Faculty Biography

"If you have music running through your head when you wake up in the morning, when you brush your teeth, and all day . . . well, that's the kind of thing we should be trying to help you with. But we'll show you what others did, too, so you can use them as role models.

"We try to help you polish your gift. To do that, I believe you have to learn your craft first. We're in an age now where people have an instant, microwave mentality: Right away, I want it right now, bam. But there are some things that you have to woodshed and get.

"That's the way I teach you. I have to hold you down at first. I know you want to go and play, do whatever you want, use any kind of score pacing you want, write anything you want. And that's what you'd like to do. But I'm not going to let you do it!

"So, when you come in here, you have to do it the way I say in the beginning. And then after you master whatever it is I ask you to do, I'll release you and let you create your thing. But we've got to hold you down for a minute so you can learn things. And if you don't agree with that, well, fine. But I'm showing you what works in a studio—things that will get you in the door."