Welcome to ThePerfectGuitarist.com!

What The Perfect Guitarist can do for you:

Each of us has the potential to be the best we can be. With knowledge and understanding, the road to maximizing that potential gets easier and shorter. The author of The Perfect Guitarist  has spent a lifetime figuring out how to help others on this difficult road, as his many students can attest. Most importantly, he can help you. Look at the book and see for yourself.  

 

So, just who is the perfect guitarist, anyhow? Surprise! No one is truly perfect---not Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Chet Atkins or even Andres Segovia. However, in their own ways, each of them got closer to perfect than most others who have tried. However, how much of that was luck?  How much was God-given talent, or simply hard work? The answer to that is probably different for each. The truth is, work smarter, not necessarily harder.  Hard work, by itself, won't make you that much better. Working harder and smarter will get you much closer to that perfect guitarist inside you just begging to come out!

  

Duncan L. Wood is an accomplished multi-style guitarist, educator, performer and singer-songwriter. He has been helping aspiring students for over 30,000 hours of teaching experience during his career. Wood’s students have ranged in age from 4 to 92 years old as amateur and professional musicians. They include heart surgeons, engineers, carpenters, psychologists, television personalities and even the president of a Fortune 500 business, for example. 

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Duncan was the only student of classical guitarist and musicologist, Bart Jordan. Albert Einstein, the famed theoretical physicist, discovered Jordan to be a mathematical savant and, later, sent Jordan to study guitar with Andres Segovia (the father of classical guitar). Wood also benefited greatly by spending time with yet another Segovia disciple, the famed Italian guitarist and educator, Oscar Ghiglia.

 

Wood recorded his first album of original songs in 1976 with his band, Cutts Road. Their album reached #3 on the radio "heavy-play" charts in New England.   

 

Wood received his B.S. of Psychology degree from Lynchburg College in Virginia. His primary interest was the subject of how we learn, with particular emphasis on music. This led to 20 years of teaching, research and writing his book, The Perfect Guitarist, which received top reviews in Acoustic Guitar, the U.K.'s #1 guitar magazine. 

 

Duncan has taught at Lynchburg College, Leed's Music, Randolph-Macon Women's College, Stringfellow's Music,Virginia Episcopal School, Mars Music and privately.

 

Notable accomplishments:

• Co-wrote song, “South Africa”, chosen as the theme song for a movie about Nelson Mandella.

• Wood's band, GreenWood, was filmed by TV show, Star Search. 

• His Duncan & Danielle Band was interviewed and performed in two separate ½-hour TV broadcasts called All About the Arts in the Southeast United States. 

• Has performed as opener for Chicago, The Doobie Brothers, Rod Stewart, Jethro Tull, Peter, Paul and Mary, Chris Proctor (National Fingerpicking Champion) and others.

• Wood was hired as the expert music analyst to testify in a $10,000,000 music copyright infringement case.

• Was keynote speaker of music-teachers conference addressing innovative methods in teaching.

• Taught a live on-air guitar lesson to the entire broadcast team on WAVY television in Norfolk, VA. 

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Wood and a partnership opened a very successful music retail store, DnD Music, offering music merchandise, repair shop, recording studio and lessons for hundreds of students.

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Some of Wood's well-known students include:

Celeste Kellogg - up and coming CMA/Nashville star who first studied and recorded with Duncan as a guitarist and singer/songwriter.  She has had roles in movies and TV on her way to twice winning the Josie Music Awards Female Entertainer of The Year.

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Zachariah Hickman - a very successful bassist, guitarist and producer for Josh Groban, Ray LaMontagne and Josh Ritter, among others. He has appeared numerous times on popular national TV shows.

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Troy Gifford - an outstanding guitarist who has won first prize in competitions sponsored by the Guitar Foundation of America, Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine and the University of Miami. He is also considered America’s #1 composer for classical guitar and a highly respected academic.

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Duncan's personal guitar influences include Andres Segovia, Mason Williams, Carlos Montoya, Chet Atkins, Gary Moore, Jose Feliciano, John McLaughlin and Peter, Paul and Mary, just to name a few. They collectively inspired Duncan to become an accomplished master of diverse styles, to include fingerpicking, flatpicking and flamenco.