Born in Brighton, U.K. in 1973, Martin Goulding started playing electric guitar at the age of 13, inspired by the Hard-Rock players of the day including Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Tony Macalpine, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

At the age of 15, Martin studied with local teacher Robert McChesney for three years, before attending the Guitar Institute of Technology (G.I.T.) in London where he completed a diploma, graduating in 1993. Keen to further his expertise in modern rock techniques and jazz/rock improvisation, Martin went on to study privately with top UK virtuoso and teacher Shaun Baxter.

Martin started his private teaching practice in the early 1990’s while studying at G.I.T. and joined the faculty of the prestigious London Guitar Institute (now called The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance/ I.C.M.P.) in 1998 as deputy to Shaun Baxter. Initially teaching all subjects, Martin went on to specialise in modern rock techniques, writing the rock syllabus for the higher diploma and contributing to degree modules.

In 2002 Martin was commissioned to contribute a twenty-five page chapter on Rock/Metal techniques for guitar resource and international best seller, Guitar: A Complete Guide For The Player published by Balafon, and in 2006 was invited to write for Guitar Techniques Magazine where he became a monthly columnist, writing the highly successful fifteen-part series Modern Metal on bands of the post 1990’s era, and the more recent seventeen part series Metal Bootcamp, which has concentrated on rock/metal lead techniques.

In 2007 Martin was invited to join the faculty of the International Guitar Festival, running the advanced rock course at the acclaimed residential summer school based in Bath, and hosting the London event at I.C.M.P. teaching alongside some of the best teachers in the UK including John Wheatcroft, Phil Hilborne and Guthrie Govan. From 2008, Martin has participated in the judging of the annual Guitar Idol competition which has given exposure to some of the best up and coming players from around the world, and in 2009 wrote a series of monthly articles for Guitar World magazine (USA) including a special 30th anniversary feature commemorating 30 years of rock guitar.

Other than his dedication to teaching, Martin has had a busy playing and recording career, working as a session musician for Chappell Recorded Music Library, Bruton Music, Zomba, Unity and the BBC, and as an engineer/producer has worked professionally with songwriters and artists from main-stream to metal. In addition, Martin writes, engineers and produces for his own progressive band Linear Sphere who released their highly acclaimed debut Reality Dysfunction in 2002 and are set to record their second album early 2010.