Official Announcement - Innovative Guitar Virtuoso Alex Skolnick Joins The Rock House Family

Rock House, the leader in music instruction, announced today that guitarist Alex Skolnick has joined Rock House’s roster of master instructors. Alex is a founding member of Testament, one of the most influential metal/thrash bands of all time. He is also a member of Trans Siberian Orchestra; the wildly popular rock opera whose musical style is described as symphonic rock meets classical music with a touch of Metal. In 2002 he began work on the Alex Skolnick Trio, a traditional Jazz band known for their inventive Jazz renditions of Rock and Metal standards. Additionally, Alex is featured in a number of side projects including performing on the soundtrack for the hit Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde.

Students can expect topics to include the techniques he uses to bridge rock and metal into traditional jazz pieces, an in-depth look at his legendary metal techniques and his unique scale and modal approach that allows him to cross genres. “Alex perfectly suits Rock House’s mission of finding the best musicians who can teach a diverse set of skills in an effort to help students meet the challenge of developing their own style.” Said Joe Palombo, Executive director of Rock House.

Alex's past collaborations include bassists Stu Hamm (Joe Satriani/Steve Vai), Les Claypool (of Primus), Michael Manring (Wyndam Hill recording artist), singer Ozzy Osbourne (the Prince of Darkness himself), rock band Savatage (Atlantic recording artists) and more. Alex has composed pieces for the EA video game "Hot Wheels Turbo Racing", the USA Network’s broadcast of the 2002 Westminster Dog Show (a big band jazz piece), and the MTV series "Makin’ The Band." He has toured across Europe, Japan and America with Korn, Def Leppard, Guns'nRoses, Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Judas Priest.

Alex’s instructional products will be available at MI retailers around the world for $24.99. Stay tuned at www.RockHouseMethod.com, www.AlexSkolnick.com for information on release dates. All Rock House instructional products are distributed through Music Sales Corp. ; or call Gordon at 1-866-You-Rock.

Kirk Hammet of Metallica was asked during an
interview for the Decmeber 2008 issue of Guitar World Magazine what he thought
of Alex Skolnick's straight-up jazz albums

Hammett States: "Love them. I love his work. What Alex is doing by putting heavy metal songs in a jazz context is completely refreshing. His take on "Detroit Rock City" blew me away; that song has never sounded better to me. And when you think about, the old jazz standards were the pop music of their time. so alex has updated the notion of what a standard is, and it's opened up all the current music to interpretation. The idea of playing Kiss or the Scorpions in the style of Dave Brubeck is great and quite radical. There are tons of people at Julliard who are playing "Straight No Chaser" for probably the 50 millionth time, so it's about time somebody tried something new."

Each on of Alex’s DVDs will come with a FREE tab lesson booklet, iPod ready video and membership to Rock House’s lesson support site at www.RockHouseMethod.com. This feature, exclusive to Rock House and its partners offers students supplementary support for the lessons featured on the DVDs.

Rock House has developed an accelerated yet easy-to-use system of learning that utilizes the functionality of DVD and Print, integrated with the accessibility of the Internet. Aspiring musicians who have a product produced by Rock House receive free membership to http://www.rockhousemethod.com/home.aspx for 24-7 lesson support. Students use this fully interactive site along with their product to enhance their learning experience, expand their knowledge, link with instructors, and connect with a community of people around the world who are learning to play music using The Rock House Method®.

For more information contact: Joe Palombo at jp@rockhousemethod.com