is the issue concerning his guitar tone, wich is amazingly warm and fluid, with a violin-like brilliance but heavily accenting the lower midrange. This is surprising since, like his idols Jimi Hendrix, and Ritchie Blackmore, Malmsteen played Fender Stratocaster Guitars Through Marshall amplifiers. This combination generally produces a rather thin, bright tone when used by most guitar players. Malmsteen's sound however, is round and thick, and suits his playing perfectly. few guitarists in the history popular music have managed to produce a trademark tone that suits the style of their music quite the way that Yngwie Malmsteen has.

My favorate Yngwie Malmsteen CD is Rising Force It is mostly instrumental, and in my opinion, contains his most creative and inspiring music to date. I also like his latest album, Inspiration, even though all the songs are cover renditions of tunes written by his favorate artists, this record sports a much looser vibe then his previous recordings, and Malmsteen's guitar playing has a more spontaneous feel, with more attitude then what is typically heard from him..

Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen are definately my two major influences, but so many players have had an impact on me, it would take up a good chunk of this page to list them all.

Perhaps the most profound inluences have been my guitar instructers. Glen Kuykendall and Michael Fath have both made a huge impact on me, not just by teaching, but also by motivating me and later becoming friends of mine.

To learn more about these great guitarists, try linking to these sites:

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