Springtime Music

We first assess what the student may or may not know.  Then the student will learn a new song (easy) on their first lesson. As the student's skill increases, we go from learning songs I suggest to songs (from a recording) the student wants to learn.  We then use the student's requested songs to learn more about their instrument.

Mike Spring was born in Montana, but found his way to New York City in his teens to explore his love of the performing arts. There he received voice training from Robert Diehl and Maria Cassinelli, both of whom had been associated with the Metropolitan Opera. He recorded the bass solo in Bach’s Magnificat in D. and received the Fred Shieff Memorial Award for his role as Bernardo in a production of West Side Story. and a Lincoln Center Award for the role of Porgy in a concert version of Gershwin’s opera. 

Further musical and theater training was received from the Theater Arts program at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

At the University of Virginia he performed the role of Max in Donizetti’s opera Betley.

 He then continued his musical career performing throughout the southeast, performing in the show band Mike Spring and Springtime, as well as playing lead guitar for the rock trio Spooky Bear, which performed at the Whipping Post and other famous rock venues.

Winning third place in the American Song Festival, he continued to write music and perform, gradually concentrating on Christian music, although still making time to play jazz guitar in Atlanta, most recently at the Georgian Terrace Hotel on Peachtree.

After portraying Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, the title role in Lilliom, and in 2004, the role of the father in a production of Appalachian Christmas at the Canton Playhouse, Spring’s most recent return to the stage was in the role of Django in the Equity workshop production of Bricktop.

In 2010, he was named composer for new work commissioned by the Georgia Wolf Trap/Alliance Theatre “Arts Bites Program”.  In 2011, he won Clark Atlanta’s Community Poet of the Year award.

He teaches individualized guitar, bass, banjo and voice lessons at  Counterpane School, and Jackson’s Music Store

Each half-hour lesson costs $25.  A 10 percent discount is offered for payment of a month in advance.  An additional 10% discount is offered to two members of a family taking consecutive lessons.

A parent saw me play, and asked if I would teach her two children.  I loved teaching

I have successfully taught beginnersfrom 4 years old to over 70.

Other professionals come to me, especially for music theory.

We have also taken students with hand-health issues which we use the guitar to address.

I have also taught differently abled people, including Downs syndrome and one student who was profoundly deaf.

I received a note Christmas Day from a student, who now plays for a mega-church, thanking me for my patience in teaching him.  He is profoundly dislexic.

Look for some chemistry with the teacher.  If you dislike the teacher, you will not learn.  Ask what piece of music or musical project the teacher is working on- someone who does not continue to learn is probably not a sympathetic with a beginner.

Am I willing to atempt to practice some everyday?

How will I know lessons are successful?  (Read sheet music, play a specific song or style, etc.)

If you are an adult, can you accept being inept as you begin? Children are used to making mistakes, some adults are not.  If you start to berate yourself, you are trying to run with your foot in a bucket.

Do I understand the differenhce between learning "to work" an instrument, and learning "to play" one?  There are no rules in play.