Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 October 2011 23:17

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Travis, Guitar & Bass Teacher

Travis has been teaching guitar at Rocktown Music almost since the beginning of our store.  He also taught at another music store before Rocktown opened, a total of over 7 years of experience teaching children and adults.

At Rocktown, Travis teaches acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar to children starting at age 5 to adults.  He teaches with various methods and styles including rock, pop, punk, and country.  He includes theory, technique, and music reading into his lessons, and students start playing along with familiar music right away.  What you will work on with Travis depends greatly on what you want to work on, and what you learn to do.

More than just a guitar teacher, Travis is working on his Elementary Eductation Bachelor's Degree at St. Cloud State.  Whether it is teaching guitar riffs or spelling lists, Travis is someone who knows and cares about teaching and learning.  Like any good teacher, his talents and interests are diversified.

Contrary to what you would expect for a teacher and professional musician of his level, he wasn't raised with a guitar in his hands.  "I did have a few lessons when I was about 12 years old, but I didn't really start playing until I was 19 or 20 [years old]... My friends wanted to start a band, but they didn't have a bass player."  They worked on original music.  Once in awhile someone in the band would give him a key to work around (e.g "Key of G," a musical reference that describes which notes are used in the song), but for the most part he just worked off of feel and made it up as he went along. 

Travis still works on original songs.  He is in two bands, Buzzard and Goodnight Roxie that practice and perform only original compositions.  Interestingly, he plays drums in both of these bands.  "It's fun," he says. Whether it's drums, guitar or bass, "The reason I like to play music is simple. I like playing music.  I don't have an overwhelming sense of need that I gotta make it [as a musician].  I always thought it would be nice, but I just like to play." It's also been a decent job for him.  In addition to teaching lessons, Travis is also the bass player in Electric Almighty, one of the top drawing cover bands in central MN.  But, he laughs, "I don't think I'm that good of a performer.  There's always someone better... When I was younger I was always concerned about who is better then me, but now I'm just like, who cares.  I'm having fun doing what I do."  

Interestingly, Travis was not only Rocktown's first guitar teacher, but also our first customer.  Travis, what do you like about Rocktown Music....  He pauses.  "The variety."  Variety of what? "Leave it at that, let them figure it out."

Quotations are from an interview with Travis by Kat Silver on October 24th, 2011.