Jeremy Tsuei


Location: Canberra, ACT

Challenge: Hemiplegia

Website: reverbnation.com/jeremytsuei

Jeremy Tsuei is a rock, metal, and jazz guitarist living with hemiplegia. His main influences including John Petrucci, Kirk Hammett, Steve Lukather, and Grant Green. In addition to playing guitar.

Jeremy says "I first seriously took up the guitar in 2008, beginning with the classical discipline. Despite my disability, I was, at year eight, among the youngest musicians in a 2012 school orchestras’ tour around Perth, and the youngest member in the guitar orchestra. The tour had a huge impact on my attitudes towards music – after the span of a week, it had become more than just a pastime".

As Jeremy moved from high school to college, his focus and interests shifted from classical guitar to electric guitar. Jeremy's teacher, Nathaniel Smith – who graduated from Canberra’s then School of Jazz (later incorporated into the Australian National University’s School of Music), and gigs in progressive metal and jazz fusion bands – continues to pass to him an eclectic mixture of styles and genres.

Jeremy has also been involved in his church's music team, which has allowed him to gain experience with a wide range of professional and amateur musicians.

Recently, Jeremy has become lot more of a jazz guitarist, with experience playing in a couple of ANU School of Music jazz combos. He is also playing in the Canberra power metal band Scigod. He adds "I've played guitar in several student theatre productions, including three Law Revues and two Arts Revues.". He has also been teachcing for the past few years.

He adds "I love a shreddy guitar solo, but I also know that a lot more can also be packed into a lot less. Playing with all-out distortion and dipped mids is great fun, but I equally enjoy some emphasized mids with a smooth clean tone. It’s fun to not only play with the different tones and styles that different artists respectively represent, but also to synthesize them together. My hemiplegia affects my left-handed coordination, but, for me, it’s just all the more incentive to practise".


Jeremy Tsuei