Acoustic & Electric Guitars
My Knowledge of the Instruments
My History
How It All Began
I joined the army as a military musician in 1983 on trombone, whilst also being able to offer classical guitar. Although I was used for cocktail parties at the officers’ mess, there wasn’t much call for a classical guitarist, and so I was used in the military band’s pop band on electric.
The transition from classical to electric was initially hard for me, as I was used to using fingers to pluck the strings and electric guitar required the use of a plectrum. That compounded with the fact that the fretboard of an electric guitar is thinner than that of a classical made my initial efforts tricky.
I persevered and after a while became very competent, swapping from electric to bass guitar depending on what other instrumentalists were available in the military band at the time. On leaving the army, I transferred my skills on electric guitar over to acoustic guitar and have been teaching both disciplines since 2005.
Lessons
What is involved
Lessons are delivered covering both rhythm reading using standard notation, and tablature reading (a graphical representation of where to put the fingers on the fretboard). Please note, I don’t teach the singing and strumming style of guitar!
For beginners, I use the “Progressive Guitar Method Book 1 (Tablature)” or “Rockschool: Let’s Start Playing Now” as a guide and once the basics are learnt I then move over to the Rockschool syllabus for electric guitar and the Trinity College syllabus or Rockschool syllabus for acoustic guitar (dependent on whether the student has leant purely notation or notation and tab). These books are great, whether you want to take a grade or not, and cover original compositions especially written for the syllabus, as well as more contemporary well-known pieces from popular artists.
