Ra Band Official Website
Bio - Ben Carroll
Ben Carroll, guitarist for the band Ra, born November 19, 1976, originally hails from Salisbury, MA. He grew up in a home rich with rock music... Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Police, the Doors, Black Sabbath, U2 were all regular sounds in his childhood home. Early on he took an active interest in music, jumping off the couch to "rawkkk!" He soon started playing music, beginning with the trumpet in the 3rd grade, quickly switching to piano. At the age of 11, he received an acoustic guitar as a gift from his uncle. With that fateful gift Carroll discovered his passion and soared, never looking back.
After graduating from Triton Regional High School in 1994, Carroll honed his "chops" while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. Despite the intense studying, he compares his experience at the prestigious school to "...being in Disneyland every day." But the temptation of taking a stab at the rock-n-roll big time proved exceedingly intense. It was a temptation that eventually drove him to leave Disney for the Hollywood Hills to try his luck in the scene that produced bands like Motley Crue and the Doors.
Finding himself unproductive in the L.A. scene for over a year Ben realized that there was a burgeoning rock scene back in his home state of Massachusetts. Bands like Godsmack and Staind were starting to make big waves in the same clubs where he attended shows growing up. So he packed it in and headed back home, and before long formed the band Absence of Faith with vocalist and local scene veteran Jimmy Garrity. Garrity would later take a hand in the rise of Ra, but for the next few years Carroll & Garrity played the local scene in MA & NH. In the fall of 2001 Absence of Faith disbanded and Ben began the painful search for a new band.
In January of 2002, after months of fruitless and frustrating searching, Ben stumbled upon an internet ad posted by a New Jersey band named Ra. "I took one listen to Sahaj's vocals and knew this gig was mine. So I drove down, auditioned and got the gig." With Ra now gearing up to release their 3rd full length studio album, Black Sun, the band is still a large part of Carroll's life.
As Ra is gearing up for the Sept. 9th release of Black Sun, Ben is also putting the final touches on an instrumental album that he has been casually tinkering with over the last few years, or "...whenever inspiration hits....It was always a childhood dream of mine to release an album that follows in the footsteps of guys like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. I am totally psyched to finish this record and finally realize that dream!" The solo album (yet to be named) will be released after Black Sun, but you can sneak a listen to a couple tracks at myspace.com/bencarrollguitar.
Besides his recording ventures, Ben has also been teaching guitar off and on for almost 15 years now. Currently, he is teaching guitar out of his home studio in Southbridge, MA. With the many years of experience and schooling under his belt, Ben continually seeks new ways to engage each student. He custom designs each lesson with the pupil in mind ~ not just lecturing out of a Guitar 101 book. "I try to follow the direction that the student is most interested in...whether it is technique, song writing and recording, theory...whatever, but eventually I try to tie them all together."
With Southbridge, MA being too small for the aspirations of a rock star, Ben is gearing up to take his instruction international with the launch of an online music instruction website, the American Rockstar Academy. (americanrockstaracademy.com) He is co-founding this ground breaking site, with Shadows Fall guitarist Jon Donais. A.R.A. will offer live, one-on-one, music instruction with successful musicians, such as Donais and Carroll, via a web cam. "It is going to be an amazing opportunity for people who want to learn their instrument from the musicians that they look up to. I wish I'd had an opportunity like this as a kid!"
With the launching of 2 records and an instructional website, 2008 is looking to be a great year for the Ra guitarist.
NEW: Monthly Ra guitar lesson workshop with Ben Carroll.
TAB and VIDEO!
Every month I will be discussing a new Ra song and teaching you how to play it!
Each lesson package consists of a complete TAB of the song, plus separate TAB examples for the sections being discussed in detail. Also comes with videos of me playing the complete song at tempo, plus slower tempo videos of the parts being talked about in detail. (I will also show how to play 7 string guitar parts on a 6 string if applicable.)
This months song is "Sky."
Get the "Sky" guitar lesson with COMPLETE TAB & VIDEO right now!
