About me

HI there! So what can I tell you about me…?

Well, I began learning guitar as most of us do, locked away in a bedroom, learning from recordings of guitarists and artists I admired.

I was fortunate to have an ok musical ear. So although I was clueless about how music worked, I wasn’t too bad at figuring out guitar parts with a bit of work. After a brief proper job I realised that music was really what I wanted to do.

I moved to London to study music and by the time I’d finished, I discovered that I had become full-time guitarist and guitar teacher.

Taking up music was one of the best decisions of my life, and I feel very lucky to have been able to choose this path.

My music education

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have had some truly wonderful music mentors and guitar teachers. They’ve all taught me a great deal (and kicked my ass in their own unique ways!), for which I will always be very grateful.

Live performance

As a guitarist I’ve now performed many hundreds of gigs around the UK; in a wide range of sometimes bizarre settings.

Two memorable ones were: a 7am gig on a Harrods open top bus in central London; and another where I was balanced precariously on the roof of Basildon House in a DayGlo pink safety harness, playing the national anthem!

My guitar teaching

Guitar tuition london Teaching guitar is a large part of my life. It’s not something I do grudgingly to get by. Guitar teaching is a great career and a fulfilling part of my life. It’s also an ongoing opportunity for me to put my own techniques and knowledge under the microscope.

I’ve taught a very wide range of guitar skills to many hundreds guitarists of all levels, and I also taught courses for The Academy of Music and Sound.

Since I began teaching guitar professionally I’ve written several thousand pages of material covering many different aspects of guitar playing and performing. If you’re interested in taking lessons from me, just drop me a quick email.

If you’re interested in making a living as a guitar teacher, or just earning a bit extra on the side, then try my video course over at beaguitarteacher.com. In it you’ll learn everything that I’ve learned about how to make a good living teaching guitar.

Guitar articles

PRS article main image I’ve written many articles about learning, performing and teaching the guitar, which you can read on my articles page.

If you’d like to be notified when new articles are up, just add your email address to my mailing list. You’ll also receive a copy of my free eBook on how to completely revolutionise your practice regime.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about anything on this site, I’d be delighted to hear from you. Just drop me an email through my contact page.

Gear I usually use on gigs

Guitar

My 1990s Fender Stratocaster with Kinman noiseless Woodstock pickups.

I’ve had a lot of work done to it over the years, so it’s really a bit of a ‘Frankencaster’.

The pick ups are wired to allow neck and bridge together for Telecaster-esque sound.

Tone control T2 acts as volume control for neck pick up (but in reverse: 0 = full on, 10 = off!), tone control T1 acts as master tone control.

Amplifier

My gigging amp is a Morgan MVP 23. This great little amp sounds wonderful but has a secret weapon: a power dial!

What’s so special about a power dial? Well, unlike a master volume control, it allows you to dial back the post-power amp signal. In other words, your valves will still be cooking and providing that nice overdriven sound, but you can still turn the amp down independently of that, without affecting your tone.

How did it take so long for someone to come up with this?!

Pedalboard

I’m not massively into pedals. What I’ve ended up with here is not down a passion for pedals; rather it is the result of fixing little issues on gigs; a couple of boosts to poke my head above the band for single note parts, say.

The SP Compressor is always on; set low. For more about each of these pedals take a look at my Recommended Gear For Guitarists page where you’ll find detailed descriptions and links to buy them online.

Notice the yellow dots? I highly recommend them to indicate your default settings. They make setting up for a gig just that little bit quicker.

Signal chain

TC Electronic Polytune Noir Mini 2 – Xotic SP Compressor – MXR MC404 Wah – Friedman BE-OD Overdrive – Xotic RC Booster – Xotic EP Booster – Boss FV-500H Volume Pedal – TC Electronic Flashback Delay – TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb.

Strings

D’Addario EXL 120+ (.0095 .0115 .016 .026 .036 .046)

Yes, a pack of ‘9.5s’ as they’re known. I ended up here after snapping too many 9s, and not wanting to go back to 10s. For me they strike a great balance between tone and ‘bendability’.

Hardly any brands make them. Fortunately D’Addario do.