This week I share a talk I had with long time friend Rob Bourassa who is an awesome guitar player/teacher who also happens to have some interesting insights on today's musicians. Take a listen and feel free to leave a comment.Suggest some thoughts on how you might like to see future shows go!
I started goofing around in school as a kid, because I practiced guitar too much. I started playing banjo and guitar professionally at a very young age, and also started teaching music privately.
I side stepped college, went on the road as a musician, and the rest is history. I have managed to support my wife and 4 children for over 20 years as a guitarist, which would be in my mind, a miracle akin to the parting of the Red Sea.
For years, I had a studio in Royal Oak Michigan, which always slowed down in the summer, so I also worked as a staff musician, arranger and director at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan, (part of The Henry Ford.)
One of my students moved to Arizona and wanted to continue studying live with a webcam, so he hooked me up with Skype. The next thing I knew, I was teaching from my living room with a cup of coffee, and I decided to give Skype to my students and close down my studio, getting rid of my commute, and all of my overhead.
I also had started a Youtube page, which became a big draw for online private students, so I dropped my Yellow Pages ad. My business grew quickly, and I had to eventually leave my work at Greenfield Village, and focus upon my online business.
I am now able to do workshops and travel, teaching my lessons still with my MacBook Pro, and I also create video files for each student for review, and e-mail the file at the end of the lesson.
I now am back to producing recording projects and instruction videos, and enjoy the extra time to be creative.
I thank God every day that he put the wheels in motion for all of this, because I would not have known how to.
Specialties
Guitar playing, arranging, music production, recording, commercial songwriting and poetry.
You can join me as I broadcast these interviews every Friday at 10:30 PM EST ---> HERE
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