testimonials

I swear I didn't make these up...

This was written by a student of mine named Nik Johnson, whom I've had the pleasure of teaching for the last 6 years. He wrote this in school, and his father Kevin (another of my esteemed students) showed it to me around Christmas time. Now, I'm as macho as the next guy, as my florist will gladly tell you, but I'm not made of stone. This one just about did me in...

I am lucky to have several people who have been influential in my life. To choose just one one person is quite a difficult task. One person that has been most influential to me is Jeff Findley. Jeff Findley is a guitar instructor at Metro Music. I started taking guitar lessons from Jeff when I was seven years old.

When I began taking lessons from Jeff I knew nothing about the guitar, except that I loved it. Jeff taught me many things about the guitar. He showed me the proper way to hold the guitar. He showed me proper posture. Jeff taught me the appropriate way to care for the instrument.

When I started taking lessons with with Jeff I could not read music. Jeff showed my first chord to me. He put it into terms that a seven-year old could understand. Very soon I was able to read the basic notes. Now thanks to Jeff my sight-reading is phenomenal.

Jeff introduced me to many different types of music. I have learned Rock, Classical and the Blues. Any music that I want to learn he helps me willingly. If I am working on a piece of music for school Jeff will help me perfect it. Jeff is great at finding music that challenges me.

Under Jeff's guidance I have experienced the world of music. I would not be where I am today without him. I am fortunate that Jeff has been an influential person in my life. It is a shame that Jeff cannot teach everyone the guitar. I will be grateful to Jeff for the rest of my life.

This one's meant a lot because it was written by one of my heroes, Pete Anderson, regarding the December 2001 Lick of the Month. I cut and pasted it directly from my guestbook. As you can tell, Pete's a busy guy and types pretty quickly, but the fact that he took the time to post this is to me a testament to his integrity and professionalism:

great job on the lesson...very articulate on the description...and then very swinging on the performance..which is where most transcriptions fall short...thanx,your pal/pete anderson

I don't have to tell you why this one means so much, as it's the reason that many of you are reading this. It's not every day that one gets free national press, and it was truly one of the great surprises of my life. I'd like to thank another class act, Mr. Chris O'Byrne of Guitar One magazine for the nice (and constructive) things he said about my site in the January 2002 issue of a very fine magazine. It's kinda long for this space, but here are the Cliff Notes, minus all that pesky "constructive" stuff. Gimme a break, alright? This page is reserved for shameless self-promotion! ;-)

...There's lot's of good action at Jeff Findley's Guitarbuzz!... Go to the September 2001 Lick of the Month to hear Findley rip through a double-stop burner... Perhaps the site's most intriguing feature is the "Jam Tracks" page. The Blues and Funk tracks are groovy!... All in all, we expect good things down the road from this nifty newcomer!