James Bay is teaching fans how to play his hits on guitar during the lockdown

(Image credit: Future)

Two things you may not be fully aware of concerning James Bay; he used to be a guitar teacher when he was a teen and he's got serious blues chops. Now he's putting his downtime to use in a positive way on the current COVID-19 lockdown by taking to Instagram Live to give guitar lessons – and the first two are on his biggest hits.

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Bay recently returned from Nashville where he's being cutting a new album (that's reportedly reflecting “obvious Rolling Stones influences”). “I thought [I'd] connect with my fans on there and say hi, and show them that I’m alright and offer something,” he told the Evening Standard

“When I was 18, I had a year where I finished school and I wasn’t doing anything else yet - so I taught guitar for a year the best I could,” he says. “I wasn’t a super-efficient teacher, but I was decent.”

And we can say from our experiences filming James in the past, he's a natural and engaging talker. He's planning on doing more but for now here's his lessons on the songs Hold Back The River and Let It Go. 

Hold Back The River lesson

Let It Go lesson

Check back for more lessons at James Bay's Instagram

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of hi waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear and making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing a Floyd Rose guitar.