First of all, The Great Kat is a juilliard graduate violin virtuoso turned shred guitar genius, the reincarnation of Beethoven and changing the face of classical music by bringing it on the masses using metal !!! Wake up !!! After listeining to Classical music such as Beethoven , Mozart , Bach and Haydn , since birth , I began playing the piano at the age of 7 and decided to become a violin virtuoso at the age of 9 . I won a scolarship to The Juilliard School Of Music in New York City at the age of 15 on the violin and after 6 years at Juilliard , i graduaded with honors . I won the Artists International Competition and performed my solo violin debut at Carnegie Recital Hall , toured the U.S.S , Mexico and England , was the Concertmaster of the Juilliard Shool Pre-College Orchestra and won numerous other competitions and awards in violin . After graduading from Juiilard and realizing that Classical Music is DEAD , I decided to take Classical into the 21st Century with modern popular music . After hearing all forms of popular music , i came across a Judas Priest video and realized that I have to Metallizze Classical Music , by mixing it with Metal !!! The Great Kat is the only Violin/Guitar Virtuoso in history since Niccolo' Paganini !!!

Composition process for CyberSpeeding Classical Music : !-Choose exciting , powerfull classical work , 2-Analyze the entire score , 3-Play it on the violin and guitar , 4-Edit , arrange and reorcheastrete the entire score to combine the actual authentic instrumentation and authentic music with a Metal band , 5-Perform the actual violin parts on both the violin and electric guitar note for note !!!

The new Cd Cyberspeed from The high priestess of Guitar Shred is "Bloody Vivaldi" !!! The Great Kat has now inflicted more pain and abuse upon this inferior , beggar world with the sick , new music video "Torture Chamber" !!!

Guitars : Guild , Gibson Flying V , Jackson Flying V and Marshall 100 Watt Stack . Violins : Alvarez Electric Guitars , 18th Century Irish Acoustic Violin and 17th Century Italian Acoustic Violin .

The Great Kat will be releasing a new Shred/Classical Cyberspeed Cd soon on my own record label TPR Music !!! This will feature a Cyberspeed Version of the powerfull Wagner's "Reinzi" Overture !!! This will be the first Cd ever to combine a Metal band with an actual Symphony Orchestra (Horns , Winds , Tympani , Strings etc...) !!!

WHO ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

All Great Kat Cds will be short , fast , brillant an dbe the new classical/shred music of the next Millennium !!! Wake up !!! Everything in the 21st Century will be short and to the point !!! The vocals that are used on the Kat Cds are meant to wake you dead , lethargic losers out of your sleep!!!

The only music in the world that matters is Classical Cyberspeed Music !!! This is the music that Beethoven would be composing if he were alive in this Internet-Fast-Moving world!!!

PRACTICE YOUR BUTT ........... OFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember first being interested in music when i was about 8 years old . Music was constantly played in the house . My parents weren't musicians but loved music , especially my father . I used to listen to old Beatles records and at school my friends and i put on concerts for the smaller kids where we would mine to Beatles songs . When i was 15 i started playing guitar for real . My mother bought me a cheap acoustic guitar and that was it , i was hooked ! My parents split up around this time so i think it was a release for me . I remember i broke my left arm a few months after i started guitar , but it didn't stop me playing . I showed my younger sister how to play the chords with her ledt hand and i strummed them with my good right hand , which must have looked strange ! Soon i started listening to Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page . Man , did i want to be Jimmy Page ! The next guy i really got into was Alex Lifeson from Rush . I listened to Steve Howe from Yes over and over ! So i've very much been on the progressive rock trail and this led onto guys like Allan Holdsworth and Steve Morse who are just amazing . And of course Vai , Satriani and John Petrucci from Dream Theater is cool !

On my Web site there's a whole lot of information about me and the Cd Warped . It's been a very positive move setting up the website . It's led to exposure all over the world , like through GuitarChef . I've also had contact from webzines in the U.S.A. and radio from Eastern Russia ! The guys that played on the Cd are in my live band like David Christensen on Bass , Darren Burtoft on Drums and Tim Vooles on Vocals .

I play Ibanez Guitars . I've got 2 stock standard RG 450DXs and a Universe 7 String . I've been playing Ibanez for 5 years . I find that for the sort of music i play they feel the best , they play fast and the quality is really good . I use D'Addario Strings 9-46 . I run my Digitech 2112 into a Stereo Power Amp i had custom made by a guy in my home town , Mick Samson . I used a different setup on the Cd to what i have now . I've always wanted to get unusual sounds , stuff that doesn't really sound like guitar and with this i can call up synth like patches , harmoniesers , whammys , almost anything ! I'll be experimenting more with sound texture on the next Cd .

