www.GeorgeBellas.com
George Bellas is a Guitarist, Composer and Educator. He plays guitar, bass and keyboards and composes neoclassical and progressive rock music as well as pure classical and jazz. A very early source of musical knowledge and inspiration for George was Walter Piston's 'Harmony' and 'Counterpoint' books along with Ted Greene's Single Note Jazz Guitar books. All George's compositions are written on staff paper before ever even picking up a guitar. His compositions incorporate a diverse amount of musical elements which include; improvised solos; odd meters and complex rhythms; classical harmony; classical counterpoint; jazz harmony; ultra modern harmony; dense orchestrations that utilize many orchestral instruments; lyrical melodies and outlandish song forms.
Within his equipment arsenal George uses: Gibson Flying V's, Fender 1957 Stratocasters, Gibson 1960 Goldtop Les Pauls, Ovation Acoustics, Fender Basses, Dean Markley strings, Jim Dunlop JazzIII picks, Korg tuners, Mogami cables, Marshall JCM900 and Marshall MKII amplifiers, Marshall speaker cabinets, Sure SM57 microphones, AKG micrphones, Ibanez Tube Screamers, Focusrite Red Series mic preamps, Apogee converters and Wordclocks, Coleman Audio 5.1 sound distribution, Mackie and Soundcraft mixers, Mackie HR824 studio monitors, Apple computers, RME sound cards, Logic Pro software, Alesis and Studiologic Keyboards, Auralex sound insolation.
In the very beginning... George Bellas started playing guitar at the age of 7, on a Classical guitar his father had bought him. On the way home from getting the guitar, in the back seat of the car, George started to play. When he got home, he ran all around the neighborhood playing his new guitar. The next day at school, George checked out every single music book in the school library, went home, and began his quest to obtain an absolute understanding of every detail in music theory. George began practicing and studying really hard at first, to the point of which his fingers began bleeding. He would put band-aids on them and continue practicing. His influences include: J.S.Bach, L.V.Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Paganini, Debussey, Walter Piston, Ted Greene, Robin Trower, Montrose, Van Halen, Michael Schenker, Dream Theater, Magellan, Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker and many more musicians, artists, scientists and mathematicians.
George began performing live very early on, and gigged extensively with his bands: Union Jack, Destiny, FreeFall and Prodigy, while continually studying Music Theory, Harmony, Rhythm, Counterpoint and Form. George began teaching guitar in his early teens and opened a school of music called "Prodigy's School Of Music". During this time he continued to perform live with his bands and compose a seemingly endless amount of music. George had an attraction towards Classical counterpoint and odd rhythms very early on and are now a unique signature of his style.
George's compositions include progressive odd-meter/ exotic scale music, Neoclassical, straight forward rocking vocal tunes and pure Classical, orchestral /soundtrack music. George exhibits great technical prowess and a beautiful sense of melody, harmony and finesse.
George sent demos of his compositions to Shrapnel Records and President Mike Varney immediately recognized George's talent and versatility. He signed George to a solo deal and flew him out to California to record his first album. The musicians were: Deen Castronova - Drums, Kevin Chown - Bass, Matt Guillery - Keyboards, Brad Kaiser - Drums, Mike McCarron - Drums, George Bellas - Guitar, Bass, Keyboards. He recorded in December of 1996 and his first album "TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM" was set to be released on May 21,1997.
Shortly after signing with Shrapnel Records, George got a call from Mike Varney asking him if he would be interested in joining UFO. Phil Mogg and Pete Way decided on George after hearing George's playing and song writing. George began travelling to Pete Way's house and began writing and arranging the songs with both Phil Mogg and Pete Way. After meeting several times and developing the songs, it was time to fly out to San Francisco and record the album. The recording took place in February 1997 at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, CA. The band consisted of Phil Mogg-Vocals, Pete Way-Bass, Ansley Dunsbar-Drums, George Bellas-Guitar with special guest Eric Martin-Vocals (Mr. Big). Due to legal reasons, that were un-resolvable at the time, the band went under the name MOGG/WAY and released their first album entitled "EDGE OF THE WORLD".
And in between those 2 albums George managed to write a bunch of songs and record an album for John West entitled "MIND JOURNEY". That album was recorded in January of 1997 and again at Prairie Sun Recording Studios as well as at James Murphy’s Sound Temple Studio. The album was released in May of 1997 on Shrapnel Records.
George finished his 4th album for Shrapnel Records in November of 1997. It is an all instrumental neoclassical album, rich in classical counterpoint and ripping guitar. The line up was: Deen Castronova-Drums, Barry Sparks-Bass and George Bellas-Guitar & Keyboards. This album is titled "MIND OVER MATTER" and was released in February of 1998.
George also composed music for the 2nd John West CD entitled "PERMANENT MARK" which was released in the 2nd quarter of 1998.
In March of 1998 world famous classical pianist Vitalij Kuprij flew to Chicago to record an all instrumental album entitled "EXTREME MEASURES" for Shrapnel Records. George engineered all the keyboard and guitar tracks at his studio. The album is neoclassical in style and is a showcase of mind boggling chops performed by the two virtuosos along with Jon Doman - Drums and Jon Onder - Bass, quite an incredible performance!!!
Early 2001 George recorded "The Oracle" with the new band "Ring Of Fire". The band members were Mark Boals-Vocals, Vitalij Kuprij-Keyboards, Virgil Donati-Drums, Philip Bynoe-Bass, George Bellas-Guitar. Tracks were cut in Chicago, Steve Vai's "The Mothership" studio, Eric Norlanders "Think Tank Media Studio" as well as "The Green Room". The album is a fierce collection of well crafted songs with very nice Neo-classical melodies, chord progressions and great virtuosic performances by everyone. Any fan of the Neo-classical style should definitely have a listen to "The Oracle".
4th quarter 2001 George completed a 12 CD-ROM guitar course called "The George Bellas Instructional Series". This series is for anybody interested in developing better guitar technique. The course will continue to be updated and expanded upon as new technologies become available.
During the Fall of 2002, George recorded and released another album called "Hundred Year Flood" with the progressive rock group "Magellan". The band members are Trent Gardner-Keyboards/Vocals, Tony Levin-Bass, Joe Franco-Drums, Ian Anderson - Flute, George Bellas-Guitar and others. The album ‘Hundred Year Flood’ was released September 10, 2002 on Magna Carta Records.
During January 2003, Bellas Music Studio Inc., George's primary media production company, released several music education software titles: EarTraining 1.5, GuitarPaper 1.2, Metronome 1.0, StudioLog 1.0 and GuitarTuner 1.0 for Mac OS X. A set of music tools written by George Bellas. The George Bellas Instructional Series continues to gain increasingly popularity amongst an army of students and educators worldwide.
June 2003, George Bellas signs with Lion Music. George’s album “Venomous Fingers”, is released November 18, 2003 on Lion Music and picks up stellar reviews over the globe.
2007 sees George gearing up to release 2 new albums on Lion Music, one a new vocal project entitled ‘Palace Terrace’ - and the other, a new solo album entitled ‘Planetary Alignment’.
In June 2008 George completes his new album "Step Into The Future". The album will be the most massive body of music that George has ever released. It will be released worldwide on the Lion Music record label.
