SZ: What other works are you on?

Tom Hess: Guitars at an Exhibition ~ Volume 1. Mike also is that CD with a song that he wrote.

SZ: Have you had any formal training? If so who, where and how long.

Mike Walsh: When I started playing, I took lessons for about a year and a half at the local music shop down the road. Then, I got into a bad car accident and stopped the next week. I pursued the guitar myself using common sense on technique issues and having subscriptions to both Guitar School and Guitar World for about 1 year. I then took lessons again only for classical guitar from Steve Suvada at Harper College. And, as I moved on to finish my music education degree at Elmhurst College, Steve also taught classical lessons there. So for me, my largest student studies have come from the classical guitar, not a shredder or jazz instructor. I took lessons with Dave Uhrich for only about a year, but Dave was very busy that year and I had about 15 lessons through the school with him.

Tom Hess: I started with several private guitar teachers in the Chicago area when I was a teenager. The first teacher who really introduced me to great guitar players was a guy named Randy Pierce, I studied with him from 1987-1989. I later searched for a great professional teacher and found an amazing player, teacher and friend, Jack Wilson. He helped me a lot and we are good friends today. I studied guitar with Jack Wilson from 1992-1994. From 1993-1998, I studied with the great virtuoso guitar master, George Bellas. George inspired me very much and helped me to refine my technique, improvising, composing and general musicianship. My formal training didnšt really start until 1994, I attended William Rainey Harper College starting in 1994. I majored in music theory and studied classical guitar there. After graduating from there, I transferred to Roosevelt University, in Chicago, as a classical music composition major (1997-2000). Both of these schools gave me the musical depth that I needed. What I learned from my private, college and university teachers/professors is priceless to me.

Mark Carozza: I went to Berklee College of Music, and I'm close to earning a degree in professional music. I studied with Joe Stump and Jon Finn.

SZ: I read that Tom has studied with George Bellas, how did that affect you as a musician, and your playing?

Tom Hess: Studying with George affected my musicianship a great deal. A learned a lot from George that would be almost impossible to learn anywhere else. I feel very fortunate to study with one of the greatest electric guitar virtuosos/composers of all time. George was a great source of inspiration and encouragement. Mark also studied with George for a while before attending Berklee School of Music.

SZ: Your guitar playing is simply amazing, screaming notes, harmonies, arpeggios, and classical feeling. How did you get to the level that your currently at?

Tom Hess: Lots of practice and an intense desire to become as good of a musician as I can be. Having some truly great teachers over the years has helped a great deal.

SZ: What did you do to get your arpeggios so clean and fast?

Tom Hess: Practice everyday. I started out slowly to get them clean first, then I worked on the speed, doing it in that order was important. I keep my right hand thumb in contact with the strings that are adjacent to where my pick is at all times.

SZ: What is your favorite part of your playing style?

Mark Carozza: I like to think that I play with more emotion than the average guitarist/bassist.

Mike Walsh: The fact that at times, I can hear the different musical instruments I teach come out in my playing. I love the slurring wind instruments have and bends that both guitar and woodwind can produce. I like to hear solo's that sound effortless and very complimentary to the background music. I hope that those qualities are coming out in my playing, I have spent some time humming along to music and recreating it on my guitar.

Tom Hess: I donšt have one favorite aspect.

SZ: Favorite Scale or Mode?

Tom Hess: The 5th mode of Melodic Minor, Lydian, Harmonic Minor, Aeolian, Ionian and Hirojoshi (an oriental pentatonic scale).

Mike Walsh: I usually do not play with a mind frame of staying in a mode or scale. I think it is the notes that are not in the scale that sound cool when done right, and that means actually knowing the scale you should be in to pull it off. I prefer to play over the chords more, meaning, if we are soloing and the riff is based off of Fm, I will slip around the chord and base my notes on the triad of the chord.. I will bend into the root, 3rd or 5th of the chords tones and then scale away or sustain on something in or around the chord. I am totally against mode SHAPES when soloing, I prefer to solo by humming and theory than with my hands and shapes. Though at times, your hands do things your mind never would of thought of, so I try to keep it balanced.

SZ: Favorite key?

Tom Hess: I donšt have a favorite key.

SZ: Favorite trick, lick or both?

Tom Hess: Tom Hess: I donšt think of playing as a collection of licks or tricks so I canšt really answer this question.

Mike Walsh: In order to answer that question you would need either licks that are passed down to you from others, or, something you saw or noticed was a big part of another players technique that you use. This is the reason why I stopped buying and figuring out songs for my playing to improve, you end up stealing or emulating someone elsešs style.. I realize you can not always do something completely original, but there comes a point where the melodies are more important than the pyrotechnics and tricks. Although, I do like bending out of scale notes into scale notes, so does that answer your question?

