Hickory, North Carolina
Guitar lessons built around you — youth through adults.
Learning guitar well brings confidence, discipline, and a lifelong source of joy. I teach in a quiet home studio in northwest Hickory, with lessons shaped around each student's own goals.
Why study music
Learning to play an instrument well benefits kids and adults alike: increased confidence, self-esteem, discipline, and a clearer sense of how small daily steps add up to real achievement. Studies consistently show positive effects of music study on brain development in young children, and students who develop proficiency on an instrument tend to be high achievers in school. Investing in music lessons is investing in your child's potential — and it's simply fun.
I am a guitar teacher and active performer living in Hickory. My goal as a teacher is to make learning guitar an enjoyable experience for every student, whatever their age or ambitions. Younger students learn through the Suzuki approach, with a parent attending each lesson to help guide practice at home. Youth and adult students receive lessons customized around their own specific goals.
The Studio
A quiet space to focus and learn
My teaching studio is a quiet, comfortable environment in my home, located in a very safe residential neighborhood in northwest Hickory. You'll never be distracted here by the sound of another instrument playing in the next room during your lesson. I offer competitively priced lesson fees and instruction that's genuinely personalized to each student.
My specialties are classical and fingerstyle guitar repertoire and traditional Celtic music, though I've also performed in rock, jazz, and traditional music groups. After earning my degree in classical guitar performance, I completed Suzuki guitar teacher training for Books 1–5 and am a registered Suzuki teacher through the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
Adult and advanced students are very welcome: I teach basic through advanced guitar skills, including classical repertoire, fingerstyle guitar, folk music, accompaniment of Celtic tunes in DADGAD tuning, chord construction, and soloing over jazz changes.
For Younger Students
The Suzuki approach
The Suzuki method is a wonderful way for children to learn music, and it mirrors how children learn language. Just as it's nearly impossible to learn to speak from a grammar book alone, children struggle to read music notation without first hearing it played well. Suzuki students learn to speak the musical language before they learn to read it — delaying notation until a student is comfortable on the instrument and can already play several pieces by ear. Every Suzuki guitar piece is available on recording, and frequent listening guides the whole learning process.
As with vocabulary, students keep using pieces they've already learned while adding new ones, and group or ensemble classes give students a chance to share what they're learning and stay motivated by each other's progress. Parents play an important role too: in lessons, a parent takes notes on what's being covered and the goals for the week, then helps guide practice sessions at home.
In short: complex skills are broken into manageable steps, using many of the same principles professional musicians rely on.
Scheduling & Fees
Lesson fees & studio policies
Lessons are scheduled by the month. Please call or email to discuss scheduling and any questions about fees before your first lesson.
- Payment for the month is due at the beginning of the month.
- When you reserve a weekly time for the month, it's your responsibility to be there on time each week.
- With a few days' advance notice, a schedule conflict may be rescheduled depending on availability.
- There are no refunds for missed lessons, and lessons aren't rescheduled without advance notice.
- Group lessons and guitar ensembles carry an additional fee, based on the number of participants, lessons per semester, and cost of materials. These are only available to students also enrolled in individual lessons, and missed group or ensemble lessons aren't made up.
Recordings & Recitals
Hear Fred play
A few recordings, so you can hear the kind of playing and teaching this studio is built around.
About Fred
Concert guitarist & teacher
Concert classical and fingerstyle guitarist Fred R. McKinney brings his passion for folk, jazz, and traditional Celtic music into vibrant, sensitive performances. His repertoire ranges from his own compositions in DADGAD tuning — built on tonal combinations that highlight their Celtic influences — to classical guitar repertoire spanning renaissance to contemporary composers. Fred also enjoys composing, and his new album, Emergence, will be released on all major streaming platforms on October 30.
He has performed at venues across North Carolina including the Stephens Center, the High Point Theatre, Greensboro's Music in the Park, the Fiddle and Bow Traditional Music series, the Pinecone series in Raleigh, and numerous folk and Celtic festivals. He was a founding member of the Celtic band Gaelwynd, alongside singer Rhiannon Giddens, which released two CDs: Out on the Ocean and Northern Lights. He has also recorded with hammered dulcimer player Susan Vincent Sherlock, and performed with the Bruce Long Jazz Orchestra and the contra-dance band Reel Shady.
Fred holds a BM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied with Michael Craddock and Mark Mazzatena, and both a Master's degree in guitar performance and a Professional Artist Certificate from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where he studied with Joe Pecoraro and Marco Sartor.
He is a registered Suzuki guitar teacher who, alongside his private studio, has taught at the Greensboro Day School and the Suzuki School of the Arts in Hickory, and has led regional Suzuki guitar workshops in Greensboro and at the Virginia Suzuki Institute in Emory, VA.
Get Started
Let's find your lesson time
Feel free to reach out by phone or email with any questions about lessons, scheduling, or fees.