Phil Olson

The Minnesota Music Note - Ep 47 - He Gave Up His Corporate Career to Teach Guitar with Phil Olson

3mo ago

Fun facts from the interview

• Phil studied recording engineering in Los Angeles at the Dick Grove School of Music, then decided late-night studio hours weren't the life for Phil.
• When Phil started teaching full time, Phil had 50 students within four months and more than 70 within six months.
• Phil's four-book Awesome Guitar Series has sold in 12 countries on Amazon.
• Phil's method breaks chords into three-string shapes across four string sets, so students learn just nine major and minor shapes.
• Phil played six or seven years with the Bend in the River Big Band, a college alumni big band that plays parks all summer.
• Phil met all four members of Return to Forever backstage. Frank Gambale told Phil that teaching guitar is "an honorable profession."
• After a gig in Iowa, a club owner who had played in Black Oak Arkansas told Phil it was some of the best playing he'd heard in ages.
• One of Phil's teen students was voted best jazz soloist of an entire jazz camp.
• Phil's motto: "The idea that you think you know it all is the moment you stop learning."
• About 95% of Phil's students don't want to read music, so Phil teaches theory and the songs each student wants to learn.
• Recommended the experimental music act Head Triip, which has played the Amsterdam and the 7th St Entry, and members of the Bend in the River Big Band.