Meet Harvey Blues – Guitarist, Performer & Teacher
45 years playing. 28 years teaching. A lifetime of blues, performance and a love of helping others discover the guitar.
Harvey Blues is a Melbourne-based guitarist, performer and teacher who has spent more than four decades playing music and almost three decades helping others learn to play.
From complete beginners learning their first few chords to experienced guitarists looking for a fresh approach to their playing, Harvey believes learning guitar should be personal, practical and, above all, enjoyable.
It Started With Hendrix, the Blues and a Borrowed Guitar
Harvey's musical journey actually began before he picked up a guitar.
He had already been playing piano for around six years and sang in several school choirs as a child. But at 15, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and a growing fascination with blues music, Harvey was loaned a guitar.
Something clicked.
For Harvey, guitar wasn't simply another instrument. As a teenager looking for a sense of identity, it became a way of expressing himself and discovering where he belonged musically.
That borrowed guitar began a relationship with the instrument that has now lasted 45 years.
Jimi Hendrix remained a major influence, alongside guitarists including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Peter Green, helping shape Harvey's lifelong interest in blues, tone, phrasing and expressive guitar playing.
Over the following four decades, Harvey played with numerous bands and musicians across a range of blues, jazz and contemporary styles.
His performing history includes Blind Lemon, Blues Arcadia, Big Kitty and the Scaredy Cats, The Bella Reunion, Cath Butler's Joynt Venture, and performances with Dino Baptiste, among many others.
Harvey has performed at festivals and events around Australia, including Byron Bay Bluesfest, appearing in 2008, 2014 and 2024, as well as Savannah in the Round, Woodford Folk Festival, Gympie Music Muster, Cronulla Jazz & Blues Festival and Wingham Akoostik Festival, along with many other Australian festivals and venues over the years.
Projects including Blues Arcadia, The Bella Reunion and Cath Butler's Joynt Venture have collectively received five Australian Blues Music "Chain" Awards, including recognition for Best Newcomer, Song of the Year, Band of the Year and Performer of the Year.
But after 45 years of playing, Harvey's view of what makes a good guitarist isn't about how many notes you can play.
It's about tone, listening to the other musicians, leaving space, phrasing and playing with emotion.
Those ideas are just as important to his teaching as they are to his own playing.
Four Decades of Playing and Performing
28 Years of Teaching Guitar
Harvey has been teaching guitar for 28 years.
His motivation was straightforward: he wanted to share the enjoyment he'd found through learning guitar himself and help other people experience it.
Today, Harvey teaches a remarkably broad range of students - from young beginners to mature adults. His youngest current students are around six years old, while his oldest is 65.
Different ages bring different goals, abilities and ways of learning, which is why Harvey doesn't believe in forcing every student through exactly the same program.
For some students, success might mean playing their first three or four chords.
For another, it could mean finally improvising confidently, understanding the fretboard or breaking out of playing habits they've developed over decades.
What Harvey enjoys most is seeing the progress happen.
When a student practices, perseveres with something they initially couldn't do and then suddenly finds they can play it, that's what makes teaching rewarding.
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Getting the Fundamentals Right
After decades of playing and teaching, Harvey believes some of the most important parts of learning guitar are also among the easiest to overlook.
Basic technique matters.
Where you position your hands. Where you place your thumb. How your fingers meet the strings. The small physical habits established when you're learning can have a significant effect on what becomes possible as your playing develops.
Harvey also believes there is value in learning guitar from someone who has dedicated decades specifically to the instrument.
Rather than treating guitar as one of many instruments, Harvey's teaching draws on a lifetime spent understanding the particular techniques, sounds and possibilities of the guitar.
The aim isn't simply to show you where to put your fingers.
It's to help you understand why something works, how to use it and how to become a better musician as well as a better guitarist.
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Already Play? Sometimes You Need Another Perspective
Beginners aren't the only guitarists who benefit from a teacher.
Experienced players get stuck too.
After years of playing, it's easy to settle into familiar patterns — the same shapes, phrases, approaches and ideas that have always worked.
Sometimes the problem isn't a lack of ability.
You simply need another perspective.
Harvey enjoys helping experienced guitarists challenge some of those established patterns, explore different approaches and open their playing to new creative possibilities.
That could mean changing how you approach improvisation, exploring phrasing and space, understanding the relationship between chords and scales, or simply hearing another musician's perspective on something you've been doing the same way for years.
The goal isn't to replace your style.
It's to give you more choices within it.
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You're Never Too Old to Learn Guitar
One thing Harvey doesn't believe in is being "too old" to start.
If you've spent years thinking you'd love to learn guitar one day, age doesn't have to be a roadblock.
You might be learning your first chord at six or picking up a guitar for the first time at 60.
What matters is wanting to learn.
As Harvey puts it:
You're never too old to learn guitar or start doing something you've always wanted to do.
Learn Guitar with Harvey
Whether you're a complete beginner, returning to guitar after years away or an experienced player looking for some fresh ideas, Harvey's lessons are shaped around your playing, your musical interests and what you'd like to achieve.
With 45 years of playing experience and 28 years of teaching behind him, Harvey brings the perspective of both a working musician and an experienced teacher to every lesson.
And after all those years, the objective remains remarkably simple:
Enjoy the guitar, keep learning and make music.