Troy Nelson

Troy Nelson has been a guitarist and author for over 30 years. His lesson books and songbooks are published worldwide.

His philosophy on writing books is simple: Give the reader what they want – music instruction that is both fun and easy to understand. This will keep them engaged and, in turn, make them a better musician in the shortest amount of time.

Troy partners with renowned musicians and instructors to publish easy-to-follow instructional books and sheet music books covering every popular instrument – guitar, bass guitar, piano, violin, drums, ukulele, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tin whistle, harmonica, and recorder.

Some of his popular series include:

Play Music in 14 Days – a quick-start music lesson book that gets you playing and sounding musical right away.

Super Easy Sheet Music – Songs everyone knows. The arrangements feature extra-large music staffs and notes, letters (note names) inside every notehead, chord symbols, and fingerings for every note.

Music 365 – 52 Weeks of Daily Exercises, presented in an easy-to-use, one-exercise-per-day format.

Troy's career as an author started with the best-selling guitar exercise book Guitar Aerobics.

"As a guitarist, I wanted to write a technique book that would appeal to me; that is, a book that had a practical structure and music examples that didn't sound like warm-up exercises. I wanted to compose music examples that guitarists could incorporate into their own music while, at the same time, improving their chops," says Troy.

Following the incredible success of Guitar Aerobics, Troy next penned Fretboard Freedom, Rhythm Guitar 365, and One-Man Guitar Jam, all published by Hal Leonard.

In 2017, Nelson began self-publishing with his first book, Modern Lead Guitar.

How it all started...

It was in the small town of Viroqua, Wisconsin (population 4,000), where Nelson first picked up the guitar at the age 14. After months of begging his parents for an axe, he tapped into his savings account for a Harmony electric, a Fender Strat knockoff from the JC Penney catalog.

From that moment forward, Nelson would spend hours each day, much to his buddies' dismay, woodshedding in his bedroom, playing everything from Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King to Dokken and Metallica.

"My friends would come to our front door on the weekends to ask me to hang out, and I'd say 'no thanks' and go back to my room to play guitar until dinner. Then, after dinner, I'd return to my room and play until my sister would bang on the wall to make me stop," remembers Nelson.

Prior to authoring music books, Troy was Editor-in-Chief of popular guitar magazine Guitar One. Troy was responsible for putting some of music's top guitar talents on the cover of Guitar One, including AC/DC, Billy Gibbons, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, and Korn.

Nelson attended Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he earned an Associate’s Degree in Occupational Music. He also holds a Bachelor of Education degree from University of Georgia.