Matt Gleason
About
My name is Matt Gleason and I am a multi-instrumentalist music composer and producer. I have been teaching electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and drums for 7 years now and have received a Bachelor of Science in Music from the University of Colorado Denver.
I started learning music when I was five years old on the piano, and have been in love ever since. When I turned 12, my shifting musical tastes toward hard rock and metal led me to try my hand at electric guitar and drums, and with that my love turned to a passion for life.
Between the ages of 12 to 18 I took part in numerous bands and musical projects, trying my hand at each role within a band to experience it all. From there I went on to study music at the University of Colorado Denver where I discovered my passion for creating my own music as a solo artist, and subsequently entering the world of audio production. This opened up my love for music even more as I was now capable of realizing entire compositions all on my own at home.
While finishing my audio degree in college, I took a private music teaching class and had the opportunity to teach a lesson of my own. That's when I discovered my love for teaching the music I had been passionate about my whole life.
I then set out and acquired a handful of students and haven't looked back since, currently teaching at a local music studio in Broomfield Colorado with up to 30 students per week. I also coach youth rock bands between the ages of 10 and 17, on all varying instruments from vocals to guitars, to keyboards and drums. Within band sessions, kids learn how to practice and play together as a group, learn and transpose cover songs, compose original songs, record in a professional studio environment, and then ultimately perform it all on stage at the end.
Teaching has become my calling, and I look forward to further sharing my musical experience and knowledge with you.
When I was growing up learning piano, I was forced to play all sorts of things that I couldn't have cared less about, ending up rather bored. My goal is to make learning music FUN while simultaneously learning important fundamental concepts that will impact the students playing for years to come.
My teaching style and curriculum is created around the student. Every student not only learns a certain way, but also come to lessons with widely varied goals and experience. I have numerous resources and recommended materials that I offer to students depending on what their ultimate goals are on the instrument, and where I feel they might need to improve upon most in his or her playing.
I put a lot of emphasis within lessons towards learning songs of the students choosing, and then using that song as a reference to music theory concepts and technique. Music theory and technique is always more fun when you use it in the context of something musical. If there is no written material for a given song online, I see it as a challenge to the student to try and learn a song by ear. If a student doesn't know what songs they like or even the style of music they like, I aim to help them find what that is. At the end of the day, all these scales, exercises, riffs, and chord progressions lead to one thing - a song. Learning to play full songs is one of the most important things you can do while learning an instrument, in my opinion.
I believe everyone has a unique musical identity, and my job as a teacher is to help facilitate what that identity is to the student.
-Bachelor of Science in Music from University of Colorado Denver, 7+ years of private lesson instruction to 20-30 students per week, 7+ years of youth band coaching