Lance E  
Instruments: Guitar, Drums, Bass Guitar, Ukulele
Styles: Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country

I first began teaching music lessons as a way to earn extra money for college and I have been teaching ever since. I have been mostly a freelance teacher, but I have substitute taught many times at Musical Beginnings in Vancouver, Washington. My first instrument is drums, though I have also been playing and teaching guitar and ukulele for a long time. In church settings I have often had the opportunity to help younger and less experienced musicians find their place in the praise band or worship team and to learn how to play music as a part of a group. I like to view the music teaching role as a mentorship and as such, as much as possible, I try to play with the students instead of having them play for me or me for them. I enjoy it when two or more musicians can put their parts together to create a whole. 

As much as possible, I usually try to make custom lesson plans for each student. For beginning guitar or ukulele students I will usually begin by teaching them to play a familiar song using only a couple chords. This gives them something tangible to work toward right from the beginning. We can then add more chords and more challenging songs as we go, as well as learning to play scales and melodies, etc. For beginning drummers I will often take a basic rock beat and break it apart, focusing on one piece at a time and then putting it back together. This gives us a foundation to work from to which we can later add rudiments, etc. For more advanced students I like to first look back and see if there are any techniques or skills that they have neglected as they progressed. Once we have filled in any such holes, we can move forward, working on modes, poly-rhythms, or whatever seems appropriate for the individual student.