Paul Wilson is an expert guitar builder and player. He began his music career in 1963 at Sherwood Music in Sherwood Forest Shopping Center in Des Moines, IA. He played in a folk music group, as well as a variety of others, including rock, bluegrass and pop. Paul also spent some time working in Motown at Berry Gordy's recording studio.

In 1977, he opened Ye Olde Guitar Shoppe. He didn't originally intend to sell guitars, but he found that it was a vital part in helping to find the right style of guitar that would motivate the musician.

Musically, he studied with Chris Parkening in 1970, Andre Segovia from '81-'86 and took a Master Class at USC.

Paul has taught many thousands of students to play the guitar and currently directs the adult education guitar curriculum at DMACC. He specializes in finger-style for rock and roll, but his true love is the classical guitar.

"I specialize in classical guitar for several reasons. It has the greatest future - the music never goes out of style. It has the elements of musicianship. The greatest honor for a guitarist is to be called a musician. And the classical guitar has the true element of polyphonic sound. It can play all the voices. In a band, you either play lead or you play bass. On a classical guitar, you play all the parts like a piano. That's polyphonic - the multiple sound.

"Segovia said that 'it's like viewing an orchestra through the wrong end of the binoculars.' It's just miniaturized. All the parts are there. For anyone with a musicial ear it is the fruition of the musical experience."