Interview with Guitar Guru Roddy Ellias

Roddy Ellias is as close to being a Zen guitar master as anyone can be. His organic, but thorough, approach to teaching music has attracted some of the finest guitarists in Canada to his studio. Guitarists such as Mike Rudd, Jake Langley, Jake Hanlon and Brandon Bernstein have all studied under Roddy before becoming successful guitarists and educators themselves.

Roddy sat down with us today to talk about his forty years of teaching and performing experience, and how his pedagogical method has developed over that time period.

MW: How did you get your start as a guitar teacher?

RE: I’m not sure how it happened because it was over forty years ago, but somehow I ended up teaching on Saturday mornings and afternoons at a local family run music store called Lauzon’s Music. I was in my teens, probably 16 or 17 years old and although I didn’t realize that at the time, I was probably the world’s worst teacher.

I remember being quite impatient with some students, not understanding that some people who took guitar lessons weren’t necessarily as obsessed with it as I was and that that wasn’t a bad thing – especially at a local music store where you get such a cross section of people with different reasons for taking guitar lessons.

MW: Did any of your teachers have an influence on your private teaching approach?

RE: Not consciously. I started with a lot of help from various guitar players who I was lucky enough to live near, but I was largely self-taught. I did take some lessons in my teens on both the electric and then especially the classical guitar. Some teachers I had stuck largely to books and organized methods while others were more open and flexible, going with the students’ needs and interests.

A couple of classical guitar teachers that I have in my teens were, to my mind, far too dogmatic and so I didn’t last very long with either one. Only one of my early teachers was a task master. When I first started teaching jazz improvisation and guitar at the university level, or even just higher level private students, I remember being a task master as well. I probably pilled on too many things too practice, too many concepts to adsorb and way too many expectations to live up too.

Over the years I have learned to be much more relaxed, patient, kind and hopefully effective. I think this has come from people, some of whom were music teachers but more importantly I think, some who weren’t. Growing as a human being also very much helped me to grow as a guitar teacher. It’s difficult to separate the two.

MW: As someone who draws from many influences in their playing how do you encourage students to explore different genres and styles of music?

RE: Just by exposing them to different genres and styles as well as to different philosophies, thinkers, books about sound and how sound relates to the universe and so on. Diversity and being open are important, and often necessary for artistic expression. I also find that one of the areas that is very much lacking in young students development is an awareness of the diversity, and the phenomenal contributions, of many of the early masters of jazz and classical guitar.

MW: In your opinion how has technology, especially the internet, changed the landscape of guitar education in recent years and where do you see it headed in the future?

RE: I don’t really know much about this. I do know that the availability of information about playing the guitar, or any subject for that matter, is endless, especially when you compare it to the availability of information about playing jazz guitar which people of my generation struggled to find.

I think this is great but at the same time I also think that aspiring guitarists need to understand that accessibility of information is only part of the puzzle. People can even have live interactive video lessons with teachers thousands of miles away. All of this is fantastic but at the same time, you can’t beat that old one on one face to face experience.

When I was fortunate enough to study with Pat Martino in New York and Philadelphia in the late 70’s, the best part of what I learned from him was not really the information, but it was interacting with Pat. I can say the same for most of my great teachers in classical music and composition. It was just as much about learning who my teachers were, and what made them tick, as it was about learning the facts and techniques they had mastered.

MW: You are such an experienced and accomplished performer as well as an educator.  How has your teaching experience influenced your performing and vice-versa?

RE: That’s an interesting question that I have never thought about! I think that the same things inform each other. For example, learning to relax as a player probably spills over into relaxing as a teacher and vice versa. Maybe it starts with learning how to relax as a person first!

Another interesting connection between teaching and playing is this: I have often suggested to students that when they think about how they are going to present a tune to an audience, or even present and develop their improvisation on that tune, that they keep in mind that they are (amongst other things) teaching the tune to those people. ‘Teaching’ them about how that tune can unfold, develop, tell a story – maybe we could say, they are ‘teaching’ a story rather than ‘telling’ a story, in the same way that a great novel teaches us something about human nature.

MW: What advice do you have for people who are just starting to teach guitar?

RE: Make sure you’re also out there playing. I wouldn’t want my kids studying with someone who wasn’t doing the thing they were teaching, whether it was guitar playing or being a medical doctor.

MW: What advice do you have for students when they are looking for a private teacher?

RE: Find someone who’s playing you like. Someone who is a nourishing person and with whom you feel has your development at heart, someone with whom you can work well with. Watch the movie ‘The Visitor’ and then go bang your drum!

MW: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.

RE: My pleasure, anytime.

Acoustic and Electric Guitar