School of Banjo

ampion! Gus loves teaching and has upward of 30 students at the moment, they range in age from 11 to 73, men and women, talented and triers. Everyone goes at their own pace – some come weekly, others fortnightly, some come in fits and starts… each according to their requirements. Gus works out the needs of each student and tailors their syllabus accordingly. He’s used to starting people from scratch, getting their picking fixed up right from the beginnning, and giving them things that they can play without too much hassle, so that it’s not all hard work and no reward. Books are a great resource but there’s nothing that beats having someone showing you how to do it. He has a large selection of music that he gives to students as they progress, from all different sources, he tends to pick the best tunes from different books, and also give students a CD of the things they’ll be playing, but nice and slow, so they can hear what’s what. He’ll also give you a compilation CD of some of his favourite banjo tunes. And if you have something that you want to learn to play, Gus can figure it out and if it’s playable teach it to you. He also has a large lending library of bluegrass CDs and DVDs available for students to borrow. Gus is happy to take on more students, if you’re willing to give it a try. He charges $60 an hour, and he teaches from his home in Brunswick.