The Guitar Teacher
The Guitar Teacher is 58 year old Taura Eruera.
I have been a "guitar nutter" for 50 of those years and have taught guitar over the last 30 of those years.
For 8 years I taught intensively at the School of Creative Musicianship, running up over 2,200 class contact teaching hours over that period.
Over the following 10 years I held CEO positions which left no time or energy for guitar teaching.
Since 1999 I have been spending two days a week teaching guitar.
As a graduate of Guitar Institute of Technology and Grove Music and a School of Creative Musicianship Teacher ...
I can not not teach.
Before MIDI music programming, I did all my music learning, arranging and notation by hand.
Before mp3's I did all my transcription by hand with a cassette recorder (remember those?)
Then when Power Macs, powerful PC's came along, my writing exploded. In the process I conceived harmonic, rhythmic and melodic systems that evolved into melody writing software and processes.
Then the game changed
Then when the internet came along, the guitar game changed.
But as the old saying goes: "The more things change the more they stay the same"
When I went to GIT I went to get a lifelong guitar and music education that was not available in New Zealand.
In that year I did the equivalent of 25 years music study, 15 years of nervous energy and my body was away for one.
What I learned in 1982 set me up for life. Several Lives.
One result of that time is that I learned enough music for several lifetimes.
I was never going to run out of things to learn and play.
Only the time to do a small percentage of that.
How many musicians can say that?
How many guitar teachers can say that?
Before I went to GIT I didn't have enough ideas for a single gig.
Afterwards I had more than enough for several lifetimes of playing.
And that's a blessing
That I'm very grateful for.
Another benefit is that I have been ...
Trained for change
For all the changes still use the same guitar, the same frets, the same strings, the same two hands, the same 12 notes, the same chords, the same rhythms, the same eyes and the same ears.
And it is the drive to share these timeless principles that prevent me from not teaching.
There are very powerful forces in my life that would happily retire me from guitar teaching and use me elsewhere in more roles with far more lucrative income.
There are two things that I am very sure about.
I have far too many interests to restrict myself to teaching guitar five or six days a week.
My many and varied interests have provided me with no compelling reason to not teach guitar two days a week.
That's why I can not not teach guitar.
And why I can not not share my gifts, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, with anybody wanting to enrich themselves with the gifts of guitar and music.
That's why I love teaching.
It's one of the best ways of sharing.
And that's why I do it.
