Since going professional a couple of years ago, Watford guitarist Declan Zapala has been doing great things in the world of classical and contemporary percussive guitar – with his online videos going viral, getting five-star reviews for his show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013, and appearing on the BBC’s The Culture Show and on Radio 3. And next week he’s launching his debut album, Awakenings, at the Royal Albert Hall, no less.

It all seems to be happening very fast for the Watford School of Music teacher – but, says Declan, it’s been decades in the making.

“Better late than never,” laughs the 30-year-old Cassiobury resident. “It’s been 20 years of passion for exploring music, 20 years of constantly honing and refining my technical and musical abilities, and 20 years of searching for something new to create in music.

“It’s taken me this long to get to this point, where I have felt the time is finally right for taking on this project.”

The album showcases Declan’s extraordinary talent – he has become a leading exponent of the emerging percussive fingerstyle guitar scene, which involves tapping or drumming on various parts of the guitar to provide a backbeat for the notes played on the strings, since discovering it while at university in Surrey. He later got a place at the Royal College of Music and won a London Underground busking competition, which helped him pay his school fees, and he has been teaching budding young guitarists in Watford for four years.

“The album is a first-of-its kind, for a classical guitarist to be exploring this style,” continues Declan, who first started playing the guitar at the age of ten. “It’s rooted in the folk genre and is more associated with steel string guitars.”

Declan will launch Awakenings at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room on July 6, and then continue his mini album tour at Attico Art Centre, High Street, Watford on July 9 at 8pm and at the Vyne Arts Centre, Northbridge Road, Berkhamsted on July 10 at 7.30pm, before heading up to Edinburgh in August for a 26-night run of his show, Guitar Multiverse.

“And after that?” he laughs. “If my fingers are still in one piece, who knows?”