Tom was born into a family of musicians in 1980 in the city of Bristol, UK. His parents are both folk and blues
musicians and it would be Tom's Dad who would inspire him to pick up the guitar at the age of 15.
His Dad is a gifted finger-style guitarist and after many hours sitting in folk clubs listening to his parents play,
Tom decided upon guitar as his instrument of choice.
He was immediately hooked and developed an obsession for practice, learning everything and anything he could get his
hands on. Guitar Techniques magazine formed a huge part of Tom's growth in the early years allowing him to learn solos
and concepts by such greats as Brett Garsed, Greg Howe, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan and Shaun Baxter.
After 3 years of self tuition Tom took lessons from a great guitarist and teacher in Leeds called Graham Young,
who inspired Tom to look into fusion and jazz and tune the guitar in all 4ths (E A D G C F tuning), allowing for
greater freedom and symmetry on the fretboard. This was a revelation and Tom set about doing a BA(Hons) in Jazz Studies
at Leeds College of Music for 3 years. In this time he took time to learn the fretboard and study jazz harmony
whilst finding a new obsession for playing over changes and jazz.
Soon after graduating Tom gigged and taught as a modern jazz guitarist but never felt satisfied or happy with his
playing. A student from Chicago played some Greg Howe tracks to him in a lesson and the fusion spark was reignited.
It was now that Tom started to work on his technique again developing his trademark legato and hybrid picking style
in conjunction with the changes and groove based playing he'd developed in the preceding years.
In 2008 Tom's career and recognition really started to flourish after gaining a place in the Guitar Idol 2008 live
final, held at the London Guitar Show on the Main Stage of the Excel Centre. Since then Tom's career and fan base
have gone from strength to strength with an ever growing Youtube presence and endorsements from Suhr Guitars and
Toadworks USA pedals. Appearances at the Frankfurt Musikmesse and NAMM show in LA followed with Tom demoing products
for Fibenare guitars, Suhr Guitars and Toadworks pedals. In 2009 Tom guested on Nashville bass player Adam Nitti's
solo release Liminal along side amazing musicians such as Marcus Finnie, Marco Sfogli, Shane Theriot and Alex Argento.
In the past few months Tom has been collaborating with the exceptional UK based guitarist Rick Graham to produce a
3 day workshop and tuition material. This ran for the first time this summer in the beautiful northern town of
Saltaire with huge success to a student base of 11 guitarists from various parts of the world. Rick and Tom will be
taking this workshop on tour in the States next summer and will be running annual sessions from now on. Tom also
teaches for Lick Library producing videos on fusion improvisation concepts. Tom has now become an in-demand teacher
with a student base stretching all over the world.
Tom is currently in the process of writing his debut album due for release sometime in 2011.
Links and Resources
Tom Quayle - Website
Tom Quayle - YouTube