Hi, I’m James Byron. I am a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston (not California—and yes—it really is spelled that way!) and I have been teaching guitar lessons at the Asbury School of Music since 2004. Although I love to play jazz—Berklee is  a jazz school after all, I grew up playing classic rock and I can teach anything from A to Z (Aerosmith to Zeppelin?) and I also teach classical, country, blues, bluegrass, flamenco and just about any other kind of guitar style you can think of. 

I have 2 basic tracks that people usually follow. For classical and flamenco students, we concentrate on those styles, learning how to read the music and proper playing techniques.

But most students want to learn how to play more current music. We spend about half our time learning the things one needs to know to be a real musician—how to read music, picking and fingerpicking techniques, music theory, etc. The other half of our time we spend learning what the student wants to learn.

 I have found that the songs that most people are interested in learning are fairly easy to teach. In fact, students go home from the first lesson playing something by either Lynyrd Skynyrd, Green Day or Taylor Swift. It is encouraging to make progress quickly and is a great motivator when a student is learning what they like.

 I have plenty of openings for 2012, you can give me call to talk about lessons (919-844-5283) or check out our website at www.asburyraleigh.org/schoolofmusic . And don’t forget to watch the website for the online lessons I have posted there.