Home » Member Page
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.