Guitar with Glen S.

Glen began playing the guitar when he was 14 years of age. While making a summer visit to his uncle’s house in Kansas, he began doodling on his uncle’s guitar. The fall that followed his summer visit he enrolled in a guitar class at his school and never looked back. He fell in love with the instrument and has been playing ever since. Moving from the Midwest to east coast he did not meet new friends right away and spent many hours playing his guitar after school. Upon graduating high school in 1982 he attended Prince George’s Community College where he studied with Fred Karns who was the musical director for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and is also renowned for composing numerous scores for National Geographic documentaries. After 28 years in the corporate world he is currently pursuing a BA in jazz studies at The University of Maryland College Park. Attending UMD he has studied guitar with Gerry Kunkel, jazz combo with Tom Baldwin, and jazz ensemble with Chris Vadala who are three gentlemen that epitomize greatness in the worldwide jazz community performing with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ron Carter, Eric Alexander, Bernadette Peters, and Chuck Mangione. Along with the UMD jazz ensemble and combo work Glen currently plays with a jazz septet performing music ranging from Broadway show tunes and jazz standards to contemporary jazz and funk. He has performed with many types of rock, country, and blues bands in and around the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md. He has also performed orchestra pit work for stage productions such as All Shook Up, Grease, Jazz and Chocolate, Footloose, A Tribute to Michael Jackson, and West Side Story. The biggest musical influence in his life was his very first guitar teacher Rob Izzi. Rob taught him that it was not enough to simply learn songs to play on the guitar but to be a complete musician and listen to and learn from all styles and genres of the musical art form. Glen enjoys incorporating rock, country, blues, classical, and jazz into his playing and teaching. *** Lesson Details *** I am an easy going laid back instructor that will tailor lessons to the students' interests, goals, and abilities. Raising children has brought teaching even closer to the heart. Imparting knowledge with the hope that students can translate that knowledge to their own lives, I provide an atmosphere and environment that keeps students engaged, helps them find excitement in learning, and heartens them to higher development. I use the William Leavitt Modern Guitar Method, which leans toward jazz, and the Shearer and Carcassi Methods for classic technique. The Chuck Rainey Method along with various other walking and groove books are the focus for bass guitar instruction I also use the Master Series for music theory but, the theory that reigns above all is to HAVE FUN. My instructors have impressed upon me that to truly learn involves behavioral change and if a student holds within, the love and desire for music, there is no limit to what can be learned. *** Studio Equipment *** My studio is a room in my home dedicated solely to music and office-type duties. I have a piano, an upright bass, bass guitars, guitars, amplifiers, recording equipment, and music stands available. *** Travel Equipment *** I would expect the students to provide their own instruments, music stand, and materials they need (of course, after needed materials are established). *** Specialties *** I am currently studying jazz but choose not to instruct jazz unless the student has a solid grasp of theory. I specialize in jazz and rock performance and use these genres in my teaching. The books from which I work lean toward jazz/rock and I also use the Shearer and Carcassi classical guitar methods as a basis for technique.