The newspaper “Correio Braziliense” about Marcelo Barbosa’s “Guitarosofia”

The main newspaper in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil and home city of Marcelo Barbosa, Correio Braziliense, published an article dedicated to Youtube online network. Youtube was established in February, 2008 and since then Youtube which allows any Internet user to publish his videos online became a serious platform not only for entertainment, but also for professional activities. The author analyses the secret of this network and mentioned a few cases when various people improved their work or even turned their hobbies into a real profession with the help of Youtube. One of the main examples of Youtube impact on the professional field is the series of online guitar lessons by Marcelo Barbosa “Guitarosofia”. Read this part of the article in English:

There are teachers who take this virtual platform quite seriously. It’s the case of the guitarist Marcelo Barbosa who created his project “Guitarosofia” - the series of 15 online 10-minute lessons. Marcelo hired a professional cinematographer and a photo editor in order to produce the material: “The idea was to share a bit of my knowledge with people who would like to attend my lessons but don’t have conditions to do it due to financial or geographic reasons, - tells Marcelo. – At the same time, I wanted to present my school and (why not?) my own name as a guitarist.”

The musician chose a natural style, talking to the cameras without certain scenario: “Every lesson is done as I stay in front of a student and talk to him naturally. Sometimes I even falter or just stop in order to think what I want to tell next”.

The series have already got 75.000 views and the material should be released as a DVD.

The complete material in Portuguese.

Marcelo Barbosa has concluded “Guitarosofia”, the series of 15 guitar lessons on Youtube

Marcelo Barbosa has recently concluded the series of 15 free video lessons on Youtube GUITAROSOFIA published during 2009-2010. The material consists of short professional videos in Portuguese where Marcelo explains different aspects of playing the guitar, musical theory, composition and improvisation. The very first video was launched in August 2009 and now you can check out the complete series on the official Youtube channel of the guitarist here. “Guitarosofia” is produced by GTR Guitar Institute with the support of Tagima, Elixir, Orange, NIG, IBOX and Santo Angelo. In 2011 Marcelo Barbosa is to release expanded material of “Guitarosofia” on DVD.

Marcelo Barbosa: “Publishing with great satisfaction the last, 15th video lesson, I accomplished my main idea to spread some knowledge as a free material in the Internet. I mean, not simply “any” material, but something with a very good production, content and personality. I’ve done it in order to give some strength to musicians of initial, intermediate or professional level and mainly to those who don’t have conditions to pay for private lessons. And up to the moment when I’ve started to write these words, we’ve got almost thirty thousand views of these videos on the channel. On the whole there are more than 2,5 hours of the recorded and edited free of charge material available. I don’t have any idea how many hours of work has it taken in order to get to the final result. The material published in Youtube is gratis and will always be. At the same time, I get many requests to post tabs and stuff like that. That is why I decided to fulfill my initial idea to launch “Guitarosofia” also in a special package with all the lessons in high quality on DVD and with tabs of all the examples I played there. The material is to be released very soon. I don’t know yet, if and when I continue the project, may be I’ll do it in the future, but definitely it won’t happen in 2011 because at the moment I have other goals. If you like “Guitarosofia”, please, make your comments, add to your favorites, embed the stuff to your pages, recommend to your friends helping us to spread this material, to keep the whole idea alive and to stimulate the interest to the study of this great instrument that we love so much!”

The nation-wide success of Marcelo Barbosa’s GTR Institute

We’re proud to announce that some teachers and former students of GTR headed by Marcelo Barbosa have recently entered the finals of the two most important guitar contests in Brazil in 2010.

Dimas Andrade is one of the seven finalists of Double Vision contest, chosen from 500 candidates. In the final of the other contest, Tagima Dream Team 2010, there are two GTR related masters. Besides Dimas Andrade, the guitar teacher Ian Lucena has also reached the final. Both are former students of GTR and nowadays they teach in the Institute.

It’s also an honor to us that two other ex-students/teachers of GTR have been specially mentioned in Double Vision contest, despite not entering the grand final: Alex Pires and Rodrigo Fernandez.

It’s very important for us that many GTR students and teachers have played a significant part in all the guitar contests on the national level during the last years. This is a real evidence of incredible talent, professionalism and dedication of everyone who is a part of our great GTR family.

We can also mention such GTR names as Lucas Fagundes (NIG, Souza Lima), Bruno Albuquerque (NIG, Tagima Dream Team), Ian Lucena (NIG) and Rodrigo Fernandez (Kiko Loureiro/D'Addario).

