Gene began teaching in local music stores almost immediately after starting his studies in New York and has been doing so ever since. It has been a great privilege for Gene to share his knowledge of music and the guitar. Along with years of experience playing in various bands and musical settings of all kinds, such as rock, top 40, jazz, country, and musical productions of all sorts including Broadway musicals, cantatas, show groups, etc. with many, many students throughout the years.
Gene would consider one of his strongest asses is not really a musical one, but an ability to communicate musical principles using analogies such as sports, reaching and writing, cooking, art, or almost any other interest that a student might have and show them some of the similarities in the concepts.
Gene is our beginner to advanced guitar instructor. Gene grew up with a father who played violin and two uncles who played guitar. He was able to observe how people would get together, work out songs, and put it all together at a very young age. While Gene didn’t play an instrument at that time, he felt being in that situation had a great influence on him later down the road.
It wasn’t until the age of fourteen that the “Guitar Bug” really hit Gene like it did so many other people during the Beatles era. Gene played guitar continually until graduating from high school when he realized a need and a strong desire to start studying guitar and music seriously. He had a friend who knew some people in New York who set him up with the great guitarist Sal Salvador whom he studied with for many years on a weekly basis in New York City. During that same time period Gene also took music theory and arranging in New York from Rufus Smith.
Realizing early on that you don’t need to learn from just one person, and that different influences are of great value. Gene also took lessons from various other people in the Lehigh Valley area, that would include Bob Sheminick, Bobby Arnold, Frank Flandorfor, and Marshall Mondello.
