TEACHING PHILOSOPHY: 

My teaching philosophy is to individualize lessons by discovering what each student needs to grow as a musician.  There are many ways of approaching this, for that not all students share the same interests and experiences.  For a student with little to no experience, it is important to guide them in learning simple songs they enjoy listening to and teaching them some of the theories that surround the music they enjoy.  If the student enjoys the song and can hum the song, they have a better chance of playing it correctly.  

Once a student becomes more comfortable playing chords and short riffs they will be ready to learn more advanced theories like scales and modes, chord progressions, chord creation, the circle of fifths, etc. 

The beauty of music is you can be a student of it for life and a life with music is a beautiful life.

MY BACKGROUND: 

I have had an interest in music since I was a young child and started playing guitar at the age of 14. I started taking lessons from a guitar teacher that studied classical guitar.  He taught me to appreciate a variety of music and that appreciation continues today. In school I played the tuba and sousaphone in the marching band and enjoyed playing guitar in a rock band. I have continued to play and study guitar throughout adulthood, playing rock, folk, blues, and bluegrass music. I have also recently started learning bluegrass banjo.

Today, I like choosing a musician and becoming their student through listening and studying their style and techniques. This helps me grow as a musician while learning the styles and history of music.  Recently, I’ve been studying the delta blues by listening and learning from Robert Johnson, R.L. Burnside, and Skip James. I have a library of music theory and tablature books that have helped me develop my guitar playing skills over the years. I hope to pass my love for music on by teaching what I have learned.

I graduated from University of Cincinnati with an Information Engineering Technology degree. I have been a Software Engineer for more than 20 years. My job allows me to exercise my creativity through software development which includes thinking through difficult situations and creating algorithms to create business solutions.  

WHEN I’M NOT TEACHING: 

I live with my beautiful wife and three wonderful children.  As a parent, I spend much of my time running my kids to various sporting, dancing, and music classes. I am very proud of their accomplishments and try to encourage them to improve at what they love doing.  

In my free time I enjoy playing guitar and banjo, fishing, watching the Bengals and Celtics, going on family adventures/vacations and attending church.  I also like nature and being outside with my family.