I've done some clinics for Ibanez here in Australia . The collaboration came about when i sent them my Cd . at the time , they were running clinics in my home state , so it was perfect timing , I think the fact that i play a lot of 7 string guitar helped me get the gig . Ibanez is pushing the 7 string these days . In the clinics i'd run through some tunes on the 6 string and then demostrate and discuss the 7 string . It was great opportunity for me to play and promote tracks from my Cd .

Now , where's my crystal ball ??!! As far as guitar music goes , i think it will always be around and popular in some way . It survived disco in the 70's , it's still big now in the Techno age , look at Metallica . So , i think it will always be with us in some form , whether it be Punk , Metal , grunge or whatever the next popular style will be ! So , i think music on the Internet is liberating and wholly democratic , but how do you stand out in the crowd ? I'm not sure !!??

I only get to choose three ? Well , there are so may ... It can depend on what sort of mood i'm in . But , right now i'd say "Rescu Me Or Bury Me" by Steve Vai , i think this song has my favorite Vai solo . "Three Sheets To The wind" by Allan Holdsworth . This is my all time favorite Holdsworth solo , closely followed by "Devil Take The Hindmost" !!! "Scarred" by Dream Theater . Probably my favorite DT song . I like this starts off really cool and mellow and then builds to a climax vocally and instrumentally !

 As a guitarist , listen to your favorite players inside out , get to know they play , why they play things in certain ways . Practice hard , have a practise routine . Listen different styles too . Eventually you will start to develop your own style that might sound like bits from all the guitarists you listened to , but over time it will sound more like the real you . There might be times when things aren't working out that you think it's not worth it , but never forget why you play guitar ... because you love it !!!

My root ? Wow, I guess I started by listening to bands like Led Zeppelin and a lot of metal bands like Iron Maiden and Ozzy . I was a big Van Halen fan as well . I guess what got me started playing guitar was when i was 12 , i got my first guitar . Since then i have gone through about 100 different teachers . My first song i think i ever learned was Starway To Heaven . LOL but i would have to say the 2 songs that really changed my way of thinking as far as guitar playing would have to be Eruption from Van Halen and Black Star from Yngwie Malmsteen .

No particular order : Led Zeppelin "Physical Graffiti" , Ozzy Osbourne "Diary Of A Madman" , Yngwie Malmsteen "Rising Force" , Van Halen "1" , Jason Becker "Perpetual Burn" , Greg Howe "Instrospection" , Al DiMeola "Elegant Gypsy" , Steve Morse "High Tension Wire" , Mark Varney Project "Centrifugal Funk" , Steve Vai "Passion & Warfare" .

Currently . I am using an ESP Horizon . For live i use mainly an old Marshall half stack that i have owned for may years . I run a Marshall JMP-1 Preamp for the distortion tone . My favorite effects would be a little bit of Reverb and Delay .

I think it's great . I love it . The musicians that play this kind of style definitly deserves to be more recognized in the music world .

Greg Howe is probably one of my personal favorites . The guy is a monster . brett Garsed . Could be one of the most underrated guitarist . His legato technique and overal feel is unbelievable . Richie Kotzen i think is a great guitarist . I especially liked Electric Joy .

Well unfortuanelly , the whole shred guitar scene in the U.S. seems non existant . I hope one day it will come back again . in the LA Area , the 2 main music right now seems to be the whole Rock en Espanol and of course , Hip Hop .

Currently I released only one Cd so far entitled The Crossing . I am almost finished the second Cd and hopefully i will release it sometime this year (Out now !!!) . I am also doing a few session work for local artists in the LA Area and at the same time , playing locally with a spanish rock band .

Yes, I attended both. I taught at GIT for about a year as well.

I like it . I like most of the stuff they do and I think John Petrucci is an amazing guitarist!!!

Before I picked up the guitar I was doing electronics as my first hobby . My first musical influences were quite different on the hand it was The Stones and on the other hand Jean Michelle Jarre . I built myself an guitaramp and got my first Strat copy . After learning from a german instructor book i took a few lessons at a Jazz Guitarist . He thought that i was talented abd so he told me some scales , chords , theory etc ... He wanted me to play Jazz . I followed him for a fwe lessons but than we got into a conflict because i loved to play harder (i played him Deep Purple) and hr didn't like this kind of music ... So i stopped taking lessons ! But with his basics i could listen to the records and pick up the licks bit by bit myself .  It was hard work , but also a very good training . So i formed my first band . As we started to play in local clubs and youth  houses some other guitar players asked me to give them lessons . I got more and more students over the time and everybody was into something else . From Beatles to Police . Heavy Rock and Funk , so i listend to all kinds of music , which was very interesting and i had to learn it first before i could show it to my students . Again hard work , good training and lots of fun ! With the band we played a mixture of styles from rock to pop to "fake jazz" funk ... i was listening to Deep Purple , The Stones , the who , pink Floyd , Toto , return To Forever and all of this late 80's pop on the radio .

