A.J is a highly respected music tutor having taught for 20 years. Before moving to London he taught guitar at Leeds College of Music. He now teaches at two prestigious London Schools, for Guitar Weekends and produces online music tuition videos on his YouTube Page.

GUITAR WEEKENDS

Guitar Weekends has been teaching all-things-guitar since 1994. Our objective is for players to simply ‘learn, play, be motivated and have fun’. We run both online and residential courses, covering:

  • Specific styles such as Blues, Rock, Country, Folk, Jazz, etc.

  • Generic stepping stones from Beginners to Strugglers and then Improvers covering core techniques and theory

  • Fundamentals such Rhythm, Improvisation, Chord Harmony, Fingerstyle and Performance

  • Cross-overs such as Blues to Jazz, Country to Rock as well as Themed courses which look at specific artists and their songs

  • Niche subjects such as Maintenance and Arranging and many others

I began teaching for them in 2015 and my courses include:

RESIDENTIAL AND DAY COURSES

  • Performance masterclasses

  • Rhythm Guitar

  • Fingerstyle Guitar

  • Fingerstyle blues

  • The grooving finger style player

  • Acoustic Blues 1 & 2

  • Mixing Grooves, Licks and Riffs

  • Songwriting and Arranging

  • Strugglers

  • Improvers

  • Jam Days

  • Learn to be in a band

ONLINE COURSES

The Nuggets Series

These courses delve into specific topics in a nice concise 1 hour lesson. Every lesson comes with appropriate materials including the lesson PDF and a video recording of the online lesson. Some courses also come with HD videos, MP3 backing tracks etc. The nuggests courses can be bought as individual lessons or as a group off 4. Buying the group reduces the cost from £20 to £15 per lesson.

  • Rhythmic Notation

  • Fingerstyle basics

  • Chords

  • Start soloing

  • CAGED triads

  • Surviving a jam

  • Groovy finger picking

  • Rule of 7

  • Barre chords

  • Dynamics and feel

  • Understanding chord voicings

  • Developing 4 chords

  • Playing a beautiful melody tastefully

  • Chordal Melody

  • Putting it all together - Stand alone tune

  • The Songwriters Palette

Technique Courses

  • Beginner Strumming

  • Fingerstyle Basics

  • Fingerstyle Blues

  • Getting Creative With Chords Part 1 & 2

  • Learning How To Use a Loop Pedal

  • Mastering Your Barre Chord

  • Mixing Licks and Chords 1

  • Mixing Licks and Chords 2

  • Mixing Moveable Chords and Licks

  • Putting Barre Chords Into Practice

  • Read Rhythm 1

  • Read Rhythm 2

  • Read Rhythm 3

  • Surviving A Jam

  • Write A Tune In 90mins

  • 12 Bar Blues

Song Courses

  • Albatross – Fleetwood Mac – Solo guitar arrangement

  • The Boxer – Simon & Garfunkel

  • Blackbird – The Beatles

  • Everywhere – Fleetwood Mac

  • ERIC CLAPTON UNPLUGGED SERIES - Layla, Old Love, San Francisco Bay Blues, Signe

  • Fire And Rain - James Taylor

  • Going Home (Local Hero Theme) – Mark Knopfler

  • Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen

  • Hard Days Night – The Beatles

  • I Wanna Be Your Love – Prince

  • In My Life - The Beatles

  • Just The Two Of Us – Bill Withers

  • Kiss – Prince

  • Knocking On Heavens Door – Bob Dylan

  • Lay Down Sally – Eric Clapton

  • Local Hero - Going Home - Dire Straits

  • Mrs Robinson - Simon And Garfunkel

  • Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry

  • Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits

  • Riverboat Song – Ocean Colour Scene

  • Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay – Ottis Reading

  • Sweet Home Alabama – Lynard Skynard

  • Sultans Of Swing – Direstraits

  • Take It Easy – The Eagles

  • Three Little Birds – Bob Marley

  • Walk Of Life – Direstraits

  • Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton

  • Wonderful Tonight – Solo guitar arrangement

Guitar Weekends About Videos

ORIGINAL AND ARRANGED EXAM PIECES

Here are three electric guitar pieces written for students to use as free choices in their Trinity or Rockschool exams.

you want me - original

‘A student of mine was prepping for grade 8 and enjoyed jamming over an old song of mine from the album 'Harmonics'. I decided to take the vocals out and instead turn the piece into an instrumental.

You can do this piece as a free choice in your grade 8 electric guitar exams as it comes with backing track, examiner and student score. It will be available for purchase via the website soon. I hope you enjoy jamming along.’ AJ x

THE ROAD IS BLUE - original

‘Here's a little piece I wrote for one of my students. It was used as an exercise to help them learn their pentatonic scale shapes as well as a free choice track for their grade 4/5 electric guitar exam. The track will be available for purchase soon and will come with music notation/tablature, full mix and backing track. There is also an examiners copy without the solo.’

Enjoy AJ x

WAVE - Carlos jobim

‘Here is my version of the wonderful Carlos Jobim track 'Wave'. I created this for my students to perform for the A-Level music performance piece. If you are interested in getting a copy of the chart and backing track send me a message.’

AJ x

How to videos

Below you can watch how to video lessons that take you through the Ukulele, classical, electric and acoustic syllabus’s by both Rockschool and Trinity. These are not full courses but short 7-10min videos showing you the key features of each piece, the technicals, theory questions and a play through.

These videos should accompany your 1-1 lessons or the exam preparation courses we run at Guitar Weekends. It is always important that you have that 1-1 time with a tutor to ensure you are fully prepared. While my videos are clear and concise nothing beats being able to ask a tutor a direct question or for the tutor to watch your playing and adjust any technical issues or musical errors. 

However the videos are very useful and could help both yourself and other tutors with your home practice. Below is some of the playlists. Join my Youtube page for weekly updates.

ONE TO ONE LESSONS

If you would be interested in taking a one to one lesson with A.J please connect via the contact page.