NIGEL FOOTE
Please note: Nigel is taking a break in 2023 (to work on some unfinished projects).
Nigel Foote is one of Australia's most experienced guitar teachers, and brings a wealth of knowledge to his students. Nigel has taught guitar at home in the Blue Mountains since 1983 and also for Mitchell Conservatorium of Music, Blue Mountains Grammar School, and All Saints College.
Nigel and Martin's students learn how to master the same fingerpicking techniques employed by many of the world's finest singer-songwriters and guitarists. The lessons are based on Nigel's own course – a course that has evolved over 50,000 lessons – a graded series of foundation tunes equally suitable for children and adults. The guitar course is designed to get people playing the guitar as quickly as possible.
Fees: lessons at the school: 1/2 hour $45 / 1-hour $80 (all lessons are online during the Covid pandemic).
Online lessons: 1/2 hour $45
Nigel has a current Working With Children Check certificate
Biography:
Nigel Foote is an Australian singer-songwriter who has won a number of awards for his work, including: two PATER Awards, the Rudi Brandsma Award, the PCADO Award and two Blue Mountains Music Awards. Nigel has also gained 2nd and 3rd Place plus been a finalist five times in the Australian Songwriting Awards, 2nd Place and Finalist in the Musicoz Awards, 2nd Place in the TSA Songwriter's Salute, Finalist in the Victorian & National Country Music Awards, Finalist in the Johnny Dennis Music Awards, Finalist in the Declan Affley Award and gained an Honourable Mention in the John Lennon Song Contest.
Originally taught to play guitar by Mike McClellan, Nigel is the composer of some evocative guitar instrumentals including, Southerly Buster and Home By Dark – tunes that have received national radio airplay. Nigel has released two albums, Dangerous Game and Home by Dark plus an instrumental album, Spirit of the Strings with Dawn Egan (Celtic harp). Compilation releases include Macca's Top 100, Blue Mountains Music Vol 1, and Never Underestimate the Power of a Song. Nigel has also written children's songs for the ABC Music label.
Once descibed as "A born teacher" by a NSW Department of Education administrator, Nigel has indeed built a reputation as a dedicated guitar teacher, passing on his knowledge to a long line of students who have come to his door since 1983 to learn the secrets of fingerpicking.
Since settling in the Blue Mountains, Nigel has always been involved with the music scene in one way or another – as a songwriter, guitar teacher, performer, folk club organiser and archiver. Nigel's music is woven through the fabric of the community, with songs such as 83 Ordinary People (The Granville Song) used in the music curriculum at Blue Mountains Grammar School, and Dangerous Game having been adopted by the Damien Trimmingham Foundation.
In 1986, as part of the International Year of Peace celebrations, the Blue Mountains City Council invited Nigel to place his anti-nuclear record, Say No, Say No/Going Somewhere in a Time Capsule, now buried at Echo Point, to be unearthed next time Haley's Comet orbits the Earth in 2061.
Other interests include photography, cricket, writing, and classic motor sport.
Nigel is married to Dawn Egan – they have three boys; Damien, Martin and Lachlan (1996 – 2018)
