Jim Kelly

Jim Kelly is a Professor in the Guitar Department at Berklee College of Music. He is an internationally recognized guitarist, educator, and clinician with a career spanning decades of performance, teaching, and publication. His work focuses on guitar techniques, improvisation, and genre-specific pedagogy across rock, blues, jazz, funk, Latin, and R&B styles.

Kelly has authored instructional materials including the Guitar Workshop with Jim Kelly book/CD series and DVDs, designed to help students emulate techniques of guitar legends like Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. His teaching philosophy emphasizes experiential learning and adapting to students' cultural backgrounds.

He has collaborated with prominent artists such as Gary Burton, Jim Odgren, and Duke Robillard, and his recordings include the CD The Sled Dogs on RAM Records, Italy. Kelly's courses integrate practical skills like scales, chords, and song interpretation with creative expansion of students' musical capabilities.