Interested in learning with Allen?
Contact us to schedule your first lesson!
Contact us to schedule your first lesson!
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With musical experiences ranging from drumlines to handbell choirs to jazz combos, Allen recognizes a musician’s adaptability as their greatest asset. He began singing in church choirs before he could read, eventually adding piano, guitar, autoharp, bass, steel guitar, and percussion into his toolkit.
In high school, Allen developed a love of jazz, and improvisation still takes a key role in his approach even as his interests have shifted to folk and blues.These days, Allen focuses on developing guitar as a solo instrument that can provide its own melody and accompaniment. As a mostly self-taught musician, Allen has developed his ear and knowledge from practical experiences. He hails from Louisiana where he cut his teeth playing at Cajun music jams and learning French songs from watching old timers. He also sought more organized performance opportunities by playing in his school jazz band, a percussion ensemble, and just about every volunteer music role that his church could offer. In college he learned the basics of music electronics and live sound by serving as the general manager of the CisternYard Radio station. Allen graduated Summa Cum Laude from the College of Charleston where he took music theory courses taught by accomplished local musicians Robert Lewis and Edward Hart. These classes supplemented the pragmatic knowledge he had gained with the intricacies of classical harmony, engraving, and the using digital notation software Sebelius. All of these experiences have served to make Allen a well-rounded player who recognizes the importance of forging your own music learning path. | ||||
Allen's Teaching Style
"I focus on practical music skills that empower students to go where their creative senses direct them. I believe the ear is a student’s most powerful tool for playing music, so I emphasize developing strong aural skills as the foundation for learning every technique and genre. Music theory, though often taught as a set of strict rules for writing classical music, can help open up new insights into whatever style of music my students want to pursue.
Andre Segovia once said that the guitar contains the whole orchestra inside of it because it can produce such a wide range of sounds and textures. This versatility makes the guitar an easy instrument to play, but a very difficult one to master. It’s my goal to give my students the fundamental skills to carve out their own unique slice of those endless possibilities."
Andre Segovia once said that the guitar contains the whole orchestra inside of it because it can produce such a wide range of sounds and textures. This versatility makes the guitar an easy instrument to play, but a very difficult one to master. It’s my goal to give my students the fundamental skills to carve out their own unique slice of those endless possibilities."