Bill teaches Music Together, guitar, ukulele, electric and acoustic basses, piano, voice, and percussion. He specializes in introductory lessons for kids and beginners in several instruments, classical/fingerstyle guitar and singing and playing at the same time. A Champaign/Urbana native, Bill has sought to share his love of music with the community for many years. A lifelong musician, he honed his skills on the North Coast while studying classical guitar with Nicholas Lambson at Humboldt State University. During this period he also studied improvisation and education with beloved North Coast vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Bill Allison. In 2013, Bill returned home to Champaign/Urbana to continue his classical guitar studies with Dr. Guido Sanchez/Portuguez at the University of Illinois and finished his education study at Eastern Illinois University. He honed his skills as a music educator at the Upper Bout in Champaign teaching private and family lessons. In partnership with the Upper Bout, Bill brought after-school guitar lessons to South Side Elementary School in Champaign and developed a guitar program for teens at Salt and Light in Urbana. In lessons with kids, Bill’s goal is to keep fun and play at the center of every lesson. He seeks to expose students to many styles of music from around the world believing that as his students are introduced to the foundations of music they have the opportunity to experience the world through musical culture. In lessons, Bill strives to meet the students where they are, utilizing what they already know about music to develop their own unique sound and he delights when his students discover they may already know more about music than they think.
