Brian Lindner
About
I am a musician, teacher, and producer from Tampa, Florida. Coming from a musical family, I took up trumpet at 10 years old playing in the school band. In the following years, I started teaching myself guitar. Being left-handed, my first experiences with the instrument were spent picking up my dad’s guitar and playing upside-down. This unusual style of playing has stuck with me to this day giving me a unique perspective on the instrument.
In college, my musical journey started to take shape. I enrolled in the music program at Hillsborough Community College as a trumpet major with piano as a secondary instrument. I performed in just about every ensemble I could including Fanfare Concert Winds, HCC Jazz Band, Percussion Ensemble, as well as several ensembles from other colleges, the Herd Of Thunder marching band at USF and the Wind Ensemble at UT.
Around the same time I was in college, I started teaching music lessons at a local music school. I would teach guitar, piano, trumpet, bass, and ukulele lessons to students of all ages and abilities. There, I developed the ability to meet people where they are on their instrument and make complicated concepts easy to understand.
Now, I have over 10 years of experience teaching lessons and continue to teach up to 60 students a week both in-person and online. I am also the Contemporary Music Director at a local church where I lead a band that plays every Sunday. Having developed a love for music production, I also have a home studio where I spend hours practicing and recording for myself and others. I am a student of music and I continue to take lessons myself to hone my craft. I love to share that knowledge with my students and will continue to do so for years to come.
Teaching Style
Music can easily become overwhelming and frustrating. My goal as a teacher is to make the process as painless as possible because at the end of the day, music should bring joy into your life not stress. My teaching style revolves around taking complicated pieces or concepts and breaking them down into smaller more easily digesible pieces. With some patience, anyone can play any piece if they learn it one piece at a time.
Curriculum
I like to start by helping the student determine what their goals are! The instrument/style the student wants to learn will affect the way I teach and the subjects we will cover. Most piano students will start with a book unless they specifically want to learn pop or worship type music. Guitar students will likely start with reading chords and tabs and maybe some scale forms along the way.
Credentials & Affiliations
I have been teaching music lessons since 2014 where I began as an instructor at Tampa Fine Arts Academy in Tampa, Florida. There I taught up to 60 students a week with students of all ages, skill levels, and students with learning disabilities. I taught and still teach lessons for beginner-advanced guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, and trumpet. Around the time of the pandemic I started to realize the power of online lessons and started building up my own student base completely online. My students and I love the convenience of online lessons and the integration with technology really helps to keep kids engaged in the material.
In 2016 I completed an Associates degree with emphasis in music from Hillsborough Community College. Through college I completed all four levels of Music theory as well as Sight Singing and Ear Training. Around this time, I participated in just about ever ensemble that I could get into. I played with the jazz band, concert band, and the percussion ensemble at HCC and the concert band at the University of Tampa. I also had the opportunity to march with the University of South Florida Herd of Thunder marching band. During this period I took lessons from 4 different professors for trumpet, piano, and guitar.
In 2017, I became the Contemporary Music Director at Atonement Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL. This opportunity has given me a lot of real-world music experience running rehearsals, selecting music, and putting together a band to play contemporary music for a weekly church service. This involves being familiar with how all of the instruments fit into a band setting and being able to assist band member with their parts. I usually lead the band with a guitar but sometimes fill other roles when band members are absent.
Throughout my music career I've performed at various gigs and events. I've played at numerous open-mic events sometimes solo or in groups. I have also done several performances at restaurants and other one off events. The performance I'm most proud of was in 2022 I was able to perform with one of my students and the Arians Family Foundation Golf Tournament Gala which was attended by several current and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers players and coaches. That was an event I'll never forget and makes me thankful that I get to do music as a living.