MUMBAI: With a cash prize of Rs 6 lakhs, the ‘National Guitar Contest 2013’, organized by Dimapur (Nagaland) based Sky Entertainment, is giving Indian guitarists an opportunity to participate in one of the prestigious 'Guitar Player Award' ever to be held in the country.
Participants from across the country will be judged in categories including rock guitar, classical guitar, jazz guitar and blues guitar. Contestants have to send in two video demo of their music to be reviewed, three guitarists will be chosen from each category, and the demos of the three selected guitarists from each category will be sent to United States where professional guitarist will study the works of the guitarists and announce one winner from each category. All the three nominees from each category will be invited for the Grand finale. The winners will be getting cash awards as well as national and international exposure.
The competition will be based on national SMS voting and by a panel of judges comprising of some of the country’s top guitarists- Joey Woch (first Indian to compete in American Artist International Competition), Rudy Wallong (founder- member Soulmate band), Chandresh Kudwa and Sanjay Devicha. The contestants’ work will also be evaluated by expert musicians in the US.
“The idea to hold the competition after we (Sky Entertainment) successfully set a new world record for the biggest ensemble of electric guitarists (358 guitarists played Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’) on 12 January. We initially thought of holding the competition within the northeast but decided to go national,” Sky Entertainment marketing head Kumjimong told Radioandmusic.com.
Submitted entries will have to be accompanied with a Rs 1,000 fee and demo video of the contestant playing. The selection process starts with contestants submitting one original composition with a background track provided by Sky Entertainment to define creativity (applies to Jazz, Blues, and Rock only. Acoustic and Classical will submit two original pieces).
In the second round, the winner from this category will be judged from two ends: the national judge based on points system based on four categories and National sms voting system. In the third round the winner will be declared.
The last date of registration and submission of demos is 10 August. Short listing and voting will start from 20 August till Sept and the 12 nominees will be announced by first week of October 2013.
A total of 12 finalists (three from each category) will be selected for a grand final on 9 November at Dimapur. The event will be covered by Vh1 on-air and will also be promoted on Facebook and Twitter.
“We have partnered music channel Vh1 for nationwide promotions. The channel will also air the videos of the competition winners’ videos,” Kujimong said.