About Thomas Shugar

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Thomas Shugar Wedding PhotoThomas started playing guitar in 1985. His initial interest was classic rock and blues. Since then he has ventured through various music genres and bands. In March of 1997, he decided to take his guitar playing to the next level, which has led him into the vast world of classical guitar.

Thomas has been teaching guitar lessons professionally since 1999.

 

Thomas Shugar has Studied with:

Joseph Mixon
Director of Guitar Studies at Lebanon Valley College
 
Joseph Mayes
Director of Guitar Studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Mayes has toured half of Europe and the United States, performing at Wigmore Hall in London, and also at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York back in 1981. Joseph Mayes was a former Student of the Legendary Guitar Virtuoso -Andrès Segovia.
 
Michael Wall
Student of the World Renowned Composer and Performer- Jorge Morel
 
Behdad Moghaddasi
Former Director of Guitar Studies at Teran University and Music Conservatory in Teran, Iran. Behdad headlined as the final performer at the Cannington International Guitar Festival in Sommerset, the United Kingdom. Voted Number One Regional Performer by Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society for 2002.

 

Career Highlights:

Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society 2003
Thomas made his debut as the Headlining Performer for Recital One on April 13, 2003.
 
Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society 2004
Lectured on Villa-Lobos Etude #6 , and Etude #10, under the direction of Behdad Moghaddassi.
Performed ‘Mazurka Choros’ by Heitor Villa-Lobos at the Evening Recital.
 
Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society 2005
Lectured on Bach’s Allemande, Bourree, and Gigue (from Lute Suite No.1) under the direction of  Behdad Moghaddassi.
 
Rosemont Collage
Performed for The Iranian Cultural Society for the ‘Iranian and World Music’ presentation under the direction of Behdad Moghaddassi.
 
Reading
Performed for Basketball Celebrity Donyell Marshall at The Abraham Lincoln Hotel, for processional music.

 

Thomas Shugar Christmas in KutztownVenues Performed:

Allentown/Bethlehem
Mayfair Festival
Bethlehem’s Annual Fine Arts Festival
Lehigh Valley College for the Naw Ruz Festival
 
Harrisburg
City Island for Racial Unity Day
 
Kutztown
Kutztown’s Christmas on Main
 
Reading
Reading Public Museum for Various Art Shows
Centre Parks’ Arts and Antiques Fair
‘Souper Soup’ Fundraising Event for Opportunity House
Fundraising Event for Reading Police’s K-9 Dogs
Christmas Lights Tour at Gring’s Mill
Centre Park’s Garden Tour
Centre Park’s Christmas House Tour


 

Rock, Blues and Classical Guitar Timeline

1984
I started playing guitar at 15 years old.
 
1985
I formed the Band “Oracle”. This was my first basement band. We started out by working out a couple of cover songs and then started writing originals.
 
Thomas Shugar Electric Guitar1987-1989
I formed the band called “Anxiety”.

We played covers and originals and performed locally throughout PA.

We featured music from Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith and other classic rock bands.
 
1989
“Anxiety” broke up after the drummer’s dad forced him to get a “real” job.
 
1990-1993
Started delving into writing songs and recording them on a Yamaha MT3X 4 Track recorder, alone.
 
1993
Formed the acoustic writing project “The New Messiahs”. We had some airplay on radio stations throughout the United States all the way out to Arizona. We were on the front cover of the PA Musician in November 1993, with excellent reviews on our album.  The band dispersed with the absence of our bass player, who moved on to another venture.
 
1994
Bought a Fostex 16 track reel to reel, had it all rebuilt, and started writing songs again, alone. As a solo artist I had airplay on the Stewart Brodian Show out of Allentown on W88.5 FM. Stewart was on Ricci Lake and the Howard Stern Show, and was cast in two low budget horror movies.

He played two of my musical compositions- “Rhapsody” and for his Halloween show he played “The creeping witches of the Black Hills”, an orchestrated composition that sounded like a 1950’s horror film soundtrack.

I also had some airplay on several collage stations, local and abroad.
 
1995-1999
Still wrote songs. Learned more about music theory, and orchestration ideas with the keyboard.

1999-2003
Took a break from writing songs and started studying classical guitar with Joseph Mixon, Director of  Guitar Studies at Lebanon Valley College. Played at some big venues such as “Mayfair” in Allentown, and “Racial Unity Day” in Harrisburg, at City Island.

I began teaching guitar lessons full-time at the Community School of Music and The Arts in Reading, PA. and Guitar Villa in Bethlehem, PA.
 
