Originally from the L.A. area, Rich Severson has been playing professionally and teaching guitar for over 50 years. His education includes years of college and private instruction with a variety of teachers including Ted Greene, Joe Pass, Charlie Shoemake, and Mitch Holder, just to name a few. 

Rich understands that education is a continuing process and that there's always more to learn. His playing has been influenced by Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Howard Roberts, George Benson, Tal Farlow, and Larry Carlton. In the 80s Rich published three books of his own with Dale Zdenek/ Belwin Mills/Columbia and also worked as a proofreader for the publisher.  This provided him the opportunity to work with several great artists/authors like Tommy Tedesco, Joe Diario, and Ted Greene proofreading their books and hundreds of other submissions.

After teaching at GIT/Musicians Institute, in Hollywood, CA, for three years he developed and published his own home study guitar school-type curriculum available on his website www.GuitarCollegeLibrary.com which has helped over 20,000 students worldwide! Rich has won honorable mentions and awards in songwriting and served as president of the Ventura County Producers and Songwriters Guild. Touring for three years with "Dick Clark's Good Old Rock and Roll Show," he had the opportunity to perform with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Anthony, and many other great, old-time rock and rollers. 

After moving his family to the Yosemite/Fresno area he taught guitar and directed the jazz band at Fresno Pacific University for two years. He served as band director and arranger in churches in the Fresno area for over 20 years. He now resides on the Central Coast of California.

Being a well-rounded player, Rich is comfortable playing a variety of styles including jazz (his favorite), blues, rock, fusion, country, and solo fingerstyle. He performs at local venues as a solo guitarist and with jazz trios, quartets and big bands. He's traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada instructing and playing at a variety of worship conferences, workshops, and seminars. 

Rich is still a full-time teacher, working with students in his one-on-one jazz guitar coaching program, Jazz Guitar Accelerator. He also spends a lot of time working on live streams, videos, and lessons for his YouTube channel, which has 33,000 subscribers. Rich is endorsed by Eastman, Heritage and Hofner Guitars, Quilter Amps, and Band In A Box software. 

He also holds an annual 5-day Guitar College Yosemite Jazz Workshop in the Yosemite foothills for the past 20 years. This year he has just decided to start hosting the Central Coast Jazz Guitar Fest. Along with that, Rich is a bonafide expert on archtop guitars and has bought, worked on, and sold hundreds of them to his community of fans and students. He is constantly getting new inventory! 

If you love guitar, Rich is definitely someone you’ll want to follow on Facebook and Instagram! You can also hear his music on Spotify! Scroll up to find the links to join Rich's community!