Who is Tish Ciravolo?


The past twenty-one years has brought Daisy Rock Girl Guitars Founder and President, Tish Ciravolo, museum inductions, awards, motivational speeches to millions of girls, billions of media impressions touting the girl guitar revolution, the world’s first girl guitar/bass instructional books/CDs/DVDs, and appearances in Guitar Hero®/Band Hero™ games. Ciravolo has also propelled the girls’ rock empowerment message far beyond the music industry through licensing partnerships—on top of rocking stages all over the country with LOST '80's tours as a bass player with Gene Loves Jezebel and her husband's new supergroup gothic and dark wave band, BEAUTY IN CHAOS featuring members of The Cure, The Mission, Cheap Trick, Morris Day and the Time, Van Halen, to name a few.

  • PRESIDENT TISH CIRAVOLO

BACKGROUND/MUSICIAN

Tish grew up in Merced, California, where her best friend Barbara taught her to play the guitar while they attended El Capitan High School. Ciravolo was a quick learner and by age 16 was on tour with a band called Plateau. When playing in Kansas City with the group, she decided to stay in the city and enrolled in Penn Valley Community College as a journalism and business major. After receiving her degree, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she balanced a series of day jobs, with amateur night performances at The Improv and Comedy Store. Intent on being a rock star during those middle 1980s, she gravitated towards what would become her primary instrument: the bass.

Hopping from band to band and inching ever-closer but never getting to that elusive record deal, Ciravolo became the quintessential L.A. rock queen, playing in several bands including Rag Dolls, The Velvets (a female Psychedelic Furs-type outfit), They Eat Their Own (new wave pop), and eventually, her own group, Shiksa and the Sluts. Then she entered her “big hair metal phase,” hanging with the popular band Lypstik from 1988 to 1992. “We had a billboard on the side of the Roxy and everything,” she said. “We did the windmill head shaking routine when we played, which was big at the time. We were also the house band at the Whisky for a time, and played in the Battle of the Bitches at FM Station.”

DAISY ROCK GIRL GUITARS – Founder and President

Combining a lifelong passion for making music with a desire to “level the playing field” for dedicated female guitarists and bassists of all ages, Tish Ciravolo founded Daisy Rock Girl Guitars in 2000. Ciravolo’s dream that “every girl who wants to play guitar is welcomed and inspired to do so” is centered on the love she has for her two daughters, Nicole and Sophia. In a sense, Ciravolo’s daughter Nicole is the true visionary behind Daisy Rock. When Nicole was a year and a half old, she drew a picture of a daisy, and Tish was inspired to draw a neck on it. “I was enjoying her being a small, lovely child, not like so many other days when it feels like you are just trying to keep up,” Ciravolo said. “She drew a daisy, I turned it into a guitar, and my motherly, protective, musician self decided, in that frozen moment, to create a better experience for her in the music industry. Maybe one day she could walk into a music store and feel like she was welcome to be part of this ‘club,’ this culture, this awesome community of guitarists—regardless of gender. A community that I never felt welcomed into while being a musician in the ‘80s and ‘90s. This was my chance—my duty—to change the culture and provide her and all girls with a better, more inviting experience.”

Daisy Rock has also become the guitar of choice by famous professional artists from across the musical spectrum, including Wanda Jackson, Vicki Peterson, Lisa Loeb, Avril Lavigne, Joan Jett, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Louise Post (Veruca Salt), Miley Cyrus, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin,  Dolly Parton, Jackie Tohn Juliett Sims, and Kate Nash. Girls, however, aren’t the only ones having fun with Daisy Rock Guitars—Robert Smith, Jimmy Page, Chris Stein from Blondie, and Sylvain Sylvain from The New York Dolls loves them, too, as do Adam Levy (Norah Jones) and Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers).

Ciravolo’s focus on female empowerment and females in music has been immortalized by her induction into the Museum of Making Music—the world’s premier museum showcasing the history of the music products industry. In 2009, Tish participated in NAMM’s Oral History project and received Guitar Goddess Magazine’s “Trailblazer Award.” In 2010, Daisy Rock was inducted into The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ, and Tish received the Searchlight Scholar award from the Women's Executive Leadership Summit at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. In 2012, Tish Ciravolo was honored with the very first “She Rocks Award.” Ciravolo’s insight and expertise on girl guitars and female empowerment has made her a sought-after speaker at numerous conferences like Ted Talks, Musicians Institute, NAMM, NACA, and frequent contributor on national and international media outlets including USA TODAY, People, Time, Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, FOX, VH1, the Premier Radio Network, BBC Radio, and the Associated Press.  Tish Ciravolo is the reason more girls play guitar today.

FILM AND TELEVISION (Writer)

In Ciravolo’s past life, she had produced and written two independent films (The Wake, and The Birds & the Bees) and created dramedy sitcoms, full length feature films; treatments and pilots for 6 television projects and 3 animation show bibles.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS (Author)

Ciravolo’s commitment to empowering female musicians extends into the realm of book publishing and beyond. With print music publisher Alfred Music, she has released the award-winning titles: Girl’s Guitar Method, books 1 & 2, Girl’s Guitar Complete Method with Instructional DVD, Girl’s Bass Method and Girls Ukulele Method.

Tish is currently working on her non-fiction autobiography, THE G STRING release due in 2021.

CHARITY WORK/EMPOWERMENT

Ciravolo is also devoted to helping numerous causes including Make a Wish Foundation, VH-1 Save the Music, Los Angeles Women in Music and MusicCares to name a few. When her high school friend, Barbara, passed due to breast cancer in 2000, Ciravolo was inspired to donate liberally to breast cancer organizations such as Susan G. Komen, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, weSpark, and many others. Ciravolo has also promoted breast cancer awareness through national ad campaigns in which Ann and Nancy Wilson were extensively involved. She also spends tireless hours out in the community supporting the next generation of musicians by giving motivational and empowering speeches to girls everywhere, from elementary schools’ “career days” to summer rock camps like the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and DayJams Rock Music Camps.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ciravolo serves on numerous boards, including Songhub, The Museum of Making Music, The Pacific Music Management Advisory Board, the BLACK-E Advisory Board, and Game Nation Board,Women in Music Member, National Association of Professional Women.