A Little Bit About My Journey So far…
How it started…
Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, I started out playing the guitar at the ripe old age of 4, and like many guitarists, played classic rock tunes. I had 4 teachers between the ages of 7-14 that taught me songs from The Beatles, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Green Day and Bon Jovi. There was even the odd occasion where my teachers would throw me a few famous classical pieces such as “Fur Elise”, “Canon In D” and “Romanza”. It’s fair to say that I was way out of my depth with those pieces…
Fair to say I had the quintessential teenage boy starter pack covered”; sweatpants, posters of my favourite sportsmen on the wall, and practising guitar on my bed!
The Moment Everything Changed…
At 13, I found myself stuck in a rut, with my passion for guitar wavering when I randomly stumbled along a video on YouTube titled “Classical Gas - Tommy Emmanuel”… I would never ever see the guitar the same way ever again, and that sparked a fire in me to go and learn everything about this new style of guitar playing.
I set myself on learning fingerstyle guitar songs from pioneers such as Andy McKee, Don Ross, Adam Rafferty and of course Tommy Emmanuel! Around the same time, there was a booming community of guitarists sharing their performances on Youtube, so I joined in the chorus and began making Youtube videos!
I can’t say I don’t cringe when I watch my older videos, but it reminds me of how far I’ve come and that everyone needs to start from somewhere!
After finishing high school in 2015, I travelled around the globe to meet, learn and play with some of my heroes. There is no substitute for learning directly from the source and the life lessons I learnt from my heroes continue to inspire me everyday.
I met and played with Tommy Emmanuel and his late brother, Phil Emmanuel at the Tommy Emmanuel Guitar Camp in 2016. One of the most inspiring weeks of my life!
A weekend with Mike “Shaggy” Dawes as a part of his one on one “Cottage Clinic” in 2017. We got a bit crazy in the end, but I sure learnt a great deal about “percussive fingerstyle guitar” and “composing” for solo guitar.
Deciding to Pursue Teaching…
Following my travels, I came back to Sydney ready to “get myself out there”. Whilst slugging it out at every gig I could get my hands on including open mics, weddings, markets, even yoga retreats! I began teaching locally in Sydney. Even though I had my sights set on performing around the world, teaching gave me a new challenge that eventually turned into an unexpected passion. Gradually, 5 students turned to 10, 10 to 15 and 15 to 20, and by 2017 I was teaching 30 students a week! I turned to full time teaching in 2018, and in 2020 got accepted into the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, majoring in Music Education in Jazz Performance.
Here’s Nicholas, one of my first students when I started teaching in 2015. Many of you guitar nerds would know who https://www.justinguitar.com/, as I bought one of his songbooks to help start my teaching.
My Vision For My School…
Since 2017, I’ve taught over 150 students privately across Sydney and out of those 150, about half of them have been bitten by the “fingerstyle guitar” bug. Whilst fingerstyle guitar is still relatively unknown in Australia, it is definitely growing in interest with new students of mine asking to teach them how to play like “Tommy Emmanuel” or “Andy McKee”. From a guitar playing perspective, my dream is to build the best online platform to learn fingerstyle guitar and to create the first-ever guitar school in Australia dedicated to modern fingerstyle guitar. Fingerstyle Guitar has helped me, along with thousands of guitarists around the world, realise the limitless potential that the guitar has to offer and ultimately the immense power that music can have on the world. As Tommy Emmanuel once said, when you are a musician, whether you are performing or teaching, you are in the “happiness business”. In more ways than none, fingerstyle guitar has a created a unity like no other that blurs the lines between genres, gender, age, culture and traditions.
Despite the plethora of resources on the internet, music education has become more and more academic and so often I’ve had students question whether they are “good enough” to play the guitar. Through pioneers like Tommy Emmanuel and Andy McKee, Fingerstyle Guitar has created a legacy that is not just about pushing the boundaries of guitar playing, but also about using that as a catalyst to push yourself to be the best musician you can be, and ultimately the best person you can be. For me, this creates the perfect formula for living a happy life, and making people around you be happy from your family to the music-goer who stumbles across your music.
Heading into 2022, a new chapter in my music journey has begun and I know I have a long way to go before I achieve my crazy dream. But what I do know is that the community that fingerstyle guitar has created around the world, is incredibly supportive, passionate and loving. No matter who you are or where you’ve come from in life, fingerstyle guitar will change your life in some way shape or form. It certainly changed my life all those years ago, and with my school, I will continue to carry the legacy that has been created by the great fingerstyle guitarists of our generation.
