Robert W.

Hi, my name is Robert, I am 21 years old, and I go by Braxton. I have been around music my whole life with my Mom being an opera education major. I started taking music lessons for various instruments for 11 years. My journey started with the oboe, and I played in a concert band for 7 years, I even made Region Band a couple of times. There were also a few different marching band instruments in high school I picked up along the way, such as marimba, xylophone, and snare. This was around the time I picked up the guitar for my high school jazz band as well. I found myself most gravitating toward the guitar and all its nuances, and I never looked back since. My main influences for guitar are all of the iconic '80s/90's shredders: Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, and Steve Vai. These days, I play different kinds of genres related to guitars such as jazz, R&B, blues, funk, rock, and metal. My other influences include Myles Kennedy and Chris Cornell for vocals, and Les Claypool for bass. I started performing at a little music studio where I took guitar lessons for 5 years and performed on stage for people at the same studio. My favorite performance was when I was 16 and played Always With Me, Always With You, a guitar ballad by Joe Satriani. I learned it note for note and still bombed the performance! But that only pushed me harder to perform music and put on a great show for people. I still perform music today and have accumulated 7 years of stage experience. I have been teaching guitar for 4 years, and the way I teach is to always approach the students at a level field similar to a friend, and peek them with akin interests that could bring them towards music, while still maintaining professionalism. I've always thought that anyone can pursue music if they put in the effort to do so. I primarily have taught guitar, but I can teach bass, oboe, and drum rudiments as well. My students usually love how relatable I can be and how easily I learn the song and break it down into chunks they can understand, even if they don't know the chords. On different occasions, I have shown my students my influences that I thought would interest them, if there may not be much ground to work with on their journey. That usually is enough for them to take initiative for lessons alone. Overall, I appreciate anyone who takes a liking to music and I put all of my effort into it, no matter how small of the window may be. Thank you for looking at my profile! I look forward to your response.