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A Professor of Guitar from the School of Rock

... and at work in his teaching role at the Berklee College of Music.
Ned Wharton, NPR
... and at work in his teaching role at the Berklee College of Music.

Founded in 1945, the Berklee College of Music is the ultimate "school of rock" — with a good bit of jazz, blues, and just about any other pop form to boot. It's the world's largest music college: there are classes in songwriting, film scoring and sound engineering. But the majority of musicians who enroll at Berklee are interested in playing an instrument. And out of the 3,800 students enrolled here, some 1,100 have come to play guitar.

Rick Peckham teaches guitar at Berklee, and he also plays a mean Telecaster. And now his trio — with Tony Scherr on bass and Jim Black on drums — has released a CD called Left End. The music reflects the many streams of guitar styles that waft through the halls of Berklee — biting riffs that take their cue from the solid roots of rock, but with intricate technique and complex harmonies that pay homage to the jazz tradition.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.