As musicians, left handed guitar players included, we all know of the thousands of "upload your music and be discovered" web sites out there. They are all basically the same. Upload three or so songs for free and get on their charts. They also have a premium account, and for a few bucks a month you can get an edge by uploading more music and seeing your songs magically move up in the charts. You can also pay a few bucks more to be featured on the home page for a day. The charts are mostly worthless to anyone but the musicians themselves. I would guess that at least 75% of listeners and members of these sites are musicians and the rest are fans of members going along for the ride to keep their musician friends egos pumped. Does that sound fair?

Now that I've gotten that out of the way left handed guitarists, let me tell you about TalentTrove. They are a New Jersey based site who's name tells it all. They allow anyone to show off their talent on the net from music, videos, songwriting, theatre, all the way to culinary arts. If it's a human talent they've got a spot for it. All they ask is that your work be original and not stolen, borrowed, or contrived. I'll just talk about the music side. Their membership is 37% musicians which leaves 63% for other arts and fans of the arts. Those are better odds than just having other musicians listening to your music. Fans are what you want, not competing musicians.

They offer a level platform for all artists to perform upon. If you want to be featured on the home page, just ask. All they ask in return is that you become involved in the site and make yourself known. Contribute to the forums and make friends. No money involved. You don't have to grease somebody's palm to get on the front page, but they do have to be discreet in their determination.

This brings me to the guitar contest lefties. This month is the Michael Kelly Guitar Contest sponsored by TalentTrove. The contest will launch on June 15th at 10:00 AM EDT and run until Midnight July 15th. First prize is a Michael Kelly Custom Patriot electric guitar and $500 cash. Second prize is a Michael Kelly Nostalgia 60 SJCE acoustic guitar. Click here for details.

Chances are that the two winning guitars are not left handed guitars, but that's OK if you play a right handed guitar left handed upside down, we can play it anyway. That's what my site is all about.