Interview with Marcelo Barbosa made by fans (Almah France together with Almah Japan)

Thanks to Sylvie Catez (Almah France) for the interview. To read the complete interview, please, click Read More button.

Almah France(France): Hi Marcelo! Could you introduce yourself for the French and Japanese public, please?
Hi everyone, I’m Marcelo Barbosa, Almah’s guitar player and it’s a pleasure for me to answer these questions for you guys.

Almah France (France): When did you start to learn to play the guitars?
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 Brazilian rock bands that started to have huge success at that time here in Brazil.

Almah France (France): Could you tell more about GTR? Why did you create it and when? Could you introduce GTR for French and Japanese people, please?
OK, GTR is my musical school. I created it about twelve years ago and it was quite natural for me. At that time I used to teach guitar at other music schools. There wasn’t any musical school here, in Brasilia really specialized in the guitar. It was a dream for me to have my own guitar school, with a good method, great teachers and modern 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 the guitar, bass, acoustic guitar and we have vocal classes too. Nowadays GTR is a franshise and we have two and soon we will have three schools in Brasília.

Almah France (France): What did you learn with Almah (in studio, on stage)?
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 joined the band I already had some studio and stage experience, so I didn’t have a lot of news concerning this matter. I think I learned a lot about musical businness, about relationships, some different points of view concerning music… In the 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?
I’m an Elixir endorsee. I use Elixir 0,10 gauge. It has more sound than 0,09 but it doesn’t hurt my finger tips like the 0,11. So this is an interesting point between a better tone and my fingers health... LOL

Frogfingers (France): Have you got a particular training before starting to play the guitar?
Not a specific one. I do like to play some guitar before get on stage but nothing special. Anything that makes my firgers to get up. Normally I play some cromatisms that I consider to be good, because it exercise every left hand finger equally. I keep changing the exercises from time to time because if I don’t do that, I get bored.

Frogfingers (France): When did you start to feel free with your instrument, with a good musical vocabulary? (How many years after beginning your practice?)
It’s a good question. I have never thought about that... Almost from the beginning I have felt connected to the guitar players extremely good like Steve Vai, Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. So, it took some time to feel free playing this kind of music. I think maybe something about five or six years. On the other hand, I’ve always felt free when I play the guitar and this is why I had no doubt about being a musician and working by 100% with the music.

Shred 666 (France): What are your main influences and your favourite bands or musicians?
It changes from time to time. I do like pop and rock music like Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Muse among many others. Among the rock/metal stuff I like more Pantera, Metalllica, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Rush... It’s too difficult to choose something to put on a list. About musicians, starting with some guitar players and then going to other instruments I would mention such names like Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, Allan Holdsworth, Michel Camilo, Miles Davis... AAAAAAHHHHHHHH I feel this is so unfair to many other great musicians... I can’t 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 musical school?
I believe good schools of any subject are really helpful. But I’m sure, it’s not the only way to learn how to play. We know many great musicians who have never been at some musical school. This is only one of many ways to learn how to play. I think, the 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 to start again studying about Jazz, improvisation and Harmony.

Metallaw (France): Do you listen a lot of music? What do you listen to besides metal?
Yeah, I listen to a lot of music. I can say that metal is maybe only 25 or 30% of what I listen. Besides metal I’m listening to Joshua Redman, an incredible saxophonist of smooth jazz, NuJazz or whatever. I normally run at the park and right 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?
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 addicted to a TV seriees called Criminal Minds. It’s great! It’s about serial killers and I have good time 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
This is in my plans for this year. I’m working at the songs and I think before the end of this year you can be surprised with a good news 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 musical equipment? Amp, guitar, etc ... What do you use exactly?
Hum... I have a lot of equipment and what I use on stage or in a studio depends on which tone I want. I have a signature guitar made for Tagima to me, the MB-1 model. There are my main guitars but I have a lot of 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 its 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.