Our Story

From little acorns, oak trees grow. A chance meeting in a bar in 1990 led to the start of a great musical and business success story.

The Vision

“Back in 2002, years before YouTube was launched and Netflix became a household name, I saw the potential to deliver an amazing learning experience for guitarists all around the World using this little understood and rapidly evolving phenomenon called ‘the internet’. The technology wasn’t there yet, download speeds were snail paced, streaming video was almost science fiction, but I had a clear vision that the technology of tomorrow would very quickly become the technology of today.

I knew right then that I had the opportunity to create the most innovative online experience for guitarists of all levels to learn to play the guitar, and benefit from the wisdom of world-class tutors. Licklibrary could be an inspiration for guitarists to achieve their musical goals, and be the first ever global online community for guitarists. For once history proved me right!”

Kim Waller: Creator and CEO

In the Beginning…

From little acorns, oak trees grow. A chance meeting in a bar in 1990 led to the start of a great musical and business success story. Stuart Bull (one half of the founding team) was playing the guitar to a blues jam track in a bar. Kim Waller (the other co-founder, and an aspiring guitarist) watched him perform and was suitably impressed. Later, Kim approached Stuart to make a backing track for his personal use, which he did. Kim then discovered he enjoyed his playing more using backing tracks. An idea was born!

A mere six months after their first meeting, Kim and Stuart formed Total Accuracy. They produced full-band guitar backing tracks on CD of original blues and rock songs, accompanied by note for note instruction on how to play each song just like the original. This was expanded to include rock, blues and metal backing tracks written by Total Accuracy, for guitarists to practice and improvise over.

Over time the Total Accuracy guitar tuition products became the benchmark by which other guitar lesson products were measured. Total Accuracy went on to become the world's foremost producer of backing track driven tutorials for guitarists, winning awards and becoming the market leader in just eight short years.

Licklibrary, a light bulb moment…

"I’d already made a conscious decision to create a new identity online," says Kim "and I had a bunch of different ideas percolating in my head, but none of them were exactly right."

“Then I had the ‘light bulb moment’. The entire Licklibrary concept literally came to me in an instant as I was driving, I had to pull over and write it down, I absolutely knew in that moment that it was a game changer for guitar lessons, and would change online tuition forever”.

2002 saw the launch of Kim’s online concept, Licklibrary.com so named to identify with a library of lessons for players looking to learn guitar online, whether it be riffs, licks, solos, complete songs or technique courses. The global guitar playing community loved the concept, and the rest is history.

Since then, Licklibrary has gone from strength to strength, becoming a global leader in online guitar lessons with invaluable input from guitar virtuosos like Danny Gill, Tom Quayle, Andy James, Guthrie Govan, Jamie Humphries and many more. The Licklibrary team went on to produce thousands of online guitar lessons for songs and techniques in all styles and genres.

“I’m proud to have had the opportunity to work with such incredible musical talent as Tom Quayle, Guthrie Govan, Andy James, Danny Gill and everyone else that helped make Licklibrary what it is today” says Kim, “I absolutely couldn’t have done it without them. It might have been my original idea, but they are the real stars of the show”.

Licklibrary Today…

With Kim Waller still at the helm, and the driving force behind all new initiatives. Licklibrary continues to evolve, develop and innovate within the guitar education environment, and leads the music learning revolution by pioneering new ways to learn guitar online, while redefining the future of music education.

If you're looking for the fastest way to learn guitar online, you need progressive step-by-step online guitar lessons which move you from one stage to the next with professional instruction. At Licklibrary.com, you get precisely this - a guided journey that makes it easy for students to establish a solid foundation. Our instructors will take you through the hassle-free online guitar lessons in bite-sized chunks, making it easy for you to build momentum, achieve goals, and enjoy results.