Nicholas Pierce

With a Bachelor‘s of Music in Guitar Performance and a Master‘s of Music in Music Technology, Nicholas Pierce has a wide range of skills to offer. First and foremost, he is a guitarist—specializing in Jazz, Pop, Rock, and Folk music. He has also had extensive performance experience on the piano and bass guitar and focused on audio engineering and mixing in his Master’s studies. 
His musical endeavors started at a young age, when he began piano lessons with jazz pianist Tad Weed. As a teenager, he focused on guitar studies at Tuacahn High School for the Arts. During this time, he won highest honors at the Utah state Solo & Ensemble Guitar competition three years in a row, and first place at the SUPAF piano competition in 2016. In 2018, Nicholas shared the stage as pianist with Utah’s Southwest Symphony, as finalist in their annual concerto competition. His musical education continued through master classes with the LA Guitar Quartet and Ana Vidović, as well as performances with renowned drummers Danny Gottlieb and Ulysses Owens Jr. 
Nicholas has worked in Utah in various jazz bands and wedding/party bands. He appears on the Southern Utah Jazz Collective and has been a regular performer with the Shawn Owens Project. Nicholas is also a sought-after guitarist in southern Germany, now residing in Berlin.

I believe the number one reason to learn an instrument is to express one's love of music. At some point I realized that I always make the most progress in my own abilities when I'm studying music that interests me. I don't know how many people I've talked to that told me "I played an instrument when I was younger but the lessons were just boring and I didn't want to practice, so I quit." I don't like the idea of teaching everyone from the same boring method books. My approach is to design lessons so that the student can learn to play the music they love. Therefore, I will adapt my lesson material and exercises to the interests of the students. It's possible to learn technique and music theory through the student's favorite songs. I find that it's a lot easier to sit down and practice when I'm practicing something that's fun for me. And isn't that the point of music, to have fun? 

I believe in developing a well-rounded musician, who has the physical technique and the music theory knowledge to learn anything they want to on their own. As a proficient sight-reader, I can offer lessons in reading/writing music notation, which I believe the average guitarist undervalues. I can also help students learn to quickly learn chord charts. In addition, my most used skill as a guitarist is listening to something and being able to learn/play it back quickly by ear. These skills in conjunction will help students learn any song they want to and get students away from TAB, which I believe hinders musical development.