Please use this site to get a feel for James Hunleys' teaching texts. If you want to get more information about his performances around the world, search James Hunley Guitarist on Google.

A few thoughts from James,

"To lean quickly and achieve your potential you should find the very best teacher possible in the beginning of you studies. ( great teacher are not necessarily great players but sometimes they are)

The beginning is where all the foundation for easy and brilliant playing comes from.

A great teacher does just that, THEY TEACH YOU. They also try to get you the point of not needing a teacher any more. ( teachers should teach you how to solve your problems on your own with clear technical execution)

"Teaching should not be about the teachers ego or a way for them to make a little extra money".

If you’re not learning from the teacher you have, you have the wrong teacher and should move on. That may sound harsh but life is short and you can always enjoy their playing or their personality. If you feel bad buy their recordings but help yourself to learn by getting the very best for your studies.

Obviously you need to give good advice a chance.  Don’t take this as an invitation to blame others but if you have really tried and are stuck, try something different.

Add your info by sending a bio and an email to jameshunley@aol.com

Contact James Hunley at 1-800-497-2528

Letters about James Hunleys' Performances

OREGON COAST COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Dear James,

Thank you for providing such wonderful experiences at your performance ...

As a very busy venue we have had many excellent performers grace our stage. Some arrive perform and leave without much ado.

They leave behind a wonderful performance, but not much else.

Very occasionally a performer comes into our community and leaves so much more.

In your promotional material you express a wish to touch the souls of your audience. No where does it truly portray the amount of soul you leave. Your presence will be felt in this community for years to come.

Over the years of watching audiences leave the performance hall

at the end of the evening, judging the mood and response becomes second nature. How easy it was to see that you had touched so many.

The audience went away with a feeling of inner peace. So many

Came up to me (even days later) to say how much they enjoyed your performance"

Jan Eastman

President of Arts Northwest

Concert Presenters Association

OREGON COAST COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Dear Mr. Hunley

It gives me great pleasure to write you to express my sincere gratitude for the wonderful recital you gave this summer at the Mozart in Monterey International music Festival.

The compositions you performed were thoughtfully prepared, and were presented with masterful technique, yet, while your playing is technically superb, it was your wonderful musicianship, your expressive manner and the glorious sound of your instrument that held me captive"

Sincerely

Oleg Kovalenko

Conductor & Music Director

Mozart in Monterey International music festival

Classical guitar instruction in Los angeles. Classical guitar teachers in LA, Los Angeles Guitar

      The secret for beginning guitarists is consistent muscle alignment and function.

                                             OK here’s what that means

 It means doing the very same movement in a way that your muscles remember exactly what you are asking them to do each time.

In chords for example (and that’s where every beginner should start) your left hand should have enough clearance to move the fingers and not the wrist.

{For Classical guitarists the thumb should be in the center of the neck following your second finger around}

Your left fingertips (the distal interphalangeal) joints need to pull slightly in to the hand when on the strings (not much but just enough to keep the “arch effect for strength” and to keep the left hand from feeling it needs to “over press” to form the chords.

The wrist should be the “edge of the ruler” which allows the fingers to have a direct

anchor and a strong reference point.

The top knuckle, (metacarpal) should tell them “hey this is how far you fingers need to move to get from a C to a G chord”.    If you flop that wrist, you will be learning at literally 1 /10 Th the time it could take to get it right and move on.

This is also where performance anxiety creeps in, muscles not really given clear ways of playing tend to complain to the subconscious “ hey I don’t remember what the #@#@# I’m supposed to do there, so I think I’m going to just shut down or maybe just start

shaking.   

 The James Hunley Classical Guitar teaching philosophy.

One of the most important Ideas of my teaching philosophy is that the student needs to learn to solve their own technical problems. And I want to teach you to solve them systematically.

I believe that inside each of us is a spirit with a voice.

Technical triumphs are there to chisel away the “rough stone”.

That is the reason I video tape the lessons technical information and send the students away to work on their path.

I do not baby sit.

We make sure the information for the solutions are in your mind and on tape and we go from there.

There are thousands of baby-sitting teachers out there for people to keep motivated.

My lessons are more expensive than others because I am trying to

“ teach you out of your need to see me. "