SZ: Recommended playing technique:

Tom Hess: I am a firm believer in directional picking (also known as economy picking and inside picking).

Mike Walsh: Playing with efficiency ( small movements ), muting, and using your right palm on the bridge as a guide. You need to know many more to get the one technique to sound good. You can not hear the sweep if the E, A, D, and then fretted notes are all sustaining while your sweeping, so work on all of them.

SZ: Suggested theory books or readings:

Tom Hess: Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene
Tonal Music - Part 1 by Paul O. Harder
Tonal Music - Part 2 by Paul O. Harder
Counterpoint in the Style of J.S. Bach by Thomas Benjamin
Counterpoint by Walter Piston
Harmony by Walter Piston

SZ: What advice can you give to ammeter and beginner players?

Tom Hess: Find a great teacher, listen to high-caliber players in the style your into and in the styles you are not into, study theory, develop your ear and improvising. Write music a lot. Donšt try to be overly diverse or try to play all styles of music. Practice 7 days a week for a minimum of 1 hour but a maximum of 3 hours (of actual playing time) per day. Find out what inspires you and then surround yourself with a ton of it!

SZ: Recommend any CDs for our readers to check out?

Tom Hess: There are lots of CDšs but here are the onešs that I encourage my students to buy (in no particular order):
Yngwie Malmsteen:
    Rising Force
    Trilogy
    Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra
    Alchemy
 George Bellas:
    Turn of the Millennium
    Mind over Matter
Jason Becker:
    Perpetual Burn
Marty Friedman:
    Introduction
 Dream Theater:
    Images and Words
   Awake
King Diamond (for Andy LaRoquešs solos):
   Abigail
   Conspiracy
    The Eye
    Them
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849):
    24 Preludes, Opus 28
    Piano Concerto in Em, Opus 11
     J.S. Bach (1685-1750):
    Violin concerto in Am
    Concerto for two violins in Dm
Johannes Brahms:
    A German Requiem

Mike Walsh: Definitely listen to all of those, and add these to round it off, Anything with Steve Vai's name on it. Blues Saraceno, Plaid, for you rock, blues, country, jazz , guys ( ? ) Michael Angelo, No Boundaries, un human like shredding Racer x, Paul Gilbert at his finest many more, I just can not think of all of them.

SZ: What guitars do you use and why? Have you made any upgrades, modifications, or had custom work done on them?

Tom Hess: Your readers can get a complete list of gear at our website: http://hess.4t.com go the band member profile section and you can view it all, as well as other info. In general, I like a Floyd Rose (although I did not use one on Opus 1), Carvin V220 Guitars, Seymour Duncan pickups (Humbuckers!), 24 frets, ebony or rosewood fingerboards.

SZ: What gear are you currently using?

Tom Hess: Carvin V220 guitars with Seymour Duncan Metal Live Wire pickups, some Gibson Flying Všs and a Yamaha guitar with a Floyd Rose and Seymour Duncan pickups. For Distortion I use a Hafler T3 and a Sansamp, then into a BBE 462, a digitech TSR 24S and into a MosValve Tubeworks Power amp which powers two 4x12 cabs with 75 watt celestian speakers.

SZ: What do you think of the present music scene in the US?

Mark Carozza: I'm pretty sick of all the bands on the radio trying to play metal. They write simple pop tunes, and flip on a heavy distortion to try and sound all mean. If the kids heard some real metal, these bands wouldn't be around much longer.

Tom Hess: I think that its slightly better than it was in the 1990šs but the current climate is still far from good for high-caliber music.. We all live in the Chicago area, but we sell more CD outside the U.S. Hopefully, things will improve here before too long.

Mike Walsh: I think you are starting to see a comeback on players, slowly, but it is starting to happen. If Tool can sell 500,000 copies in the opening week with a 7 minute single, the people must be seeing through the 3 minute pop punk songs. And the public only hears what the man wants him to. The problem with music today is the radio stations dictating what three minute master piece the public hears next. They are looking to smash a many songs in there 40 minutes of music per hour ( 20 minutes commercials). So, do you play 6 songs at 5 minutes each that are cool, or 10 songs that are 3 minutes so you can play more songs and hear more artists? Do not bother answering that question, IT ALREADY HAS BEEN!

SZ: Give us your feelings on the current state of instrumental and guitar driven music in the US or worldwide?

Tom Hess: It has been weak in the US since the beginning of the 1990šs. The scene is much better overseas though and Opus 1 is stronger in foreign lands. The US is way too trendy.

Mike Walsh: Exactly, we are way to trendy, and if American radio wants it to come back it will. Otherwise, the stereotype is pretty thick right now and no one is willing to touch it until someone pulls off something incredible over here.

SZ: What are you currently up to?

Tom Hess: We are beginning to rehearse the music for our next CD, Opus 2. Recording is scheduled to start later this year.