Guitarist/teacher Paul Elwood

I’ve been playing guitar most of my life now! I learned a bit from my Dad when I was maybe 15. He showed me the rudiments of what I later learned was “Travis” picking and I still go to that style like an old friend. Here are a couple of my compositions. One on acoustic guitar:

…and one on electric guitar. I love acoustic, electric  and classical guitar and I play and teach ukulele as well.

I studied privately with NJ guitarist and teacher John Lagreca for many years. I met John when my son was maybe 10 or 11. I had wanted to get some guitar lessons for him but it soon became pretty apparent that I really wanted to get some guitar lessons for me :-)

John was and is a wonderful musician who inspires me to this day.

I also studied formally at Berklee School of Music online with classical/jazz guitarist David Newsam, another terrific guitarist, musician and teacher.

John introduced me to the nuts-and-bolts part of guitar playing. Where to put my fingers for instance and more importantly, why to put them there. How to play slow to play fast. How to make it OK not to be very good at something. And that last one, I gotta say, that has value to pretty much anything you want to do, right? Guitar playing is a good way to learn that lesson- then you can apply it however you like.

David showed me how to connect the dots between what I already knew and the magic behind it and shared some tools to help see guitar music – and music instruction-  more clearly.

I have been very fortunate to have a couple of really great teachers! I try to honor that by being the best guitar teacher I can be, and that means figuring out what might be the best way to show a student what they need to play the music they want to. That’s my challenge, and also my great delight.

For the younger students,  often during the lesson I’ll get them to tell a joke. It’s fun to break focus for a minute but it’s part of a guitar lesson as well. To tell a joke you need to be comfortable about being at the center of attention and you need to control the pacing; both of those are useful if you might want to play guitar in public.

John also taught me early on that performance – that is, having a guitar teacher that performs– is pretty compelling for students, and that is absolutely true. Having a teacher that can tell you something about gigging is useful if that might be in your future too.

I perform solo fairly regularly at local assisted and independent living facilities and that is always great fun for me… and for the residents too, I always hope. I’m also very lucky to work with Kia Hamm as the guitarist half of that duo, and I perform as the Paul Elwood trio with pianist Patrick Kersson and Art Baguer on double bass. These folks are top notch musicians! What a treat to play with them.

If you’re interested in learning to play this wonderful instrument or learning to play it better, well you’re already on the same path that I am! I hope to talk to you soon about that.

Here are Kia and I with a version of “California Dreamin'” you might like.