I'm back in Scotland after spending the past three weeks in the USA. After bringing in the New Year in San Francisco I flew up to Seattle to play six nights at Jazz Alley with Seattle based Gypsy Jazz band Pearl Django. I also recorded three tracks on their latest CD. I was then able to spend a week in Napa at the Artistworks studio and filmed a lot of new content for the MTGA including a Guitar Conversations with Julian Lage. I have filmed an entirely new section called Guided Arrangements which will be on the site once we have the transcriptions.

I recently spent a few days in the ArtistWorks studio filming lots of new guitar lessons for the MTGA. I'm very excited about a new section that we are about to create called "Guided Arrangements" In this section I play very simple skeleton arrangements which are designed to just initially orientate the student around the melody and form of a tune. I then add a few simple embellishments and arrangement ideas. I then ask the student to learn the basic form of the tune and submit a video. It doesn't matter how basic it is.

Martin will be back in the USA for most of January. He will be playing in Seattle at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley for 6 nights (3rd-8th) as special guest with Pearl Django, and will be playing a solo show on January 18th at Dizzy's in San Diego. Also lined up are appearances at the Artistworks and Peerless Guitar stands at the NAMM Show in Los Angeles on the 19th & 20th. This trip will also be an opportunity for Martin to spend 2 days at the Artistworks Studio to film more lessons for the MTGA Curriculum.

Merry Christmas to everyone here at the MTGA. Thank you for being part of this great site. Have a wonderful time over the festive season, see you in 2012!

I have posted a backing track in Featured Video at the bottom of the Home Page. I plan to film more backing soon. In the meantime, have fun playing along with me on Autumn Leaves.

If you want to "Chat" with Martin and fellow MTGA students, Martin will be in the Chat Room for one hour this Sunday December 4th at... 10.00AM US West Coast Time 1.00PM US Eastern Time 6.00PM UK Time 7.00PM European Time See you there!

I have posted a new Coffee Break called "Counter Lines" Sorry for the delay in posting this, we had a small technical problem with this clip which has now been resolved.

I filmed a short message from home today with the great Martin Simpson. Martin is on tour at the moment and came by my house for dinner and to catch up on old times. Check it out in "Message From Martin"

We've now posted three more tunes from Martin's solo show at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California. The tunes are.. "Don't Know Why" "Hymn a L'amour" "Down At Cocomo's" You can find them by clicking on 'Performances and More' on the Home Page, then click on 'Freight and Salvage'

We've just posted three tunes from my Freight and Salvage gig onto the site. We plan to put up three each week. To view them go to the Resources Section on the Home Page then click on Freight and Salvage 2011. The tunes are "I'm Old Fashioned", "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and "Stella By Starlight"