Monica Valli
With a refreshing guitar style that oozes with soul and authenticity, Nashville + Austin-based Monica Valli has been making a name for herself within the guitar community and beyond.
Monica’s path has been interesting and inspiring…
She was first introduced to guitar at 8 years old. She took lessons, played for a year, and ended up giving it up to focus on just being a kid.
At age 15, she picked it back up, and by age 16 she was playing bluesy dive bars around her hometown of St. Louis.
Her dedication and talent led her to Berkeley College of Music to further develop her skills. After graduating, she moved to Nashville and started a successful career as a hired-gun guitarist & backup vocalist for a wide range of artists across various genres.
Dive bars turned into theaters and bigger venues, and extensive touring and studio work gave her a ton of experience, helping her develop her own voice as a guitar player.
When the Covid-19 pandemic put the live music world on hold, Monica started restructuring her musical path. In addition to developing her songwriting and recording her own original music, she started building an online presence.
She started doing some online live streams playing guitar, and also started teaching guitar lessons - including through a great Patreon page where she posts guitar licks and tricks, covers, and behind the scenes content.
Monica has also become a force on Instagram, where she currently has 186k followers. In addition to posting great videos of her soulful guitar playing, guitar brands (including Fender) have taken notice, and partner with her to showcase their new products.
Monica recently released her debut single, "Roam," a folk-rock song that showcases her wonderful guitar work and alluring songwriting.
Key Gear:
- Fender Blues Jr. amp
- Fender Telecaster
- Fender Stratocaster
- Gibson Les Paul with P90 pickups