Roque Deschamps
About
Guitalele Teacher of The Year (2020, 2021, 2023—2025), and Jazz Improvisation Teacher of The Year 2022. Roque Deschamps is a highly experienced music educator currently teaching as Faculty Associate at Utah State University, here he earned a Master of Music in Guitar Performance. Moreover has an educational background from the Santo Domingo Conservatory, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, the Höchschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and several programs from Berklee College of Music. As a professional guitar player proficient in several different styles and genres ranging from pop, R&B, rock, blues to many kinds of Latin (merengue, bachata, bossa, samba, and more) music, he specializes in jazz and classical guitar at the higher-education level. He is also a very experienced composer & arranger. Social Media Links+
Teaching Style
My teaching begins with helping students develop a technique that is healthy, efficient, and grounded in an awareness of how the body naturally moves. Whether in guitar, mandolin, or early plucked instruments, physical ease allows students to produce expressive sound while preventing injury. I help students understand how their hands, arms, and posture work so they can play with freedom instead of tension. Making efficiency the ultimate goal, always aiming for the least physical input for the greatest musical output.
I believe musicians grow most when they cultivate both discipline and curiosity. Discipline provides the consistency that leads to long-term growth, while curiosity gives students a reason to explore ideas, ask questions, and make meaningful connections. I work to create an environment where students engage with a diverse musical landscape and understand that valid musical knowledge extends far beyond the traditional academic canon.
Goals for Specific Classes
Across all contexts, I want students to become thoughtful and independent musicians who can listen deeply, reason musically, and express themselves with confidence. In individual lessons, I help students build technique, stylistic fluency, and rhythmic awareness. Incorporating more retrieval practice, opportunities for them to generate examples rather than rely solely on demonstration and challenge them with planned “why” and “how” questions about their choices to create and perform music.
Jazz Guitar: Students develop improvisation, harmonic fluency, and rhythmic feel through repertoire, transcription, jazz language and guided application of theory.
Classical Guitar: We focus on tone, coordination, and stylistic interpretation in works by Villa-Lobos, Tárrega, Bach, Brouwer, and others, refining phrasing and color through analytical and historical context.
Mandolin: Students strengthen dexterity, precision, and fretboard fluency through bluegrass, choro, and classical repertoire, building articulation, rhythmic control, and melodic improvisation.
Latin Guitar Styles: Lessons cover bachata, merengue, bolero, and son, emphasizing authentic rhythmic patterns, right-hand techniques, and cultural context for stylistic accuracy.
Early Plucked Instruments: Students study historically informed technique, ornamentation, and basso continuo skills.
- Renaissance lute: thumb-under/out technique and repertory by da Milano, Dowland and many others.
- Theorbo: works by Kapsberger, Piccinini, and De Visée; right-hand technique and campanella use in re-entrant tuning.
- Baroque guitar: rasgueado and mixed-style techniques for Sanz, Murcia, Corbetta, De Visée and more.
Music Theory / Harmony: mainly focused on the Berklee College of Music harmony syllabus. I teach them how to use every tool they learn, how to analyze and understand the music they like as well as the Great American Songbook repertoire, how to compose, how to enhancing their ear skills and more.
Teaching Methods
My teaching blends a traditional classroom approach that leads with clear explanations with active, student-centered learning. While modeling remains important for technique, I now focus more on giving students space to test ideas, discover patterns, and apply concepts on their own.
Ultimately, I want students to learn how to learn to develop the technical, listening, and problem-solving skills needed to navigate a diverse musical world with confidence.
