From guitar virtuoso and former student David Oneal :
Hey there. So, in case you didn't know it, apparently I can actually write a catchy tune. I made the cut of the top 150 songs in the 3rd Annual Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition! Pretty exciting.

http://www.jezebelmusic.com/featureshow.html

So, I'll be performing THIS SUNDAY Sept. 17 at Bar Matchless at 8pm. You'll have to come to the show to find out which song I submitted!

From Kirk Dunn, Author of the "Radical Guitar Method"
Mike was my first guitar teacher and really got me off in the right direction. Much of the material in the Radical Guitar Method came directly from our session back in the late 70s. Even though Mike and I had lost touch for several years, we recently reconnected and got a chance to record this hour-long interview in MP3 format where Mike serves up some great tips.

From one of Mike's favorite students:

Dear Mike,

Congratulations on the opening of your store, Mike Ellis Music Instruction. I am very excited about your new store and continuing our relationship, now starting its fifth year.

I'm sure your other students are just as excited as I am to begin in the new location. I am looking forward to the next four years and beyond. It has been my great privilege to take the journey from guitar novice to 'getting invisible' with Dickey Betts and The Allman Bros. This has truly been one my proudest accomplishments and would not have been possible without your expert instruction and friendship. Your patience and guidance have enabled me to develop my playing to a level I had never dreamed possible and to gain the confidence that together we can push the envelope beyond my wildest imagination. Move over SRV, here I come! You have taught me that the most important word in any student’s vocabulary is 'Yet'. I may not play like SRV Yet, but I am working on it and with hard work and determination, I will get there.

Again, congratulations on your new store and I wish you many years of continued success.

Sincerely,

Galen D. Murrey
Student

Here's a note preceding Mike's "Expand Your World" post from the moderator on musicmattersblog.com.

Natalie's note: This fascinating article by Mike Ellis will stretch your brain and push you outside the box, er, beat of traditional musical understanding. The more I teach, the more I realize the importance of teaching music as sound to be felt, interpreted and conveyed, not just as notes on a page to be intellectually translated and transmitted through the fingers via an instrument. Of course, this is much easier to discuss in theory than to implement in practice! I would love to have some input from other teachers in response to this. How do you help your students feel the music and connect with the sound, not just mechanically read the notes and rhythms off of the page? Any practical tips?

A very kind note from James Richard:

An endorsement: I've been a student for several years. One of the challenges of learning anything new is "we don't know what we don't know." Mike does a great job of telling you what you don't know but SHOULD know, in addition to teaching you what you want to learn. (I prefer this approach versus those teachers who take the easy way out and just tab out what you want to learn). He continually assesses my weaknesses and forces me to address them. ;) And he also excels at separating the 'wheat from the chaff' and gets you to playing real music in no time at all.

If anyone is interested in learning guitar, keyboard, drums, whatever...give him a call.

Here's a note preceding Mike's "European and American Music and Christianity" post from the moderator on musicmattersblog.com.

Natalie's Note: Mike Ellis is at it again - researching and writing on facets of music that often go unexplored by music teachers. In this article, he discusses some interesting correlations and raises some thought-provoking questions. If you haven't checked out his Know Chords website, I highly recommend it. Mike has a way of presenting theory concepts in a way that is concise and easy to understand. His articles are great reading for music students and for teachers looking for good ways to communicate musical concepts and principles to their students. Enjoy his latest article!