Joy In Music

I am a string specialist. That means I teach and play violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, ukulele and piano. I have been studying music since the age of 9 years. I began learning to play the flute through the public school music program. I continued playing in school bands and in 1968 I wanted to learn to play the guitar, like the Beatles! In high school I taught myself to play classical guitar by playing through some music books with guitar fingerings. When I was 16 years old I became interested in learning to play the piano and began with chords on the left hand and simple melodies with the right one. My senior year in high school I played in a jazz trio, piano (Mike Vargas), drums (Dan Boxer) and myself on flute and guitar. We all agreed that we needed a double bass to sound like a real jazz trio. I talked to my high school orchestra teacher and told him I would play in the school orchestra if I could borrow a double bass to take home. The string names are identical to the four lower strings on the guitar, so the fingerings and string relationships were easy to learn. Also in my senior year, I was preparing for my college entrance auditions on flute, guitar, piano and double bass. I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado with a B.A. in Music Education double major in Double Bass and Classical Guitar. I now teach private lessons for all the string instruments in my residence in Phoenix, Arizona, "Valley of the Sun". I believe that any student will practice more if he or she likes the music they are playing. Periodically I will ask a student to give me a name of a piece of music that they would like to learn how to play. I notate it for them, often simplifying the rhythm and chords in Finale NotePad and give it to them free of charge. I teach students how to play music on their given instrument. Not just how to play the instrument but working on technique, finger dexterity, expert note reading ability and total musicianship. I also teach students how to play a piece of music that will move the audience emotionally.

I enjoy teaching people how to enrich their lives by learning to play a string instrument. The sound is so satisfying and a feeling of accomplishment by working at playing a string instrument is incomparable. It is not easy, but the feeling of joy is well worth the effort.