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Matthew Warnock

Music Industry Specialist, Blogger, Guitarist and Jazz Educator

About Me

”I just love it when I see a new video lesson posted by Matt. His lessons are concise and to the point! I wish that his lessons were available to me when I was learning how to improvise!” - Vic Juris

“I first met Matt Warnock when he translated a clinic I gave in Belo Horizonte Brazil. Later I discovered him on his YouTube instructional channel. Matt's online lessons are a great resource for any jazz guitarist - from beginner to pro. Matt is simply a great teacher and player.” - Dave Stryker

“A Straight Ahead Player of Considerable Merit” - John Kelman All About Jazz

Canadian guitarist and pedagogue Dr. Matthew Warnock has been awarded degrees from McGill University (Montreal) and Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo), culminating in a DMA in jazz performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served as a teaching assistant at both WMU (MM) and UIUC (DMA), and has held faculty positions at Leeds College of Music, Western Illinois University and the Interlochen Arts Camp.

While at WIU, he built the guitar studio from scratch, turning it into an internationally recognized program in a short time with his graduating students receiving professorships and entrance into post-graduate programs, as well as gaining international touring experience both at WIU and after graduation. Matt also created the WIU International Guitar Festival, which featured clinics by luthiers, historians, music business professionals and concerts by performers from the US, Canada and Brazil.

Matt maintains a strong focus on high school and collegiate jazz education, and has given workshops and lectures throughout the US, UK, Canada, Nepal and Brazil including Carleton University (Ottawa), Concordia University (Montreal), Chicago High School for the Arts, the Wisconsin Conservatory (Milwaukee), The Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Brazil), the Federal University of Ouro Preto (Brazil) and the Federal University of Sao Joao Del Rei (Brazil). Matt's students have won Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral level positions and scholarships to attend Leeds College of Music, The Royal Scottish Conservatory of Music, Western Michigan University, The Puerto Rican Conservatory, The Lawrence Conservatory of Music and Five Town College, just to name a few.

Using performance interaction to communicate with students, Matt distils the complexities of jazz theory into edible chunks, meeting the student at their level and with positive reinforcement, presents sequential and cumulative improvisation exercises that encourage dynamic innovation rather than stagnant memorization.

Published by Mel Bay, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine, and All About Jazz, Matt is currently the Senior Media Consultant of the online magazine Guitar International, managing content for it’s 200,000 monthly readers. Having a strong belief that all instrumental teachers should maintain a healthy concert schedule, Matt has performed throughout Europe, the US, Canada and Brazil, including the International Association for Jazz Educators Conference, Lincoln Center in New York, the Savassi Jazz Festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and the NuJazz Festival in Curitiba, Brazil.

Matt currently resides in Chester, UK, where he runs an online guitar teaching website http://www.mattwarnockguitar.com/, read monthly by 95,000 guitarists from 216 countries, gives Guitar exams for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors) and continues to perform and give workshops on the international level.

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