School of Banjo

For more information go to the official School of Banjo website

Gus is the founder of Melbourne’s School of Banjo. Gus has 20 years of experiences playing banjo, including 15 years of touring Australia and 11 years touring Europe, Asia and the Americas with Blue Grassy Knoll. In 2003 he was fortunate to have studied with several great banjo teachers in the USA , and has been teaching ever since. He was the 2005 Guildford Banjo Jambouree two tune pick off champion!

He has upward of 30 students at the moment, they range in age from 11 to 73, and they all go at their own pace – some come weekly, others fortnightly, some come in fits and starts… it’s each according to their requirements.

He’s used to starting people from scratch, getting their picking fixed up right from the beginnning, and giving them things that they can play without too much hassle, so that it’s not all hard work and no reward. Books are a great resource but there’s nothing that beats having someone showing you how to do it. He has a large selection of music that he gives to students as they progress, from all different sources, he tends to pick the best tunes from different books, and also give students a CD of the things they’ll be playing, but nice and slow, so they can hear what’s what. He’ll also give you a compilation CD of some of his favourite banjo tunes. And if you have something that you want to learn to play, Gus can figure it out and if it’s playable teach it to you. He also has a large lending library of bluegrass CDs and DVDs available for students to borrow.

Gus is happy to take on more students, if you’re willing to give it a try. He charges $60 an hour, and he teaches  from his home in Brunswick or occasionally the Guitar Gallery on Johnston St, Fitzroy.

You can contact him on gus(@)gusmacmillan.com (without the brackets) or 0412 964435 to make a lesson time.