James H

My name is James. I am a musician and instructor from Brooklyn, New York. I began playing guitar when I was six years old and have studied with multiple mentors and teachers, in a vast number of styles and genres. Growing up, I was taught Jazz and Blues and Folk songs by my family. When I was 8 years old, I started training with a mentor who would be my primary teacher for most of my musical education. It was then that I began playing more seriously and was introduced to classical music.  At the age of fifteen, it was decided that I was progressed enough to take on students of my own. I began to teach some of the neighborhood kids around the Fort Green, Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn. It was also around that time that I began going to a progressive alternative school, that was very excited about my teacher and wanted nothing more than to help me succeed in this venture. My teachers at this school exposed me to new models of teaching, helped me prepare lesson plans, and even allowed me classroom time with younger students to practice teaching lessons.  It was also around the age of fifteen that  began performing. I began by preparing a portfolio of popular songs that I could use when busking (a list that quite often mirrored what people requested to learn in their lessons), but would later go past street performance to play in several bands of multiple styles. In those bands, I would play at small local venues with open mics, things like church functions and parties. The variance of the venue was often determined by the music we were playing, but being in (at some point or another)  Bluegrass and Folk, Jazz, and Punk, and Rock bands, I managed to see many different performance spaces. It is through these experiences that I have learned to play guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin, learned the ins and outs of the music scene in New York City and become a teacher whose students are progressive and engaged.