News About Guitar Playing, Music Career Development and Guitar Teaching
To be informed about the latest free guitar playing, music career and guitar teaching articles, videos,mini courses, live events and other valuable resources, sign up for the Tom Hess Music Corporation Newsletter here.
15 January 2012 - Student Spotlight: Simon Candy (Australia)
14 January 2012 - Student Spotlight: Aldo Chircop (Malta)
9 January 2012 - Tom Hess Live On Stage:
Rhapsody Of Fire From Chaos To Eternity World Tour 2012 Dates - Part 1
Learn everything about the tour and spending a great amount of personal face-to-face time with the band for the first time ever: Tom Hess and Rhapsody Of Fire World Tour Dates and VIP Tickets.
23 November 2011 - Student Spotlight: John Magee (USA)
22 November 2011 - Student Spotlight: Jure Golobic (Slovenia)
8 November 2011 - Live Event "Total Guitar Mastery Training Week" sold out in 3 min! Second event added for August, sold out in 20 min too.
5 November 2011 - Live Event:
Total Guitar Mastery Training Week
6 Days of super intense guitar training that will totally transform your guitar playing forever… Training so powerful, innovative and intense I’ll ONLY share it with you face-to-face!
14 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Rovan Deon (USA)
13 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Ryan Duke (USA)
12 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Ty Morgan (USA)
11 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Marcus Carlzon (Sweden)
10 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Jon Chorba (USA)
9 October 2011 - Student Spotlight: Dan Stearn (UK)
22 September 2011 - Guitar Playing Article:
How To Find The Best Guitar Exercises
If you feel frustrated with not knowing how to make sense out of millions of guitar playing exercises, guitar method books and videos, you need to read this article that will show you exactly how to determine the best guitar exercises for you.
5 September 2011 - Student Spotlight: Chayakorn Jindawech (Thailand)
4 September 2011 - Student Spotlight: Chris Basener (UK)
3 September 2011 - Student Spotlight: Adrienne Osborn (USA)
2 September 2011 - Student Spotlight: Michael Edwards (Japan)
1 September 2011 - Student Spotlight: Bojana Cibej (Slovenia)
27 August 2011 - Guitar Playing Article and Video Lesson:
How To Become A Great Classic Rock Guitar Player
If you want to master the classic rock lead guitar playing styles of Angus Young, Jimmy Page Eddie Van Halen and other classic rock guitar masters, there are several important skills that you absolutely must develop in order to reach this goal. Read this article to find out how to become a great classic rock guitar player.
26 August 2011 - Guitar Teaching Resource:
Free eBook About How To Earn More Money In Your Guitar Teaching Business
Most guitar teachers want to do much better in their guitar teaching business, but they simply do not know 'what to do', nor 'how to do things' to reach that goal. Read this free mini eBook and get 11 tips that you can use right away to build your guitar teaching business better and stronger.
25 August 2011 - Music Career and Guitar Playing Resource:
Studio Recording Guide For Guitar Players
This free guide will show you how to avoid the 6 most common mistakes that guitar players make in the recording studio. Study this resource to learn how to save yourself and your band A LOT of wasted time, money and energy by improving your studio recording skills.
27 July 2011 - Guitar Teaching Article:
How To Teach Guitar More Effectively And Help Your Students Make MASSIVE Progress
Do you have a difficult time helping your guitar students to make powerful progress in their guitar playing? This is a problem that prevents many guitar teachers from becoming truly successful. Read this article about how to teach guitar to learn how to help your students to become awesome musicians and become the most sought after guitar teacher in your area.
25 July 2011 - Student Spotlight: Lee Gattenby (USA)
24 June 2011 - Guitar Playing Article:
How To Create Great Guitar Solos And Improve Your Lead Guitar Playing
Would you like to learn the secrets that great guitar players use to consistently come up with awesome sounding guitar solos? The reason why master guitar players are able to express themselves fully when soloing and improvising is because they approach the process of creating a guitar solo in VERY different ways than what most guitarists do. Read this article to find out how to create great guitar solos.
