WHEN Toby Lee turned four he got a ukulele and played it so much he wore out the strings.

Six years on and the Bloxham guitar prodigy has notched up an online audience numbering thousands on YouTube.

A video of him jamming was uploaded by a Seattle radio station on Facebook and has attracted more than 750,000 views.

The post, by 95.7 KJR-FM, has been liked 14,000 times and shared more than 20,000 times.

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And his journey to stardom continued when he performed live on BBC Radio 2 yesterday.

The 10-year-old said: “My dad got me into it by playing lullabies on his guitar when I was little. Then my grandma bought me a ukulele for my fourth birthday and I just started making up songs.

“I still play air guitar on it sometimes.”

He said his biggest influences have been Bernie Marsden, Seasick Steve and Gary Moore since getting his first guitar aged eight.

“I don’t write many songs,” he said. “I just love to improvise the blues.”

Toby attends the Witchwood School of Rock in west Oxfordshire every week.

It teaches young people aged six to 18 to teach them how to play musical instruments, write songs, play in bands and perform live on stage.

It has studios in Shipton-under-Wychwood, New Yatt and Witney.

Toby performs in his own band – Augmented Force – every Thursday at one of the school’s three venues, alongside two fellow students and two tutors.

And yesterday he appeared on BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans breakfast show and played Highway to Hell by AC/DC live on air.

His dad Terry Lee, 48, says he and Toby’s mum Tracey are “continually amazed” by their son’s success but that school and homework still come first.

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