Want to Write Your Own Music? Have Fun Learning About Music Composition Through Music Theory

Find out more about Eric

• When and why did you develop an interest in your chosen field?

  In January of 2015, I began a backpacking trip across Europe After an incredible two and a half months, having been to Sweden, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, I found myself in a Jazz club in London called Ronnie Scotts. There was a band playing the late show that started at 1 am called the Kansas Smitty's House Band and I was floored. The air in the club was electric, everyone was smiling, and having fun, and music was the centerpiece to all of this. I immediately felt a gravity to head home to Vancouver, buy an instrument, and begin my practice with the goal of becoming a musician. I found myself drawn to guitar especially because of the harmonic opportunities, as well as rhythmic, and melodic. The guitar really is the whole package for a musician looking to be a part of music's ethos.

• What makes you passionate about your subject?

  Guitar and music, generally speaking, are much more than just musical gifts that we get to give ourselves and others around us. Music gives us a chance to relate to one another, dance in tandem, and reflect on our own trials and tribulations. This aspect of music is incredibly healing and nurturing for our humanness. There is also a very real meditation that occurs and is included in our practice. We begin to understand and notice these little points of tension that we have in our body, and we release that tension to find ourselves wholly focused on the music being played. In many ways, music is a process of technique and self-discovery happening in real-time. It's an incredible thing.

• What do you like about tutoring? What makes you a "Superprof"?

  The opportunity to get to know so many unique individuals and to design a curriculum that helps them realize more about music, technique, and themselves and what they can get out of music is an incredible opportunity indeed. I have taught students of all ages that face all sorts of hurdles and have unique goals; some want to improve their songwriting, some want to improve their theory knowledge, some are total beginners and don't understand terms or how one might hold a pick. All of those students become my friends as we talk about everything related to music, and play songs. Pretty quickly, I get the joy to see the hurdles being conquered as we've worked on techniques and discussed approaches to improve the aspects of their musicality that they had hoped to improve upon.

• Do you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you? Please explain.

  For me, this would be Frank Vignola. He is a monster of a musician in New York who I have taken lessons from on and off for the last five years. I have met him in person twice, and he is a very kind man with an incredible ability to point each student's attention in the right direction. He is very much someone I aspire to emulate in my own lessons.

• What are your keys to success?

  Primarily, having fun, patience, and conscientiousness. Let's not forget that music is although a serious goal and practice in itself, the goal of music is often to share the love and joy that it brings us, and this is an important aspect of our own practice in which we want to be expressing in our own way that fun and joy that we experience ourselves. It can be an incredibly frustrating experience to not feel as though you are improving as a musician, artist, or however you wish to improve. In this regard, patience allows us to remain focused as we find it increasingly difficult to reach new plateaus. Conscientiousness allows us to notice the roots of the problems and employ the most effective practice to address these issues.