David Hodge is a teacher / musician / songwriter living in the Great Barrington, Massachusetts area. He teaches guitar privately as well and also teaches group guitar classes at the Berkshire Community College's Great Barrington Campus. He's also on the faculty of the Berkshire Music School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
While he makes his living as a guitar teacher, David is probably best known for his work as the Managing Editor and Senior Writer for , one of the Internet's most popular free guitar tutorial sites. You can read hundreds of his lessons and guitar columns there.
David has also been very busy writing guitar tutorial books these past years. He is author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Guitar" (Alpha, October 2010), "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Rock Guitar (Alpha, March 2010) and "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Learning Bass Guitar" (Alpha, September 2006) and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Art of Songwriting (Alpha, August 2011)
He is a frequent contributor to Acoustic Guitar Magazine and is currently finishing up his first full-length book for them, "Rhythm and Strumming Basics," which will hopefully be out before the end of 2011.
"Songs & Sandwiches - David Hodge and Friends Live at the Monterey General Store," a compilation of songs taken from three 2007 concerts at this wonderfully intimate Berkshire music venue, came out in January 2008 and is available at .
These days teaching and writing take up close to all my time. But one never knows - it's like all of a sudden, there are a lot of shows to play. Not just my own, but also providing backup for local singer / songwriters such as Todd Mack and Joel Schick. Providing the right musical textures in a backup is a lot of fun, not to mention a challenge!
If you want to see the performing schedule, go to the "Gigs And Performances" page at my website, www.davidhodge.com
I come from the typical "singer/songwriter" mold but my influences are fairly varied. You can hear traces of anyone from Paul Simon and Ray Davies to Aimee Mann and Andy Partridge.
Writing "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Art of Songwriting," I worked extensively with Nashville songwriter Casey Kelly who has an instinctive gift for crafting a song together. I've learned a lot from him and I hope that my newer songs reflect his inspiration.
But I'm also greatly influenced by the musicians and friends with whom I play music. Nick Torres, Kathy Reichert, Todd Mack, Marilyn Miller, and Fred Schane all inspire me to work harder and to enjoy each step of the songwriting process.
My main guitar is a Seagull S6 Folk model (with the cedar top). I also play other guitars and stringed instruments, some keyboards and whatever else I can get my hands on! I try to let the song determine the instrumentation, so sometimes you'll get a single guitar and sometimes you'll get a twelve piece band!
I hope that you enjoy what you hear and feel free to write me with questions, comments and suggestions.