Meet Guitarist Will Wallner and His New Blog, Bent Out of Shape

Hey, this is my first blog post for GuitarWorld.com, and I wanna start by giving an introduction to who I am and what I'm going to be writing about.

My name is Will Wallner. I'm a guitar player from England and now live in Los Angeles. My journey in music began with my education. I have a degree in music production from the University of Portsmouth and have also studied at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. Over the coming weeks, I'm going to share my experiences as a student and how I think going to school has helped my music career.

Following my graduation in 2008, I moved to Los Angeles from England to pursue a career in music. Since then I have become an in-demand guitar teacher and session musician. I have toured all over the world, including the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. I have recorded with some of the most legendary musicians in heavy metal including Carmine Appice, Rudy Sarzo, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain, Derek Sherinian and many more.

I have signed a record deal as a solo artist and just released my debut album with Polish record label Metal Mind Productions. I'm also the guitarist for traditional heavy metal band White Wizzard (Earache Records). In my blog, I'm going to share my experiences as a session musician and independent artist and give advice to fellow musicians.

Finally, I'm going to talk about my guitar playing from a technical and music theory point of view. I am going to focus on and discuss in detail my influences who include Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore and John Sykes. I am also going to discuss, in detail, a major characteristic of my guitar playing: improvising. This is, in my opinion, an overlooked style of guitar playing in modern metal.

I would like to end this first blog post by sharing a music video for one of my songs that demonstrates my style of hard rock music:

If you have questions, email me directly at willwallner@hotmail.co.uk. You also can check out my website and White Wizzard's new official website.