Index

You are on the Index page. Links to other pages are under Main Menu to the left. Click Information to find out all you need to know about learning music on the guitar with me. Some people have even said nice things about my work. To see what they said, click Testimonials. The "You should hear this" page is a list of works that I think everyone should listen to. For anything else click Contact.

Music in an integral part of our humanity. We respond to rhythm, melody and harmony. The "rules" don't take a degree in higher maths to understand, but they do form a logical and elegant system. Plus, you can break them without getting arrested! Seriously though, they give us a language for describing and analysing music, they can open our thinking to the various possibilities of what to play, and knowing the sounds of various musical constructs can help us to choose what to play in order to express ourselves.

It has been observed amongst children that those who study music exhibit better developed manual coordination, pattern recognition, counting and arithmetic skills, as well as cooperative/teamwork capability. People of all ages benefit from the social aspects of music making.

The guitar is cool. Django Reinhardt made it so in France. Across the pond, Charlie Christian convinced Benny Goodman that the instrument could do more than provide a strummed chord backup for soloists on wind instruments. It has been cool for teenagers ever since Scotty Moore did his thing with Elvis. Guitar heroes of all kinds (from the clean and perfectly controlled melodies of Hank Marvin to the wild wizardry of Jimi Hendrix) have inspired the young and not-so-young alike. Eric Clapton was called "god" for a while. It has also been cool for those of the classical persuasion since Andres Segovia transcribed a lot of JS Bach's music for the guitar and established it as a pukka concert instrument. The precision and agility of John Williams continue to define the standards required for world-class playing.

The guitar can accompany the singer/songwriter, with gentle chord strumming or delightful finger-picking (your mum will say, "That sounds nice, dear"). It can scream the most intense electric solos (your neighbours will cry, "Turn it down!"). It can play a melody and a bass line together, with other harmony notes placed judiciously in between. All this makes it a very versatile instrument. Not many other instruments can claim the same versatility and portability.