Ted began playing guitar at age 8. Acquired 1st electric guitar at age 11 & joined 1st garage band. "We tried to play songs by Cream, Hendrix, Yardbirds, Beatles, Stones, etc". Discovered blues at age 12 and continued to jam with friends/garage bands. Started giving lessons to friends and family at age 15. Began attending Westark Community College & studied music and drafting in addition to teaching guitar to friends. Began teaching guitar for Ben Jack's Guitar Center and formed 1st club band. In 1981 Ted hit the road. In 1984, 37 states & 5 countries later, it seemed time to take a break from road life. He managed a music store in Houston, in addition to teaching and Playing in local bands, and moved to Austin in early '86. After managing a local music store for a year, Ted founded Austin Guitar School with himself as the only instructor with 15 students. This has grown to 17 instuctors and 300-350 students per week.

*Formed rock/fusion trio called "Uforia", playing instrumental originals with a few covers by Jeff Beck, Billy Cobham, Joe Satriani, Tommy Bolin, Stanley Clark, and to appeal to a wider audience, threw in some rocking blues standards.

*Ted began teaching blues classes for the University of Texas in 1992 thru the present.

*In the summer of '93, Ted formed a blues band called "The Pleasure Cats" mixing the old acoustic blues of the 20's with the more contemporary sounds of today.

*In Jan.'94 started weekly Student Blues Jam at Gino's Italian Grill, which is still going strong today.

*Jan.'5,1995 proclaimed Ted Hall/Austin Guitar School Day by Mayor Bruce Todd.

*Began publishing & Distributing bimonthly newsletter called "AGS News" in Jan.'96.

*Monthly student acoustic showcases at Border's Books & Music Feb.'97 - Apr.'98

*Toured Northern Italy in Apr.'97 with some of Italy's finest musicians.

*On tour in the Fall '00.

*Founded Party Pet Records and released the first "Pleasure Cats" CD titled "No Dogs Allowed" Dec.'97

*Staff instructor for the National Guitar Summer Workshop (Connecticut) Austin Campus '97, '98, '99, & '00'.

*Toured Northern Italy   and England in Apr.'99

*Ted's latest CD "Thief in the Night" on Lark Records

Buy the CD online at Amazon.com. Follow the link below.


You can also find the CD at Waterloo Records and the North and South location of Border Books.

Ted divides his time between managing and playing with his band The Pleasure Cats, running and teaching at the school and getting serious students ready to perform. While Ted prefers to teach a small roster of private students, he does take on new students from time to time. Ted styles are blues and blues/rock, jazz, funk, and latin.

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