NEIL MUNROccccccccHOME Guitarist cc Composer cc Educator |
||||||||||
Neil Munro is a Scottish guitarist and composer who has worked in the music business for over 45 years. He is experienced in many areas of music. This site contains information about his work, with examples of his playing and composing. In addition, there is some information about his activities in the education field. His musical education is varied; it ranges from the extremes of formality to the extremes of informality - from a rigorous classical training on the one hand, to sitting in smoke-filled bars picking the brains of experienced elderly jazz musicians on the other. The main influences on his guitar playing have come from across that broad spectrum; his classical guitar studies were directed by Tim Walker, a London based musician and a member of Peter Maxwell-Davies’ performance group the Fires of London, and latterly Professor of Guitar in the Royal Academy of Music. In less formal mode, his inspirations have been the virtuoso electric guitarist Richard Harding, the Edinburgh jazz guitarist Jimmy Elliot and ‘Peerie’ Willie Johnson from Shetland; all three of these musicians were generous in sharing their time and knowledge. In addition, he has taken influence from a large number of others via concerts, recordings etc - a comprehensive list would be enormous but would include the following notable guitarists: - Charlie Christian, Chet Atkins, Django Rheinhart, Mike Stern, Doc Watson, Jerry Reed, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Ollie Halsall, Davy Graham, David Russell, John Williams, Vladimir Mikulka, Julian Bream, Ida Presti, John McLaughlin, Hank Garland, Jimmy Bryant, Lenny Breau, Brent Mason and many many others. In addition, his playing and composing has been influenced by many non-guitarist musicians. Most important of these in terms of their influence on him have been George Gershwin, Paul Desmond, William Marshall, James Scott Skinner, Turlough O’Carolan, Irving Berlin, Claude Debussy, Franz Schubert, Lester Young, Willie Beaton and Gerard Dott. You can find more information about each aspect of his career on the other pages of the site, with some examples of his playing and his compositions to listen to as you browse. |
||||||||||
You can find details of Neil's CD 'Hopscotch' and how to obtain a copy HERE. |
||||||||||