Guthrie Govan

As part of Rocktober, Nerve Centre presents a masterclass with one of the world’s foremost contemporary guitar players.

Guthrie Govan’s command of the instrument has seen him hailed as the ‘virtuoso’s virtuoso’, combining unparalleled genre mastery with his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, he’s often said to be the most complete guitarist there is and has reaped praise from his peers.

To Govan, learning guitar was as natural as learning to talk, starting at such an early age that English almost came as a second language to his playing. Raised on his dad’s classic rock records before being exposed to 'shredding', Govan later abandoned his studies to pursue a music career and by 1993 an instrumental demo led to him being named Guitarist magazine’s 'Guitarist of the Year'.

His ear for six-string intricacy led to work transcribing records, so that others too could develop their skills with the guidance of sheet music to accompany the sophisticated style. He would later evolve this into instructional YouTube clips, demonstrating his prowess for younger generations to learn from.

'What sets Guthrie apart, is that no matter what he’s doing—picking, tapping, slapping, playing legato, whatever—is that he mixes everything up gracefully and absolutely nails each approach. And all the while the music sounds natural.' – Joe Satriani