Matthew Hire

Hi! My name is Matt and I've been playing the guitar for 15+ years and teaching for about 7. I graduated with a Bachelor's in Family Life Education with a Minor in Worship Arts that required training in music theory, guitar, piano, and leading and organizing a worship band. I have played lead guitar at several churches over the last 10 years, and have been leading worship from the guitar for the last 2.

My favorite types of music to play and teach are blues, rock, worship, campfire guitar, and pop music. When I'm not leading worship on Sunday, I love to jam with friends and perform solo acoustic at open mic nights. 

I like to cater my teaching to what my students learn, but a constant feature is a song-based approach. Learning to play music that you enjoy makes practice more engaging and satisfying when you get to play something that you love!

In general, I like to teach guitarists both rhythm and lead. However, if someone wants to only focus on their rhythm playing that's fine with me...but good rhythm playing is essential to play good lead guitar so it's not a two-way street (: In general, I like to teach a bit of both at the same time.

I tend to add a little bit of music theory here and there, but I believe in a custom approach here with every musician. If your goal is to become a competent camp-fire guitarist, then we'll focus on the fundamentals. However, for a musician to play and jam well with other musicians it's important to get a little bit more than the basics. Every individual is on their own journey in music, and my goal is to meet them where they are at.