New Page 1

Electric

Electric Guitar

I play the electric and steel strung acoustic guitar and teach blues, rock, pop, metal styles and associated theory, harmony, chords, soloing, techniques. Pretty much everything from the last 40+ years that you'd hear on Radios 1 & 2, G.W.R., Kiss and Magic. I put special emphasis on the last five years as that's what most of my students would be familiar with. But some of the oldies are always around. Almost every student will ask to learn to play 'Smoke on the Water', 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'The 007 Theme' and plenty more of that sort of solo guitar standard.

If you want classical, flamenco, jazz, or Latin, I have occasionally taught these styles and even went over to Jerez, Spain in November 2004 to take a course in flamenco. But what I learnt was the need to focus and not spread my styles so widely. I was even invited back to Spain - "wow, I must have really impressed them with my progress....." but no - this was to play the blues - "Chris you're Flamenco is, how you say in England, Crap?" I'm focusing on rock, blues, metal and pop, alongside some finger-style and bluegrass flatpicking.

Mostly, I get asked to teach what students hear regularly from their CD collection and the radio; pop, blues, metal and rock - the ballads, anthems and standards. The sort of tracks you hear in the charts or on those 'best of ' guitar albums. If that's your vibe, you're in the right place.

Playing and Teaching

I play AND teach. I'm an experienced, regular live player - that means I understand what's important and what's not so I can get you playing well as soon as possible. If you want to do the exams, we can focus you on what will get you through.

Tuition and Exams - Options and Costs

	£12 per 30 minutes or £22 an hour
	These costs include a lot of support material but not the costs for books and CD / DVDs you might want to use.
	You can take lessons weekly, 2 weekly or big chunks of 3-4 hours every three months or so - I have students who do all of these.
	If you want to do exams, I tend to teach the Trinity syllabus which is the "Rockschool" set of exams up to Grade 3 or 4 and then the RGT Grade Exams from Grade 4 up to Grade 8. Trinity and Guildhall have recently amalgamated and I like the materials and the way in which you can learn pieces rather than just improvising to chord sets. You don't need to read standard notation either. But later on as you get through Grade 4 you'll be wanting to express yourself more freely. The RGT exams reflect playing in a band and the challenges of impromptu playing better than set pieces.