Guitarist – Educator Andrew Wasson started playing guitar at the age of eight years old. He studied with several local guitar teachers throughout his childhood and teenage years until eventually meeting Lenny Breau’s son, Chet Breau.
Like his father Lenny, Chet Breau is also a virtuoso of the guitar and a veteran of the Manitoba music scene. Chet encouraged Andrew to enroll at the same music school that Chet attended in Los Angeles; the Musicians Institute.
With a busy schedule of playing in bands and teaching, the idea of moving to California seemed like an overwhelming commitment at first.
However, Andrew eventually decided that there was both value and a great opportunity behind pursuing a formal music education.
Andrew decided to follow Chet’s advice of re-locating to Los Angeles and enrolling in the Professional Guitar Player Program at Hollywood California’s Guitar Institute of Technology, (G.I.T.)
MUSICIANS INSTITUTE:
While at G.I.T., Andrew became immersed within the cutting edge courses, learning everything he could about music and playing the guitar professionally. Other interests peaked as well, including composing and arranging music.
After a chance meeting at a G.I.T. guitar workshop with guitar legend Howard Roberts, (one of the founders of the Musician Institute), Andrew became fascinated by the Howard Roberts approach toward practicing.
These cutting edge techniques allowed for learning the guitar at a much faster rate & pace when using the, “Howard Roberts – Accelerator Method.”
THE ACCELERATOR METHOD:
The Accelerator method is an organized way to learn the common language of music at a “nuts and bolts” level.
It works by filling in the gaps when it comes to a musicians understanding of music creation and does it all at a greatly accelerated pace with respect for the musicians own personal learning curve.
The Howard Roberts, “Learning how to learn” techniques, (along with many of the Howard Roberts instructional concepts, such as, “lifemanship”), became a new found interest that had Wasson embark onto an entirely new path in his musical life – one that involved guitar and music education.
After graduating from the Professional Guitar Program at Musicians Institute, Wasson returned to Canada and started his own guitar school.
CREATIVE GUITAR STUDIO:
Throughout the 1990’s Andrew earned his living as a professional musician working in dozens of different bands and running his guitar education business.
The day to day operation of Creative Guitar Studio gave Andrew the unique opportunity to spend countless hours as a guitar instructor – educating over one thousand aspiring guitar students from 1992 to 2020.
Over the last 30 years, Andrew has perfected a large-scale guitar /music education program. The curriculum consists of three “core curriculum” courses, (Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced), along with several “guitar elective” courses such as; Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Soloing and Guitar Technique.
The Creative Guitar Studio curriculum was first introduced to an international audience when Andrew launched his YouTube channel in the year 2008.
In 2015 Andrew launched his popular online music instruction website bearing the same name as his guitar school, Creative Guitar Studio
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION:
In 2008, Andrew’s YouTube video titled, “Did Coldplay copy Joe Satriani? Let’s Do the Music Theory,” went viral with over one million views.
Since then, Andrew Wasson has become well known (and well respected internationally), for his music education videos on YouTube.
Thousands of his viewers tune in each week to enjoy his guitar lessons which provide fans with an excellent lesson plan combined with solid delivery.
Many subscribers call Andrew the, “best guitar teacher on YouTube.”
Over the years, Andrew has firmly established his company; Creative Guitar Studio, the YouTube channel (and the courses he has authored), as a solid educational program for aspiring guitar players world-wide.
CreativeGuitarStudio.com teaches a comprehensive guitar training program which focuses on the guitar as an instrument for improvisation.
All levels of technique and theory are covered, (both in his guitar courses, as well as, in his weekly YouTube videos).
Many former students (and a majority of the graduates of his Professional Guitar course), now work in various areas of the music business.
Andrew Wasson is the author of all of the core curriculum at Creative Guitar.
GUITAR COMPOSITION:
Andrew is constantly writing, performing and recording. His guitar compositions cover all styles of guitar on electric, classical and acoustic steel-string.
After releasing his self-titled CD, his compositions have appeared on CBC Radio, Corus Entertainment, satellite radio, as well as, television, radio networks, and internet streaming sites around the world.
A Personal Message…
When I was eight years old, I had a couple of friends that played guitar. It seemed so interesting to me that for some reason I was compelled to want to learn to play guitar more than anything else in the world.
One day I convinced my parents to let me meet with a guitar teacher. After my first lesson I talked my parents into buying a $35.00 acoustic… and I played that guitar until it broke!
One more acoustic and two electric guitars later, (plus 9 years of lessons), and I finally had enough knowledge to attend a professional music college and get the real training I needed to play professionally.
My interest in the guitar has never stopped. I guess nothing has changed since my old friends had first inspired me!