2003-2006
Studied under Behdad Moghadassi, Michael Wall and Joseph Mayes.

I headlined the first recital at the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society’s Annual Guitar Festival. The next twp years after that I performed and lectured on the music of J.S. Bach and Heitor Villa' Lobos.
 
2006-2007
Took a break from lessons, and created a recording studio on my 3rd floor, bought a Tascam D3200, a digital 32 track recorder. Started writing songs again, alone, and re-recording some old ones over. I continued to work on my classical guitar studies, and I started learning some Jazz Theory here and there.
 
2008-2012

I began teaching lessons at Thomas Shugar Guitar Studio and continue to do so.

I continued working on classical guitar and some jazz studies. I returned to study with Joe Mixon for some jazz theory.
 
I co-wrote a jingle for Grover Silcox,  John DeBella’s  morning sidekick on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I had radio airplay on the John DeBella show, April, May and June on WMGK (Magic 102.9 FM). The John DeBella show is based out of Philadelphia and is broadcast on Internet Radio throughout the world.

Grover Silcox comes on at 8:00am on Thursdays so tune in, you might hear it. (They don’t play it every week.)
 
Currently, I have a jingle I wrote for Volkswagen on the table.
 

2012-2015

I still studied classical and jazz music theory. I continued writing, composing and recording Songs.

I took part in the Cat Diamond studio project, and wrote lead guitar for my own original compositions as well as a studio artist's compositions.

I continued teaching lessons at Thomas Shugar Guitar Studio.

 

2015-Present

I currently teach private guitar lessons.

I continue to study classical and jazz music theory.

I continue to perform classical guitar music for weddings, private and corporate parties, art shows, open house events and gatherings of all kinds.

 

2015-2019

Performing, Teaching, and still doing Repairs, Restorations– Composing music, here and there. The same old, same old.

 

2019-Present

When the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, EVERYTHING came to an end. There were NO students, and NO performances. So, I got back into writing, composing, and recording music. an Arturia Audiofuse 8PRE, as my interface. 

 

Recording Studio Upgrade

 I upgraded from my old Korg D3200 (A 32 Track Hard Disc Recorder) to a ‘super computer’– Equipped with Reaper, as the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) an Arturia Audiofuse 8pre, as my interface. I ran out of tracks, and Reaper offers Unlimited Tracks. WOW! 

It was a long, and tedious process, but I to transferred all of the old recordings, in WAV form, from the Korg D3200,  into the new 'MEGA' computer, and began to breath new life into some of my old recordings. Reaper has UNLIMITED tracks, which has enabled me to write VERY many new parts, creating a lot of texture, density, and dimension, to the old recordings.

 As I got more and more into recording, I was able to take all of my previous knowledge, combined with the latest technology- to get better quality recordings. I have taken the sonic quality way beyond what I would have ever imagined. I’m still studying, and It’s been a terrific journey, and a humbling, and tedious, learning experience! 

After a few weeks of getting ‘settled in’ with the new recording equipment– It was time to rearrange my old studio set up to make way for a more refined, and organized workflow, with more recording gear, and a VERY organized cable routing system. The computer was great, but all of the new gear was not fitting into my workspace. It was just ‘mashed-in’ to my already small workspace. 
I had my old friend Gary build a workstation that houses all of my digital processors, power supplies, and whatever guitar pedals that I want to work with. I took EVERYTHING apart, and rebuild it from the ground up. EVERY single guitar wire, USB wire, XLR wire, and ALL power supplies, 3 prong power cables, were all cleaned, and labeled, it took several weeks, but now the studio is now HIGHLY organized!

Pedal Mania

During all of that- I also started to collect guitar pedals, and that has enabled me to have some new, cutting edge guitar sounds that were previously unavailable. Guitar pedals have come a VERY long way, since I began playing, and have certainly transformed my guitar into other sonic dimensions!  

MIDI Madness! 

Learning MIDI, has allowed endless sonic possibilities. I have about 15,000  Keyboard sounds, in my library. Anything from Pianos, Organs, Mellotron and Orchestral sounds, which includes all sorts of drums sets, from Rock, to Metal, to Blues, and Jazz, Hip Hop- everything. I also have a Korg M-50 which allows me to layer, mix, equalize, and add effects to 16 sounds, and blend them all together. I can also use the Korg M-50 as another sound bank, for MIDI. 

Show me the Business....

I’ve been putting in massive  long days in the recording studio, getting everything very fine tuned, with the music, and the mixing process.
I’m hoping to get some of my compositions placed in TV and Radio commercials, TV Shows, and also movie soundtracks. Stay tuned....