Elijah Gaskin

I began teaching the guitar to my friends at the age of 16. After I graduated high school, I began teaching group guitar classes at churches on Saturday mornings. Through that opportunity, I was able to increase the number of private lessons I gave on a weekly basis.

Upon entering Temple University’s Esther Boyer’s College of Music, students were referred by the college. I began teaching students that were not looking to improve as musicians, but not looking to acquire a degree in music.

After college, I began teaching men in prison to play the guitar and the bass guitar. It was during this time that through a collaboration with a great guitar teacher, Mr Ross Finley, we created a curriculum that garnered incredible results! We saw so many men go from novice to proficient, that we were taken aback.

To date, I have been teaching the guitar for over 40 years, and I’m passionate about passing on to others the things I’ve learned and the things that I’m yet learning as a musician. I still believe that the room for improvement is the biggest room of all. And this is the room that we all share as musicians.

Music Qualifications & Achievements:

In Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School and William L. Sayer Junior High School, I studied music with Mr Wayne Guice.

While attending Sayer, I began taking private lessons at Krills Music School in Upper Darby Pa.

When I entered West Philadelphia High School I began studying music with Dr Coris P. Shepherd, Miss Sonya Cohen, and Miss Velma Simmions. It was during this time that I began studying privately with Mr Stanley Hopkins, and later with Mr Allen Bell.

This was also the time I began playing in various venues in the Philadelphia area. I performed with The Philadelphia Mass Choir, The Philadelphia Youth Mass Choir, Fat Larry’s Band, The Stylistics, Blue Magic, and several local club bands.

In 1992 I began studying privately with the jazz great Jimmy Bruno. Later that year, I enrolled at Temple University, where I majored in jazz performance. While studying jazz at Temple University I subsequently studied classical guitar at the Settlement School of Music in Philadelphia.