William G. Leavitt, or Bill as he was known to his friends is frequently called the “Greatest Guitar Teacher Who Ever Lived” by all the people who knew him. His “Modern Method for Guitar” series of books that he wrote for his Berklee College of Music students is now known as the The Guitar Players Bible all around the world for beginning guitar students.

Because Bill is held in such high regard I thought that his name needs to be preserved for all the guitar community. I was shocked to see that there was nothing available anywhere on his brilliant achievements. After much searching I came across this article written by one of his students and now a Professor of Guitar at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, U.S.A. This article has appeared in the The Just Jazz Guitar Magazine.

Special thanks also go to Mike Ihde – Professor of Guitar, Berklee College of Music - for the help he has provided for this article.

Kevin Downing.


REMEMBERING BILL
by Charles H. Chapman

This coming November (2001) eleven years will have passed since the untimely death of William G. Leavitt. Bill was one of the major musical figures of both Berklee College of Music and the world of music education. His published
books are internationally recognised as definitive texts on guitar
education. During the twenty-five years he chaired the Guitar Department he
redefined the materials and the way the electric guitar is perceived and
taught. While Bill chaired the department such notables as John Abercrombie,
Mick Goodrick, John Scofield, Emily Remler, Al De Meola, Mike Stern, Mark
Whitfield, and countless others benefited from his knowledge and guidance.
He increased the stature of the guitar and raised the ability of all that
play the instrument. Even though you rarely hear his name mentioned among
the annals of great guitarists his input has been felt worldwide.

Bill's career started in 1938 when he taught himself to play the lap steel
guitar and by 1941 was a featured performer in a local radio show. He
switched to six-string guitar in 1942 and performed throughout his home
state of Michigan until 1946 when he entered the Coast Guard. Until that
time he was not sure whether he wanted to become a commercial artist or
musician. One of his dreams was to become a cartoonist, and he came very
close to making that his career. After his discharge from the Coast Guard he
made his choice, and in 1948 he became the third guitarist to enter what was
then Berklee School of Music. He graduated in 1951 and for the next eleven
years pursued a very successful career as a writer/arranger and guitarist.
As a songwriter he had hundreds of tunes published with a few making it into
the Top 40. He was as comfortable writing for full orchestra as small
ensembles, and his services were sought by local and national performers.
As a guitarist his resume reads like a virtual who's who of the times. He
wrote for and/or accompanied performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Andy
Williams, Count Basie, Victor Borge, Guy Lombardo, Marliea Deidrich and too
many others to mention. As a studio guitarist in Boston and New York City
his strong acoustic rhythm guitar sound was heard on excess of two hundred
albums. In addition to receiving accolades as a performer and arranger he
was honoured in the mid-seventies by ASCAP for his wide-ranging and prolific
writing career.

In 1965 he was offered the position as Chair of the Guitar Department
following in the footsteps of Jack Petersen. He felt he was too busy with
his career to take a job of that magnitude, but agreed to do it temporarily
for his good friend, then administrator of the Berklee School, Bob Share.
He fell in love with teaching and found that his expertise as a professional
writer/performer was just what Berklee needed at that time.

In the early 1970¹s he was in a pit band in one of the major dinner theatres
in Boston when the contractor told him he should give up his beautiful
1940’s Epiphone Emperor archtop and buy a solid body guitar to keep up with
the times. He never did give up that wonderful guitar and played it until
the day he died. It was during that period that he did stop actively
performing and for the next twenty-five years devoted his efforts developing
the Guitar Department at Berklee. During that time he published ten texts of
Guitar pedagogy plus scores of exercises, solo pieces, and arrangements.

To know Bill was to truly love him. He was a combination of older brother
and father figure to everyone he came in contact with. The words "I do not
have time" did not enter into his vocabulary. A half-hour lesson would often
turn into a two-hour social visit and therapy session. For this reason
among others you would often find him in his office at 7:30 AM as well as
7:30 PM.

I initially met Bill Leavitt in 1969 and in that time he became my teacher,
my superior, and my dear friend. I have never met a man who was more loved
than Bill and doubt if I ever will.

Charles Chapman.
Professor of Guitar
Berklee College of Music

To vist my website click here
To vist The Berklee College of Music website click here

© Charles Chapman 2001

Photo 1
This is a photo of a young Bill Leavitt in an advertisement for Gibson Guitars.

Photo 2
This is a photo of (left to right) Bill Leavitt, Charles Chapman, Tom Szymczak, and Mike Ihde, backstage at the Berklee Performance Centre 1985.

Photo 3 This photo was taken just before Bill died circa 1990.

The following photos are from the collection of drummer Allan Amenta (used with his permission). Allan says that "Bill was a star even then and playing with him for an entire summer was one of the high points of my life".

Photo 4
This is a photo of (left to right) Bill Leavitt, Harry "Mike" Michael on clarinet and Allan Amenta on drums. The tune was "Lady Be Good" played during a dance for graduating students, summer 1945, US Naval Radio Training School, Indianapolis, IN.

Photo 5
This is a photo of (left to right) Allan Amenta on drums, Harry "Mike" Michael on clarinet, and Bill Leavitt. They are jamming in the radio equipment room, summer 1945, US Naval Radio Training School, Indianapolis, IN.

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