Almah France : Hi Marcelo ! Could you introduce yourself for the French and Japanese public, please ?
Marcelo Barbosa : Hi everyone, I’m Marcelo Barbosa, Almah’s guitar player and it’s a pleasure for me answer this questions for you guys.
Almah France : When did you start to learn to play guitar ?
Marcelo Barbosa : It’s not easy to precise, that’s a lot of time from there. LOL... I was thirteen years old I think. It was 1988/1989 I guess and I was deeply influenced by the first Rock’n Rio festival and by some brazilians rock bands that started to have huge sucess at that time here in Brazil.
Almah France : Could you say more about the GTR ? Why did you create it and when ? Could you introduce GTR for French and japanese people, please ?
Marcelo Barbosa : OK, GTR is my music school. I created it about twelve years ago and it was quite natural for me. At that time a used to teach guitar at other music schools and here, in Brasilia, there wasn’t any music school really specialized in guitar. It was a dream for me to have my on guitar school, with a goog method, great teachers and equipment. I started with one room and one guitar, the thing grow up and now we have more than twenty teachers and more than five hundreds students. We teach guitar, bass, acoustic guitar and we have vocal classes too. Nowadays GTR is a franshise and we have two and in few time we will have three school in BrasÃlia.
Almah France : What did you learn with Almah (in studio, on stage) ?
Marcelo Barbosa : I try to learn from everything. It’s quite a mania or an obsession. Keeping this in mind I think I’m always learning a lot and it isn’t different in Almah. When I got in the band I aleady had some studio and stage experience, so I hadn’t a lot of news on this matter. I think I leaarned a lot about music businness, about relationships, some different points of view about music.. In studio I have learned that there are a lot of different ways to get the same result...
Lupi Blue : (France) : What kind of strings do you use ?
Marcelo Barbosa : I’m a Elixir endorsee. I use Elixi 0,10 gauge. It has more sound that 0,09 and don’t hurts my finger tips like the 0,11. So it’s an interesting point between a better tone and my fingers health..LOL
Frogfingers (France) : Have you got a particular training before starting to play guitar ?
Marcelo Barbosa : Not a specific one. I do like to play some guitar before get on the stage but nothinh special. Anything that makes my firgers get ut. Normally I play some cromatisms that I consider good because exercise every left hand finger equaly. I keep changing the exercises from time to time because if I dont do that I get bored.
Frogfingers (France) : When did you start to feel free on your instrument, with a good musical vocabulary ? (How many years after beginning practice ?)
Marcelo Barbosa : It’s a good question. I never thought about that... Almost from the beggining I felt conected to guitar players extremaly good like Steve Vai, Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. So, it took sometime feel free playing this kind of music. I think maybe somethink about five or six years. On the other hand, I always felt free when I play the guitar and this is why I had no dubt about been a musician and woking 100% with music.
Shred 666 (France) : What are your main influences and your favorit bands or musicians ?
Marcelo Barbosa : It changes from time to time. I do like pop and rock music like Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Muse among many others. More in rock/metal stuff I like Pantera, Metalllica, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Rush... It’s too difficult to choose some to put on a list.
About musicians, starting with some guitar players and than going to other instruments I could name Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, Allan Holdsworth, Michel Camilo, Miles Davis... AAAAAAHHHHHHHH I feel this is so unfair with many other great musicians... I cant keep doing this. LOL
Metallaw (France) : Hi Marcelo ! I’d like to know what do you think about guitar schools like Berklee ? Do you think it’s the only way to learn to play ?How did you learn to play ? in a music school ?
Marcelo Barbosa : I think good schools of any subject are really helpful. I’m sure that this isn’t the only way to learn how to play. We know many great musicians that had never been at a music schoool. This is only one of many ways to learn hoe to play. I think knowledge is a bless and if you have how to get it with a good teacher it is really good. I had guitar and music classes in many schools and teachers. Learn is a passion for me and I’m just waiting for some free time start again studing about Jazz, improvisation and Harmony.
Metallaw (France) : Do you listen a lot of music ? What are listening besides metal ?
Marcelo Barbosa : Yeah, I listen to a lot of music. I can say metal is maybe only 25 or 30% of what I listen. Besides metal I’m listenning to Joshua Redman, an incredble saxophonist of smooth jazz, NuJazz or whatever. I normally run at the park and like when I do that I’m listening to the last Guns’n Roses album (ok, you can bit me, I loved it...), some Muse songs and the last Metallica album... My Ipod is almost a JukeBox ...
Pimousse (France) : Hi Marcelo ! I’d like to know if you have hobbies besides music ?
Marcelo Barbosa : Yes I have. I do love to read good books and to see a good movie. I have a lot of DVDs and books here and if I could I would see one movie each day. Recently I’m adicted to a TV seriees called Criminal Minds. It’s great! It’s about serial killers and I have good times with it. Besides that I practice Taekwondo since I’m a teenager and I love it.
Pimousse (France) : Will you record a solo album in the future ? It will be so great J
Marcelo Barbosa : This is in my plans for this year. I’m working on the songs and I think before the end of this year you can be surprised with a good need about it. It depends on how much Almah will be on the road this year.
Symphony (France) : Hi Marcelo ! Could you tell us about your music material ? Amp, guitar, etc ... What do you use exatly ?
Marcelo Barbosa : Hum... I have a lot of equipment and what I use on the stage or at studio depends of wich tone I want. I have a signature guitar made for Tagima to me, the MB-1 model. That are my main guitars but I have a lot pof others like PRS 513, Fender Strato, fender Telecaster, Nzaganin, Ibanez among others... I have some amplifiers too like MesBoogie Dual Rectfier and Mark IV, Orange, Line 6... On stage with Almah, because I need to be practical I use a PodX3 Live with some NIG Pedals in it loop. Normaly I ask for a Marshall JCM 900 with a 4X12, and bring two guitars MB-1 with me, one tuned in Eb and the other one in Eb with the botton in Db.
A great thanks to Marcelo Barbosa for his kindness with Japanese and French fans ;)
For more news about Marcelo Barbosa :
