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I first get to know the students music preferences and past music experience. If the student has never played a musical instrument I explain and demonstrat on their instrument what music is and the basic parts of music; melody, chord acompaniment and bass. Then we talk about the parts of the instrument and what they do. I then show them how to hold the instrument and finger it properly. I tune the instrument and explain what I'm doing and how to do it using an electronic tuner. I next show them how to read tablature and play simple common knowledge melodies such as Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday. They leave the first lesson being able to play a tune or two! I follow up with more tablature melodies and then introduce chords. I intersperse music theory with every lesson and how it relates to what the student is learning.

About Guitarist Vern Fischer Guitarist Vernon Fischer's fascination with the guitar began over fifty years ago when he pulled his uncles archtop guitar from behind an overstuffed chair in the living room of his grandparents' home in Baltimore Maryland and has had a guitar in his hands ever since. He only put it down to learn to play the mandolin, bass, banjo, ukulele, drums, hand percussion, harmonica, keyboards and fiddle. Music has been a passion and a way of life. Selftaught, he started his professional career playing in dance bands at teen clubs and junior and senior high school dances in his early to late teens during the Sixties then moving on to play in show bands in the Washington DC and Baltimore area in the early to mid-Seventies. In the late Seventies and Eighties he played in Jazz, Old Time and British Isles bands for dances, weddings, receptions and night clubs. During this period he was also teaching full time at local music stores and Piedmont Virginia Community College as well as working part time as a land surveyor and constructing his home. Along the way he studied music theory in high school and college after which he sought out and studied extensively for with jazz Guitarist, Downbeat Magazine Poll Winner and Concord Records artist Emily Remler, Guitarist Walt Namuth of The Buddy Rich Band, jazz Guitarist Larry Coryell and guitarist Tim Reynolds with The Dave Mathews Band. He participated in guitar work shops conducted by world renowned guitarists Chet Atkins, John Zaradin, Christopher Parkening, David Brandon, Jim Hall, Pat Matheney, Albert Lee, Leo Kotke, Lee Rittenour and jazz drummer Max Roach. He performed with internationally known artists such as fiddle great Vassar Clements, folk musician John McCutcheon, Irish piper Paddy Keenan and classical guitarist John Zarradin and The Dave Mathews Band bassist Stefan Lessard and saxophonist Leroi Moore. From the mid Nineties until 2006 his skill with the classical guitar earned him a full time position as the house musician at Sir Bernard Ashley's Five Star Diamond Hotel Keswick Hall which he held for almost five years after which he relocated to Charlottesville's Farmington Country Club for a three and a half year tenure as musician in residence. From Farmington he returned to Keswick Hall, now under the ownership of the Orient Express, for a more than a two year stay. This period also saw him perform numerous times at other Five Star Diamond resorts such as The Homestead and The Greenbrier Resorts.

Over the past forty years he also performed for numerous wedding ceremonies, receptions, dances, dinners, corporate events and concerts.

Vern's interest in guitar music has led him to acquire many types of guitars and learn to play styles appropriate for those types of guitars. These styles include Classical, Jazz, Bossa Nova, Steel String Finger Style, Rock and Roll, Country, Old Time String Band, Traditional British Isles, Blue Grass, Blues, Ragtime and Folk Music.

His style is melodic and reminiscent of guitarists Charlie Byrd, Earl Klugh, Emily Remler and Kenny Burrell who greatly influenced him.

While at music festivals in the Seventies and Eighties and performing at The Outer Banks of North Carolina in the early Nineties he began to sing and play the harmonica, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, bass,drums and hand percussion.

As a result in 2005 he recorded his first CD, Island Dreams and Fantasies, a collection of original music recalling the time that he spent there. He cites Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Buffet, Bill Haley, The Moody Blues, Roger Whitaker and The Classics Four as his vocal inspiration. He can fill the dance floor with his enthusiastic renditions of Rock and Roll hits. Working solo and with seasoned professional musicians in his bands he has provided music for countless weddings, receptions, concerts, banquets, dances and corporate events at hotels, country clubs and The Universities of Virginia and Richmond He has performed for numerous heads of state that included a president and vice president, prime minister, queen, ambassador, governors, senators, congressmen, sports figures, movie and music stars. In 2008 he performed in Washington DC at The Newseum for an awards ceremony that included Fifty members of the US Congress and Speaker of The House Of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senator Joe Bidden and Representative John Lewis.

He is currently working on several recordings.