Now here's a man who's a conservatory trained composer and conductor, who's dabbled in guitars, who's tried his hand at songwriting, and who helped set up a forum for discussion on NY's live music scene and its music critics.

He's the Editor at Large for Counter Critic, a site that provides a forum to discuss a plethora of arts and music reviews written by NY's professional critics. He's written songs.  He's strummed a few guitar chords.  He's even written an opera score! Whooo, I gasp for air just thinking about all of it! 

What hasn't he done? Why, get interviewed by Jemsite on his musical talents, of course!  Well, that's all about to change...

While Ryan does believe everyone is a music critic in some way, he still continues to stay open minded.  Read on to find out how he does just that and more.

Wish we could say it was Jemsite that had the privilege of interviewing the legendary Steve Vai. But alas, Premier Guitar had that opportunity and ran with it, but let us along for the ride!

Here's a detailed, republished interview with the Ibanez icon from Oscar Jordan at Premier Guitar magazine.

I was left alone in the Harmony Hut. No, it’s not a corporate family restaurant chain. It’s virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai’s recording studio. It’s where the magic happens—his sanctum sanctorum, if you will.

In one of the rooms, his guitars are lined up against the wall in two long rows, top and bottom. I see guitars that I remember from his Alcatrazz and David Lee Roth years, electric sitars, seven-strings and old Frankenstein Strats. Further back is Vai’s amp rig, locked and loaded. Sitting on a desk, there is a Ted Greene chord book opened to the middle laying on top of a Mahavishnu Orchestra transcription book. Behind his desk and workstation in the adjoining room, a large window reveals a big, beautiful tree situated just outside the studio, a tree that radiates the kind of Zen-like peace and serenity I imagine would be perfect to inspire psychotic guitar riffs in bizarro time signatures. The studio is immaculate.

It's a lucid dream come true for music fans!

Lucid Culture is a rapidly growing website toting live music and much of the NY music scene through an online presence that is rapidly increasing in popularity.  It was created in April 2007 from a now-defunct music and politics e-zine and remains the antidote for music lovers who crave reviews for the local live music scene.

Now going through a small, but worthwhile revamp, the site has more to love including a live music calendar, countdowns of the best songs around, reviews of top albums, and a constantly updated guide to New York area live music venues.

Without ear training playing guitar is a bit like painting by numbers. You put colours in the spaces indicated to recreate a painting. But you're not really making music and you don't really learn why one colour works better than another.

Only when you can hear its language can you really claim to make music and this is a good reason to make ear training a part of your study.

But as we all know, guitar practice time is limited, and adding ear training to our daily list of things to work on is not an easy commitment to make. Fortunately, there are many ways to develop your musical ear without your guitar. Here are a few ideas you could try.

Ear Training CDs

A good place to start on ear training is with a set of ear training CDs. These will offer you exercises to train your ear to recognize intervals, notes, chords, rhythms and so on.

Feast your eyes on this!

Peter Matthews has an insatiable thirst for classical music, great performers, and live guitar. And as he makes his winding journey throughout the musically-inclined NYC, you can follow him along and read all about his rapturous adventures on his blog, Feast of Music.  

By day he's a hard-working digital media professional. By night, he masquerades as a band groupie.  Ok, not exactly.  Peter does, however, spend most nights going to different music shows around NY.   Whether it be Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, or a hole-in-the-wall dive bar, you'll find Peter there satiating his thirst for the best mainstream and underground music of the city.

He may only be a fan, but Nialler9 knows what he's talking about when it comes to music.  The highly popular Nialler9 Music Blog features the indie, electronica, hip-hop, folk, dubstep and other kinds of music he loves--as Nialler9 himself quips: "As long as it's good." 

But more than that, what makes Nialler's site so special is his sprinkling of the most popular music in Ireland.  With this, the music blog has become highly influential on the Irish music scene, giving Nialler the chance to write Internet-related content for the most popular newspaper in the country as well as other newspapers and music publications, and a spot on the judge panel for the annual Irish album of the year award--the Choice Music Prize.  He's also received the Irish Blog Award in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Nialler may not play or teach guitar, but he certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to this and other music topics. He certainly knows what he's doing!