You know, German Music has different faces. There is the harder side like Scorpions , Accept , Doro Pesch , Nina Hagen and now Ramstein , on the other side there is this bizarre stuff like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream ... but even before i played the guitar i liked melodies from songs of the Beatles and the music i was listening on the radio . I think this was always in my head and whwn i was listening to what i was playing , i always liked the more melodic bits . Later i listened also Santana , Neil schon , Gary Moore and my hero Jeff Beck . To find out what makes the guitar really "speak" . I'm doing studio work for many artists like Hazel O'Connor , Culter Beat ... and many German Artists that are not released outside Germany and i was also touring with some German bands like Tic Tac Toe , Purple Schulz , Rainbirds ... but at the moment the electronic dance music is very strong in Germany , that's why i do an instrumental album once in a while to show that the guitar is a beautiful instrument to express myself that can do more than just riffs and noise ! I think after this cold electronic periode there will be some "warm hearted" music again !!! I think we will listening more of this in the future . Besides my work for other people i will work on my own projects and mayby you'll never know you might hear something from me on the radio or on television ...

Yeah ! There are two things i'm doing right now . 1-Working on some pop songs this will be only released when it's finished ... But there is no dead line (maybe never ... ah ah ...) and 2-I think i'm going for my third instrumental album . If you want to get the news please check on my website . I planned to do it the next winter .

Since my first hobby was electronics i'm not only a guitar player i can also talk to a technician in a way that he accepts me . So H&K asked me to be involved in your designs to give them my experience . I know H&K for many years i also work on some productions with them . I'm part of their designers team . For me it is good to play on some trade shows to see what's going on (like Rimini for example)!

In the studio i use "everything that sound good" . It depends on the music . I have a collection of guitars : Gibson ES 335 , Tele , Les Paul , A Custom Maple Strat and my main Guitar , my 61 strat . Some classic Amps Vintage Fenders , Marshall Plexi 50/100 watt (without Mastervolume) , a H&K Triamp and many footpedals+wah like Old Vox/George Dennis Switch Wah , Small Stone , H&K Replex Delay ... Live i use my Triamp with EL 34 , a 4*12 Cabinet , an old Quadroverb , my Wha and an all access Midi Switcher . My Guitar is mostly my 61 strat a spare strat , sometimes a Guild Acoustic .

Ha ... ha ... "Yesterday" by The Beatles , than i wouldn't have to work anymore ! "Hotel California" by Eagles , "Roxanne" by The police , "Whole Lotta love" by Led Zep .

Music is an international language that everybody can understand . Just express yourself ! Don't imitate to much it's good to learn some musical vocabulary/technique , but i think every person has it's own little story to tell in music . You shouldn't get too confused by all this technique and licks . Be yourself and play it from bottom of your heart !!! Ciao !!!

When I was very young I started piano lessons and learned the basics of music . Also , must everybody in my family is a musician . So perhaps the music was in my blood ! The guitar came a little later on , when I was 15 or so . Many of my friends played guitar and I decided I also wanted to learn too . I saved up $75 and bought my friends Yamaha Acoustic after he gave it up . I was pretty obsessed with playing from the beginning and progressed quickly . Some of my most early guitar influences were Alex Lifeson , Eddie Van Halen , Randy Rhoads , Jimmy Page , Robert Fripp , Steve Howe and many more ... But definite turning point was getting a chance to see Steve Morse play with the Dixie Dregs . A friend of mine had gotten tickets to the show and we managed to get in even thought we were under age ! I had never heard musician of that caliber before and that night really opened up the world of fusion and jazz music . I had a similar experience a few years later when I saw Pat Metheny play at a Jaco Pastorius benefit concert .

My main guitar is a Brian Moore Custom C-90 PM . It has a peizo saddle and a 13 Pin Midi Out . It's loaded with Seymour Duncan Pick Ups and a Custom switching system that allows for great variants in tones . I use GHS Boomers Strings as i have found that they give me the best durability and tone (gauage 10/46) . I use Mesa Boogie Amps and am always experimenting with different set ups . For effects i like the Rocktron Intellifex and Lexicon Units .

The Magic Elf has just released a new live EP , all ordering information is available at the Magic Elf WebSite . It was very challenging to try and pull off the tunes from Elf Tales as a  Trio . In the studio version of tunes , I had layered many guitar parts . But playing live , I have faced the challenge of modifying parts to cover the multi-layered parts from the records . I would also say The Live recording as more of an edge to it . I am currently writing new material for a new solo Cd that i hope to have out in the fall . My solo Cd will have a mix of styles on it and will include acoustic pieces as well as some heavy rock fusion tunes .

