Adam
Here’s a guy who manages to progress with a guitar while consulting in the biotechnology industry, applying his knowledge of science and statistics to protecting marine life, and volunteering to protect marine mammals in West Seattle.
He came to study flamenco and achieved the important fan and rasgueo techniques, with fundamental improvising in flamenco style. A world traveler, Adam reinforced his love of flamenco by going to Spain and taking in flamenco performances.
His journey to Brazil set a flame for Latin rhythms. After strolling the beach of Ipanema, he came home to a formal study of jazz chords, applying the knowledge to the songs of Brazilian composer Jobim, including Girl from Ipanema and How Insensitive.
Adam’s never insensitive to his music-loving cats who climb into his lap as he plays. Next to Adam’s heart? A tattoo of a cat designed and applied by his friend Daniel, owner of West Seattle Tattoo.
Jelisa
“Wow this is fun.” New to drum lessons, Jelisa’s already sitting in with the band. She’s learning how to read, write and perform drum charts and may be ready to play at our Juneteenth outdoor concert at Joe’s for her first live performance. Let’s hear it for Jelisa!
Daniel
This Year’s award for Most Improved Student goes to Daniel. Each Flamenco technique takes three months of diligence. Daniel went into the woodshed and emerged an able flamenco player. With further study he has acquired an improvising sense so important to the flamenco stylist. Meet Daniel at his shop, West Seattle Tattoo, on California Avenue. Walk right in, he’s the guy smiling at you. He’ll tattoo any image, even your cat next to your heart.
Travis
Travis the versatile. He came seeking to develop his banjo technique and work on playing readily in other keys. For four years he’s been a member of the band in every B Sharp performance, and instrumental in behind the scenes activities. The audiences as well as our performing group enjoy the sound of his banjo, he doubles ably on the bass, and his harmonica playing is a standout. Hear Travis perform at Kenyon Hall, C&P coffeehouse, Fauntleroy Fall Festival, and on the corner in the West Seattle junction, busking for our area Food Banks.
Theo
Theo shows up with his brother Manny for lessons; it’s good to see the boys come through my door.
Theo likes rock and roll through the decades, a lot of the music his dad likes, and he’s got the toolbox to play’em, an advantage to getting started early. The awards Theo has earned include the Phase I Chord Vocabulary and Scale (adult level) certificate. The Silver Level Note Reading certificate (junior level) with the Gold Level just weeks away. And he has the Performance award, Silver Level, for 5 live performances. He writes his own songs with bar chords and power chords, and is beginning to show feeling for improvising a solo over a twelve-bar progression. Let’s hear it for Theo!
Manny
This kid has a great power of concentration. He really stays with it and works hard in lessons. Manny, his brother Theo, his mom Colleen, and our banjo friend Travis, busk at the West Seattle’s Farmers’ Market, and one time the boys earned $34 in their hat. Manny also helps us when busking for the Food Bank and sticks around even when it rains and the wind blows our tent away. Let’s hear it for Manny!
Colleen
Colleen came with her old classical guitar hoping to acquire the technique and chord vocabulary to accompany herself. She likes songs of lyrical melody and human condition and has the satin voice to express them. She sings beautifully with us at our live performances.
Colleen in her professional life looks after King County’s water quality.
Chase
Chase is pretty new to B Sharp Studio and already demonstrates inborn attributes of rhythm, pitch, note reading and musical intuition. Each week he turns another page of his note-reading book, and has accomplished his 2 chord, 3 chord and 4 chord keys. He performs the 4 stroke, 6 stroke, and 8 stroke arpeggio and already plays music in simple and compound meters, applying this know-how to one classical piece, two classic rock songs, one R and B, and one from the Americana tradition. Soon he’ll be ready to go into the big room and play with the band. Let’s hear it for Chase!
David
A quick study, I’ll be sorry to see him leave, but soon he will ’cause HE MADE IT! Medical School.
I've had over half a dozen physicians, DOs and MDs, as students and so far David promises to be at the top of the medical musical class. A former third baseman, and baseball aficionado, with a diverse taste in music, I hope to send him off to school with B Sharps’ Bronze certificate in his suitcase. Too bad that med school will interfere with David’s dream of having his Mom in his band (see Becky). Alas, all of a boy’s dreams can’t come true.
Becky
Becky proves the adult can learn to play the guitar. She’s the most steady learner on my schedule. Work gets in the way, as it does for the adult learner, but she continues to progress. She’s achieved the Bronze level certificate and is halfway to gaining the Silver. Recently she brought a new song, Fast Car, to our rehearsal group, and performs the guitar arpeggio just like the song.
