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Fretboard Stories Acoustic Guitar Exam Books written by Tony Skinner
From his home overlooking the marina in Lagos, Tony Skinner is writing enchanting acoustic guitar melodies that are receiving more than half a million YouTube views. Sophie Sadler meets the guitar legend who developed the first qualification programmes for electric and acoustic guitar players. It is strange serendipity that his fantastic story begins and ends with Portugal. Tony started playing the guitar as a seven-year-old and by 14 was gigging with school and local rock bands. As a teenager in London, he lived next door to a Portuguese family. They had a professional group which had a residency in a Portuguese nightclub in central London and toured Portuguese social clubs across the south of England. They heard the young Tony strumming through the walls of their house and were impressed with his sound. Aged just 15, Tony was invited to join their group. "We played a strange mix of traditional Portuguese music for the older generation then would put some of the latest pop music into the set for the younger ones. I played lead guitar. I led an extraordinary double life touring with a professional band and often not getting home until 4 a.m and then turning up at 9 a.m for school the next day. But playing live music was such a buzz for me, I never felt tired." "During and after university I performed with various bands, gigging and recording covering a wide range of styles." After deputising for a guitar teacher at an evening class, Tony discovered an innate talent for teaching the guitar. He was soon in hot demand and was invited to teach in many educational institutions and later began training other guitar teachers. "I met lots of music students who wanted a qualification for the electric guitar, but as it didn't exist, I had to teach them the classical guitar in order for them to gain a qualification." Many people would have just got on with it, but not Tony. He started to write the first-ever syllabus for the electric guitar, based on his experience of what it took to become a working musician. î ƒ
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