Well , many years ago we used to play under the name of The Wayne Foundation . Which was based on Bruce Wayne , the characters from BatMan . After the series of BatMan movies came out it became a bit to cliche' , plus we were worried about legal complication , so we tried to come up with a new name . One day I was driving with Elf drummer Dave Miranda when he slammed on the brakes and yelled , "... give me a name ... right now ... the first name that comes into your head !!!" and for some unknown reason i blurted out "... The Magic Elf !!!" well , we were both laughing and agreed that would be the name . That's how it happened !

There are many talented players out there and i think we are hearing more about them trough the Internet . It's pretty amazing how many musicians i've heard about and listened to throught the Web . I've always been a fan of good guitar music and think there is a large percentage of the population that appreciates good musicianship ! Hopefully we'll be getting a little more guitar in our Rock 'N roll , as people are ready for a change .

This is an impossible question to answer ! There is so much great music and so many great composers that it is very difficoult to name only three . But since this is a guitar magazine , I will pick three from modern day guitarists , but by no means is this only three . How about : "Are you going with me" by Pat Metheny , "Hereafter" by Steve Morse and "The Things You See" by Allan Holdsworth .

I would say the Internet is the single biggest sourch for fueling the new guitar oriented progressive movement . It allows the indipendent artists to reach people throughtout the world . The Web is an amazing tool and is the main way we sell our Cds now . As i mentioned earlier , there is a definite market for guitar hungry fans and the Web has been the primary resource for rearching them .

Well , first off , throughout that period i was busy writing a bunch of guitar methods and developing the guitar program at the Winsconsin Conservatory Of Music and i was messing around with original music a bit , too . But that's really just a poor excuse ! I think the main thing is just that i've always had really high standards when it comes to doing that kind of music .  I do have some video of some of those performances and i have a cassette demo of a Beethoven piano sonata that i arranged for electric guitar , bass  and drums . Anyway , i may well end up putting a few classical pieces , maybe including some of the Caprices or even Perpetual Motion , on a future Cd . We'll see ...

Thanks ... yeah !!! Rock is all about tone , for sure . Slam a power chord and if the tone is cool , it's sounds great ! But if the tone is wimpy , it just doesn't work . All the tunz on Exottica were tracked through my Marshall JCM 800 half stack . My main guitar is a Jackson Soloist , which i've taken the knife to and truly destroyed . The pickups are Seymour Duncan . I generally just run it into an older Boss 'roicker distortion' pedal i've got and then right into the amp . That's it !

hmmmmm ... there is some good songs on there i think . I'd actually like to remix the stuff ... I think a lot of it would go over much better if the tones were a little different . But i enjoyed the project and i'm glad we did it . Unfortunately one of the best rockin' tunes at the time called "Shoulda Never Let You Go" didn't make it onto the final Cd . So if i listen now , i think there's just too many ballads on there and not enough uptempo hard rocking stuff . In fact , i resisted doing an instrumental Cd for years !

I spent the summer of '94 with Don Dokken out in California . This was just when he was completing Dysfunctional . If they didn't get back together with George Lynch for their (shortlived) reunion , I was hoping to do the tour with them . But it didn't pan out . Then we moved back to the Milwaukee Area , I started writing material for what eventually became Exottica , we built a house and then a recording studio in it to produce the Cd in . I'm producing Cds for three modern Heavy Rock bands from this area like Bent , Shadowcaster and Fake Healer . That's a lot of fun !

Ten ? Man , I listen to so much different stuff ... well i'd have to say Van Halen's first and second Cd . Ozzy first two Cds with Randy Rhoads . I like Satriani's "Not Of This Earth" and "Surfing ..." . These days , in the course of writing articles for GuitarOne Magazine I listen to lots of modern stuff like Rage Against The Machine , Korn , Sevendust , Pantera , Machine Head , Tool , Kid Rock etc ... There are lots of good and creative musicians out there i think .

Well , if it sounds fresh then it certainly can't be just 80s rock ! Okay , i'll agree that there are certainly some 80s elements in there . But the riffs and progressions and grooves really have more in common with 90s and current bands . In fact , i didn't even come up with the solos until the very end , the day I would track them , usually . So I pretty much try to compose my stuff to hold my own interest !

Favorite players ... favorite players ... Like J.S. Bach onesaid when someone commented on his extraordinary keyboard ability "... I just put each finger down at the right place at the right time and the keyboard plays itself !" Oh , i've got one for ya ... an amazing local Milwaukee guitarist named Greg Koch . Great player , blues rock based style . I'm looking forward to hearing his new instrumental Cd !!!

I'd like to maybe throw a few classical pieces onto a future cd . Not all of the 24 Caprices translate so well to electric guitar , but several of them do nicely . With Exottica , i specifically steered clear of classical because that is so associated with Malmateen and noe classical players and frankly in the U.S. these days that is pretty much dead now . So i'm trying to stake a claim to a new style ... first .