Becky’s performed with us at the Fauntleroy Fall Festival, C&P coffeehouse, Joe’s backyard Juneteenth celebration, and Jaray’s Grill and Lounge, where her son David was in the audience. “What’s happening to my Mom?” says David, “she’s turning into a saloon musician.”
Kyle
Already a fine player, Kyle came wanting to acquire the tools to play jazz. We began with jazz comping (rhythmic styling). He learned chord forms, thinner than the bar chord, with root in bass, 5th in bass, 3rd in bass. Chords devised diatonically (G7). Then forms with chromatics (G7#5, G7b5). His jazz soloing impresses me with a distinctive personality.
Kyle provides our performing group with first-rate original songs. Many are crowd-pleasers, including Midnight Sun with his wife Emma also at the microphone.
He’s taken up the mandolin, transferring his guitar mind to the new fretboard, and adding dimension to our performances.
Ryan
Any music sounding good on the classical guitar is what Ryan’s into. Arriving with an interest in flamenco, he came to appreciate Spanish classical, and warmed to Latin jazz, taking on its chord vocabulary and rhythms. He’s earned the Bronze certificate and soon will qualify for the Silver. He and his partner Dillan turn up on the corner and help us raise money for the Food Bank and local shelter. Applause for Ryan!
Scott
Scott and I go way back to the edge of his memory, at age four and a half, when we had his first guitar lesson. He’s a testament to the value of starting young. As a kid, in music class, Scott impressed his grade school music teacher with his knowledge of fundamental music theory, and reinforced my belief that music theory shouldn’t have to wait. Now in his early twenties, Scott’s a very cool stylist. His band plays House Parties, and clubs, Ramble Tamble in Bellingham and Seattle’s venerable rock night club Chop Suey. Keep up with Scott’s band, Gods Censored, at https://linktr.ee/gods.censored.
Anna
Anna is a shining example of an adult learner. She is one of B Sharp Studio’s adult Bronze level certificate holders and had fun earning it. With her strong chord vocabulary she no longer turns the page on a song because she sees a foreign chord. Recently she’s begun stylizing her playing with bass walks and direct substitutions that add interest and variety to her playing. Anna also derives great satisfaction from her newly acquired songwriting.
Anna performed in B Sharp Studio’s Holiday benefit concert for the food bank and is one of the original B# performers ‘busking for the food banks’ on a chilly street corner, strumming up money for the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks.
Jonathan PhD
He was working on his PhD and, coming down to the wire, I was expecting him to suspend lessons but he didn’t. There is only the occasional person who’s able to keep that extra ball in the air and stay cool.
Besides great powers of concentration and some dusty old folks songs Jonathan had the good sense to grow up following the Minnesota Twins. He went to the charming little Midwestern Ivy Leagueish campus of Carleton tucked away on the charminger Cannon river in Northfield Minnesota where every September he watched the town re-kill the James Younger Gang. Then on to Madison for the doctorate in Rhetoric. Turns out there’s lots of jobs for an expert in language and expression, arguing for cause and point of view.
Jonathan likes songs that have some weeds in the cracks, strange ballads with slow thumping tempos. He’s performed with us at C&P Coffee, and the Fauntleroy Fall Festival. Guitar on shoulder he takes a solo of his own invention and steps up to center mic for lead vocals. Let’s hear it for Doctor Jonathan!
Samantha
Of the musical attributes: ear, rhythm, note reading, technique, musical intuition, this last is most important. Samantha is endowed with this ready understanding of music. Recently I introduced B Sharp Studio’s Phase I A, the 7th chords and Sam took on the whole set: Dominant 7th, minor 7th, and Major 7th chords, in a single lesson. Impressive for a student without prior musical experience. This study includes what degree of the Diatonic scale each 7th type is derived from. Even though she’s occupied ten hours a day in a fascinating job, parole officer, she continues her steady progression. At home Samantha keeps her schnauzer happy with her repertoire of classical and vintage pop.
Merri
I’ve had many attorneys or attorneys’ kids over the years. Merri, an attorney of Legal Ethics, began as a general student of guitar but after a time bought a fine classical instrument and pursues a repertoire with names like Theme and Variations, Andante, Nocturne, Allegro, by composers with Italian and German names. For a business traveler she does awfully well keeping up and growing her repertoire while having fun taking on flamenco technique and delving deeper into music theory. Merri is a Zoom student, taking her lessons in the comfort of her Leschi study, both hands on the guitar while her third hand keeps affectionate cats at bay.
