James Martin

Learn to play the guitar with one of the area’s most experienced professional musicians and teachers!

I cover electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitar – as well as ukulele, banjo and popular music on keyboards and piano, and a no-nonsense, strictly practical approach to music theory. All ages are welcome, from 8 to 80!

Although I cater to a wide range of abilities and styles, I specialise in rock, pop, blues, funk, and country.

I am a member of the Registry of Guitar Tutors and am pleased to offer graded examinations via the RGT, Rockschool, and Trinity College Of Music with a 100% pass rate. I also have full DBS certification.

My Story:

My name is James Martin, and I’ve been a guitar player since 1994. In the thirty-plus years since I first fumbled my way onto the fretboard, music – and the guitar in particular – has been my abiding passion. In those first months since a schoolfriend showed me how to play a Nirvana song (“About A Girl”) with two fingers I became completely and utterly addicted to the guitar, devouring every morsel of information I could find and devoting all my free time to practicing, learning and improving as much as I possibly could.

In 1996 I attended the Access To Music popular music course in Leicester, and my learning began in earnest as I mixed with many excellent musicians far more experienced than myself, and I soaked up all the information I could while in that environment. I left with a Diploma in Contemporary Popular Music, and a Rockschool Grade 8 qualification!

Since then, I’ve played in all manner of different bands – from sweat soaked clubs doing thrash metal to weddings and corporate functions with nothing but a nylon string classical guitar for company. I’ve played rock, pop, blues, country – even donning a tuxedo and playing cocktail lounge jazz! Between 2005 and 2007 I worked in a professional function band for both Bourne Leisure and Princess Cruises, playing music as far afield as the islands of the Carribean, and since 2007 I’ve been a full-time musical instrument tutor.