School of Rock's National "PRS Shredfest" Champ Performs at PRS Guitars

Press release
Source: PRS Guitars

Paul Green School of Rock Music PRS Shredfest winner Paden Mullens performed during the Experience PRS 2007 open house concert on Friday, September 28 in Stevensville, Maryland. Paden, a 16-year-old guitar player and School of Rock Music Baltimore student from Harford County, Maryland, was the winner of a national shred competition hosted by the Paul Green School of Rock Music and sponsored by PRS Guitars earlier this summer in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Mullens competed with young guitar-playing School of Rock Music students from all over the country for the Shredfest title and received a CE22 model PRS guitar for winning the contest. PRS Guitars later invited Paden to play his CE22 during the all-star performance of PRS artists at PRS’ inaugural open house.

Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti hung out with Paden backstage before the Experience PRS performance. Tremonti spent more than an hour swapping guitar licks and sharing techniques with Paden, some of which included chord progressions for songs on Alter Bridge’s new release Blackbird, as a warm up to Paden’s first ever PRS hosted performance.

Blackbird, which arrived in stores on October 9, is the follow up to Alter Bridge’s debut Gold-certified album One Day Remains. The first single from Blackbird: “Rise Today” has quickly become the band’s fourth consecutive hit on rock radio by racing into the Top 20 within the first three weeks of release. Tremonti is accustomed to the spotlight, having performed and recorded with a band selling more than 30 million albums, but still found the time to offer guidance to an up-and-coming student guitar player.

“I had a great time playing with Paden,” said Mark Tremonti. “It was also great to see that much fire and enthusiasm in such a young guitar player. If he keeps it up, he is destined for greatness.”

During Paden’s Experience PRS performance introduction, Paul Smith addressed the audience of more than 700 open house attendees and said, “Basically, my hair is white. We’re all getting older, and we need to mentor as many young people as we can, and this is part of our process.”

After his performance at PRS, Paden said, “Winning the shred contest and being invited to play at the ‘Experience PRS’ open house is the most exciting thing to happen to me ever. Being there with all those great guitar players was really cool. Mark Tremonti was so awesome, and he showed me all kinds of great stuff. It was like being at a really long guitar lesson. Johnny Hiland said, ‘Good job kid’ after I was done playing onstage. How cool is that? I just want to thank Paul Reed Smith for supporting kids’ music programs like School of Rock. And if Paul [Smith] or Mark [Tremonti] or any of those guys would like me to play with them again, I will be there.”

Bryan Ewald, Paden’s guitar instructor and the music director at the Paul Green School of Rock Music Baltimore, said, “I have been working with Paden at the School of Rock for over a year now. He is tremendously devoted to his craft and although he has fantastic chops, more importantly, he is a very mature and melodic player. As a PRS artist myself, I was thrilled to see him win the CE22 in the 'PRS Shred Contest.' Such a talented, hard working kid deserves to be playing the absolute best.”

In addition to teaching for the School of Rock, Bryan Ewald is also one of the most preeminent guitar players in the Mid-Atlantic region and performs in several regional and touring bands such as Jarflys (with fellow PRS endorser Jimi Davies…a.k.a Jimi Haha of Jimmie’s Chicken Shack) Starbelly, Judd and Maggie and has been hired by artists such as Pat Dinizio (The Smithereens), The Supremes and The Temptations for various recordings and tours.

About Paul Reed Smith Guitars
Paul Reed Smith Guitars, a leading manufacturer of high-quality instruments in Stevensville, MD, has been providing some of the world’s most renowned guitarists with instruments since 1985. More than 200 highly skilled craftspeople produce more than 60 guitars each day for worldwide distribution. Carlos Santana, Dave Navarro, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson of Linkin Park, Chris Henderson of 3 Doors Down and Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge are among the many artists currently playing PRS guitars.

About Paul Green School of Rock Music
The Paul Green School of Rock Music is the original performance-based rock music school in the country for students aged 7 to 17. Founded by Philadelphia guitarist Paul Green in 1998, the Paul Green School of Rock Music is the subject of the documentary Rock School, which debuted at Sundance in 2005, went to national release, and regularly airs on A&E. It also served as the apparent inspiration for the Jack Black hit comedy, School of Rock. Built on Green’s philosophy that the best way to learn to play music is by actually doing it, the School of Rock program supplements weekly private lessons with group band practice in a highly challenging yet supportive environment. Dedicated to connecting the musicians of tomorrow to the classics of yesterday (students learn by playing classic rock ranging from the Beatles and Cream to Zappa and Zeppelin), the Paul Green School of Rock Music (www.schoolofrock.com) has expanded to thirty-one branches, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City, Austin and St. Paul, with further expansion in the pipeline.

Related Article
Modern Guitars Magazine at Experience PRS 2007

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