”I’m really proud to have this opportunity to work personally, in my lecture room with all these people and many other great guitarists. I’m very happy to put my efforts in the music education process of every one of them. I’m totally sure, that it’s only the beginning.

Thanks a lot to all the students, teachers and partners and good luck to our new talents!”

Marcelo Barbosa

Check out a few videos of the masters from GTR:

Dimas Andrade



Alex Pires



Rodrigo Fernandez



Ian Lucena (Bemolator)

GTR lead by Marcelo Barbosa is a partner of one of the most important musical festivals in Brazil

GTR Instituto de Guitarra headed by Marcelo Barbosa will take part in the upcoming Porão do Rock Festival in Brasília in a very special way. The school will give a name to the heavy metal stage of the festival: this year it will be PALCO GTR. The event will take place on 11th of September. Porão do Rock is one of the most important musical festivals of Brazil. This year many important Brazilian bands will play on PALCO GTR such as Korzus, Andre Matos Band and Dynahead. Porão do Rock is an independent musical festival, its history started in 1998. This is not only musical event, Porão do Rock is famous due to its important social activities, it got many national awards over the years.
More about the Festival (in Portuguese): http://www.poraodorock.com.br

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 8 is available now. ENJOY!!!!

The video represents some exercises for the left hand to develop motor coordination and freedom of the fingers.

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 7 (phrase using arpejo and tappings)

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 3 is available now

Interview for Hard Blast webzine

Maila: What are the 5 main and necessary steps for those who intend to be guitarists like you?
Marcelo: I´ve never thought about it this way but let´s see what I can do. Well, first you´ve gotta know about music, learn how to listen to music and research the references. Second: study to learn. It can be done through a teacher, a good school or even by yourself if you think it´s better. Everyone must choose what´s the best way. Third: play with other people. It means nothing if you play very well but only to you bedroom´s wall. The relationship with other musicians in different musical environments is essential to anybody´s development. Fourth: be professional. It isn´t because you decided to work with arts that you are not a regular professional. You must see your career as a real job and make it as important as one. Last thing, never stop researching and studying. A professional who doesn´t go for constant improvement loses the chance of creating something new and innovative. Nobody is too good to stop learning.
Maila: A message to the readers, please.
Marcelo: Never give up on your goals even when they look impossible to achieve. Dreaming is part of living and it´s fuel to the soul. Who spends all the time with both feet on the ground loses the magnitude of flying. Don´t dream too much, though, work hard to achieve your dreams. Only dreaming won´t bring you anything and nobody will work for you.

The complete text of the interview interview by Maila-Kaarina in English
The complete text of the interview in Portuguese

GTR advertisement for the biggest local TV channels

Marcelo Barbosa: I'm very happy with the result and I'm very thankful to my great friends for ideas, conceptions or their talent which helped me to finish this clip: Serj Buss (who is always full of great ideas), Edu Falaschi, David, Jorge and Vania! It's always great to contact with such talented, experienced and intelligent people! ;) I hope, you will like it too!

GTR presents its new layout (click "read more" button to read the complete press-release)

GTR Guitar Institute
Press release
March, 2009

GTR Guitar Institute founded by Marcelo Barbosa in 1996 is one of the biggest guitar schools in Latin America. GTR have already graduated over 4.000 students. More than 600 people study in two different units of GTR (Asa Norte and Asa Sul).

Though with time GTR program included many other courses (vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, theory of music and others), it's still based on electric guitar as a main speciality.

Besides regular lessons a number of special events are frequently organized by GTR like festivals, intense courses and clinics with GTR guitar masters and famous musicians from other parts of Brazil like Sidney Carvalho, Kiko Loureiro, Edu Ardanuy among others.

To its 10th anniversary, GTR released a special 14 tracks CD recorded by some of the most prominent teachers in 2006.

Marcelo Barbosa: GTR is a project I've been working at already for twelve years. It began as a guitar institute but now we have classes for bassists, vocalists and acoustic guitar players too. I'm responsible for all the didactic material of the guitar course and we have more than six hundred students in two schools. Four years ago I decided to franchise GTR and some people got interested and now we have two schools in Brasilia. It is growing up year by year. We try to teach music, not only one specific style or genre. Rock, Metal, Jazz, Country and Brazilian music are some of the approaches here.

GTR staff unites more than twenty professors experienced in different musical disciplines and styles of music, practicing with their own musical careers and clinics besides regular teaching.

Among GTR graduates are Bruno Albuquerque, Lucas Fagundes, Alex Pires, Ian "Bemolator", Diogo Mafra, Nathan Grego and many others.

