Gifted composer and fingerstyle guitarist Richard Gilewitz has trained with some of the best guitarists the United States has to offer. He learned well, and over the years, he himself has become the teacher to many others with his instructional video and songbook. Gilewitz has lived in Alabama, New Jersey, and Florida. He found musical influences everywhere during those early years and even later on, including artists like John Fahey, the Beatles, David Walbert, Leo Kottke, Flatt & Scruggs, and Andres Segovia. By the time Gilewitz entered college, he was composing and performing often. He played at a number of local coffeehouses, while a student at the University of Alabama. Instead of music, his major was computer science. He even graduated and found a so-called normal job, setting his music aside. It was too late though, the music was in his soul, and something as small as financial security couldn't make him forget about it.