
Music Magazine Spotlights Student Guitarists Emma Moseley and Maya Locke The standout musicians are featured in the winter edition of Fingerstyle Guitar Journal.
By
Kimberly Ashton
February 22, 2021
Emma Moseley
Image courtesy of the artist
As of last spring, Emma Moseley had taken Bobby Stanton's class Guitar Artists for every semester she'd been at Berklee. She was considering enrolling in a different lab for her fourth term, last fall, until she heard that fellow guitarist Maya Locke, and Locke's roommate, Mena Lemos, had signed up for Stanton's course.
I was like, I have to take it...it's two other girls that play fingerstyle. I have to be there. There's none of us! We don't exist! Moseley said, laughing, recalling the many times she's been the only female guitarist in the room.
The women, plus classmate Min Sung Kim, made such a high-caliber group that last month Fingerstyle Guitar Journal featured Moseley and Locke in its quarterly issue. (Lemos had taken a break from playing due to a broken thumb.)
I'm excited about it not only because it's Berklee students, but it's an opportunity to feature two female musicians, said Bill Pilburn, the magazine's publisher. To be honest, I mean, the guitar world has been kind of dominated by men, and nowadays there are so many accomplished female guitarists.
Associate Professor Bobby Stanton
Stanton, an associate professor in the Guitar Department, said that while the whole class is impressive, Moseley and Locke stand out.
I think [Emma] is going to be the next big thing in the guitar world, he said of Moseley, a traditional fingerstyle guitarist in the style of Tommy Emmanuel.
And Locke, he said, is a musician of extraordinary intelligence who was able to figure out how guitarist Alan Gogoll plays harmonics with both hands, a technique called bell harmonics. Everybody in the world literally has been trying to figure out how this guy did this, and she figured it out, he said.
YouTube to Berklee Locke, who's only been playing guitar for six years, was hesitant to accept credit for deciphering Gogoll's technique.
I don't know that I'm the only one, she said, adding that she broke down the method by watching a YouTube video on loop for hours and hours. I realized...when you look at the hand that's playing harmonics, it moves in a deceptive way. It was, she told Fingerstyle Guitar Journal, one of the coolest ideas in guitar performance that I have ever seen.
Locke's approach to learning bell harmonics was the same one she used to pick up fingerstyle guitar. Before coming to Berklee, I didn't really ever have any fingerstyle training outside of YouTube, she said. I would watch YouTubers who post fingerstyle versions of pop songs so you could look up the changes. Then she'd learn the melody independently, check out the way different people had arranged it, and try to emulate them.
Maya Locke
Now a music education major, Locke first began music instruction at 12, when she took up trumpet for her middle school band in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Two years later, she moved on to guitar and eventually began lessons (though not in fingerstyle) from an instructor at a local music store. After high school, she spent a year studying music at Florida Atlantic University before coming to Berklee.
Though the first string instrument she played was ukulele, she gravitated toward fingerstyle guitar, drawn to it by its technical nature. I think theres something about the mechanics of learning fingerstyle, because you really have to slow things down and mechanically work them through, Locke, who's now in her fourth semester, said. There's something quite nice about that finger and hand isolation, and it all just kind of comes together.
Her interest in fingerstyle brought her to Stanton, who, she said, was really her first instructor in this style. She had heard about him through Moseley, who was in an arranging class with her. She was like, Oh, you'd love this guy Bobby, he teaches this class. We do Chet Atkins and a lot of classic fingerstyle, and it's really, really cool.
Austin to Boston In fact, the opportunity to study with Stanton was one of the main reasons Moseley came to Berklee. His music and teaching were hugely inspirational for me at the Berklee summer camps I attended growing up, she told Fingerstyle Guitar Journal of the Five-Week and Guitar Session summer programs she attended before enrolling in Berklee.
Moseley first asked for a guitar when she was 2 years old, but her mother made her wait until she was 6 and could wrap her hand around the neck of the instrument. Within a year, she had her first live gig: at her local library in Gloster, Mississippi, playing at the children's story hour. That same year she busked in New Orleans.
It was also at 6 years old that she began lessons, studying with up to three different instructors to learn various styles of guitar playing. Studying all of that classical guitar technique and spending all that time with those professors at a young age kind of gave me the mechanics and the tools, she said, and laid the foundation for fingerstyle, which she developed an interest in after discovering Tommy Emmanuel on YouTube. I just looked at it and I said, Oh, this is kind of like the classical guitar stuff but it's on a steel-string guitar. And I thought it sounded way cooler.
