Banjo Lessons

Gus Macmillan is dedicated to teaching 5-string banjo one-on-one to students of any playing ability, in any style, any standard. He has banjos available to buy or rent, and Skype or Zoom Lessons are also available for those in lockdown or outside the Melbourne Metro area.

Gus's lessons in this pandemic year are covid-conscious, taking place outdoors when the weather is suitable or indoors with a perspex sneeze screen between Gus and the student. In stage 4 lockdown lessons have continued online using zoom or Skype and are an effective way to keep progressing with your playing when stuck in isolation.

Gus has 35 years of experiences playing banjo professionally, including 21 years of touring Australia and 11 years touring America, Europe, and Asia with his band Blue Grassy Knoll. In 2003 he was fortunate to have banjo tuition with several great banjo teachers in the USA , and has been teaching banjo ever since. He was the 2005 Guildford Banjo Jambouree two tune pick off champion! He has also had masterclasses with legendary American banjo players such as Bela Fleck and Naom Pikelny.

Gus loves teaching banjo and has upward of 40 banjo students at the moment, they range in age from 11 to 81, men and women, talented and triers. He understands that people learn banjo at their own pace – some come weekly, others fortnightly, some come in fits and starts… each according to their requirements. Gus works out the needs of each banjo student and tailors their banjo lesson syllabus accordingly.

"Gus is a superb banjo teacher. He is inspirational and lessons with him are a delight. Thoroughly recommended!" - Rhonda Stewart, former student (via Linked In)

He’s used to teaching banjo to players of all standards - he can start people from scratch, getting their picking fixed up right from the beginnning, and give them things that they can play without too much hassle, so that it’s not all hard work and no reward. Books and the internet are a great resource for learning banjo but to learn properly you need to get feedback as you go, and there’s nothing that beats having someone show you how to do it - learning music happens as much through osmosis as through instruction, and is the secret to Gus's success as a teacher.

Gus is also able to help more experienced banjo players that might be stuck in a rut with their banjo practice... or just need some inspiration to pick it up again, through:

Developing new rolls – take the rolls you know and turn them on their head. Play familiar songs in an unfamiliar way.
Technique - get feedback on hand positioning, making your playing more efficient and effective
Explore Up The Neck – work out why those high tab frets go where they do.
Scales and Improvisation – learn about scales, blue notes and simple riffs to keep things interesting.
Basic music theory. Look at the big picture of how music fits together. Harmony, melody and rhythm.
Working out songs - if you've got a song that you’ve always wanted to play Gus can write it out and teach it to you.
Developing picking speed – start to sound like those speed demons on the web.
Learn a variety 'hotlicks' to spice up your playing.

He has a large selection of music that he gives to banjo students as they progress, writing out his own tunes and exercises as well as from all different sources - he tends to pick his favourite banjo tunes, and also give students recordings of the things they’ll be playing in their banjo lesson, but nice and slow, so they can hear what’s what.