Tom Quayle

Hi there. My name’s Tom Quayle. I’m a professional guitarist and teacher from Leeds in the UK. I started playing guitar when I was 15 developing the interest after listening to my dad playing – he’s phenomenal! Beginning with bands such as the Wild Hearts and Nirvana I learnt loads of riffs from magazines and by ear before very quickly becoming obsessed with Dream Theater and Steve Vai! After almost failing my exams through excessive guitar practice I realised this was what I wanted to do in life and took guitar lessons for a year before going to Leeds College of Music to pursue a degree in Jazz Studies. My guitar teacher had introduced me to Allan Holdsworth and Scott Henderson and my life was altered forever!! I spent the next 3 years studying really hard and playing with some amazing musicians, attempting to learn to play over changes and play jazz. In 2002 I graduated with a BA (hons) in Jazz Studies and played loads of gigs for a while before starting to become really disillusioned with my own playing. I felt really unoriginal and like a poor jazz imitator. I’ve spent the last 3 or 4 years developing my technique and style and feel I’ve come up with something which hopefully sounds like me and maybe a few other people a bit too of course.

I was a finalist this year in the Guitar Idol 2008 competition and came 2nd after Andy James in the Greg Howe play for me II contest – picked by the man himself! I’m currently writing my first album and have some really exciting collaborations coming up in the future.

Currently, I teach for Yamaha and of course Infinite Guitar and will have a tuition DVD coming out in the near future!!

Hope you guys enjoy my lessons, I look forward to hearing from you all and checking out your music too!!

Cheers,

Tom