Bedard rocking in guitar contest

Since July 1, “shredders” from all over the world have submitted videos to the Dean Guitars and Dimebag Darrell Estate “Shredder Search” in vying for more than $15,000 in prizes.
In a competition dominated by males, and also one that stretches to the far reaches of the globe, it’s perhaps surprising to see local teen Ravyn Bedard hitting the top 100 stats in the “video rated most often” category.
Bedard, 16, has been playing guitar for nine-and-a-half years and has never looked back.
To make it even cooler, this “femme fatale” is proud to say she’s entirely self-taught—only watching videos of legendary guitarists to educate her musical mind.
“Never, I’ve never taken a lesson,” she stressed. “I am self-taught all the way.”
It all started when she stumbled across her father’s old guitar. “My dad had an old guitar in the basement and I used to try and play that, but it was too heavy and I couldn’t lift it,” she recalled, noting her petite frame.
Eventually, her father bought her her very own guitar and, as they say, the rest is history.
“I really just like too play,” Bedard enthused. “And every day I just try to get better at anything I find that’s hard.
“I work at it every day,” she added. “I can play for five hours a day.”
So when Bedard went to www.deanguitars.com with only the intention to see what was new and found out the hot gossip was all about this new “shredder” contest, she instantly was ready to give it a go.
She got to practising and put together all of her favourite riffs she loves to play into a hard-core display of pure “shredder” talent. In her 60-second video, she rocked out pretty hard in front of her Marshall stack and showed off some tricky moves on her fretboard.
For most metal fans, the most impressive part about it is that she’s a girl.
“They think it’s kind of surprising to find out that I am a girl, for one, because most girls don’t usually play guitar or even the [kind of] guitar that I play,” she remarked.
But being female has never gotten in her way. In fact, Bedard proves girls can rock just as hard, if not harder, than most boys.
“It’s pretty fun. I don’t mind at all,” she said, assuring that being a female “shredder” has no disadvantages. “I just like how much fun you get from it.
“[Some people] think that because it’s really hard on your fingers and stuff like that, and it’s hard [skill-wise],” she added. “They think, ‘Wow! A girl can play this?’”
But mastering the skill—and sacrificing supple fingertips—is not all for nothing. Bedard revealed her true aspirations lie in hitting the stadium stage with the lights and the fans, and the 24/7 rocking out.
“Oh yah, I want to do that,” she enthused. “It looks like a lot of fun.
“I want to get into a career with this because I’m so happy doing it now that I know I just want to do it for the rest of my life.”
To Bedard, metal gives her an energy and a feeling that there’s just so much to play. She enjoys the number of challenging leads that are out there for her to learn and maybe one day master.
As for guitars in general, she applauds the electric guitar for its versatility.
“I like the way they are really wild and loud, and that there’s so much to do on them,” she explained. “If you want to learn piano, you can take that piano and put it on the guitar. So you can pretty much do anything you want.”
This guitar-wielding Pantera fan is in it for the long haul. Though she’s never so much as jammed with a band or been in a band, or even been on stage for that matter, Bedard is destined to get up there and show her stuff—marking this video as only the beginning.
And if anyone is curious, Bedard does not play “Guitar Hero” often. But when she does, she generally fails miserably.
“I am actually really bad at [‘Guitar Hero’] but then again, I don’t really play that game at all,” she noted. “I figure I could be playing the game or I could be playing my real guitar—so my real guitar always wins over that.”