Regular courses in GTR include two 50-min individual instrumental classes per week and one hour collective lesson, about musical theory. A student can choose more courses to complete his formation as a musician like Harmony, Home Studio and Music Production.

GTR’s class rooms are acoustically isolated and provided with instruments and modern equipment. The Institute is equipped with Internet-enabled computers to visit musical sites, two Guitar Ports (by Line6 company, USA), isolated video rooms with TV and DVD players for using GTR’s video library with video courses, shows and clinics (more than 100 titles) which are available on dvds and video cassettes.

The main courses:
- guitar
- acoustic guitar
- bass
- vocals

The additional courses:
- musical theory
- ear training
- harmony
- arrangement

Guitar heroes about GTR

EDU ARDANUY (Dr. Sin)
Marcelo Barbosa is not only a friend of mine but also a great guitarist. I admire him a lot and from my point of view his GTR is the best and the most complete guitar school in Brasilia. Carry on this way Marcelo and have a good luck!

KIKO LOUREIRO (Angra)
I’m very happy to see that the guitar education in Brasilia is hold by such reliable hands. GTR is respected due to the efforts, dedication and professionalism of Marcelo Barbosa put in a service of this instrument that we love so much. For sure, GTR has formed and still is forming great guitarists who will always elevate the musical and technical level of the Brazilian Guitar. This is a school where they know the necessity to provide students by all possible conditions to evolve like musicians like individual lessons, videos, events, workshops etc. When I visited Brasilia in 2001, I was impressed by the level of the guitarists like Marcelo Barbosa, Celso Salim and Bruno Albuquerque. I wish GTR having a long great future and more and more new guitar talents. In the end, the art and the culture is one of the most powerful things which any country can have and to be proud of.

JUNINHO AFRAM
Great professionalism and competence are the things that can describe GTR in the best way. This is a school that has Marcelo Barbosa behind the whole thing. He is not only a great musician and a great friend but also a person who knows the right proportion of everything that any guitarist needs to develop himself. Brasilia are in the best hands! Congratulations GTR! Congratulations Marcelo!
Uma escola que tem por tras Marcelo Barbosa, que alem de excelente musico e amigo, conhece e proporciona tudo o que um guitarrista precisa para se desenvolver! Brasilia esta em otimas maos! Parabens GTR! Parabens Marcelo!"

FAISKA
GTR is a school with complete infrastructure and warm humane atmosphere which are necessary for a musician. Only a person without talent can’t start to play there!

FRANK SOLARI
I find it fundamental for the new generation of brasilian guitarists that such a school like GTR exists.

Marcelo Barbosa for Spirit Of Metal Webzine

Marcelo Barbosa with other members of Almah did the interview for Spirit Of Metal Webzine:

How did you get in touch with Almah, how were your first meeting with the band?
Marcelo Barbosa: I knew the members of Almah for years because my band Khallice played with Angra sometimes. The guitarist that was there before me is a huge friend of mine and he indicated me when he left. I leave in another city, far from São Paulo, where Edu and Felipe lives and Edu gave me a call inviting me to join the group, not only to make the 2007 tour. So, I knew that I was a band member since the invitation...

Which other musical instruments can you play?
Marcelo Barbosa: I play acoustic guitars, bass and try to sing sometimes... LOL

You founded the Institute of Guitar (GTR), can you tell us about it? How did you get such idea of the Institute?
Marcelo Barbosa (guitars): GTR is a project I've worked already for twelve years at. It began like a guitar Institute but now we have classes for bassists, vocalists and acoustic guitar players too. I’m responsible for all the didactic material of the guitar course and we have more then six hundred students in three schools. Four years ago I decided to franchise GTR and some people got interested and now we have three schools in Brasilia. The idea started when I was a teenager. At that time information about it was very difficult to find here in Brazil, and basically, only that people who had money to travel to USA could study music in a school like GIT or Berklee. At that time my family didn’t had the money to send me to USA so I started to wonder about open a music school specialized on the guitar. We hadn’t something like this here at that time and it was something brand new. Of course, it is something adapted to our reality, doing business in Brazil is totally different of it in the USA.

Is this Institute big? What kinds of guitar techniques students study?
Marcelo Barbosa (guitars): It is relatively big. We have many students and it’s growing up year bu year. We try to teach music, not one specific style or genre. Rock, Metal, Jazz, Country and Brazilian music is some of the approaches here. About techniques we deal with as many subjects we can, and each student applies it to his reality.

The complete interview of Spirit Of Metal Webzine with ALMAH band members is available HERE.
Thanks Lucky, thanks Almah France for the link.