Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/18/2012 -- Tom Hess, international guitar teacher and member of the power metal band Rhapsody Of Fire has announced the release of a new online resource designed to help guitar players create their own guitar solos. This resource teaches the idea of guitar soloing with a combination of vocal melodies (sung by Rhapsody Of Fire vocalist Fabio Lione) and guitar playing ideas.

Hess discusses the approach of most guitarists: "It is common for guitar players to struggle with creative lead guitar playing due to a basic misunderstanding of various musical concepts. Fact is, guitar players like to show-off their guitar technique skills and look for any opportunity to do this in their solos. There is nothing wrong with this, however, the guitarist ends up focusing too much on technique and not enough on getting everything out of each note they play."

Many guitar players search online to find lead guitar or guitar solo instructional products. Hess takes issue with the instructional methods of these products: "Nearly all guitar instructors teach lead guitar in the same way. They will essentially throw a bunch of techniques, licks, or riffs at the guitar player, and assume that the player will be able to use them in some way. This approach to teaching lead guitar is totally wrong." He continues: "If you are a guitar player who is struggling to create great solos or nice lead melodies, the last thing you need is just a bunch of licks thrown at you. Guitarists in this situation must learn how to combine their technical skills together with a great understanding of melody."

In Hess's resource he discusses an alternate approach to guitar soloing: "Like most guitarists, I have improved my own lead guitar abilities by listening to my favorite guitarists and learning from them. However, I have also made massive progress in my own guitar playing by emulating the vocal style of my favorite singers. This has helped my guitar melodies immensely, and this is the approach I take when showing other guitarists how to make highly melodic guitar solos."

He continues: "For example, think about how a regular guitar solo sounds when compared to a singer's lines during the chorus of a song. For the singer, there is much more focus on using fewer notes to make a great melody, while the guitarist generally plays more notes (using a more technical style). That said, most guitar players' solos (when compared to a singer's vocal lines) lack a sense of melody. Unlike guitar players, singers must make every note count because each note they sing is a word in the song. This is the reason why it is so beneficial to learn guitar soloing with a singer. Singers are masters of melody and can teach you how to create awesome guitar solos without even knowing a single guitar technique. By learning this way, you get the best of both worlds as you start playing better melodies while still using guitar-related techniques."

Hess's resource about how to write a guitar solo is available on his website http://tomhess.net/HowToWriteAGuitarSolo.aspx.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/08/2012 -- Tom Hess, guitar player for symphonic metal band Rhapsody Of Fire, has made the announcement for the release of a web-based guide to help guitar players improve recording skills on guitar.

Hess mentions the importance of vibrato guitar technique while recording harmonies:

"Most guitarists haven't developed good enough vibrato skills to enable them to play different various guitar phrasing nuances with consistency while recording.

In many cases, guitar players will resort to using harmonizing tools or pitch shifters to make their harmonies sound more tight. These tools are useful at times, however being able to achieve great harmonies using your own guitar skills will always be preferable for these reasons:

- There is a noticeable difference in sound between harmony created through your guitar playing alone, and tool-assisted harmony. It simply sounds more natural when you record harmonies yourself.
- Some of the specific phrasing techniques and subtleties can't be duplicated very easily with harmonizing tools.

Simply put, it is in your very best interest to work on becoming better with vibrato technique and improve your ability to confidently play perfect harmonies before you begin recording in the studio."

When recording chords for guitar, Hess says "It is essential for you to make sure that the notes in your chords do not become unstable. The strings of the guitar will vibrate differently based on the way you strike them with your pick. To prevent your finished recording from sounding very poor, you must stay consistent with the way you pick your chords. Pay close attention to this during every take."

Hess's online guide to show guitar players how to improve recording skills on guitar is available on his website http://tomhess.net.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/05/2012 -- Online guitar teacher Tom Hess and Firewolfe guitarist Nick Layton have announced the release of a special online resource to help guitarists create better guitar solos.

