Heya! I’m Adam Rafferty. I was born and raised in New York City, and currently live in Linz, Austria.
Over the last 20 years I have spent most of my time on the road playing concerts and doing workshops.
Playing music for people is my #1 passion.
But – I also love teaching music to anyone who is dedicated – especially in live workshop settings.
Teaching music is my #2 passion.
At age 6, I started lessons with Woody Mann and learned little fingerpicking blues tunes.
Like many guitar players, I went through the phases of rock, and classical and then got deep into jazz.
I played jazz guitar throughout my 20’s and 30’s in NYC, and got to play with some jazz greats along the way – like Mike Longo (pianist for Dizzy Gillespie and my mentor), Alvin Queen (Drums for Oscar Peterson & Horace Silver), Dr. Lonnie Smith (B3 organ with George Benson), Buster Williams, Bob Cranshaw, Tal Farlow….the list goes on!
And then – in 2006 I got bitten by the fingerstyle bug after hearing the one and only Tommy Emmanuel.
Since then – life has changed. I have toured worldwide (Bangkok, USA, Germany, Italy, Austria, Scotland, Bermuda, Singapore, Malaysia, Czech Republic), released several fingerstyle instruction DVDS, and amassed over 20 million YouTube views.
I started my online school Study With Adam in 2014 as a way to share my knowledge online, and inteact with students worldwide. I could never have imagined that I would have the privilege to teach over 3,000 students!
My Adam Rafferty website is still my main “hub” – that’s where you can find my blog, and get tons of free valuable guitar lessons.
Now the time has come to start my own live workshops here at home, which is why I’ve created the Austrian Guitar Retreat.
I hope that you’ll come to one of my special live events here in beautiful Austria!
With Warmest Regards,
Adam
