So here’s a thing I’ve been meaning to do for AGES, and have never done before. A while back I asked a few of my students if they wouldn’t mind writing something about their experience studying with me, to provide some kind of sense of what it might be like for new students considering it. I’m going to publish them here, individually because they ended up being WAY longer and more involved than I expected! Here’s the first one.
If you’re interested in lessons, please do have a look at my teaching page.
“It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when I became a student of Steve Lawson. I could say it was when I had my first one on one lesson with him online in September of 2020 or perhaps when we shared a couple of exchanges about a set of small 6 string lessons on his Instagram stories he dubbed “down with the sixness” earlier that year. It could have also been much earlier in his courses and seminars in the academy at sbl. The more I think about it the more I realize what was actually going on. You become a student from the first time you hear Steve. It’s inevitable. Both his playing as his words are imbued with so much of himself; that relentless creativity, his generous nature, the sheer immensity of knowledge and love behind every phrase, his quirky sense of humor and joy for the unexpected, his spirit of adventure, the bold honesty behind who he knows he is and who he wants to be.
“I don’t think it’s possible to truly listen to Steve and not become his student. It is such an anomaly, his output, that it demands a closer more meticulous look while at the same time grabbing your hand and taking you on a ride where you need not think or worry only enjoy and let yourself be surprised. I often play a silly game while listening to Steve’s music where I try to imagine how one person can be solely responsible for all that I’m hearing only to find myself minutes later somewhere else, completely enthralled with the experience but with absolutely no idea how I got there. And once in this new destination I’m thrilled to realize how much I’ve grown, learned and changed (And, oh yeah!! remember that thing he did?!?!!! that weird line!! What was that!?! how did he do that?!?).
“Music has the ultimate power of representation and in the hands of a master like Steve it reaches up to its transformative potential.
“That he would also choose to be a teacher in the formal sense of the word is simply an instance of life being too good to us. In his approach of music and teaching I have found a wealth of wisdom but most importantly I have found peace. I, like most musicians and artists, deal with a considerable amount of impostor syndrome and the past 20 years of learning improvisational music through the internet have been daunting to say the least. It is here where I have found Steve’s greatest gift to me. I can clearly see a before and after in my relationship to Music from his lessons. His ability to articulate that which matters the most about your daily relationship to your instrument and your Music allows you to shed and clear away the cobwebs between your current self and your goal. The road must still be traveled and you must go alone but with Steve’s guidance you can see it clearly. Anything is truly possible.”
Rodrigo Flores Miralda
Oct 16, 2022
Tegucigalpa, Honduras