15 April 2011 - Major Announcement:
Tom Hess Joins Rhapsody Of Fire!
I'm the new guitarist of this 1.5 million record selling band! Check it out here
14 April 2011 - Social Media:
Official Tom Hess Facebook Page
'Like' it! :)
13 April 2011 - Music Career Resource:
Guitar Recording Tips
If you want to become a very successful professional guitar player, one of the critically important skills you need to develop is the ability to record guitar well in the studio. Read this article to learn the secrets of recording in the studio that most musicians do not know about.
23 March 2011 - Guitar Playing Article:
How To Practice Guitar Effectively With And Without A Metronome
When it comes to practicing guitar with a metronome, guitarists typically fall into two camps: some use the metronome very frequently and others almost never use it. Fact is, both approaches are misleading and will severely limit your guitar playing progress. Read this article to learn how to use a metronome effectively and discover how to make a lot more progress in your guitar playing.
14 March 2011 - New Guitar Playing Course released!
Rock and Metal Guitar Licks - Intermediate Level
Nick Layton and I created a new course for intermediate level guitar players. The course will show you how to move beyond simply "learning guitar licks" into the league of the great guitar players by instantly adapting cool guitar licks to ANY song or musical context you want! You will be guided step by step through the process of how to creatively adjust any lick to fit any music using sample variations of many exciting licks over inspiring jam tracks in a variety of rock/metal musical contexts. After completing this course, you will no longer struggle with finding and creating cool things to play over any jam track or song.
30 January 2011 - Guitar Soloing Lesson:
Rock Guitar Licks Lesson
Many guitar players struggle with making their favorite guitar licks fit naturally into a variety of musical contexts. With a little training, you can use simple guitar phrasing techniques to easily transform a basic rock guitar lick into dozens of creative musical ideas. Learn how to become a more expressive improviser and soloist in this free rock guitar licks lesson.
25 January 2011 - Student Spotlight: Jeet Samant (Australia)
1 January 2011 - Guitar Playing Mini Course:
How To Play Guitar Fast - Free 14 Day Guitar Speed Mini Course
Learn the secrets of building guitar speed that most guitar players will never know about. Increasing your guitar speed is easier than you think if you understand exactly how to practice guitar to develop this skill. Find out how in this free mini course on how to play guitar fast.
29 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: Sen Lun (UK)
22 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: Panos Kolias (Germany)
18 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: AJ Simons (Italy)
17 December 2010 - Guitar Playing Article:
How To Practice For Maximum Guitar Speed - Avoiding Common Mistakes In Learning To Play Guitar Fast
Are you frustrated with not being able to play guitar as fast as you want? Do you feel that your lack of guitar speed is limiting your ability to express yourself musically? Although playing guitar fast is not everyone's most important guitar playing goal, those who do desire greater guitar speed typically want it badly and are often frustrated with their inability to improve fast enough in this area of their guitar playing. If this describes you, read this article about increasing your guitar speed.
16 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: Jim Dix (USA)
15 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: Corinne Gooden (USA)
14 December 2010 - Student Spotlight: Filip Zganjar (Croatia)
14 November 2010 - Student Spotlight: Pete Hartley (UK)
7 November 2010 - Student Spotlight: Del Bannerman (Canada)
2 October 2010 - Guitar Soloing Lesson:
Killer Lead Guitar Lesson With Backing Tracks
Learn how to improve your guitar phrasing and self-expression on the guitar in this free lead guitar lesson with backing tracks.
15 August 2010 - Events:
World's Greatest Singer Live At HESSFEST!
In the never ending quest to constantly bring more and more value to my online guitar students, this year at HESSFEST I'm bringing the one singer on this Earth who I believe is not only the greatest singer in the world, but who is also the person who can best help me to train guitar players with the most innovative master class I've ever given. That singer is: Rhapsody of Fire's (www.rhapsodyoffire.com) Fabio Lione. Fabio will join me in giving a series of revolutionary guitar master classes at HESSFEST. After last year's outstanding 4.5 hour master class with legendary guitarist George Bellas, this year's event is expected to be no less amazing.
