This month, we interviewed James Kuhnel, the founder of Kirklees Guitar School, and his podcast co-host George Loveridge. These two working guitarists teach a range of guitar students locally and are now offering their tuition to a worldwide audience.
The Journey of Kirklees Guitar School (KGS)
Kirklees Guitar School (KGS) has grown organically through three distinct phases, driven by a commitment to quality and in-person tuition. James Kuhnel began teaching one-to-one mobile lessons at the age of sixteen under the KGS moniker in the Kirklees district.
The business reached a turning point when James could no longer physically travel to all his students’ homes. This led to the establishment of a physical studio in 2017.
“We got the studio in 2017… It’s just word-of-mouth and not very much advertising, just really good local reputation.”
The school has since expanded significantly:
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Current Team: 10 tutors.
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Instruments Taught: Guitar, bass, ukulele, drums, and piano.
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Weekly Lessons: Approximately 200 lessons delivered each week.
KGS has successfully evolved into a vital “local community hub for music”, putting on gigs twice a year, running rock camps, and fostering a creative atmosphere. This strong foundation in real-world teaching is the bedrock of their growing online presence.
James’ Story
“When I was setting up the school, I would often talk to George. He’ll find this funny because when I went to university, I sent him to my old guitar teacher. George would go to his flat for an hour every week, and the teacher would just throw a lot of jazz theory at him. He’d come home completely confused.”
George replies – “I was only 10 at the time, and for a couple of lessons, I wouldn’t even pick up the guitar because I knew I’d have to get my notepad out. In its own way, the teaching was excellent, but I think he tried to make everybody a prodigy. I don’t regret going to see him, but it shaped my perspective.”
James states, “When I was 12 or 13, I thought, ‘I want to be a guitar teacher—that’s what I want to do when I grow up.” The question became, “What can I do that’s different from everybody else?”
“We live in an area with a good number of people, but they are spread across eight or nine villages, all about a mile and a half apart. It’s quite dispersed. Growing up, there was no kind of hub for music. There was nowhere to put kids together into bands, nowhere to do group classes or group events.”
Creating a Community Hub
“That’s why our school is different. We put on gigs twice a year, where we organize the students into bands. We also run rock camps and kids’ holiday activity clubs. The vision is that it’s not just about the lessons; I want it to be a local community hub for music.”
“We are one of several creative businesses—like our neighbor who runs an art school—located here in the mill. We actually call this area the Dale Arts Quarter because we have a dance school, a guitar school, and an art place.”
“In the digital world we live in, I don’t feel like there are enough places where you can come and do creative things. And that’s a big part of the school’s mission, and it has been right from the very beginning.”
Smoke on the Water
“Yes. I started playing guitar when I was seven, and it was my old headteacher who got me started, but within a couple of months, he retired, so I was left without a guitar teacher. James lived in the same village as me growing up, but we didn’t know each other because James is 10 years older than me.”
“My mum sent his mum a text or a letter, God knows, and said, “Your boy plays guitar. Make him come and teach my son.” And then this long-haired, pierced, tattooed guy came into my living room and showed me how to play Smoke on the Water, and the rest is history.” – George Loveridge
The Birth of the Online Community and Podcast
The shift to online content began unexpectedly in 2024. James found surplus camera gear purchased for virtual lessons during COVID and decided to make use of it. The strategy was clear: provide value first, build community second.
Initially, he uploaded short riff tutorials to YouTube a couple of times a week, offering downloadable, free tabs in a corresponding Facebook group.
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Facebook Community: The group has grown rapidly to nearly 4,000 members worldwide.
This engaged community highlighted a need for more personal, long-form content, leading to the creation of the podcast with his long-time friend and original guitar tutor, James.
The podcast’s unique selling point (USP) is its focus on genuine conversation about the process of learning to play the guitar, rather than gear news or flawless, overly edited presentations. The rapport between George and James is a key strength, offering a “very relaxed” and “positive” listening experience.
“There’s not actually that much out there that’s not just two people sitting down and having a really good conversation about learning to play the guitar.”
Teaching Philosophy: Breaking Down the BS
Both James and George agreed that their years of teaching face-to-face with students had given them the skills to help new players thrive.
They are critical of the pervasive “microwave generation” marketing and ‘play amazing blues with these three notes’ mentality found online, calling it out as “all BS.” KGS’s teaching is rooted in an honest, no-nonsense approach that emphasises incremental progress and realistic expectations.