It is common for many guitarists to search online for guitar lessons, videos, and tablature to learn how to solo on guitar. As a result, these guitar players often simply copy the guitar solos of others, but never learn how to make guitar solos for themselves. This is considered to be a problem for the majority of guitar players.create better guitar solos

In response, Tom Hess has teamed up with guitar player Nick Layton (Firewolfe) to create "Master Guitar Soloing Now" in order to help other guitar players learn to compose professional quality solos. In this online resource, Hess emphasizes practicing "guitar phrasing" (how one decides to play specific notes on guitar).

"You can't name a single 'great' guitarist who wasn't a master of guitar phrasing. Different guitar players may have strengths or weaknesses in other areas, but all the great players have mastered phrasing. This is the ONLY universal truth among the greatest guitarists", says Tom Hess, co-creator of Master Guitar Soloing Now.

Hess goes on to say: "Why are there very few instructional materials on how to improve your guitar phrasing? The answer is simple:

1. The vast majority of guitar teachers simply do not have great guitar phrasing themselves.

2. The few that do, find it very hard to teach guitar phrasing to others in an easy-to-understand way… so they teach other things only instead.

3. Most guitar players who don't have great phrasing have a difficult time understanding 'what' they need to do to improve it. The few guitar teachers who attempt to teach phrasing typically say, "play this lick like I do, because the phrasing sounds good". Even if the student is able to play that specific lick exactly as the teacher can, he still has NOT actually LEARNED anything about how to improve his/her guitar phrasing in general. This means that when the student will play another guitar lick, the phrasing won't be any better because he only copied the teacher's playing without getting an understanding of 'how' to apply any real phrasing from the first lick to the second one."

To find more info for Tom Hess and Nick Layton's online guitar resource on how to create better guitar solos, go to http://tomhess.net.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/19/2012 -- The band Rhapsody Of Fire has just announced its American and Canadian tour dates as part of their world concert tour. This is the first ever headlining tour in North America for Rhapsody Of Fire. Better than expected VIP ticket sales suggest that many of these concerts may sell out quickly.

"American and Canadian Rhapsody Of Fire fans have been waiting a long time for our return to North America. We've heard your demands and now it's finally a reality! Rhapsody Of Fire is stronger than ever and ready to bring to you the longest, biggest and best show we've ever done in the band's 15+ year history. We're also giving fans the opportunity to spend an incredible amount of personal time with us face-to-face in order to bring us very close to our fans in a very personal and meaningful way", says Alex Staropoli.

After 16 European concerts in April, Rhapsody of Fire is going to play the following North American concerts:

5/25/2012 Philadelphia PA, The Trocadero
5/26/2012 Baltimore MD, Soundstage
5/27/2012 Worcester MA, The Palladium
5/29/2012 New York NY, Gramercy Theatre
5/30/2012 Montreal QC, Club Soda
5/31/2012 Quebec City QC, Imperial de Quebec
6/1/2012 Toronto ON, Mod Club
6/3/2012 Cleveland OH, Peabody`s
6/4/2012 Pittsburgh PA, Altar Bar
6/5/2012 Joliet IL, Mojoes
6/6/2012 St. Paul MN, Station 4
6/8/2012 Englewood CO, Gothic Theater
6/10/2012 Seattle WA, El Corazon
6/11/2012 Portland OR, Hawthorne Theatre
6/12/2012 San Francisco CA, Slim's
6/14/2012 San Diego CA, House of Blues
6/15/2012 Anaheim CA, The Grove

The band (Alex Staropoli/Keyboards, Fabio Lione/Vocals, Tom Hess/Guitar, Roberto De Micheli/Guitar, Oliver Holzwarth/Bass and Alex Holzwarth/Drums) are excited to finally return to North America.

To read full concert tour details and how to get VIP tickets, go to http://rhapsodyoffire.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Survey results identify the reasons why most guitar teachers do not succeed at attracting a lot of guitar students.

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/21/2011 -- Guitar teacher trainer Tom Hess publishes results of a worldwide study about why guitar teachers find it difficult to consistently attract a lot of students.

"In addition to training hundreds of guitar teachers how to teach more effectively and to build a successful guitar teaching business, I offer several free guitar teacher surveys on my website that allow guitar instructors to test their effectiveness in various areas of their business. One of these areas is getting new guitar students. From analyzing the survey results, I found that most guitar teachers make very similar damaging mistakes in this area of their teaching."

