JC Music & Wellness Blog

Chris Victors was a student of mine fairly early in my teaching career.  I knew him through a few different people, and so we ended up connecting and starting up lessons. 

To this day I still think he was one of the upbeat, enthusiastic,  and serious students I’ve had. He actually did is work, and he did more than he was assigned.  He was playing all the time, and learning at an incredibly fast rate. And when I think back on him both as a student and as a friend,  I can say this,.. He is one of the nicest people I have ever known.

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Back in the days when I was teaching at Rising Star Music in Spotswood I had a student named Breen. You could tell her apart from any person in town when she was out driving in her mom’s car, which was painted Red, White, and Blue. That was my first impression of her, this kind of zany car. It reflected her personality as I would see in the years to come.

I worked with Breen first at the studio and then when I left that job to begin teaching privately Breen was one of the students that continued on with me for private lessons.

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There are certainly some details about this story that I won’t be able to recall, but I will work with what I do remember.

Years ago I got a call from this lovely bubbly and energetic woman about lessons for her son Benny. At that time he was a teenager, but by now he’s most definitely in his mid or late twenties. Their family lived in Metuchen, New Jersey.

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I had been teaching to some degree since I was about 15 years old. I found that other kids in the neighborhood were willing to pay me to teach them some guitar, and I even got a few students locally via referrals. Up until then I was mostly super locally teaching.

That would change when I was referred to The Batten Family by my friend Susie. She was in the same dance program with the Batten’s daughter, and as it turned out, their son, Charlie, was interested in learning guitar.

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I remember the first time I met Dylan Manfre. He had to have been like 9 years old or so, maybe 10, and he was this wide eyed kid with this huge blonde poof of hair. He was a little hesitant at first learning guitar, but he settled into it more and more each week. And then years went by, and even more years after that. I worked with Dylan right up until he left for college. I taught him everything from chords, soloing, to songwriting, singing; there really wasn’t a musical stone left unturned in our work together.

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I have never figured out if I dreamt having this one particular woman student, or if I saw her once and then somehow forgot to ever get back to her.  It has perplexed me for a long time.  

When I was first getting into teaching, I was coming out of working at a studio.  The owner was not so good at his finances, and was constantly bouncing checks, or not paying me for extended periods of time.  I was frustrated, and eventually I started transitioning out of working at that studio, and a lot of my students ended up exiting with me, as I was their preferred teacher.  That is when I really started doing housecall lessons, something which is still a main income stream for me to this day.

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Early on in my teaching career, I was contacted by a woman named Teresa about lessons for her son Johnny, and so we started working together.  Jonny was a bit of a hellraiser, but a good kid nonetheless, and I always enjoyed teaching him. We would play all kinds of rock and metal songs,  and he got pretty good pretty fast. I had enough years on him to be a bit of a big brother type that he never took overly serious like an adult, but more as someone he could be himself without me getting all grown-up-ish when he acted like a jackass.  He was definitely a rambunctious kid, and no stranger to rebellious hijinks. He was always a bit of a wise guy , but again, really a good kid at the end of it all.  

Teresa eventually ended up as my hair stylist,  and we became friends. She was a nice woman and a solid mother.  She supported Jonny’s interests and provided all the care that he needed,  and she would often.

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I don’t exactly remember how I originally met Maddi Demko,  but she stands as one of the students I really miss working with.  She took to guitar, singing, and songwriting SO fast, and so passionately, it was inspiring.  

She was an early teen when I started working with her,  and she excelled through a lot of the core curriculum with a sense of ease,  and she would learn and write songs without me having to nag her. She just knew to :do it”,  as far as developing her skills on her own between lessons. The voice she developed for herself is one that I can still hear when I think about it,  she had a tone, and inflection that was (is) very distinctive. Her knowledge of music theory was also solid, which was delightful, because that is often an area of resistance with many students.

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Ashrith was a student who I worked with for quite a few years.  He started right around the same time as a few of my other students, namely Advait, who was featured in another Family Support Blog.  Ashrith, Advait, and a few others all lived in the same neighborhood, so they were fairly interactive with each other as students.

Ashrith started guitar with me, and then we evolved into piano, vocals, and songwriting.  He is one of the only other students that wrote original music at such a young age.  

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Sometimes natural talent just screams from the rooftops, and when it does, heed the call.  His parents did a spectacular job raising him and his brother. They are cultured, talented, and kind people.  Support skill with steadfast attention and great things will happen. Advait worked so hard to earn his accomplishments and his family took an interactive role which provided him the resources he needed to thrive.  

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Sometimes in life, you meet people under circumstances based on business, but life can turn all that around by putting all parties into situations where it becomes a matter of keeping one’s sanity as a team effort.  A karmic connection, where without each other being part of the mix, neither would have come out as unscathed. Friendship can endure over the years, even with sizable brakes occasionally as a factor. The biggest lesson learned: Generosity, Kindness, and openness are all transferable qualities.  It’s the essence of the idea “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and I think that a large part of my demeanor and the quality of my character was forged in my relationship with my friend, Pete.  

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Years ago, I met a family while lingering around Guitar Center.  I overheard them talking about buying a guitar setup for their daughter, and so I offered my card and we had a conversation.  I started lessons with them shortly after meeting them and I worked with the daughter, Christine, for several years.  

I learned early on that her mother had cancer, and that she was battling for her life, so her mom’s health was often a topic that I would check in on week to week as we worked.  I would do my best to help distract her from the difficulty of the situation, while also flowing with the emotional shifts that were coming with the coping process. She was a very good student, and took to the guitar and singing with an open mind and great ease.

Sadly, sometime after we started lessons, her mom passed away.  It was a heavy time in their house, and I did all I could to help Christine and her father feel supported by my presence.

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