On Saturday 9th July I will be performing my "Spirit of Django Orchestral Suite" at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. The suite, which I co-wrote with Guy Barker, will be performed with a 75 piece orchestra made up almost entirely by RNCM students. I would like to invite any MTGA students who live nearby to come along to the last day of rehearsals on Friday 8th July.

Due to my current heavy touring schedule I now have a small backlog of student video submissions that I haven't been able to respond to yet. This was also compounded by the fact that I had some small technical issues in my studio before I left for my US tour which have now been addressed in my absence. I'm sorry I've had to keep some of my students waiting longer than usual for my responses, but thank you for your patience and understanding about this, I will be back on track very soon and my responses will be in Video Exchanges once I get the chance to be in one place again and my travel sc

I arrived in New York last night and am having a day off today before my first show tomorrow night at the City Winery. If you'd like to know where I'm playing in the States then see the listings on my website www.martintaylor.com It's always good to meet MTGA students on my travels so come up after the show and say hi. I also want to let you know that I have a small backlog of your video submissions that I plan to start responding to next week when I have a bit of down time in my hotel room. Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'll get those up on the site soon.

I recently played a solo concert at the Wadhurst Music Festival in England and it was really good to meet some of my MTGA students there and chat after the show. Also, my old friend Jeff Beck came to the concert as he lives in the village, it was great to see him again. I plan to film a 'Guitar Conversations' with Jeff sometime in the not too distant future which I think will be absolutely fascinating, he's an astonishing guitar player and musician. If you want to keep track of where I am in the world you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/martintaylormbe

Martin is playing eight shows in the US in June. He will also be playing more US dates in August, September and December.

On Saturday May 21st I will be in the Chat Room for a couple of hours to answer any questions that my students may have about the MTGA Curriculum, Video Exchanges, Practice..... anything to do with guitar playing. This will also be a great opportunity for MTGA students around the world to chat with each other and talk about all things guitar. Because we are a worldwide community I decided that 10.00am US Pacific Time would be good for all my students in North America and Europe.

On my recent trip to France I visited MTGA student Jean Heurtier in St Malo Hospital where he has been in the intensive care unit for the past two months following a serious accident which left him in a coma. I am pleased to report that Jean is now out of the coma and making good but slow progress.

Martin is currently in the studio in Korea recording with Ulf Wakenius and the famous traditional Korean flute player Mr Han. Check out Martin's new message from the studio on the MTGA Homepage.

Check out this clip of Martin & Ulf in Hong Kong TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebeVH7BF3MU

Martin is currently in Tokyo as part of a Far East Tour with Swedish jazz guitarist Ulf Wakenius. Many of you will be familiar with Ulf's work with the late great Oscar Peterson. Martin will be filming a new message every few days for his students here at the MTGA and will film a special Guitar Conversations with Ulf when they are in Korea later this week Keep up to date with Martin's touring by going to his Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/martintaylorMBE