I am a professional musician who just relocated from Nashville, TN to Augusta, GA.

I have worked for 20 plus years in the industry in Nashville as a recording studio musician, songwriter, background singer and music mentor. I began teaching private lessons in high school and continued throughout college until now. I had amazing teachers along my journey and it inspired me to teach throughout my music career. I love teaching and mentoring students music. I use the Nashville Number system a lot to make the process of picking up the chord structures of songs simple. This can help speed up learning, because it highlights the common progressions that happen constantly in every tune.

Since I am a professional musician I believe I have insight in helping my students develop the skills they need to succeed in playing music. Mapping songs and their construction is so important and I use this in a very hands on manner. I have my students continually playing while we examine the theory- we experience how the theory impacts what we play.

I have played so much with other musicians and realize this is like understanding a language, without knowing the bones, it’s difficult to be at ease collaborating musically. I am so fortunate to work with brilliant musicians in the recording studio and in the classroom. Collaboration is at the heart of why I love to play, sing, write and teach.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame has a wonderful songwriting program for middle school students in Nashville, TN. I have taught for this program and it stretched me in creating songs with students who didn’t always have a music background. This has become one of my favorite teaching scenarios, finding common ground to co-create music no matter what skill level is exciting.

My work at Belmont University is also a highlight of my teaching career. The young talent coming through this music program is shaping the next generation of commercial music. My favorite part of this is exploring so many genres and the fusion of styles.

I believe working in the music industry has helped me focus on goal setting. Knowing there are always so many choices of what can be done with music instruction, it is beneficial to define the desired outcomes in order to actually reach the goal. My defined goal is to help my students establish their desired destination in music and reach that finish line. Singing, songwriting, guitar, ukulele, piano and recording are my areas of expertise and I look forward to guiding you!

Music Qualifications & Achievements:

Education

• 1988-2003: Bachelor of Arts (Piano Performance Emphasis) Tarleton State University Stephenville, TX

Organizations

• 1990-2009: Member of American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP)
• 2009-Present: Member of Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC)
• 2013-Present: Global Songwriters STAFF SONG WRITER
• 2005-2013: Judy Harris Music Publishing Nashville, TN

Writing and co-writing original songs to be pitched for commercial use by recording artists , film, and television:

• 2002-2004: Red Bird Music Publishing Nashville, TN
• 1997-1998: Harris Gordon Music Publishing Nashville, TN

MUSICIAN

• 2013-Present: Home Recording Software : Garageband/ Pro Tools/ Melodyne

TEACHING

2019-2022: Belmont University

• Accompanying Commercial Vocal Students
• Facilitating for Commercial Vocal Professor/ Bruce Bennett
• Leading bands for Commercial Vocal Student performances

2018: Writing Teaching Materials

• The Keys to Every Key
• Ukulele Jam

Nashville

• 2018-2020: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame • Instructor for Middle School Express Yourself Songwriting Program
• 2018-2022: Middle Tennessee Performing Arts Academy Private music instruction
• 2017-2022: Texas Southern Gospel School of Music Private music instruction- guitar, vocal, piano, songwriting

Advanced songwriting and theory

• 2014-2016: Creative Arts Guild Dalton,GA Private music instruction- guitar, vocal, piano
• Songwriting classes 2013, September: The Music Matters/Nashville Number System Webinar Series for Global Songwriters (globalsongwriters.com)
• 2010-Present: SETLIST (music mentoring company-owner) guitar piano Commercial vocal coaching songwriting Garageband ProTools
• 2010-2013: Rock Star Boot Camp Nashville, TN Director Teaching song writing, rehearsal hour with band, performance Recording Studio session with band Music Row meet and greet with industry professionals
• 2009-2013: Franklin Road Academy Nashville, TN After school Enrichment Song Writing Class
• 2006-2015: Kids on Stage Music and Arts Camp Leiper’s Fork, TN. Teaching 4 song writing classes in which I am guiding a class room of 10 students to write an original song together, record the song and then perform the song
• 2005-2009: North Georgia School of Gospel Music Cleveland, GA. Advanced Song Writing Class- which involves everything from lyric writing to advanced music theory which teaches students to notate their original songs