In just a few short years, Woodward put together his own group “Sahara” which went on to sign a record deal and record a couple CD’s for “Dream Circle” a division of Polydor records. “I feel very fortunate to have had such a great opportunity with “Sahara” it was a lot of work, but there was also a great deal of satisfaction from touring, writing and recording with the band.” Woodward went on to add, “It really makes you a better musician having the pressure of writing and recording for a label, at the time I may not have seen this as clearly as I do now.” 
With well over two decades of teaching experience, Phil Woodward’s past and present clientèle reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the music and entertainment industry. Woodward had this to say: “Since the late 90’s I have not had to ‘search-out’ new students, I have been very fortunate to have students find me – most are referrals from my other clients and word-of-mouth.” When asked why he chose to do a guitar seminar, Woodward explains: “That’s simple, I really love to teach… Being so booked up, I often have to turn people away, and now with my workshop, it’s the perfect way to reach more people who wish to learn. It’s really all about helping to pass-on some truly invaluable knowledge and information for future generations of guitarist.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Woodward began his musical journey in the late 1970’s when he picked up his first electric guitar. After several years of private lessons, Woodward expanded his focus to music theory and piano while in college. It was then he went on to study and graduate from the Musicians Institute (GIT) in 1984. In talking with him about this chapter in his musical career, Woodward says: “I’m really lucky to have made some great friends, learned from incredible teachers and some amazing musicians outside of the school as well. Many of them remain inspirational to me today”.
After the days of “Sahara”, Woodward transitioned to a more regular schedule of teaching, session work, recording and touring with other artists. When asked about his tribute to Hendrix, Woodward says: “Years ago I started the group “Voodoo Haze” as a tribute to Jimi. The band was started purely to do an in-depth study of Jimi’s style for a company I was working for. The company was planning on releasing a ‘Hendrix’ CD-ROM at the time. I dug deeply into Jimi’s work and style for the CD-ROM project and then thought it might be fun to do a few gigs too! Well, that was over ten years ago…and there have been many, many gigs since!!! Little did I know at the time, the mountain of work I had ahead of me. It has been quite the learning curve that naturally, never really stops.”
You can hear some of Woodward’s guitar work in the soon-to-be-released documentary “1959 Burst” a film directed by the master luthier Max Baranet on the history of the Gibson 1959 Les Paul sunburst guitar.
Introducing guitarist/musician/songwriter:
Nick Stratton
I’m very pleased to announce Nick Stratton as assistant instructor for this August’s workshop. Nick has been a very dedicated student of mine since 2003 with a truly remarkable focus and creative energy. He has developed his many talents as an excellent guitarist/songwriter with a great deal of passion and inspiration. Already, at the age of 16, Nick has been very busy as a studio musician and is attending Berklee College of Music this summer. His presence at this year’s workshop will be a great asset to me, as well as everyone involved.