Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Clint Velazquez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Clint, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

“You know more than a beginner, right?”

It is hard to emphasize just how much that question has shaped my life. During college, I was studying musical theatre, worked as a dishwasher, and played a little guitar for fun on the side. One weekend I took a trip to Kansas City and stopped in a guitar shop to look around. I struck up a conversation with one of the staff and soon found out he had gone to college at K-State as well, and during college, he had taught guitar lessons at the local guitar shop in Manhattan. He told me it was a great job and I should think about teaching, to which I replied, I’m not that good at guitar.

And that’s when he said those life-changing words, “You know more than a beginner, right?”

He was right. I knew how to play guitar, I knew the things that helped me strum my first songs, I understood how music worked, and I could share those things with someone who didn’t know. I didn’t need to have all of the answers or be the best guitar player, I just needed to be one week ahead of anyone I was going to teach.

That next week at college I went to the guitar shop and got hired to be an instructor, and I have been teaching music now for almost 20 years. There is so much I know about teaching now and so many ways that I have grown as an instructor and and a musician. But that journey would not have started without that first push,

The biggest two pieces of advice I would give to anyone who is considering teaching is; one, that you have something worth sharing with another, and two, remember what it feels like to be a beginner. Let me elaborate on that.

When you gain competence or mastery of a skill, or you were a quick learner it is easy to forget those painful first chords or that awful drawing or the cringe worthy poem you wrote on your first try. We need to recall that feeling as new skills are taught and the students struggle through even simple execution. We as teachers are so quick to interject in those moments to try to give more information, or demonstrating in more ways, or talking them through the goal. You didn’t need that to learn and they don’t need that. They need reps, they need encouragement, and they need help to focus on the just the next step. Like a mountain climber doesn’t look at the peak the entire climb but one handhold to the next, the teacher should focus on just one skill, one idea at a time.

Clint, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I became a music educator after college, though not in a traditional classroom. I taught private guitar and was a rock band instructor, basically Jack Black from School of Rock. Experiencing firsthand the intellectual, social, and emotional impact of making music. As a parent in Midtown, KCMO, I deeply desired the same outcomes for the youth around me. Others echoed those desires but I found little opportunity for students to experience the same joy and fulfillment from music I had as a child. In response I launched Base Academy of Music, believing that when you teach a child to play music, you teach them to see their potential AND you give them the tools to pursue it.

Kansas City’s urban core is largely a music desert. Public music education programs are underfunded or nonexistent. Private music programs present multiple barriers that make music education inaccessible to urban youth. Barriers can be cost or private lessons or instruments, location of lessons or lack of transportation, or the requirement of baseline musical skills to continue education.

At Base Academy of Music (BAM), we believe every child from every walk of life has worth and value. That those children regularly need to hear from a caring adult, “I see you, I hear you, you matter, I believe you can do great things.” Music is the language of the soul, of our emotions. By teaching music, one-on-one, week by week, we can communicate to the children we serve their value and worth in a language that transcends culture or experience.

Music lessons at BAM adopt a three-pronged approach: ignition, deep practice, and master coaching. BAM combines the model of other successful mentorship programs with high-quality music education to create an additional element of trust with our students and parents. All BAM lessons are one-on-one, 30 minutes, taught by professional music educators, and taught during after-school hours at a designated location.

Families pay for lessons on a sliding scale based on their economic situation with a large community of supporters providing financially to support the music education of our young students.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The prodigy fallacy is the biggest myth perpetuating both creatives and non-creatives alike and it needs to die. This idea that some people are blessed, or touched, or have “the eye” has absolutely no basis in reality. Study after study on skill and the acquisition of talent has shown that.

The two main factors you need to learn any skill are focused repetition and the belief that you can learn that skill.
Focused repetition is working slowly, paying attention to mistakes and fixing them quickly, and always pushing yourself a little further.
Our minds are pretty amazing machines and if tell it the task is impossible before your start it will make sure to operate accordingly. You actually have to believe you can do something before your brain will build the neural pathways needed to really acquire the skill.

Many “non-creatives” see an artist and say things like “I could never do that” and forget that the ways that artists became exceptional in their field are the same skills that “non-creatives” used to be successful at their job or hobby.

(I put “non-creatives” in quotes because everyone can be a creative)

Do genes, economics, community, and opportunity come into play when acquiring skills? Yes. I would not be doing the work I do if economics and opportunity didn’t matter.
But those barriers are small compared to the importance of convincing someone they can actually be really good at some things they put their mind to, and then taking the time to do it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I want people to make music in their homes regularly. Break out a guitar and sing your favorite songs with a few friends or family members. Play the piano with small children and let them improvise their own parts along with you. Get a bunch of percussion items and have a drum circle just because. I think the further away we are from creating art ourselves or having artistic expression in our lives the less important it becomes in our lives.

I think going through the process of making music and art yourself elevates the value of it as well. You see not only the need for it in your life, but also can respect and value the work that a professional has put in to accomplish the things they are able to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: bamkc.rog
• Instagram: bamkansascity
• Facebook: bamkansascity
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clint-velazquez-22a33a9/
• Twitter: bamkansascity