I am very grateful to be featured in the “Cotswold & Vale Magazine”. Here’s the article, if you would like to have a read… ❤️

Do you have a guitar you can no longer play, but neither do you want to throw away? Then here’s a solution that will strike a worthwhile chord.

Evesham musician Matt Bate is a man on a mission to give pre-loved instruments a new lease of life by gifting them to eager would-be students unable to afford their own.

When he’s not producing music from his Evesham studio or performing around the world, Matt is busy teaching singing and guitar, with students flocking from around the Vale, Warwickshire, and the Cotswolds. Since Covid and the move to online lessons, pupils are now signing up to learn from even further afield.

Passionate about all that he does, the teaching is the bit he loves the best. But Matt has been struck by the number of people who’ve contacted him and want to learn but simply can’t afford a guitar.

It prompted him to make one appeal through his own social media – that resulted in five donated instruments.

“That’s five students who wouldn’t be able to play, but there’s got to be hundreds who’ve always wanted to pick up a guitar or have recently retired and would like to learn it,” he says. “It would be wonderful if I could do that.”

In fact Matt sees himself as a kind of musical collection/distribution point so that he can pass on as many instruments as possible, not just to his own students but schools, groups or anyone who’s inaccessibility to a guitar is preventing them from being a part of the music world he loves.

He’s so keen to help that he’s also willing to fund and carry out necessary repairs or reconditioning to an instrument that’s been languishing in a loft, cupboard or cellar for a while.

“With a bit of love and some new strings they work and for a beginner that’s all they want,” he says. “The basic starting price of a learning guitar is about £150, so being gifted something is really quite special.”

As Matt says, you’re not going to tour the world with your first guitar but who knows? Someone’s unused guitar could become a vital stepping stone onto that journey.

If you have a guitar you can give to Matt, get in touch with him via his website http://www.mattbatemusic.co.uk/