Bibi McGill Beyonce’s Guitarist and Music Director
Inspired by Earth, Wind and Fire and the Isley Brothers, Bibi McGill started learning guitar when she was 12 years old and taught herself how to play hard, rock-based sounds. She’s gone on to play for huge artists like Pink and Beyonce and was in fact Beyonce’s musical director. With her unique beauty and outrageous tattoos she has done modeling and has landed roles in commercials for companies like Heineken, Motorola and Nike. So, she can model, but can she play?
Duh! Bibi McGill has a natural energy and style in her guitar playing that rivals the best guitar rockers out there today. Her view on being a female guitarists are very grounded. She doesn’t care what people think and is very confident in herself. All she wants to be is the best guitar player she can be, male or female. Check out this video of her playing for Beyonce.
She can usually be seen playing a Gibson Les Paul (in a variety of colors and sparkle factor), but can be seen playing other guitars including Ovation Acoustic guitars.
After touring all around the world she got tired of the crazy rock-n-roll lifestyle and decided to put the guitar away for awhile and switch gears. Well, we know that anyone who plays guitar that well never really puts it down, but, her love for Yoga and eating healthy have taken her down a different path. She studies Yoga in one of the most respected teacher training courses; Centered Yoga Thailand. Only 28 students are selected around the world and Bibi was one of them. She now teaches Yoga full time in Portland Oregon but still works as Beyonce’s lead guitarist and musical director. On top of that, she has developed a line of snack chips called Bibi’s Kale Chips. Look for them in your local health food store. And, if you’re in Portland, look her up for a killer Yoga lesson or check out her yoga web site.
Yoga and kale chips are great but we can’t wait to hear more guitar licks from this incredibly talented woman.
Simply known as Orianthi, she was born in Australia in 1985 and grew up surrounded by music. Her father was a musician and had several guitars laying around the house, so it was only a matter of time before young Orianthi picked one up and learned to play.
Oranthi can be seen playing a Gibson Songwriter Deluxe cutaway which is her favorite acoustic and you’ll also see her playing PRS or Paul Reed Smith electric guitars.
Orianthi has two famous people to thank for her musical career, Carlos Santana and Michael Jackson. When she was 11 years old she saw Santana in her hometown and was so inspired she moved on from the acoustic guitar to shredding on the electric. Nine years later, when Santana came back through town, she was invited to help to a sound check prior to the concert. Carlos was so impressed with her talent that he invited her to play on stage and she ended up playing for 35 minutes which included a solo in front of a home town crowd. That was step one in getting her name and talents out to the masses.
Her second big break came when she auditioned for Michael Jackson’s “This is It” tour. Out of over 100 guitarists, she was chosen to play with his band and tour the globe. Unfortunately, Jackson’s death put an end to that tour, but it still gave Orianthi the exposure she needed and she is featured in the movie “This is It”. It seems everyone wants to know who that girl is that played in that movie.
Since then, she has had a couple of hits and has played with some big time guitarists and can hold her own with the best of them. For her solo career producers have played on her young attractiveness and decent singing voice and turned her into a typical pop star. One difference is that she’s not stuck just playing rhythm guitar, but she shreds the solos in all her songs on stage. Let’s hope she is able to continue focusing on her guitar playing and not turn into just another girl singer with a guitar around her neck.
Being young, in her mid twenties, I’m certain we will see plenty more of Orianthi and we can look forward to hearing her team up with musicians all around the world.
Michael Jackson’s Guitar Player. Jennifer Batten was Michael Jackson’s solo guitarists in the 90′s and completed 3 world tours with him and his incredibly skilled band. Being chosen to play in Michael’s band says a lot, simply because he insisted on perfection in his music and had an incredible work ethic and drive to get the music sound just the way he wanted. Jennifer was chosen out of a group of 100 guitarists for Michael’s “Bad” tour in 1987 and went on to do the “Dangerous” tour and “HIStory” in the 90′s. She also played with him during his Super Bowl half time performance with was viewed by billions of people all over the globe. Jackson changed Batten’s look and gave her that trademark crazy blond hair that is so recognizable now, although she doesn’t wear her hair that way anymore. But, hey, it was the ’80′s and big hair was the thing back then.
After her stint with Jackson, she jumped on a solo career and put out an album called “Above, Below and Beyond”. She also played guitar on numerous hit songs in the late ’09′s and went on to tour for 3 years with Jeff Beck.
Jennifer Batten has a very eclectic playing style and lately has been experimenting with technology and multi-media to enhance her playing. She uses a multitude of Digitech equipment to get a bucket load of effects into her songs. You will see her do a lot of finger tapping which gives her that incredible speed while maintaining a clean sound. So many guitarists who play speed guitar can only do so with a ton of distortion which hides your mistakes, but Jennifer has perfected her tapping technique to the point where she blasts through a pentatonic arpeggio scale and record speed without missing a note. She doesn’t just play guitar, but she knows music theory inside and out and can apply her knowledge to her musical creations. I you ever get a chance to listen or see her live, don’t pass it up. She one of the best electric guitar players around, male or female.
Inspired by Earth, Wind and Fire and the Isley Brothers, Bibi McGill started learning guitar when she was 12 years old and taught herself how to play hard, rock-based sounds. She’s gone on to play for huge artists like Pink and Beyonce and was in fact Beyonce’s musical director. With her unique beauty and outrageous tattoos she has done modeling and has landed roles in commercials for companies like Heineken, Motorola and Nike. So, she can model, but can she play?
