Kevin W.

Hello Amarillo area and potential students! My name is Kevinand I’m an Amarillo native. . been here all of my life ! Since an early age, perhaps 4 or so, my mother told me I was drawn to music. She would watch as I would drop everything in my play pen and run to the edge anytime Chet Atkins played on Hee Haw( for those of you old enough to remember) ???? Credit to my mother for picking up on that and starting me in piano at age 7. After some research she decided to put me in the Suzuki method as opposed to traditional and I’m very glad she did. I know there’s is some opinions on which method is the best but I do believe developing a strong ear for music on the front end of learning can’t help but to set the student up for success as they transition into more theory and music composition and even sight reading. Also learning through ear training gives the student a higher percent chance of being able to ‘sit in’ with other musicians in an improv type setting or even worship band and not feel uncomfortable. So, through those lessons I started off my performance career with several recitals, gaining confidence as I went. In middle school and into high school at Randall, I transitioned into playing the saxophone and became quite proficient at it, earning several all region band accolades and being able to play barri sax at several jazz competitions. I also became drum major my sophomore year, which was unheard of at Randall for someone so young to get it. But I led our band to sweepstakes at UIL marching contest! But then, just out of high school when I was at WT, I dove into all things guitar, and I’ve never looked back. I also started teaching other people around me about 2 years after I picked it up, mainly because my previous training with piano and high school band and my desire to progress caused me to be in a place to teach others rather quickly, which I loved doing at the time. I was about 20 years old back then, and I did take some lessons back then with some folks who really set me on a good course of fundamentals, but most of my journey has been playing with other musicians, mostly in different church band projects around the area. But as you can imagine, after 30 years of playing and performing, I have quite a bit more to give than I did back then when I was first getting going! I’m Looking forward to meeting you guys and getting you on your own personalized musical journey together !