Tony Cox School of Guitar

Tony Cox School of Guitar If you have a great passion to learn to play the guitar, you need look no further than this page Tony began his studies on the guitar when he was 9 years old.

Multiple award-winning Acoustic guitarist Tony Cox is known throughout South Africa and way beyond its borders for his work as a performer, recording artist, and teacher. This means he has been playing the guitar for 51 years and 32 of those were spent teaching the instrument. Adept at many different styles of music, any student studying with Tony will develop a healthy appreciation of just how the acoustic guitar can straddle many different genres, among them folk, blues, pop, classical, rock, jazz, African, country and bluegrass. The theory of music as applied to the guitar makes up a big part of Tony's teaching. Students can expect to study: reading (notes and TAB), keys, chords, harmony and improvisation. Tony has a body of students that spans the world using Skype video technology. So no matter where you live in this world, if you have skype and a strong bandwidth, you can study the acoustic guitar with Tony. All details for the lessons can be found here:
www.tonycoxguitarlessons.co.uk
Enquiries: [email protected]

Anyone for a little Bohemian Bastard? The Umbles Tapes recorded in the mid to late seventies are the very first recordin...
02/10/2026

Anyone for a little Bohemian Bastard? The Umbles Tapes recorded in the mid to late seventies are the very first recordings of my playing. Those interested in my guitar-journey-of-life can take a deep dive in my Patreon music and archive page. Link in the comments.

01/10/2026

A WARM DAY IN MAPUTO
Patreon link in comments.

In this era of viral fragments and shrinking attention spans, I’ve been putting out one‑minute videos to nudge people toward my Patreon archive. It’s a strange fit for me. I come from a time when “short attention span” wasn’t part of daily speech, and every time I make one of these instant, just‑add‑water clips, it feels like I’m humouring a culture that prefers the spark to the fire.

But the archive is deep — recordings, photos, stories, unreleased material going back to the late 70s — and if a few short clips help people find their way into that body of work, I’ll play along. Reluctantly.

Still, the contrarian in me refuses to let the one‑minute format define the music. So here’s the full version of A Warm Day in Maputo. No trimming, no algorithm‑friendly packaging, just the tune as it was meant to be played. Consider it a small stretch for those modern attention muscles.

If you make it to the end, drop me a line. I’ll celebrate with you — and if you want to go deeper, the Patreon archive is sitting there waiting.

LANCASTER MUSIC FESTIVAL - Sun 11 Oct @ 2pmIt’s an odd sensation being asked to perform at a music festival after such a...
30/09/2026

LANCASTER MUSIC FESTIVAL - Sun 11 Oct @ 2pm

It’s an odd sensation being asked to perform at a music festival after such a long stretch away from any stage. This invitation from the Lancaster Music Festival 2026 has jolted me out of a kind of quiet drift, where my past life as a performer had started to feel like a vivid dream rather than something I actually lived. When you step away from the stage for years, the whole machinery of performing - the stamina, the focus, the physical conditioning, the mental sharpness, slowly dissolves. You don’t notice it happening until someone asks you to step back into the light.

And stepping back in is no small thing. People see the finished product the tunes, the flow, the ease, but they don’t see the sheer amount of preparation that goes into making a performance feel effortless. Stage fitness is its own discipline. It’s not just practising; it’s building the endurance to play at a high level for long stretches, keeping the mind steady, keeping the body responsive, keeping the music honest. My own right arm has been reminding me of this in no uncertain terms. The bicep tendinitis I’ve been dealing with has improved with the physio’s exercises, but after the fourth tune or so, the elbow and shoulder start sending their little warning signals. It’s a strange balancing act - staying true to the music while ignoring the chatter coming from the arm.

And yet, despite all of this, I’m thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. The prospect of playing for people again, real people, in a room, breathing the same air, responding in real time, has lit something up in me that I thought had gone quiet. There’s nothing like that exchange. It’s the reason I wrote the tunes in the first place. It’s the reason I ever stepped onto a stage at all.