8 August 2010 - Guitar Practice Tool:
Practice Generator
A new version of the world's most advanced, most powerful and most innovative guitar practicing tool has been released. Read more about highly effective guitar practice schedules.
3 August 2010 - Student Spotlight: John Kakalas (Greece)
21 July 2010 - Student Spotlight: Ramon Chacon Freixa (Spain)
18 July 2010 - Student Spotlight: Dan Sugarman (USA)
7 June 2010 - Guitar Playing Video:
Guitar Solo Lesson Video
Are you still struggling to create great guitar solos? In this guitar solo lesson video you will learn how to immediately improve your guitar solo phrasing skills.
1 June 2010 - Students Playing:
Tom Hess Students
Watch and listen to a few samples of videos and songs of Tom Hess guitar students, members of the Music Careers Mentoring Program and the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle.
26 May 2010 - Resource For Rock Bands:
Free eBook About How To Become A Better Live Band
Learn how to get more music fans to come to your band's live shows even if you hate spending time and money on self promotion. Download the eBook here and begin to transform your bands live shows.
9 May 2010 - Music Career Article:
How To Get More Fans To Your Gigs 
Are you frustrated because you aren't getting as many people to come to your gigs as you want? Getting 'new' people to come to your gigs is not even the main challenge, even most of your own friends and fans usually won't come to your gigs regularly. This fact makes it harder to get bigger and better gigs that pay more money. Read the full article and learn how to get more fans to come to your gigs.
1 May 2010 - Guitar Teaching Article:
Learn How To Teach Guitar
To learn how to teach guitar well and build a successful guitar teaching business, you need to know some critical steps that most new guitar teachers either don't know or don't do. Read more in this article about how to teach guitar.
30 April 2010 - Resource For Rock Bands:
Rock Band Success Coaching
Do you have a great rock band and cool music, but are still struggling to get more people (and the music industry) to know and love your band? Is your band not getting enough 'good' gigs, not getting paid enough money from gigs, not getting enough people to come to your gigs, and not getting audiences to go CRAZY with excitement when they do come to your gigs? Get coaching for your rock band.
26 April 2010 - Music Career Article:
Top 10 Mistakes Musicians Make When Trying To Get Into The Music Business
If you want to become successful in the music industry, there are many things you need to know and do. Many bands and musicians seeking a career in music show the same patterns of assumptions, problems and mistakes over and over again. Read about the Top 10 mistakes musicians make.
25 April 2010 - Neoclassical Guitar Playing Mini Course:
How To Become A Great Neoclassical Guitarist
FREE 14 Day Neoclassical Guitar Lessons Mini Course by Luca Turilli. Learn how to play guitar in Luca's neoclassical guitar playing style.
22 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Alexander Brizuela (Argentina)
20 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Nikke Blout (Germany & USA)
19 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: James Erickson (USA)
17 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Daniel Rothmann (Denmark)
16 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Roy Prins (Holland)
13 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Ralf Schanzel (Germany)
7 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Ben Madwitch (Germany)
6 April 2010 - Student Spotlight: Johnny Ryan (USA)
18 March 2010 - Student Spotlight: Joe Pinnavaia (USA)
10 January 2010 - About Tom Hess:
Tom's Guitar Collection
On this new page you can see Tom's guitars.
8 January 2010 - Guitar Teaching Article:
Teaching Guitar: How To Fix Bad Habits And Solve Problems Your Guitar Students Have
If you sometimes struggle to get your guitar students to correct bad habits or solve problems in their guitar playing, read this article and learn the best ways to improve your guitar teaching by discovering how to solve guitar teaching problems.
7 January 2010 - Guitar Teaching Test:
Test Your Guitar Teaching Skills
Find out how much you really know about teaching guitar and test your guitar teaching skills.
22 December 2009 - Guitar Playing Article:
How To Practice for Maximum Guitar Speed - Part 3
Have you ever noticed that playing something clean and fast is much harder when playing an actual song compared to when you practice that same guitar lick or solo over and over again? Learn more about how to increase your guitar speed and solving this problem in part 3 of this article series.
