David Reynolds

Columbia Guitar Studio Founder & Teacher

I first started teaching guitar when I was 15 in the suburbs of Philadelphia. When the guitar salesman at the local Sam Goody record store began handing out business cards I had made in print shop, I quickly found myself knee-high in students. Before long, I was teaching a night school class to my fellow high school students.

As a teenager I delved deeply into acoustic guitar music including traditional blues and bluegrass including a year studying the banjo, and later, mandolin. I then made the illogical jump to the world of classical guitar which I focused on at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. After graduating I played hundreds of gigs where reading jazz fake books were required. Most of the students during this period of my teaching were interested in rock and electric blues so I spent the next twenty years investing hours in the various styles associated with electric guitar including improvisation. I was even hired by an agent to play electric bass on the North American tour of a recorder ensemble from Amsterdam.

When a new student enters the studio the first thing they notice is the variety of instruments hanging on the wall. I always joked I taught everything but slack key guitar until one of my students went to Hawaii and brought back a book of Hawaiian guitar music to work on. The teaching experience was to pay off when, several years later, my son and I were to travel to Maui to play a concert including a slack key piece. It was in Maui I became interested in ukulele.

Except for a brief break when I attended Peabody Conservatory of music, I have continued teaching guitar -and I always will. Although I never intended to meet with so many hundreds of perspective guitarists in my lifetime, somewhere along the way I recognized with in myself an enjoyment of sharing my knowledge of the guitar with students and seeing them improve. As a result, I have spent years thinking about curriculum and how it relates to the individuality of each new student I meet.

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David Reynolds holds a degree in guitar performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. While still a teenager he was spotted by Dutch pianist John Penink who sponsored him in recital. Subsequently he has performed as a soloist in many locations including Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington and has premiered several new works for flute and guitar with members of the Baltimore Symphony. In 1992 he was the first American invited to compete in the “Havana International Guitar Competition.”  Mr. Reynolds has published articles concerning the guitar in Cuba in publications in New York,Tokyo,London, and Los Angeles. As director since 1985 of the Columbia Guitar Studio, he has had students continue in the guitar programs of Northwestern, Berklee School of Music, The New School of Music, George Mason University, UMBC, The University of Maryland,Towson University, Elon and the Guitar Institute of Technology.  Mr.Reynolds was adjunct professor of guitar at Washington Bible College and has served as an adjunct professor of Music History at Johns Hopkins. In 2000 he was featured in Guitar Technique s Magazine as their “Featured Teacher.” He is currently working on recording One Art, a piece dedicated to him by Philadelphia composer, Allen Krantz. 

He has two children and is a member of Grace Community Church in Fulton, Md. His wife, Laurie, is an active piano teacher in Howard County.    

 

David Reynolds Plays One Art by Allen Krantz:

    One Art is a fantastic addition to the guitar repertoire written for David Reynolds by Allen Krantz and released in 2017. 

 

Publications:

Reynolds, David, 1996. “An American in Havana.” Soundboard, Fall 1996

Reynolds, David, 1998.  “Federico Garcia Lorca, Cuba and the Guitar.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998.  “A Paradise Closed to Many: Gardens Open to a Few.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998.  “The 1998 Havana International Guitar Competition.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998.  “Echoes from the Unpardonable Void.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998. “A Catalogue of Cuban Guitar Composition.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998.  “Manuel Barrueco: The Baltimore Interview.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 1998. “Leo Brouwer: The Havana Interview Hotel Riviera May 15 1998.” Guitar Review, Fall 1998

Reynolds, David, 2000. “Oye, Mi Cuerpo Pide Brouwer.” Guitar Review, Spring 2000

Reynolds, David, 2001. “Beast of the North.” Soundboard, Winter/Spring 2001

Reynolds, David 2001 “An Inferno in a Cigar Factory.” Classical Guitar Magazine, March 2001

Reynolds, David, 2003. “Cuba; The 2002 Havana International Guitar Competition.” Guitar Review, Spring 2003

Reynolds, David 2003. “A Mango in WInter.” Gendai Guitar, 2003