Hess released his survey findings in the article about how to get guitar students.

Among the most common reasons why guitar teachers do not get a lot of students, Hess identified the following:

1. Relying on a single promotional tool to bring many new students. Most guitar teachers invest a lot of time into making a great ad, or perfecting their teaching website, their business cards, or other aspects of marketing. Hess says: "Although doing this is better than doing nothing, refining and using advertising tools in isolation as most teachers do, does little to help bring a lot of guitar students. One of the reasons why this is so is because any single advertising medium is limited in what it can do to bring large numbers of students consistently and reliably. When only one tool is used, it will work with a small percentage of all guitar students, but many more guitarists will never decide to begin lessons."

2. Copying marketing tactics from other teachers. Because most guitar teachers receive no training whatsoever on how to teach guitar, their main tactics for marketing themselves come from copying ideas from other guitar teachers in hopes that this will work for them. Hess says: "Problems with this approach are very similar to the ones that occur from focusing too much on only a single method of finding guitar students. In most cases, a specific advertising tactic (even if it is truly great) will not work all by itself to consistently bring a large number of guitar students. What is needed instead is an understanding of how the tactic fits into the big picture of the marketing strategy that is tailored to one's specific guitar student market, situation and goals."

Since most guitar teachers do not have reliable ways of consistently getting new students on their own, when marketing ideas are copied from one teacher by another, the result, with a few rare exceptions, is "the blind leading the blind".

3. Trying to impress a potential student with irrelevant credentials. Contrary to popular belief, guitar students do not look for guitar teachers with the most advanced music degree or with the most skills as players. Hess states: "Guitar students only decide to take lessons to solve their guitar playing problems and to overcome their musical frustrations. So any successful guitar teacher knows to avoid flaunting their own musical accomplishments and instead is quick to show undeniable proof of being able to create massive results with guitar players. After this is demonstrated, getting more guitar students becomes much easier."

Hess' guitar teacher survey about how to attract more guitar students can be found on http://tomhess.net

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) --07/11/2011 -- Tom Hess and Rhapsody Of Fire are excited to announce the release of the band's latest studio album: "From Chaos to Eternity" that hit the stores on June 17, 2011.

Hess, (who joined the band earlier in 2011 and recorded all the rhythm guitars for the band's latest release) has just returned from a concert festival in Sweden where the band performed in front of over 9000 people. Even bigger concerts will follow later in the summer of 2011 including the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany.

Complete list of upcoming performances is available on the Rhapsody Of Fire tour dates page: http://tomhess.net/Tour.aspx

Luca Turilli, the guitar player and songwriter for Rhapsody Of Fire, made this announcement about the new record: "This historical release will end the band's sagas once and for all after 15 years of fantasy-oriented lyrics. For the last time, we'll hear Sir Christopher Lee narrating in one of our albums the last dramatic events of a legendary tale started in 1997 and told through ten full-length albums. This release will remain in the history of the band for its artistic importance and unique epic!"

To help guitar players and Rhapsody Of Fire fans to learn more about the recording process of the new record, Hess also has published a free studio recording guide for guitar players who want to learn to play consistently well in the studio and create great sounding recordings. Hess states: "When I was recording my guitar parts for "From Chaos to Eternity", I realized that many other guitar players would benefit greatly from learning how to become a better musician in the studio. This free studio recording guide for guitar players goes into detail about the recording tips and secrets that I used to record the rhythm guitar parts for the album." The recording guide for guitar players can be downloaded for free here: http://tomhess.net/HowToRecordGuitarInTheStudio.aspx

Hess also mentors musicians on how to develop a successful music career and he says that the new experiences of playing with Rhapsody Of Fire will help him to add even greater value to the musicians he trains in his Music Careers Mentoring Program. "Although I already have a lot of experience with touring the world as well as recording and releasing professional records, every new significant development in my own music career gives me greater opportunity to pass more experience and value to the musicians I mentor", states Hess.

More details about the upcoming tour dates of Tom Hess and Rhapsody Of Fire can be found at http://tomhess.net

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm