"I feel like a total fraud," says Brian, the entirely self-taught guitarist from Kaua'i. He points out that there's nothing officially certifying him as a music educator. He chuckles: "any day now, the music police are gonna come bust down my door." Brian began playing guitar as a kid in the 90's. His mother took notice that he was messing around with some of the older kids' guitars, so she bought him his first guitar on his 10th birthday. Using the newly invented dial up internet, he began to teach himself to play.
"I kind of fell into teaching," Brian explains. After performing in a high school talent show, classmates began to ask him for lessons. "I was in disbelief. I can barely play, and these guys want me to teach THEM? It was the blind leading the blind. I didn't know what I was doing. I guess that's when BRGA was founded though. Some time in 2004 at my mom's carport" he laughs, shrugging his shoulders. Brian has been opening "practices" and taking on students in whatever communities his career has taken him.
"Everything I teach is stuff that I wish someone had taught to me as I learned the instrument. I learned everything the wrong way." In the age of instant access, knowing what to learn isn't the dilemma, it's knowing why to learn it. "[My teaching method] has evolved over the years, but nowadays I find myself giving students a road map, a sense of direction and feedback. Things you can't easily find by yourself. So please, come as you are. Everyone's a rockstar at the Brian Roberts Guitar Academy."