Andrew M. Cavallo

I’m a guitarist and composer who fuses early music (Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque) with rock guitar. Stylistically, I belong to a specific family tree: Blackmore, Yngwie, Uli Jon Roth, and others. I have definite roots, but I sit on my own branch.

Over the years, I’ve often heard students say things like, “Blackmore is hard to get right.” Many of these players have more than sufficient technical command of the instrument to play anything Blackmore wrote, yet something still eludes them. The difficulty is not technical; it's temperamental. Some players are naturally suited to this lineage; others, despite formidable technique, are not.

If you belong temperamentally in the tradition shaped by Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Uli Jon Roth, you probably already feel that pull—subtle, perhaps, but unmistakable. This tradition is known for technical prowess, but it also requires something deeper: what Paganini would have called musical philosophy.

My role is to help you develop your own musical philosophy within this tradition. These lessons are not about producing clones. While players in this lineage share clear roots, they are encouraged to branch freely, cultivating an individual voice grounded in a definite lineage.

My approach is repertoire-based. The central task is building a strong body of music you can actually play. Everything else—technique, vibrato, improvisation and ornamentation, scales and modes, chord voicings, and the like—follows from learning how to play complete musical pieces. Technical development is never isolated or abstract; it always arises from real musical demands.

Students are free to bring any material that genuinely interests them. In addition, they benefit from a substantial body of my own original compositions and etudes, all supplied with complete scores, tablature, and backing tracks.

I also enjoy helping creative students compose and record their own pieces.

But above all, I take a player’s approach. I introduce topics with just enough theory. You learn to play first. Theorizing comes later.

For lessons, commissions, or correspondence: [email protected]