Arthur
Arthur exemplifies what love of the instrument does for a player. He was ten when he first came through my door; left at nineteen with a more discovered fretboard than most players have at forty. His last year and a half with me was spent immersed in sight reading, an aspect of musicianship he’d been willing to flirt with but not court. He excelled at technique and, still in his teens, was an improvising master. He was one of four to achieve B Sharp Studio’s Gold certificate, then off he went across the country to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, graduated, and is now embarked on a music career in Los Angeles. Click to hear Arthur’s group play as one of ten picked for Berklee’s Guitar Night 2010.
Ben
Ben is an excellent example of what can be achieved with an hour and a half of practice a day. When Ben began his study at B Sharp Studio he had trouble alternating three fingers of the right hand as the left spidered over a two octave scale, but after witnessing his diligence in the first month I knew he would not be average.
An incredible sight reader, Ben reads notes the way other people read the news, a valuable gift for a classical player with a broad repertoire.
Ben is one of four students to achieve the Gold Level certificate.
Bob
Bob holds down the bottom end for the Five Buck Band. One of the founders of 5 Buck, he’s a veteran with over 25 night club, festival and charity performances.
Bob played electric bass with a band in high school; put the bass in the closet for 30 years and took up clowning, his natural occupation. As president of Clowns Unlimited he helps out B# with stage, rain canopy and other equipment when we play charity fundraisers.
Bob rides H.O.G. at full moon, Bass slung across his back, clown makeup on, howling “I’m in a band, I’m in a band.”
Brendan
A top of the line rock/pop player with a versatile finger in Jazz and other styles, Brendan is one of only four students to earn B Sharp Studio’s gold level musicianship certificate. He decided late in his musical life to learn to read music, and in a subject difficult for most adults, Brendan has succeeded beyond expectation.
The Lead Guitarist for Sweet Piece, Brendan plays a fresh surf style of music with an original 1965 Fender Jaguar, and a Gibson S G. His command of the fretboard allows him to improvise readily with the tried and true, and with eccentric scales. His astute application of harmony comes out in his songwriting bringing fresh wind into today’s rock sounds.
Brendan has performed throughout the West and Southwest including performances at SXSW and in Las Vegas for the Chevy Cruze Battle of the Bands. Sweet Piece has been played on KEXP and on KBFG's Local with Louise, while Brendan’s previous band Hotels performed in-studio on KEXP, Portland Public Radio, and KDVS. See him in Seattle playing with Sweet Piece at the Madame Lou's, The Tractor Tavern, Sunset Tavern, and other clubs by following them on Instagram.
Graham
New to guitar lessons but not to music, Graham has already played a guitar duet in recital. At Graham’s school Explorer West, everyone plays an instrument, and sings in the choir: Yeah!
Graham’s on clarinet by day, but when the sun goes down you’ll hear guitar riffs coming from his window. Learning by a formal approach, Graham has already earned his first B Sharp Studio certificate for note reading, another for music fundamentals, and a third for fretboard knowledge. He plays using a flat pick, and a classical right hand; and works weekly on his chord vocabulary, scales, and a repertoire of Beatle songs and other rock standards, as well as on classical pieces of music.
Jaden
This kid’s got the knack. The more he plays the more he wants to play. Jaden holds the Bronze Level 1 Junior certificate. He reads music, and knows a bunch of new and vintage rock songs, and plays them just like the recording.
Jaden plays sometimes at Teacher Lou’s music class at Tilden school; he also played with his friend West at the West Seattle Art Walk with a bass player and a drummer and everything. Hey that’s Jaden in the West Seattle Blog.
Janet
Graced with a lovely voice, Janet took up the guitar to accompany herself. After starting lessons, she joined a band of students coached by B Sharp Studio. Now she’s the front girl, the chick in the band, and she got them their first gig, raising money for breast cancer research.
A couple dozen gigs later she’s singing hits from 1958-2011, and beginning to strum her guitar with the band. She knows the primary chords in the guitar-friendly keys, and plays a number of two, three and four chord songs. She’s beginning to learn moveable (bar) chords, fundamentally reads music, and understands the relationship of key, chord, and scale.
Janet also sings with a Christmas trio “We 3 Carolers”, and during the Holiday season you’ll likely see her singing in the West Seattle Junction for the local Food Banks. Here Janet is seen with a single rose; she enjoys arranging flowers for weddings and other events.