The festival is expecting two 45‑minute sets from me, which means I have my work cut out. I need to rebuild the stamina, sharpen the edges, get the arm strong enough to carry the load, and reacquaint myself with the physical reality of performance. It’s a mountain, but it’s a familiar one.

tc

The very first of the recordings from the 1975 'Umbles Tapes', has gone up on my Patreon page. Patreon link in the comme...
29/09/2026

The very first of the recordings from the 1975 'Umbles Tapes', has gone up on my Patreon page. Patreon link in the comments.

27/09/2026

SMUDGE'S BOOGIE
Patreon link in comments

In my late teens, early twenties, I had an old beloved cat. Her name was Smudge because of how her tortoise shell marking blended into one another, like colours running into each other on an artist's easal. I've had a few cats in my time that never enjoyed the guitar and made a hasty exit whenever I picked one up. Not Smudgey. She would come and sit right up close, or rubbing against my legs, purring like the clappers. The guitar was her thang.

There's only one recording of this tune and that is off my 'Audient', recorded live in front of an enthusiastic audience at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in 2007. That album has a dvd too, all of which will eventually go up right here on my Patreon page. I will post that track for members.

**Paid Patreon members receive full access to the entire archive: every album, every score, every story, every video, the unreleased material, the deep cuts, the collaborations, the press, the photos, the lot. You also get all new work as it arrives, plus guitar resources if you play, and the option for direct face‑to‑face sessions. It is the complete body of work, past and present

24/09/2026

Zambezi has always been one of those South African tunes that sits right at the centre of my musical memory. When I started working through my favourite SA pieces for Padkos, it was the first one I wrote down. Nico Carstens captured something bright and unmistakably local in that melody, and it has travelled the world for good reason. I recorded my own version for Padkos because it felt essential to include the music that shaped so many of us, and Zambezi was at the top of the list.

If you want to hear it, and the rest of the Padkos recordings as they go up in chronological order, consider becoming a paid member. You’ll get full access to the archive, the albums, the stories behind the tunes and all the new work as it arrives.
Patreon link in comments.

21/09/2026

Weeping is one of the great South African pop anthems. Dan Heymann wrote it for Bright Blue, the band in which he played keyboards, and it landed right in the middle of the apartheid years. It is a protest song in every sense. The lyrics speak directly to the political climate of the time, and the fact that it made it onto South African radio at all was astonishing. We listened with disbelief, wondering how its message slipped past the government’s censors.

Inside the arrangement sits a quiet act of defiance: the melody of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika woven into the structure of the song. Even that reference, obvious to anyone who knew the tune, somehow passed through the censorship net. It was one of those rare moments when a piece of music carried more truth than the system could contain.

I recorded an instrumental arrangement of Weeping for my album Padkos — road food — a collection of iconic South African tunes. I’ll post the recorded version here, which includes an orchestral arrangement that gives the piece the scale it deserves.

tc

**Paid Patreon members receive full access to the entire archive: every album, every score, every story, every video, the unreleased material, the deep cuts, the collaborations, the press, the photos, the lot. You also get all new work as it arrives, plus guitar resources if you play, and the option for direct face‑to‑face sessions. It is the complete body of work, past and present.

18/09/2026

My daughter Thalo was just four years old when I found this tune. She was sitting with me one day while I was working on the tune and I said to her that the tune did not have a name, what do you think it should be called. Without hesitation she said 'Watertree', and so that's what it's called. Thalo is now twenty eight years old and has given me two beautiful grandchildren.

The recorded version of this tune comes from my award-winning album, 'Matabele Ants'. I'll be posting the track for my members.

**My archive is getting fuller by the day. Consider becoming a paid member and thereby gaining complete access and directly supporting me in the work I do. This is where my entire musical life will be archived. It's not just history though, it is also where I will be exposing all new work too.

Patreon link in comments

The Tenderoso score is up for my Patreon members.Patreon link in the comments.
03/09/2026

The Tenderoso score is up for my Patreon members.
Patreon link in the comments.

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