How did you start playing guitar?

 'I was first inspired to play (like most) via popular songs at about age 12 . I played folkie pop / rock for a few years on acoustic guitar - before really connecting with electric guitar & the wonderful world of guitar solo's & instrumental music making. My older brother was a mad Beatles fan & that got me started learning my first few chords - singing songs really. I did that for about 4 or 5 years - playing Beatles / Bowie / Cat Stevens etc'

Click this link for example performance / free lessons in pop / rock songs style -    

 'Song writer style'  YouTube 

What inspired you to start playing electric guitar?

I got into electric around age 16 -17, after listening a lot to Pink Floyd - I was a big Dave Gilmour fan - a friend of the family had brought a copy of 'Dark side of the moon', 'Animals' & 'Wish you were here' to the house ... I loved it!  I got a copy of 'The Wall' on the day of its release from virgin records in Cardiff. I was just using my ears to work things out then really - I had come across a scale book showing Blues scales / pentatonics & basic modes   ... I learnt very few things via transcriptions at that time - which I think has some real benefits in terms of developing. When its not laid out clearly for you as a 'this is how its done' thing -  you have to find your own way to interpret what you are hearing - so everyone was doing their own version of their favourite players back in the late 70's  - maybe you'd get a fair bit of it wrong - but looking back I think maybe its actualley healthier in terms of everyone not ending up doing exactly the same shit via the 'How to' approach & the 10 million views internet lesson. I discovered Hendrix , Santana , Gary Moore etc  ...then Van Halen happened (got a copy of VH1 from spillers records in Cardiff in 1981) - then later Steve Vai / Joe Satriani / Paul Gilbert ... I was rock guitar mad for the 1980's & 1990's '. I got my playing skills together quite a while before I studied really - but like most who were self taught back then I was a firm 'modelist' ha ... I couldn't really play on chords / changes.

Click this link for example / free lessons in Rock & Blues guitar style - 

 'Rock & Blues' style guitar - YouTube

How did you end up studying music at university?

I had been listening to more (trying to play!) fusiony / challenging harmonic (chord based) stuff (I had the Frank Gambale technique book 1 in about 1990)  by the mid 90's & so was pretty open to learning more. I was always trying to improve - I still am- & was always in awe of jazz players in terms of the manipulation of sounds -I wanted to learn how to do that.  I saw an ad in a guitar magazine for the 'Guitar institute' in London - they were running the first grant funded DipHE university course in Popular music  - covering everything from R&B to Bebop. 
I auditioned & joined the course which was then later upgraded to offer the 3rd year / B.Mus hons degree while I was there. I loved it - but struggled a lot to commit 100% of my time to it as we had just started a family - our eldest son was born in 1995 & youngest was born in 2001 while I was still studying at the guitar institute... so I was commuting back & forth every few days from London to Cardiff. Looking back I don't know how I stuck it out really - but I did. It meant everything to me to be focussing on developing my music skills / playing guitar ...but also to be a good dad & be there for my kids , particularly as I had had a messed up childhood with my dad completely abandoning 7 of us kids when I was age 7 in 1970 - I always say 'Luck 7's'  ha.  I found out he even denied ever having any kids with my mum to someone he'd worked with for 20 odd years ... sad shit... anyway I graduated from 'The Guitar Institute' London in 2002.

Was it worth the effort?

It was great  - the staff there were fantastic players but also really down to earth people - it was really inspiring to be around such great players. It also fully justified my obsession with guitar playing for a few years more!  

Did studying get in the way of being creative - playing in bands?

It probably did  - but no one was really interested in what I was doing with my rock band at the time so going to uni seemed like a good idea.  I've always been creative with music making & have written & recorded a lot over the years. I had made a few bands  - we had recorded / made a CD before I enrolled at The Guitar Institute. I didnt feel like it was going to be the next big thing though because it was pretty out of step with the music trends of the time - so it wasn't  really a very 'current' sounding thing.  University does provide space for being creative though - through composition & performance  - when you get beyond foundation level. 

You then went on to do advanced Jazz studies?

Yeah - I had gotten into playing much more with a cleaner sound - less gain -  playing chord based Jazz stuff. I  enrolled at R.W.C.M.D - in Cardiff to study advanced Jazz a few years later. I graduated from there in 2008 (P.G.Dip.Mus advanced jazz studies).

So you have a masters in Jazz performance?

The P.G.Dip.Mus course at R.W.C.M.D. was about 70% of what's needed for a Masters Degree & was more generally focussed on Jazz performance & so it didn't have a 'Thesis' / research project / final submission element to it. I had developed what I believed were some original compositional idea's in the years following on from then & so decided to do a 'top up' masters with A.M.S (Academy of music & Sound) online to throw some light on the work I was developing. 

Weirdly my PGDipMus from R.W.C.M.D. was deemed to old (over 4 years) to use as the entrance qualification for the A.M.S course - so I had to go through this brownie point gathering assessment via submitting  proof of my proffessional work - teaching , live performance, video's from my youtube , evidence of gigs & compositions (links to my albums!) etc. I had to show / submit evidence that I had basically ammassed the same (level 7 or whatever) uni points that the PGDipMus was worth - since doing it! So I have in effect done it twice ...  & probably a few more times since ha ha.

Billy graduated from A.M.S. with a distinction grade for his Masters research project.

Here's a link to Billy's Masters submission (with review) -  'New jazz blues concepts' 

What are you currently doing music wise?

Teaching & performance stuff ...developing some new idea's ... same old! 

Here's a link to his more current musical activities -  (Jazzy)  You Tube channel