Guitar
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Michael Williams, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"I see a lot of people who are interested in blues and jazz, and those are the main areas that I love to work in. Students come in who are already blues players, wanting to work on elements of jazz, and students come in who are jazz or rock players, wanting to get more blues into their playing. I try to make students as complete as I can all-around, on guitar skills, rhythm guitar playing, and soloing. If they're interested in playing over changes, we work on that; if they want to get more into real, straight blues, I'm happy to go in that direction, as well. We dedicate a good amount of lesson time each week toward the personal strengths of the style or styles students are interested in."
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Garrison Fewell, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"Sometimes students are shocked when I see that they’re having a hard time playing something on the guitar and I say, 'Just sing it. Now play what you sang.' They probably already finished their ear training but haven’t yet discovered how it applies to the instrument. It’s using all the resources we have. So here in the lesson I try to be open to all these things. The students have so much to study here, sometimes it’s hard for them to make connections. I make connections, whether it’s through the ear or the intellect or the emotions."
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Joe Rogers, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"I hope my students will learn wholeness, in the sense that the guitar, for instance, and the music itself, are just vehicles for expressing the creative potential within. If people don't have clear access to what is within them, what they express might stay with them as lifelong pain. You hear of musicians and artists who are extremely creative, but who have led tortured lives. What good is that? If I can help a person clear away the blocks, the wholeness of their life expression is cleared as well. Then the instrument can become the vehicle for that expression."
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Charles Hansen, Instructor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"Playing the guitar is like anything that's difficult: It gives you a lot of satisfaction, and it also makes you learn about discipline. It's challenging, it's difficult, it's arduous sometimes, but the reward is that you develop certain skills. You're not just learning how to play guitar, you're also learning what dedication is and what discipline is."
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Joe Musella, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"I specialize in contemporary guitar playing. I played in bands from the time I was in eighth grade, and learned a lot just through real-world experience. I was a performance major at Berklee, and when I graduated, I played relentlessly four or five nights a week. It was tough at times, but I was in my early twenties and totally loving life at that point. I never felt I was particularly naturally talented or gifted; I just kind of stuck with it and worked hard. So I think it's not necessarily about natural talent, it's about working hard and having your basics together. If you have a strong foundation, you can pretty much go anywhere from there."
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Richie Hart, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"In the Wes Montgomery Ensemble, I stress the importance of listening and communicating. I want them to play as a cohesive band—to play with individuality, but not as individuals. And that involves the ability to listen, react, and respond to each other spontaneously on a very high level. The first week starts out with everybody playing their own stuff. I can always hear when they're not listening, so I'll stop them and ask, did you hear what that drummer just did? They stop and they listen, and start paying more attention. It's not something that happens overnight, but by the end of the semester they become one with each other: they start hearing what each other does, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and they work together as a team."
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Ken Taft, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"My approach is to teach the way real people play, not through rules and attitudes. It's not like a math or chemistry class, where you put this and this together and get that. The rules for playing are: if it works, it works. Younger students, of course, need to know theory. But as you become more proficient you can actually change the theory. To paraphrase Charlie Parker, 'Learn all that stuff, then forget about it.'"
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David Tronzo, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"I started playing gigs even before I felt I was ready. But that's the beauty of the music business—there's so much on-the-job development. The constant discomfort from taking on things before you're ready can be corrosive, though—you need to be able to manage it. The balancing factor is when the task itself is exciting and inspiring, and you know it's right. Then it just becomes a question of how much approval you need, and in what form."
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Bruce Bartlett, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"The best thing about teaching or learning how to play music is the balance between technical information and whatever your heart and soul feels. Hopefully the technical information is only the vehicle for what you're really trying to do. I want my students to stay focused through the ups and downs, and to trust in what they believe in. I try to reinforce that they should learn as much as they can and be as versatile as possible, because the competition is very high. I also tell them to respect and learn from the past as they're trying to go forward."
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David Newsam, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"To walk out of school and have professional opportunities—that's what I want for my students. If I can recommend any of my students for performances I can't accept, then I've succeeded. The students who go above and beyond what is asked of them are the students I end up performing with or who have successful teaching businesses. They're the ones who possess that inspiration to go well beyond what I gave them. In a concert I just did, two of the four other performers were former students of mine, and both of them are successful performers and teachers."
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