Virtuoso guitarist Chris Buono has infiltrated almost every aspect of the guitar world, and there’s no sign of him stopping any time soon. As a session man, Buono has made appearances in such a wide variety of styles that you never know where he’ll pop up next. In 2007 alone, he appeared on four different albums, including Canadian shred-master Dave Martone’s When the Aliens Come and forward-thinking composer and cornet innovator Graham Haynes’ FullCircle. As a band leader, Buono has performed and recorded with a broad selection of highly-touted players, and has released his own solo album Solitaire—chock-full of freely improvised guitar-based electronica.

In his “day job,” Buono is an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he teaches guitar performance and oversees the school’s ground-breaking guitar effects lab. He also literally wrote the book on computer recording—M-Audio Guide for the Recording Guitarist—for M-Audio and Course Technology publishing. His other writing projects include lesson articles for Guitar Player, his column, “Tools of the Trade,” for Just Jazz Guitar; and Alfred Publishing’s Jazz Lead Guitar Solos. Until recently, Buono was also an industrious contributor to the now-defunct Guitar One, where he wrote the “Pedal Points” column and appeared on-camera for the 3.5 million CD-ROMs distributed by the magazine.

Oh yeah, he’s also one of the finest guitarists in music today, with an unmatched ear for improvisation, chops that’ll leave a jaw-shaped dent in your floor, and, just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, an absolutely dizzying work ethic. You can see for yourself at one of his clinics at the First Act Guitar Studio in Boston, or in one of his “Quick Tips” videos lessons on our website.