Key Teaching Pillars:
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Chunking Information: A 45-minute, confusing video on the Circle of Fifths, for example, would instead be broken into ten manageable videos in their new Academy, ensuring students fully grasp lessons 1-5 before moving to 6.
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Focus on Application: They emphasize that watching a video isn’t enough; students must physically apply the concepts (e.g., practicing a scale and being comfortable moving it across the neck).
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Realism and Authenticity: The podcast is filmed live, leaving in mistakes and fumbles. This is a deliberate choice to show viewers that “nobody is perfect” and to encourage students who are overly polished, perfect online tutorials may put off.
Target Audience:
While the local school sees a 50/50 split between young learners and adults, the online audience is predominantly 40+, consisting of:
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People who have always wanted to play but never started.
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Musicians returning to the guitar after a long break.
Interestingly, George observes that adults often have shorter attention spans and become demotivated when they can’t achieve instant results, unlike younger, more malleable students.
The Kirklees Guitar Academy: A New Digital Offering
Building on the free content, James recently launched the Kirklees Guitar Academy, a subscription service designed to offer a more structured, in-depth learning path for its dedicated global audience. It is an extra layer for those who want to take their learning further but cannot attend the physical school.
Launched only last week, the Academy offers a wealth of resources:
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Free YouTube Content: Continues with a new song lesson and three downloadable tabs most weeks.
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Academy Subscription (£24.99/month): Provides three extra resources for every YouTube lesson:
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A Playthrough video.
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A downloadable Backing Track (a much more valuable tool than a metronome for phrasing).
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A Technical Focus Lesson that breaks down the trickiest element of the song (e.g., a 10-minute lesson and exercises on pinch harmonics for a Bon Jovi song).
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Additional Library: Access to over 100 videos not available anywhere else, including structured, step-by-step courses for learning the guitar.
At £24.99 per month, the price is deliberately set to be comparable to a single half-hour in-person lesson (£21 at KGS). Still, it offers unlimited access to and the ability to repeat content—a powerful value-for-money proposition for self-paced learners.
The team is grounded in real-world teaching, and this also resonates in the feedback they receive from their online community.
“All the messages I get every week are overwhelmed with, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never been able to play this!’ or ‘I’ve never understood that, but the way that you’ve said it makes it just complete.” This is the thing: it’s teachers. I think one thing that’s really important for us, regardless of how successful we become with this online venture, is that you should always have your hand in some one-to-one teaching because it’s a skill set that you need to keep up with.” – George
Nurturing the Future of Music
KGS demonstrates a profound commitment to developing future talent, creating a sustainable career path for its students.
“What’s a better advertisement for somebody that’s been through our system and now has a career in music?”
The school currently has three apprentices who studied with KGS from a young age (around 6 or 7) right through to leaving college. These students are now studying music at university and are being taught how to teach, with the eventual goal of becoming tutors at the school.
This holistic investment in their students is what they believe makes their approach the kind of teaching “we need more of in the world.”
KGS Podcast Technical Details
For those interested in the technical setup of the show, George provided the following equipment list:
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Mixing/Vocals: RodeCaster Pro II with Rode PodMics.
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Guitars: Boss Katana amps with line-outs (Boss provided two units for use).
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DAW: Logic Pro X.
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Cameras: Two Canon R50s (main shots) and one Sony Handycam (air cam/overhead shots).
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Editing: Final Cut Pro.
For a full breakdown, read this Gearnews article George wrote, which goes into more detail on how they create the podcasts.
Final Thoughts
I asked them both for tips for players starting, and they both had great replies.
“As often as you can, within reason, film yourself playing on your phone, and just keep it in your camera, because there’re gonna be days that come by where you’re bad on guitar, but you can look back and see your progress” – James.
“Stick with it, because as a young player or someone in the 50s or 60s, if you look at your playing now compared to 6 months ago, you’re twice the player as you were,” – George
Both these teachers know that to get better on the guitar, you need to put in the hours. The reward, of course, is that you will progress and get better over time.
Finally, I had to ask them both for their top two or three guitar heroes/influences (a tricky question, as we all agreed we could name hundreds), and James opted for Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Kossoff. Whereas George chose George Harrison and Brian May.
The online world is full of throwaway, learn fast courses with lessons based on flashy graphics and false promises of the ultimate system to master guitar. Therefore, it was refreshing to talk with these two well-seasoned guitarists, as both fully understand the way students really learn and progress.
If you would like to know more about the school, the podcast, or the new online academy, then follow the links below.
More Information
#Kirklees Guitar SchoolÂ
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