Emma Moseley
When Moseley was 14, she and her mother moved to Austin, Texas, so that she could immerse herself more deeply in her guitar studies. One night, she and her mother went to see electric guitarist and local music legend Van Wilks play, and after the show Moseley introduced herself. She happened to have her guitar with her and Wilks asked her to play for him. When she
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
05/03/2026
Clear-Com has provided Gen-IC virtual intercom, its cloud-based voice communications system for SaxaVord Spaceport, the first fully licensed vertical launch s...
05/03/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives and executi...
05/03/2026
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of electrical power control solutions for professional audio, video, and lighting systems, today announced that its new Dual DMX ...
05/03/2026
Snicket Labs is pleased to announce a new distribution partnership with ES Broadcast for its award winning solutions, Match and Enrich.
Under the agreement, ES...
05/03/2026
LiveU today announced the first large-scale deployment of its AI-driven LiveU IQ (LIQ ) technology at a global, multi-venue sporting event, setting a new benchm...
04/03/2026
Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the governing body for Italy's premier basketball...
04/03/2026
Wrexham AFC co-chairmen Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds will host a first-of-its-kind ...
04/03/2026
The countdown is underway and with just 100 days to go until the world's greatest sporting event begins on Thurs., June 11, FOX Sports, America's Englis...
04/03/2026
No matter where they are in the world, service members and veterans can stream N...
04/03/2026
Telemundo officially releases Somos M s, the anthem for the network's cove...
04/03/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives, and execut...
04/03/2026
Smith Entertainment Group transformed how local sports are consumed by creating ...
04/03/2026
The production method, which spans a distance of 36.2 miles, was designed and im...
04/03/2026
Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and...
04/03/2026
When Hugues Meyrath came out of retirement to take the helm as CEO of Quantum, i...
04/03/2026
Last week's launch of Banana Ball Championship League has spurred a significant upgrade of production facilities
The Savannah Bananas, arguably the hottest...
04/03/2026
sldkfjsdlfkjsldkfjsldkjfslkdjfslkdjfsl
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus...
04/03/2026
For many fans, a song's backstory can be just as compelling as the final pro...
04/03/2026
In 2006, Spotify was founded on the belief that technology could bring artists a...
04/03/2026
Spotify is back on the ground for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and we...
04/03/2026
Spotify had an energizing week in Sydney, Australia, filled with powerful conver...
04/03/2026
Earlier this year, we launched Directed By, a documentary-style series that pull...
04/03/2026
100 Days to Go: SBS Unveils World Class Team for The Greatest Show on Earth -The...
04/03/2026
KT and Rohde & Schwarz to showcase AI-enhanced radio transmission performance In a joint 6G AI proof-of-concept demonstration, the CMX500 one-box tester from ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, 3 March 2026 - SES S.A. has today published its 2025 Annual Report, following the announcement of the company's full year financial results for ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, March 3, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, along with I...
04/03/2026
04 Mar 2026
VEON Partners with GSMA Innovation Fund to Accelerate Digital Innov...
04/03/2026
04 Mar 2026
VEON's Beeline Uzbekistan and Rakuten Symphony Partner for Open...
04/03/2026
Wednesday 4 March 2026
Sky Sports unveils plans for 2026 Formula 1 coverage
Sky Sports is preparing for one of the most highly anticipated F1 seasons in recen...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Bloodhounds' Season 2 Gears Up for April 3 Premiere with ...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Ads Suite Expands Capabilities
Business
04 March 2026
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
After launching the Netflix Ad...
04/03/2026
Scripps Research welcomes healthcare innovator Joe Kiani to the Board of Directors Kiani brings decades of experience in patient safety and public service.
Mar...
04/03/2026
Nanoparticle vaccine approach takes on a new target: Hepatitis C virus Scripps Research scientists reengineer critical proteins on the surface of HCV, paving th...
03/03/2026
Beyond Sports, a Sony group company, and LIV Golf, the world's golf league, ...
03/03/2026
Ilitch Sports + Entertainment announces the launch of Detroit SportsNet (DSN), a year-round broadcast home for two of Detroit's franchises. With flexible op...
03/03/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media ...
03/03/2026
The PGA of America, NBC Sports and USA Sports extend their media rights agreemen...
03/03/2026
AI device ecosystem company HONOR enters into a strategic technical collaboratio...
03/03/2026
Cleveland's Telos Alliance, pioneers in broadcast technology for 30 years, l...
03/03/2026
The MD 9235 microphone head for wireless handhelds has been a firm favorite with many engineers and artists for its ability to cut through high on-stage levels ...
03/03/2026
Haivision Systems Inc. (Haivision), a global provider of mission-critical, real-...