7 December 2009 - Music Career Article:
How To Prepare For Gigs And Make Your Live Shows Better
The very best way to get more people to repeatedly come out and see your band play live is word of mouth. When your live shows are great, people will like it and talk about you to their friends both online and offline. Besides the obvious point of playing good music that people like, there are 5 main areas of preparing for your gigs. Read the full article about how to prepare for gigs.
2nd December 2009 - Live Music Event:
HESSFEST
Short Movie and Details About HESSFEST Europe 2010 Released
24 November 2009 - Guitar Playing Resource:
FREE Guitar Solo Tips
Transform your guitar soloing by discovering secrets most guitar players will never know about how to create and play great guitar solos.
22 November 2009 - Guitar Phrasing Article:
Improving Your Guitar Phrasing - Part 4
Do you want to be able to express yourself more fully in your lead guitar solos? Are you struggling to apply all of the licks and techniques you’ve been learning? Check out this guitar phrasing article to learn how to improve your guitar phrasing skills.
21 November 2009 - Guitar Teaching Article:
How To Effectively Teach Guitar Chords To Beginning Guitar Students 
Beginning guitar students very often struggle with changing guitar chords quickly, fluently and musically. This can become very frustrating for them, and for you, the teacher. Learn how to solve this problem by reading this guitar teaching lesson on how to effectively teach guitar chords.
2nd November 2009 - Rock and Metal Guitar Licks Course released!
This course will show you how to move beyond simply "learning guitar licks" into the league of the great guitar players by instantly adapting cool guitar licks to ANY song or musical context you want! You will be guided step by step through the process of how to creatively adjust any lick to fit any music using sample variations of many exciting licks over inspiring jam tracks in a variety of rock/metal musical contexts. After completing this course, you will no longer struggle with finding and creating cool things to play over any jam track or song.
1st November 2009 - Guitar Solo Lesson:
How To Create Kick Ass Guitar Solos
There are lots of ways to create guitar solos. Most guitarists focus on ‘what to play’ versus ‘how to play things’. Fact is, the nuances of phrasing (‘how’ the notes are played) often matter MORE than the notes we actually play. How many times have you heard someone play a guitar solo ‘without’ much emotion? Often there was nothing wrong with their choice of notes. The solo lacked emotion and interest because the ‘phrasing’ was weak. Check out this guitar solo lesson.
1st November 2009 - New free Guitar Solo Lesson on video!
31st October 2009 - Rock Band Mini Course:
How To Turn Your Rock Band Into A Success
FREE 12 Day Mini Course by Alex Staropoli, Draven Grey and myself. Discover the secrets most bands will never know about how to make your band more successful than it is now.
29 September 2009 - New Music Career Resources Added
28 September 2009 - Student Spotlight: Daniel Faustmann (USA)
25 September 2009 - Rock Band Success Resource:
FREE Stage Presence Tips by Alex Staropoli, Tom Hess and Draven Grey
Good stage presence is absolutely critical to the success of any live band. Whether you are just starting out with your rock band or already have live experience, these free stage presence tips will begin to transform your live shows once you implement them in your practice sessions and live shows.
5 May 2009 - New Guitar Teacher Resources Added
2 May 2009 - Guitar Playing Article:
Get More From Your Guitar Practice
8 Steps To Develop A Highly Efficient Practice Schedule 
If you are like most guitar players you sometimes feel frustrated with your guitar playing. You know mastering guitar playing takes a LOT of time, energy and effort. It seems like a huge mountain to climb in order to reach the highly advanced levels of guitar playing. You know that few people who attempt to climb that mountain will actually achieve it... but if you are truly determined to reach these goals you certainly can! Read this article to learn how to develop your own guitar practice schedule.
30 April 2009 - Student Spotlight: Jamie Greenwood (USA)
30 April 2009 - Student Spotlight: Bryan Briggs (Canada)
22 April 2009 - Guitar Teaching Article:
5 Big Mistakes You Should Avoid When Teaching Beginning Guitar Students
Do your beginning guitar students usually progress slowly? Do they sometimes 'get stuck' in their guitar playing? Is teaching beginners sometimes very frustrating for you? Are there times when you are unsure about what to teach them, how to teach them, or in what order to teach them things? Do you have a significant number of beginning guitar students who quit lessons with you after less than 1 year? Discover the 5 most common mistakes guitar teachers make when teaching beginning guitar students and how you can avoid them. Read the full guitar teaching article and learn how to teach beginner guitar.
20 April 2009 - Music Career Article:
How To Transition From Your Day Job Into A Successful Music Career
Do you want to be a professional musician, but don't know where and how to start? Do you really want a successful career in music, but your fear of failure is holding you back? Are you unsure about what to do if your plan doesn't work? Learn how to start a music career.
28 March 2009 - Guitar Teaching Article:
Why You Struggle To Get Guitar Students
Do you struggle to attract a lot of new guitar students? Do your guitar teaching ads and website not seem to really work like you want them to? Are you sick of constantly having to put effort into promotion and aren't getting enough students from it? Does it seem impossible to fill up your teaching schedule (and keep it filled)? Read the full guitar teaching article to discover how to increase your ability to get guitar students.
3rd March 2009 - Student Spotlight: Jessa Young (USA)
3rd March 2009 - Student Spotlight: Vito Marchese (USA)
3rd March 2009 - Student Spotlight: Brandon Dickert (USA)
2nd March 2009 - Updates on Music Careers Mentoring Program Student Accomplishments page
25th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Tarek Malki (France/Syria)
21st January 2009 - New FREE Guitar Playing Resource:
Manifest Your Musical Goals Into Reality
Understand 'what' you need to learn to reach your guitar playing and musical goals and discover 'how' each of these things are critical to reaching these goals.
17th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Trevor Darmody (Ireland) updated
17th January 2009 - Guitar Teaching Mini Course:
How To Be An Excellent Guitar Teacher
This free 7 day mini course will show you how to establish and grow your reputation as the best guitar teacher in your area. You will learn how to achieve exceptional results with all of your students and help them develop into great musicians. Also, you will discover how to attract more of the kind of serious students you want to work with.
16th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Lee Carlson (Canada) updated
11th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: George Tamayo (USA)
10th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Ian Hand (England) updated
9th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Byron Marks (USA)
9th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: John Tutino (USA)
8th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Jonathan Vipond (England) updated
8th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Teemu Kleemola (Finland) updated
8th January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Guy Onraet (South Africa)
3rd January 2009 - Student Spotlight: Draven Grey (USA) updated
2nd January 2009 - Guitar Teaching Article:
How To Instantly Improve Your Guitar Teaching Business By Eliminating These Top 9 Mistakes Guitar Teachers Usually Make
Are you struggling to be a highly successful guitar teacher? Do you want to have more new dedicated guitar students who remain committed for the long term, but your guitar teaching methods are not working as effectively as you would like them to? Are you unhappy because most guitar students don't reach their musical goals and/or an advanced level of guitar playing? Are you unable to support yourself and your family with your guitar teaching job? Are you not earning the money you would like to? Read the complete guitar teaching article to build your own highly successful Guitar Teaching Business.
25nd December 2008 - Student Spotlight: Rusty Cooley (USA)
22nd December 2008 - Guitar Playing Article:
11 Damaging Mistakes Guitar Players Make And How To Avoid Them 
Do you know how many guitar players practice a lot in order to improve their guitar playing, but they still struggle to play guitar exactly the way they desire? They don't improve quickly. They begin to doubt their guitar playing potential, and wonder if they will ever learn to become a better guitar player. Read the full article and learn how to improve your guitar playing.
20th December 2008 - New Guitar Phrasing Course Released!
Killer Rock Lead Guitar Legato Phrasing
Learn how your phrasing can be enhanced by using legato technique to connect scales, modes and arpeggios. Find out how the greats such as Joe Satriani, Shawn Lane and George Lynch used legato to create jaw-dropping and expressive lead guitar parts. Apply your new skills by using examples from actual music and practicing with included backing tracks. Learn more.
19th October 2008 - Student Spotlight: Lonnie Caldwell (USA)
19th October 2008 - Student Spotlight: Dan Keller (Switzerland)
3rd September 2008 - Student Spotlight: Mark Court (Canada)
21rd August 2008 - Music Business Article:
The Pursuit of the Record Deal
Do you want a successful, stable and rewarding music career as a professional musician? Would you like to know exactly what record labels, music producers, and artist management companies are looking for when seeking out new artists? There are many great musicians who are not able to build a successful career in music because they do not know what it is these music companies want from them. Read the full article to discover your first step to getting a record deal.
21rd August 2008 - Guitar Practicing Article:
Practicing Guitar: Self Discipline or Fun?
Do you find it difficult to fully enjoy the process of highly disciplined practicing? Most guitarists either have lots of fun practicing, but are not highly disciplined, or try to be very disciplined, but find it boring or unfulfilling when they do so. So most people make a (conscious or unconscious) choice to sacrifice 'fun' for discipline, or discipline for fun. Making sacrifices with your guitar practice is not only unnecessary, but can be counterproductive to becoming the guitar player you want to be. Read this guitar article and learn the best way to practice guitar.
4rd August 2008 - Guitar Playing Live Event:
Tom Hess Instructional Clinic Tour announced!
6 Pro Guitarists will join Tom Hess on an Instructional Clinic Tour in the US designed to answer your guitar playing questions and show you how to do all the things you have been wanting to do on your guitar!
3rd August 2008 - Student Spotlight: Ian Hand (England)
26 July 2008 - Student Spotlight: June Moris (USA)
14 July 2008 - Student Spotlight: Mike Breen (Japan)
6 July 2008 - Student Spotlight: Tommaso Zillio (Canada)
12 June 2008 - Student Spotlight: Nancy Hutagalung (USA)
31 May 2008 - Guitar Playing Article:
Are You An Unhappy Musician? 10 Ways To Get Musical Pain Relief
Are you happy and fulfilled with your level of musical skills? Can you honestly say that you have reached all of your musical goals? Has your guitar playing consistently gotten better during the time you have been playing? If you answered 'no' to any of these questions, then read the full article to get 10 guitar playing tips to put you on the path to say 'yes' to every question above!
28 May 2008 - Student Spotlight: Jeff Treadwell (USA)
6 May 2008 - Student Spotlight: Antony Reynaert (Belgium)
January 2008 - Guitarist Tom Hess has made a departure from Magic Circle Music recording artist HolyHell. The band's management issued this statement: "Tom has made a departure from HolyHell. He will be continuing work on his own projects. Tom is a great talent and we at Magic Circle Music wish him the very best of luck."
May 2007 - Debut HolyHell CD single quickly climbs European Charts! HolyHell’s debut single “Apocalypse," is quickly clawing its way up the charts throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, The enhanced CD includes 3 new studio tracks, one live track from the 2005 Masters of Rock Fest, and one 10 minute EPK (Electronic Press Kit) Video. HolyHell - “Apocalypse (Digipack) SPV 85663"
May 2007 - New Tour Date Released. Magic Circle Music has announced the first ever Magic Circle Music Festival concert in Frankfurt, Germany on July 7th, 2007.
April 2007 - A New Major Instructional Course Just Released!
Phrasing Concepts for Rock Lead Guitar Soloing
This guitar phrasing course is a powerful new resource for guitarists who want to learn highly effective soloing concepts to help better express themselves. Click here for more details!
1 March 2007 - HolyHell Video. Magic Circle Music has informally released a short excerpt of HolyHell live on our 2005 European tour. This short video was shoot at the Masters of Rock festival in the Czech Republic in July, 2005. You can see it here.
8 November 2006 - Nick Layton (a correspondence student of Tom Hess) Wins the Shred Academy Award for: "Best Song" that incorporated shredding with a tranquil ambience. Not easy!
Learn more about online guitar lessons, a career in music, how to teach guitar, or how to find guitar students
