About Our Instructors
Tommaso Zillio, PhD
Tommaso Zillio is a recording artist, composer, session guitarist, guitar trainer and instructional author.
His expertise as a teacher is on training guitar players on how to use music theory to create their own style and express themselves. His main focus is on helping guitar players to think both inside and outside the box and to eliminate anything that can restrict their free expression on the instrument.
Tommaso is a charter member of the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle and earned the esteemed "Elite Master Guitar Teacher" title given to less than 10 guitar teachers world wide to date.
He is also the founder and owner of the Edmonton Guitar Music School where, together with his team of teachers, he trains beginner to advanced guitar players to reach their musical goals.
In addition to working with other artists as a studio musician and orchestral arranger, Tommaso collaborates regularly with local theatre companies for musical theatre productions.
Tommaso holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA/ISAS) in Trieste, Italy. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Smithsonian and to date he has published a dozen peer-reviewed research articles on topics ranging from Physics to Ecology.
Guitar Instructionals
Tommaso has written and published many articles, books, and instructional videos on different music theory topics and how they apply to guitar players and their music. He is of the opinion that music theory can be made accessible to anyone who is willing to learn, and that a deep knowledge of theory helps immensely the creativity and inventiveness of guitar players.
His course Master of the Modes on modal theory applied to guitar and fretboard visualization has been received enthusiastically by the music community and has earned the praise of many guitar students. His course on Blues scales for guitar has helped many players all around the world in unlocking in a simple way the numerous options available to todays' modern Blues player.
Influences
Tommaso #1 favorite composer is Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Tommaso's other main influences and favorite musicians are: L. van Beethoven, J.P. Rameau, A. Vivaldi, Frank Zappa, Dream Theater, all Ozzy's guitarists, Glen Tipton, Tom Hess, Andy Timmons, Eric Johnson, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Pink Floyd, Astor Piazzolla, Mike Oldfield, and many others too numerous to mention here.
Click here to contact Tommaso
Frequently Asked Questions about Tommaso
I'm always surprised at how much people are interested in my bio... I received these questions many times so here are the answers:
- Do you really have a PhD In Physics?
- Yes :-)
- Wow. Did you publish anything? Where can I find your thesis?
- For a list of my publications Google Scholar my name
- My PhD thesis can be found directly at my Alma Mater: Tommmaso Zillio's PhD Thesis. You can download the PDF on that same page.
- For the people who know and care, my Erdos number is 3. (Lineage: I published with Amos Maritan, who published with Bela Bollobas, who published with Erdos)
- So you are a rocket scientist? That don't impress me much.
- Unless you are Shania Twain, I don't care ;-)
- I have a question about your Courses
- The answer is most likely here: Frequently Asked Questions. If you can't find it there, then write me an email (you find the address at the same link)
About Brian Fish
- Yes :-)
- For a list of my publications Google Scholar my name
- My PhD thesis can be found directly at my Alma Mater: Tommmaso Zillio's PhD Thesis. You can download the PDF on that same page.
- For the people who know and care, my Erdos number is 3. (Lineage: I published with Amos Maritan, who published with Bela Bollobas, who published with Erdos)
- Unless you are Shania Twain, I don't care ;-)
- The answer is most likely here: Frequently Asked Questions. If you can't find it there, then write me an email (you find the address at the same link)
Brian Fish is a professional guitar player with 38 years of live performing experience.
He has a degree from the University of Akron, where he went through the Jazz Studies Program.
Brian has 29 years professional guitar teaching experience and founded his own guitar school in 2001.
He is a member of the Elite Guitar Teacher Inner Circle, where he studies with one of the world’s leading guitar instructors.
Some of Brian’s students have gone on to release their own music and tour the United States.
In addition, Brian is a speaker at international live guitar training events where students pay thousands of dollars to attend each year.