John H
Instruments: Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Pop, Folk, New Age, Soul
John H
Instruments: Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles:
Pop, Folk, New Age, Soul
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 80-80
University Of Colorado At Boulder International School Of Japanese In Sendai
Played Japanese Full Moon Festival in Fukushima TESOL (Teach English Certificate from Oxford University JLPT N3 Cert for Studying Japanese 23 years of experience as singer/songwriter performer College roommates with (Caroline Polecheck) Of Chairlift Performed briefly with Emma Louise out of Australia Played shows in Japan, Australia and U.S Self Recorded Album on iTunes (Available on Spotify)
I grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Aspen, Colorado. I fell in love with music there being surrounded by nature from an early age. This is where I developed songwriting as well. Later I was able to perform in Japan, Australia and the U.S in different capacities. I now am back in the valley and perform in a band called "Mountain Sage." I've been able to teach as well. instilling a sense of creativity and songwriting into my students has been a great pleasure of mine. I taught English in Japan and now I tutor Japanese as well. Music is a language as well and so this has been a natural process. We can teach in my studio and also the nearby library as well.
I started teaching music when I was back in high school. I had some other friends that were deeply interested in music and so I was able to lend a hand and teach some basics to them. I'm happy to announce that many of them are avid and professional players now. I like putting in a basic foundation of music into my students and giving them some inspiration so that they can take the reigns and run with their path. In Japan I found it was much more important to have my students fall in love with English rather than teach them the mechanics of language and have them grasp that. If love is learned then passion is acquired in my belief.
I have spoken about this somewhat above. I generally form my lessons based on the desires that my particular student might have. Often it's been wanting to learn their own cover. Very rarely has it been to teach them scales. I can do that as well. I also like to send them off into the world of songwriting if they want to. I think having a basis of music knowledge is good thing to incorporate as well. I want them to learn the rules and then break them in this case. I was trained in clarinet before guitar and this greatly would help my improvisation skills later down the road.
I approach teaching as a conductor. When I was taking my TESOL to obtain a national certification to teach English I learned about the principal of implementing the 80/20 principal. Basically this means reducing teacher talk to 20% and increasing student activity and command of the lesson to 80%. More than a teacher I am a student and I simply create a framework for learning to take place. Passion is the goal for my students and so I go to the roots of why I so fell in love with music. Music is something to explore and not memorize to entirety. I am always excited to see how my students might manipulate the frets of a guitar and create their own musical representations.
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