Brad Tutmarc

Brad is a musician from Seattle with 23 years experience playing guitar and performing in most genres. He has been giving freelance music lessons for four years with students of all age groups. He lived in Madrid, Spain from 2018 to 2020 and played extensively in all styles including, flamenco, jazz, country, blues, rock, rockabilly and surf guitar.  He continued giving guitar lessons while living abroad which was a valuable learning experience as a music teacher.   He also grew up in a large musical family which includes his great grandfather Paul Tutmarc who is credited as the inventor of the first electric bass, the Audio Vox Bass Fiddle in 1932. His son, my grandfather Bud Tutmarc also had a lifelong music career as an accomplished steel guitar player that included the recording of over twenty five albums in the genre of Hawaiian steel guitar.

His teaching philosophy is based mostly on the idea of song oriented learning. It's important to listen to the student, and make sure they are playing the songs they want to play. I feel students maintain their enthusiasm for the instrument when they are able to measure their progress through learned songs. This simultaneously teaches them chords and the fundamentals of music theory without overly technical theory exercises and ideas.