• ½-hour, 45-minute, or 1-hour lessons for all ages
• Reasonable rates, discounts available for series
• Lessons at student’s house or Stockbridge studio
I’ve performed and taught guitar for over 25 years in the US and England. I’ve loved the guitar all my life – I played my father’s 4-string tenor when I was 7 and was given my first 6-string at 11. Over the years I’ve played many kinds of musi
c and I’m versatile in a number of styles: blues, traditional jazz, folk, progressive rock, and classical. I have a deep appreciation of music of many genres – from the plainsong Latin chants of mediaeval monasteries, to the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, through to blues, jazz, rock, fusion and beyond. inspire an understanding and appreciation of the versatility of the guitar and teach the skills to play the songs you know and love, as well as the rudiments of reading . . . so you can discover the seam of your own creativity – to compose, improvise, express the power and beauty of music on an instrument that’s so accessible and has such limitless potential for depth, subtlety and mojo!
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More about me . . . From my high school years at Eton in England I played rock and blues in one band after another. When I left school, I took up the acoustic steel-string guitar and then fell in love with the 12-string. It was a time of easy going jamming in London’s Hyde Park, meeting musicians, trading ideas. Then from 1975 on, I worked extensively with Nick Howard, a keyboardist who had been with Peaches, a progressive rock band from Yorkshire. We wrote and recorded an instrumental album, Beckett and Howard, produced by Bugatti and Musker with Johnny Stirling of Pendulum Music. We finished the album a few weeks before the S*x Pistols burst on the scene, and the birth of punk changed the landscape. took over the family sheep farm in Yorkshire, got married, had a family, etc. Played some local gigs in Yorkshire during that time but didn’t really get back to the music scene till the 1990s when I moved back to London. I was following a spiritual path and started a band with friends there – the FACE Band. I played guitar and keyboards, composed music and lyrics. Then I moved to the US in 2000 to work with nonprofit EnlightenNext based in Lenox. I’ve been playing and teaching in the Berkshires since then, and continue to study myself with classical guitar master Ed Flower. I live in Stockbridge with my wife Mariken – a harpsichordist and piano teacher.
