Guitar Marty

This program started as a solution to an obvious pent-up desire of the young student guitar players wanting to play in a band. They didn’t know where to begin to put a band together. Could I help?

Having spent half my life in a rehearsal, I decided to pass along my experience and create a fun atmosphere for the young rockers of Ladner/Tsawwassen.

Three bands performed in our first year at our inaugural show at Sharkey’s Grille. It sold it out, overwhelming the facility. The kids played their hearts out to the appreciation of the standing room only crowd. Since then we’ve had the Final Concert at the Ladner Community Centre. There’s enough space to accommodate a good crowd and a large backstage area to corral the 8 bands. We now have a stage manager to keep everyone focused. The Pa and lighting are provided by a professional sound company and the concert recorded for video using 3 cameras and a DVD is given to all participants.

I try to accommodate everyone but I can’t always. It’s extremely difficult to match up ages, ability and holiday schedules. For this reason it helps if you’re signing up with a friend. I keep an online schedule so you can see how I’m managing the weeks.

I played in my first band when I was 14 and we knew nothing about how to do it.
We spent more time trying to come up with a name than we did practicing our instruments.
I’ve since spent years and years in bands and hundreds of hours in rehearsals; from my first bad rock bands to high school jazz and concert bands to professional bands and ensembles.