BIO

 David Paul is a one of the best concert Heavy Metal and Classical Guitarists in Los Angeles. He started out as a self-taught guitarist at 18-years old developing his ear training and skills in reading guitar tablature. His favorite music to play was thrash metal and loved learning the songs of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. These influences helped shape his electric playing and with his keen ear training, he was able to pick up on how there are many wrong tablature transcriptions of the music he liked to play. Through this ear training, he was able to learn the nuances of guitar technique and was able to replicate the tone and sound from what he was listening to.  

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   Through playing songs and listening critically, David also learned about composition and song structure and began to write songs of his own. By 20 years old he was fronting his own band and playing backyard shows with original songs and covers.

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   Looking to further expand his knowledge of guitar he decided to learn lead guitar and how to solo. Learning the blues was an integral part for him on how to learn improvisation and basic music theory. Stevie Ray Vaughan's music was especially impressionable on David as his speed and soulful playing inspired him to try the same. Zakk Wylde and his well rounded style playing from country rock to heavy metal blazing guitar style also influenced David's guitar playing. To bridge the styles of metal and thrash, David sought to the music of Black Sabbath and dedicated his time to learning Tony Iommi's solo. Seeing this blueprint of how to play guitar solos in metal David then decided to advance his playing by trying to learn Randy Rhoads neo-classical metal style.

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   Seeing as David did not have the technical prowess to play Randy Rhoads guitar solos, he started to research Randy. What he found was that Randy was very influenced on classical music and carried a classical guitar with him even when performing nights with Ozzy. This clicked for David that he should try and study classical guitar.

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   Feeling that the learning gap would be too much to teach himself, he sought for a classical guitar instructor who was very impressionable on him and taught him how to read music, and essential guitar technique. David instantly feel in love with the classical guitar although his plan originally was to learn what he could to improve his metal guitar technique. With this newfound love for classical music, David decided to dedicate almost full time to his classical playing and started building his repertoire and played concert and events. David then went on school and graduated in guitar and performance. 

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   During this journey, David Paul learned that combining classical guitar technique and music theory with metal guitar playing, your technical proficiency on the instrument rises ten-fold. Having this knowledge and learning virtually all advanced electric guitar repertoire, David started to teach guitar classes to students. David immediately saw the skill levels of his students rise with his expertise and has been able to help them reach their individual goals on the guitar.

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   David also was playing with a band in Los Angeles, metal thrashers Ophiuchus. During his time with the band, he played many legendary venues such as the Whisky-A-Go-Go, Viper Room, Chain Reaction, Brick-by-Brick and others. In (2014) the band reached such heights as playing at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and opening up the festival for 20,000 fans which was the largest opening for that festival at the time.

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   In classical guitar, David had the humble honor of opening for Ana Vidovic (2017) and Pepe Romero (2018) both were scholarship concerts provided by Brian Payne EDM Services. David has also performed at weddings, large events both public and private, house gatherings, art shows and recitals. 

 

   Here is a link to Ophiuchus's first album 'Welcome to the Machine' on Spotify.

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   Here is a link to a good local podcast I did with Consider Dead Podcast.