Recently I was invited to attend a shred guitar masterclass presented by guitar virtuoso Igor Paspalj in Singapore. This was organized by my friend Anthony Poi who previously organized the Felix Martin Singapore Guitar Masterclass back in May 2024 (reviewed here).
This Igor Paspalj event was at The Flying V Metal Bar, The Adelphi in Singapore on Thursday October 30th 2025, and lucky me — I was available to attend the event!
Long story short, Anthony (the organizer) graciously extended an invitation to attend and also covering the travel costs, accommodation (stayed as a guest at his place!), sight seeing and treated me to delicious vegan food.
I mean, honestly, who would say no to that?
So that’s a bit of the back story. But let’s go into the masterclass.
Firstly, the venue.
It was at The Flying V Metal Bar, which is literally like the best place ever for this kind of rock/metal/shred masterclass/workshop setting. The place was full of rock concert posters and totally screamed rock and roll from each corner of the room. Space wise, it was intimate, meaning not that many people could fit to watch the event. But, what that meant was, we were so close to Igor and really had a unique experience.
I’ve attended many masterclasses, and sometimes you are in a big hall where you could be mostly watching the artist from a huge screen instead of staring at their fingers directly. This venue? We could feel the shred energy coming out from each blistering speed run. It was good!
Secondly, let’s talk about the sound.
Yes, I have to say there were some technical hiccups during the event. But personally it didn’t disrupt the flow of the actual event. I really enjoyed the sound and demonstrations that Igor did throughout. In fact, volume wise – it was super pleasant. I know rock and roll is supposed to be super loud, but I believed that Igor chose the right volume where we could enjoy the music and still rock out without hurting our ears.
Thirdly, what about the actual teaching and content?
I was already familiar with Igor’s playing and teaching previously via his videos online and teaching on JTC Guitar… but nothing prepared me to see his playing up, close and uber personal. This man should have his picture next to the dictionary definition of virtuoso because I rarely see this level of musicality and precision for this style in person. I learned so much from watching him play, explain about his techniques, how he practices, his picking tips, improvisation, composition, tone and details in his playing. He also talked about mindset and a lot of practical things we might not usually think about.
If I had to take three big tips that I personally got from the session was how he used a pick, using the same side of the pick every time so that it creates the right kind of surface to cut through the string effectively.
The second major tip was how he did not change his pick angle when he did sweep picking from the treble strings to the bass string so that it would be efficient.
The third tip was to always practice with the actual tone you want to play the lines with.
This personally was something I discovered awhile back when I finally wanted to get better at high gain rock sounds and realized that if I get the right kind of sound and the right kind of guitar + setup, it’s much easier to achieve those kinds of sounds.
All in all, this masterclass was worth the 2 days plus I spent in Singapore, despite some hiccups with my own travel arrangements (had to leave much earlier to go back to Kuala Lumpur), it was worth the trip.
Kudos to everyone involved in making this masterclass happen. I am grateful to be able to attend it and happy to meet all the cool guitarists who was there at the event.
Truly, it was a great masterclass by Igor Paspalj in Singapore!
Thank you Anthony Poi for organising this amazing session, for inviting and hosting me. Great to see Elgin Huang Jiale again as well, and always awesome to catch up with Lau Kwun Chung.
Pros: Great masterclass by an amazing virtuosic and thoughful player, in a beautiful setting.
Cons: The session felt like it could have gone longer. Hopefully there will be an opportunity for longer masterclasses (perhaps by Igor again?) in the future.
TLDR: If you like shred guitar, you probably would have enjoyed this masterclass!
Special thanks to Electus Academy, Anthony Poi (organiser for the clinic) and Igor Paspalj for making this session happen. Much thanks to Anthony Poi for extending an invitation to come all the way to Singapore and catch this amazing masterclass.
All clinic photos taken by the amazing Elgin Huang Jiale & courtesy of Anthony Poi. Thank you!
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