Andy Webster

Sometimes controversial, always entertaining, Andy can leave a room in stitches or in tears! Performing started early as Andy was brought up in the world of advertising. By the age of 10 he had appeared in commercials for KFC, Carpetland USA, and a variety of local businesses in his hometown area of The Quad Cities. An athlete at heart, Andy pursued his dreams of one day playing for Tottenham Hotspur in England’s top flight of soccer. Numerous knee injuries, bouts with depression, alcoholism, and drug use killed his professional athletic dreams. Music began to take center stage in college. There, the music departments at Quincy College and Augustana College proved to be a musical chemistry lab for Andy to experiment and find his own musical identity. In 1990, Andy attended The National Guitar Workshop for the very first time. Apprehensive about his age/ability ratio on the guitar, it didn’t take long for Andy to settle into a very positive environment. He flourished. After attending NGSW for six weeks in 1991, and taking all courses for college credit from SUNY New Paltz, Andy was brought into the Workshop’s famous intern program. This didn’t last long. Andy took to teaching like a duck to water, he had been doing so since 1988, and the newfound material was addictive. In 1992, Andy was the assistant director of the Workshop’s California campus in Claremont, CA. That year he also served as an Intern at the home campus of the Workshop in New Milford, CT. In 1993 he became a first year member of the faculty, specializing in voice, music theory, and fretboard knowledge. The years of 1994 and 1995 saw Andy progress as both a teacher and as a player. While living in Denver, CO, and working at the then named Colorado School of Music, Andy formed a trio that during 1994, recorded “View From the Sixth Floor”. The CD definitely had its faults, but won rave reviews for its groundbreaking music. Released in 1995, in three states, the CD sold over 1500 copies, before (sometime in 1996) a student uploaded the files onto Napster. Killing all future sales. Although Andy has vowed to never release a CD again, all new recordings will go straight to MP3 format and are available in the store section of the site. May of 1996 found Andy in a tough spot; newly admitted to the USC Thornton School of Music’s prestigious Studio Guitar Program, Andy was hit by a car. Not wanting to lose his place at USC in the fall, Andy tried his best to overcome a terrifying fear of driving a car in the worst place imaginable, Los Angeles. Andy’s medical conditions slowly improved, but not enough to warrant a longer stay at USC. Richard Smith and Andy both agreed that it was in Andy’s best interests to suspend studies until the artist could represent himself properly. While recuperating, Andy found work at Jim’s Music Center in Irvine. The job allowed him to heal sufficiently and still be part of the music scene. Contact with the clients at Jim’s proved most rewarding, as Andy began to slowly take on work as a studio musician and consultant guitar instructor. 1997 saw the dawn of the Performing Arts Lab of Mission Viejo (PAL). Hired on initially as a guitar instructor, Andy soon found that there was great potential for bigger and better things at PAL. The development of rock ensembles with the help of Ken Abelon, and structuring guitar classes at PAL helped to increase enrollment from around one hundred to more that five hundred. Sadly, just as things were really taking off on the PAL side of the business, the adjoining music store, Mission Music was going under. Ownership decided to close the doors, with out prior warning to the teachers, in April of 2000. Andy carried on teaching as best he could; studio work had begun to pick up a bit, but driving in California traffic was beginning to have an adverse effect on Andy. Luckily, plans for a new performing arts complex were in the works and had received initial backing from some of Orange County’s larger corporations. The real estate investment trend soon put the kibosh on the new academy though, and Andy found a new home with Lifetime Music Academy (LMA) in Aliso Viejo. LMA was a great success, Enrollment jumped from 50 odd piano students in 2002, to more than 500 students of all instruments by 2005. During this time Andy was also actively involved in studio projects, including LMA’s one and only Christmas CD, “Songs for the Season”. 2002 also saw the dawn of a new love affair for Andy, with Triumph Motorcycles! An obsessive compulsive by nature, Andy took to motorcycles like a duck to water….and by the end of 2003, had totally abandon four wheels for two…including a bike for his wife! Currently residing in the Austin, TX area, and still an active instructor at Danny Ray’s music in Round Rock, the redesign of this website marks a return, of sorts, to live performing. While Andy will be teaching a select roster of students at Danny's, the emphasis has shifted from teaching to performance. Mixing a desire to maintain the life of a musician, with the joys and duties of being a father will see Andy's live performances broadcast live on this website. Touring will be minimal, only traveling to selected cities four to five times each year. Andy has enjoyed studying with more than 130 instructors during his lifetime, including some of the top guitarists in the world. Steve Khan, Mike and Leni Stern, Jody Fisher, Erik Halbig, Frank Gambale, Adam Levi, Mick Goodrick, and Pat Kelly are among the many whom Andy has called “teacher”. Some of the most important lessons, in life as well as music/guitar have come from his students. Andy has always maintained close relations with Musical Instrument manufacturers. Some of the companies that Andy has worked with in the past include: Linc Luthier Guitars/Basses, Taylor Guitars, Heritage Guitars, Breedlove Guitars, Brian Moore Guitars, Budda Amplifiers, Bogner Amplification, and VHT, now Freyette Amplifiers. When not teaching or practicing, Andy is seldom far from his family, subjecting them to the trials and tribulations of being a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.

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