I'm currently on tour in Ireland with the brilliant 13 year old jazz guitarist Andreas Varady. Andreas, who is the first guitar student to be awarded a Martin Taylor Guitar Academy Scholarship, and has recently been featured on the covers of Guitar Player and Just Jazz Guitar magazines. Our Irish tour dates are... 2nd Letterkenny, The Regional Cultural Centre 3rd Limerick, Dolan's 4th Belfast, Black Box 5th Dublin, Helix Theatre 6th Sligo, Model Arts Centre 7th Galway, The Crane 8th Kilworth, Kilworth Arts Centre

We've just posted a new lesson in Learn By Playing Tunes. I thought you could all have some fun playing Paul Desmond's Take Five. Take Five was a huge hit in the 60's for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Enjoy!

A couple of years ago I was asked to take part in a documentary film about the life of the jazz guitarist and radio broadcaster Ken Sykora.

My latest Coffee Break is about Reharmonisation. In this video I talk about, and demonstrate, some very simple ways of approaching reharmonisation. I give some simple tips on an uncomplicated way to look at reharmonisation. It's a really fun way to experiment with harmony and voicings. I'm sure you'll have many hours of fun playing around with these ideas - Enjoy!

I'm playing a solo concert on Saturday 15th October at "Maestros en Gitarra" at Auditorio Alfredo Krauss, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Isles. The festival features many wonderful guitarists including Nono Garcia, Tito Alcedo, Javier Infante and Jose Alberto Medina.

Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, something we sensed was coming, yet the news still comes as a shock. I cannot hope to improve on the many touching tributes that his passing is inspiring. I can tell you this: Without Steve, there would be no ArtistWorks. ArtistWorks is inextricably linked to Steve's inventions and his genius. I could not believe the elegance of the Macintosh computer when I first laid my hands on one in 1984. It was early in my career, having graduated from college just four years prior.

I was very saddened to hear the news today that the great Scottish folk guitarist Bert Jansch passed away in London this morning after a long illness - he was 67. Between 1967 and 1973 Bert was part of the acoustic group Pentangle, best known for their 1970 hit single Light Flight. He was a pioneer of the acoustic folk guitar with a unigue sound and style. His fingerstyle guitar playing still continues to inspire guitarists around the world today. He will be sadly missed

On October 7th the MTGA Studio will be relocating.

I'm back in California this week to play at Dana Point (Friday 16th) and Mission Viejo (Saturday 17th) for Lord Of The Strings concert promotions. You can get full details by going to their website http://www.lordofthestringsconcerts.com/ I then fly up to Vancouver Island to visit my Uncle Norman for a couple of days before heading down to Langley on Thursday 22nd for the DjangoFest NW, full details of that festival can be found on their website http://www.djangofest.com/nw/ I hope to meet up with MTGA players on my travels!

I had a great time this weekend playing at the London Acoustic Guitar Show at Olympia. I played a short solo set in the auditorium on Sunday and I also gave a very informal performance on the Elixer Strings stand. I've posted 3 short video clips on my Profile Page (MartinT) of me playing on the Elixer Stand. It's always tricky playing on a stand at these events as there is so much going on, but I hope those of you that couldn't get along to the event will enjoy these clips despite the noise and poor sound quality.