About Us

National Guitar Academy is one of the biggest guitar schools in the world. Every year, millions of people discover our website and we’re proud that we have students in every country of the world and of every race, religion, colour and creed.

What a unique and truly wonderful thing. Music brings us together. It is a unifying force. Nothing on earth affects people quite like music. It is a magical gift for people of all ages!

So whether you’re a young aspiring rock star or a retiree who wants to develop your creativity, it is our great pleasure to help you along your own musical journey.

About our audience

If you are a guitar elitist who likes to dazzle other people with your Guitar Hero skills, this is NOT the place for you.

National Guitar Academy exists for the LEARNERS of the world, the normal people who are trying to learn guitar alongside all the other commitments and struggles in their life.

Here in our small corner of the internet, we’ve created a welcoming place where people can ask ‘stupid’ questions without fear of being judged or looked down upon.

We are all beginners at some point, so please know that you are our welcome guest here. You belong here and you are good enough to be here. (Especially if you’re just getting started.)

So if you want to learn guitar quickly and easily, add more musicality to your guitar playing and be able to express yourself through music, then please know that you’ve found a new home here; a place where you can be with kindred spirits, be yourself and enjoy the beautiful journey of becoming the guitarist of your dreams.

Our History

Want to know more about where National Guitar Academy came from? Meet Mike Kennedy, the founder of National Guitar Academy…

Hi I’m Mike Kennedy, the founder of National Guitar Academy and I’m delighted you’re here.

You may not know it yet but we’re similar souls, you and I. We see the world in a certain way and our shared love of music has brought us together and made our paths cross at this moment.

Music is a unifying force in so many ways (and how cool is that?). I love it!

Want to know more about my days in a rock band and where the National Guitar Academy came from? Read on, friend!

My background

I’m a musician and entrepreneur from Liverpool, England.

I was never musical as a kid. My favourite subjects in school were English and French (I love languages!), and I was known to be a bit of geek who loved only two things: football and video games.

But my life changed forever when a friend brought a guitar to my house when I was 16. He played a few chords that he’d learned and I gave it a try too. I instantly loved it.

I never really had a medium that I could use to express myself. I didn’t know how to draw or paint or write poetry, so I just assumed that I wasn’t a creative person.

But with the guitar I could craft stories and express feelings easier than ever before.

I was hooked!

Over the coming months I played so much that my fingers bled (literally!) and I turned from being the least artistic person I knew into someone who could play songs they heard on TV or the radio and someone who could write their own songs.

I could bliss out with my acoustic guitar (the most relaxing thing in the world) or kick out a dirty riff with my electric guitar through a cranked amp. It was heaven!

And it still is. All these years later, I still love it as much. In fact, I love it EVEN more. Learning to play the guitar is like nothing else I’ve ever done. It’s a lifelong gift.

My band years

After a year or so, I started playing with my friends and we formed a band. I knew that music would be central to my life.

We had some cool adventures with the band over the years. We played hundreds of gigs in the UK, Europe and America.

• Our band was called the Mags and we were lucky enough to enjoy some real highlights including recording an album in New York City with some music industry legends producing our first record: Danny ‘Kootch’ Kortchmar (Billy Joel, Carole King, John Lennon), Will Schillinger (The Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, The Ramones) and grammy award-winning sound engineer Matt Shane.
• We gigged all over the world and as a huge football fan playing as part of the opening ceremonies of the 2006 World Cup in Germany was very special.

Here’s a short vid-doc which was filmed during our third trip to the US and documents 24 hours in the life of the band.

Forming the Chester Guitar Academy

When the band folded I started the Chester Guitar Academy (a UK-based guitar school).

I wanted to keep music in my life and I wanted to share the amazing gift of music with as many people as possible.

Sting once said he didn’t need awards or money because “music is its own reward”. That’s easy for a multi-millionaire to say of course 🙂 but I believe he’s right; it is a special thing.

I love teaching guitar. It’s so rewarding to help someone else learn and I believe that the gift of music is a valuable one. I also believe it’s a positive force in the world.

So one day I thought ‘why only teach people who live near to me?’ It seemed clear to me. ‘Let’s take the shared guitar knowledge and love of music that we have as a team of ‘local’ guitar teachers and put it all online. Let’s teach people from all over the world!’

And National Guitar Academy was born.

Which brings us to today…

Yes, I’ve had a haircut since the earlier pictures were taken! 🙂

I want to help you become the guitarist of your dreams. That’s why I founded the National Guitar Academy.

And today the National Guitar Academy is the biggest guitar school in the world, with millions of students across every country on Earth.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine National Guitar Academy would have the impact that its had. But now I think that if you put something out into the world, something that comes from a place of love, then good things will always happen.

I’m proud that me and my team have created one of the best online guitar resource in the world, which helps so many millions of people become the guitarist of their dreams.

If you want to take your guitar playing to the next level, sign up for our email lessons and get started!

Over 250,000 guitar-learners get our world-class guitar tips & tutorials sent straight to their inbox: Click here to join them

I’ll sign off with a few pictures from my guitar adventures over the years. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon! 🙂

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