By 
André van Eck, a South African guitarist and bassist has recently published a guitar and bass guide titled, From Beginner to Excelling at Guitar & Bass.
Van Eck started playing guitar at the age of 15 and was tutored by Leon Barnard, former guitarist of the 1970s nationally successful band The Silence as a teen. Additionally, Van Eck has also completed a course in music theory online via the Open University in the United Kingdom.
At the age of 18 and in his final year of high school in 2005, he co-founded a blues trio called Triple A with himself on guitar that included Alwyn Jordaan the drummer of legendary bands Raaskopleef and Delta Blue. Here they opened for well-known band Akkedis.
In 2007 and 2008 he was the co-lead guitarist of hard rock band Jack ‘n Jill. As part of the band, he performed at the 2007 Klein Karoo National Arts Festival at the age of just 20.
In 2008, he also appeared in an interview and in live footage on the website of American music magazine, Spin as part of Jack ‘n Jill. He has three songwriting credits on the band’s album, Once and he wrote the main guitar riff of the song “Becky Sharp” when he was just 17 and still in Grade 11 in Montana High School in Worcester.
During 2024 he was the bassist for singer, Anja’s live band. Anja’s music has received millions of views on Facebook and TikTok and nearly half a million streams on YouTube. He also appears in the music video of her 2024 single, “Chevy” as the bassist during the band scenes.
Van Eck has also taught guitar and bass lessons on a freelance basis. Here several of his students went on to play in bands while the rest of his students either became accomplished or at very least adequate players.
The book includes tips and advice as well as music theory for advancing as a guitarist or bassist. Van Eck also details his own musical journey as a musician in the introduction and says that he hopes that the book will not only educate the next generation of South African guitarists and bassists but that it will also inspire them if they should like to venture into the music industry like he did.
He is currently focusing on performing with his blues band, The André van Eck Blues Band. The band plays music from a variety of genres relating to blues music including blues, blues rock, blues pop and jazz blues. His future musical plans include to release an instrumental guitar album and to collaborate with different artists across a range of different musical genres from both South Africa and abroad as a guitarist, bassist and songwriter.
From Beginner to Excelling at Guitar & Bass is available via Amazon.
