Riley Hill

  I have played guitar since my youth and have been performing for over 15 years.  Bluegrass flatpicking has been a major focus for me since around 2009/2010 when I started working with experienced bluegrass musicians in the area like Ed Neff (Blue And Lonesome, Vern Williams Band) and Mike Wilhoyte learning the styles of Doc Watson, Tony Rice and Clarence White.  I traveled to Nashville to attend bluegrass events and spent time studying with the Grammy Award winning guitarist David Grier.  I gradually began moving  towards playing electric guitar as well was heavily inspired by the Telecaster "Chicken Picking" sounds of Albert Lee and Brent Mason.  I have also spent a good deal of time studying jazz guitar players like Joe Pass, Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery.  This combined with the Rock and Hard Rock stuff that I learned in my youth forged a solid background for my playing.

I have always learned by ear and teach by example.  I do not read or write musical notation, but can write tabs if necessary.  I like to build a solid foundation  by memorizing some basic chords and scales and showing proper technique.  I like to get a good feel for a students musical tastes and preferences and of their own personality and how they can individually express themselves through the instrument.  I also like to get students to the point of learning music by ear and playing songs that they want to learn as soon as possible.  The objective is to realize the inner potential that we all have to be great musicians and to get to the point of having fun playing music!