Alan B.

Alan began taking guitar lessons with Tom Patitucci in the Bay Area of California at a young age and fell in love with playing and performing music. By age 11, he was in a band touring around San Francisco and the surrounding counties. As he grew older, he played in a number of different ensembles with a wide array of styles. In his high school years, Alan's growing interest in teaching sessions gave way to his parents letting him offer lessons from home!.......beginning his lifelong connection with teaching. He studied music at Southern Oregon University and Portland State University prior to earning a degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. After college, Alan returned to PDX and began a series of shows with his band. Offstage, he focused primarily on songwriting and the craft of teaching fretboard theory to others. From there he moved to the Californian foothills of the Sierra Nevadas where he taught music at the high school level. During this time, Alan was a resident performer at restaurants, weddings, wineries and theater halls. He began to move into American roots music expanding his instrument focus to include banjo, dobro and mandolin, while still finding time to dig deep into metal riffs and straight forward rock guitar. His musical focus further expanded to include Spanish classical and fingerstyle approaches.......rounding back to dirty blues and southern rock grooves. Upon returning to the northwest, he continued his musical education with Toshi Onizuka, studying flamenco fusion. Alan has taught alongside Ron Hurst SteppenWolf, recorded with Dennis Carter Falcon Studios and Sean Flora the Shins and was the sole NW teacher for CA. based Guitars in the Classroom. He's owned/operated Hear and Now Music PDX as the principal teacher since 2004 and has been performing/teaching in Portland for over 20 years. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Alan was both the Band/Guitar Director for the Portland Waldorf School as well as a Lead Instructor with Portland Music Company. Currently, Alan teaches Music/Performing Arts at an International Baccalaureate Institution IB, focused on cultural/musical immersion. He enjoys instructing students in a wide array of styles on a variety of instruments and looks forward to helping aspiring musicians along their own journeys.