Guitar lessons and teachers

Guitar in UK tuition splits into three traditions using different exam boards: classical guitar (ABRSM, Trinity Classical, LCME), acoustic singer-songwriter (RSL Awards / Rockschool Acoustic, Trinity Rock & Pop), and electric or rock (RSL Rockschool, dominant for contemporary playing). Each Grade 8 carries equivalent UCAS points but the syllabi are not interchangeable: a Rockschool Grade 3 student moving to ABRSM classical typically loses one to two grades of effective fluency. RSL Awards is the parent body; Rockschool is its contemporary brand, and RSL Classical is a newer sibling suite. Tutoring helps most with the chord-shape-to-barre transition around Grade 2-3, with switching tradition mid-stream (do it deliberately, not by accident), and with the fingerstyle versus plectrum technique split that diverges at higher grades. Trinity Rock & Pop adds a Session Skills test (improvising or playback) that classical exams don't include. Match the tutor to the tradition the student wants. Most teachers specialise in one of the three, not all.