Something to strum about

SITTING in his bedroom in Newmarket-on-Fergus listening to the songs on the radio, a young Mike Varden had only one thing on his mind, a desire to play the guitar just like his musical heroes.

Years later, Mike is now passing on that very same passion to a new generation of budding young musicians. Mike decided to set up the Ennis Guitar School back in 2003 because, as he says, he wanted people to have the opportunities to learn that he didn’t have growing up.
“When I was growing up in Clare there was so many new and exciting guitar sounds and bands coming over on the radio and coming out on record and I suppose, like many other people, I became hooked and the desire to play these sounds became a motivator for me. However, it was impossible to learn guitar in a structured way.
“It was a real hit-and-miss affair. No one, in the West of Ireland at least, knew how to play or teach these sounds. Guitar lessons were non-existent and an older friend of mine used to travel to Limerick on the bus once a week for a lesson and show me what he learned when he returned. After that, I had many teachers and unfortunately I didn’t learn very much.
“Except for classical players, most teachers had no formal training and for long periods I would not play guitar because I was stuck in a rut and couldn’t move forward,” he recalled.
It was only years later, when Mike decided to study at the Guitar Institute in London that all the pieces of the guitar jigsaw puzzle began to fit together.
“My vision or goal then became to set up a learning centre in Clare, modelled on the Institute, where students of all ages and particularly from a young age would have access to learning techniques and facilities to learn to play guitar properly and, just as importantly, to use or get to play what they learn with other musicians.”
Mike trained to be a teacher and combined his love of teaching and his passion for guitar by setting up the school in 2003, opening a new teaching facility at Elevation Business Park, Clonroad, Ennis this year.
“This year, we have opened a new modern spacious, fully equipped guitar teaching facility in Ennis town centre. Most guitar players end up learning riffs or songs off their favourite players from the internet or books or their friends and this is often all that they know and very often their playing experience remains confined to their bedroom. Our courses teach students the fundamentals of music and good, solid technique right from the start. This opens up a whole new world of music to them.
“I believe that everyone can learn music and we do everything possible to ensure that students learn to play correctly in the shortest possible time. So I suppose my mission statement, to use a modern term, would be to provide a step-by-step, easy-to-do method of studying and playing the guitar using ‘accelerated learning’ techniques and support systems and a practical and fun approach.”
An example of this would be the recent introduction of ‘web watch’, which allows students to view all guitar lessons online by logging onto a password-protected website. “The ability to watch lessons online means that our students can access lessons from anywhere and watch lessons whenever they want. This greatly speeds up the learning process,” he adds.
Speaking to Mike, you can’t help but be struck with his enthusiasm for the guitar. “The guitar is a fantastic instrument and arguably the most popular instrument in western culture. It has defined generations of sounds and created many musical styles. From a beautiful, classical piece of music plucked on a nylon-string guitar to a to a shattering rock or metal solo, it is incredible that the same instrument can produce this and all the sounds in between such as jigs and reels, folk music, ragtime, rock, blues, funk, jazz, pop and heavy metal.
“Just think of some of the great exponents of the instrument and their diverse styles from Jonn Williams, Arty McGlynn, John Renbourn, Rory Gallagher, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix to more modern players such as Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen to jazz greats such as Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Al Di Meola. The list goes on and on. The one thing all these great players have in common is that they play the same instrument and use the same chords and scales, albeit in a different way, to create such an array of music. At the school, we aim to give the students the tools and skills to understand and be able to play whatever styles the student has a preference for or develops an interest in.”
According to Mike, his aim is to create musicians first and guitar players second. “I believe in adopting a very holistic approach to learning guitar, where students get to learn all aspects of playing at the same time such as songs, fretboard knowledge, theory, reading, technical skills, song writing, live performance and so on.
“Traditionally, most guitar courses are centered around learning the instrument using outdated songs and musical pieces from books, which often lead to frustration and boredom amongst students and the give-up or drop-out rate was often very high.
“What we do here is teach guitar using contemporary musical pieces and songs that students can relate to. So they learn to play their favourite songs quickly while learning all aspects of guitar playing in a structured and comprehensive way. We make use of all the modern teaching aids such as CD, DVD and internet as well as written and audio material. We encourage students to be creative at all times.”
The school has a purpose-built live band performance space where students get to play with other musicians such as drummers and bass players and learn to perform at a very young age. “This, together with group lessons, really builds self-confidence and social skills. Learning then becomes fun and students are motivated and excited and practice, which is the key to becoming a good player, it becomes regular and not a chore,” Mike outlined.
While for many students they are learning to play just for fun, others can take grades.
“Traditionally, grades were only available for classical music students but in recent years a whole range of both acoustic and electric guitar grades in contemporary music styles have been developed and introduced. Grading is very useful for students who might wish to teach music later on or become professional musicians. They also give students something to aim for and a sense of achievement. Grades are awarded by the London College of Music and these grades are an internationally recognised qualification. We also teach in the main primary schools in Ennis and some county schools, the aim being to stimulate interest in the guitar at a young age. This option can be very convenient for parents and children and parents should check with their school.”
The school also teaches drums, keyboards and bass guitar. “You will often find families where one member of the family plays drums and another guitar or piano or we have quite a few students who are learning both guitar and drums.”
When asked what he hopes to achieve he said, “County Clare has always been synonymous with quality music and hopefully I have created a centre where students can learn contemporary and traditional music styles on guitar to a high standard and help to enhance that reputation. I hope to do this by implementing the techniques and teaching methods I learned at guitar school, all our courses (which include summer workshops) and teaching techniques are constantly being updated and improved as a result of regular monitoring by our teachers and feedback from our students and their parents and all of our tutors have music qualifications and undergo induction training to ensure school standards are maintained.”
For more information or to get some free guitar-playing tips and other articles, visit www.ennisguitarschool.ie or call 6822516.