Liam
The Swede with Swiss timing. If it starts at 120 it’ll end at 120 even when the song includes triplets, rubato, and ritardandos. In the brains of many musicians an increase of volume or energy dictates an increase in tempo. Liam has never needed to overcome this tendency. His strong musical intuition leaves him easy to teach. When the crew in Greenwich reset their clock they call up Liam.
Before leaving for Florida and college, Liam took formal drum lessons. Half his time was spent reading, writing, and taking beat dictation; then in the rehearsal room we worked on songs. Songs in 4/4 3/4 2/4 and the compound meters of 12/8 9/8 6/8 as well as shuffle blues, straight eight blues, and more eccentric meters of 5/4 and 6/4 time. He learned how to fill (add musical punctuation) and with his innate sense of time has always known where the beat partials are: “kick it in on the and of three.” Liam’s repertoire of rock, pop, blues and country extends from 1956 to 2012. He played the Fauntleroy Fall Festival and the West Seattle Art Walk, and reached the Silver certificate level for drummers.
Mike
Mike’s a late-blooming over-achiever. Starting in his forties he developed guitar skills by learning songs of his choosing – learning one in a simple way, then in review a rendition of medium difficulty, then in another pass at the song in its recorded version. Mike holds B Sharp Studio’s Bronze certificate and is working hard on the Silver.
Mike, with fellow bass-man Bob, is a founding member of the Five Buck Band, and a veteran of over 25 live performances laying down a steady rhythm with six and twelve strings, and singing supporting and lead vocals. Mike gets a feather in his cap for organizing the B Sharp Studio’s Holiday Concert for the Food Bank that raised $888.00 for southwest Seattle area food banks.
Tierney
A blue ribbon personality you have to like from the hand shake. If you’re lucky you’ll be the victim of her delicious sense of humor, and maybe she’ll introduce you to her water spaniel Brydie.
Tierney comes to lessons with her Dad Pete, who shares the lesson time with her. She likes lots of music and plays classical, folk-rock, and cool old tunes she and her dad find in attics and old shoe boxes.
Recently she went east to the University of Virginia to see what Thomas Jefferson knows. Rumor has it she and old Tom are making beautiful guitar-violin duets together.
Tom
Tom is an adult learner who came back to the bass after many years. He’s a steady learner by a semi-formal approach; performing exercises and etudes for technique, chord vocabulary, scales, fretboard knowledge, and theory, applied to songs. One song “walks”, another is “chorded”, still another is chorded with scalewise walking between.
Tom knows how to play in simple and compound meters, understands how each sounds and feels, and has a good list of songs under his belt. Here Tom is playing the West Seattle Art Walk.
Torin
Torin comes through my door each week with his 3/4 size guitar, his infectious smile and a ready attitude. From his time as a piano student he brings acquired musicianship; it’s always apparent when a student has previous musical experience. Torin also shows astonishing power of observation and an aptitude for reading notes, a skill of great value to a classical guitarist.
He pays close attention to his fingers, and readily performs rest and free strokes with a well exercised classical right hand. One day Torin mentioned a fondness for 50’s rock and roll. So we get into that too.
At a recent recital featuring guitarists, pianists, and wind players, Torin confidently performed a Theme And Two Variations, his first public performance on classical guitar.
Veronica
Veronica “The Brave” volunteered to be the leadoff act in B Sharp Studio‘s Holiday concert for the Food Bank. She’s a veteran live performer including three Holy Rosary school talent shows with her tuneful friend Phoebe on the microphone.
Veronica reads music, has a strong chord vocabulary, and a repertoire of Beatles, Taylor Swift, and indie rock. Recently she’s taken an electric guitar to her knee, and strains of alternative rock emanate from her room.
West
When you’ve got the coolest name left of the Mississippi no one’s gonna forget you. Add a blond mop, and an electric guitar and it’s just plain criminal. Wait a minute he’s got purple hair now. He’s been dying it blonde all his life.
West has got sticky fingers; he just likes to pick up the guitar a lot, and displays an impressive rock and roll technique. He’s got the bronze Junior certificate on the wall, and is developing into a fine reader of music.
He and his friend Riley played a medley of spy songs (007, Secret Agent Man, Peter Gun) at the B Sharp Studio Holiday fundraiser, and West got in your face with some Green Day tunes at the West Seattle Art Walk. He also played as part of Teacher Lou’s music class at Tilden School, and at his new school Explorer West he’s taken up the alto sax.
Is he really a natural purple? Only his hairdresser knows for sure.