August 7, 2025 • 22 mins
What happens when curiosity meets musical passion? For Miguel Navarro, it sparked a remarkable journey across genres, techniques, and even countries. In this captivating conversation with Steve, Miguel reveals the winding path that brought him from childhood lessons in Chile to becoming a respected instructor at GuitarZoom Academy.
Miguel's story begins with childhood inspiration from a popular puppet show, leading to his first guitar lessons at age eight. The social aspect of learning alongside his best friend created a motivational foundation that would shape his approach to music for years to come. His narrative takes us through his progression from simple open chords to formal conservatory training, where he embraced classical guitar technique and traditional Chilean folk music. The most pivotal moment came when Miguel discovered Argentine tango guitar—a versatile style that combined technical demands with collaborative performance opportunities. This passion ultimately led him to relocate to Buenos Aires, where he completed his musical education in traditional music programs.
What makes Miguel's approach so valuable to students is his unique perspective on teaching. Rather than focusing solely on technique, Miguel views teaching as "accompanying someone's journey"—connecting with students' lives beyond just the musical aspects. His versatility across classical, folk, tango, and rock styles gives him a rare ability to help students find their own unique voice on the instrument. When he names his current influences—tango guitarist Hugo Rivas, acoustic player Jungle Rainhawk, and jazz innovator Julian Lash—we glimpse the eclectic musical mind that makes him such an effective instructor. Whether you're a beginner finding your way around open chords or an advanced player looking to explore new genres, Miguel's multicultural musical journey offers valuable insights for guitarists at any stage of development. Ready to expand your guitar horizons? Listen now and discover how Miguel's diverse experience might transform your playing.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey everybody, I'd like you to meet Miguel Navarro.
Miguel is one of ourinstructors in the GuitarZoom
Academy.
He's an amazing guy, amazingplayer, really compassionate.
I love the way that I getresponses from students about
the way you teach, and thanksfor joining me today, buddy.
Miguel (00:18):
Thank you, Steve.
It's my pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Steve (00:22):
Well, that's awesome.
Tell me a little bit about yourhistory, like first starting to
learn how to play.
What inspired you to want tolearn how to play guitar?
Miguel (00:30):
Well, I you know what?
I was one of those kids thatwas pretty much into everything.
So you know, in school, when wehave these kind of extra
lessons after the school hours,that you get to play football or
do science, experiments andthings like that.
(00:51):
I was into all of that.
So I was spending all my timeat school taking all these
courses.
I took tennis, kung fu and allthose things.
There was a guitar course thatI took for one semester I think
I was about eight, nine andthere was this very popular kids
(01:17):
show.
It's called 31 minutes okay thetranslation and it was very,
very popular and it was a puppetshow and it has a lot of songs
and very, very, very cool songs.
This is probably like 20 yearsago.
And they're still very popular,especially among people of my
(01:40):
age.
So I started learning thosesongs, you know, basic chords,
open chords with, and I didn'teven had a guitar.
So I I was playing with theguitar at school, learning all
that, and that was my firstinteraction with with guitar and
pretty much pretty much withwith music.
But that was just, you know, um, uh, six months and, and then
(02:05):
they changed the teacher,something happened and didn't
continue and I didn't play theguitar until maybe when I was 14
, 15, a little older, and thereI got back to play the guitar,
also because of a TV show.
(02:28):
At the moment there was also themain character was this young
guy that was in a music schooland he was playing the guitar
and there were also a lot ofsongs from the TV show.
So again, I grabbed my guitar,my old guitar that I finally got
(02:48):
from the closet, out of thecloset and started learning
those songs.
And with the TV show, youtubewas kind of starting at that
point.
So they were putting out thesevideos of the same guy, the main
character, teaching how to playthese songs with the open
chords.
So I really learned thosechords and started playing those
(03:13):
songs and then I never stoppedfrom since then.
Steve (03:21):
Oh, that's great so when you started doing all of that,
how did you transition into uh,you know playing, like
performing, you know?
What schooling did you havelike?
How did all of that work foryou moving from that into your
later teens, into your your uh,you know 20s?
Miguel (03:39):
yeah.
So one kind of key thing for mewas, uh, that that I was
learning to play the guitar witha friend that was pretty much
my best friend at the time andwe were both watching this TV
show.
Then we started getting moreinto guitar, learning new chords
(04:01):
, new songs, other genres, othertype of music, and we started
taking lessons, so both.
So it was private lessons withan instructor, but both of us at
the same time.
So that, for me, was most of mymotivation was coming mostly
(04:29):
from playing with my friend andbeing able to play together,
more than the music itself.
So that's kind of funny, and soso, yeah, we then we started
playing more rock music.
We switched to electric guitar.
You know, my, my teacher wasalso a huge rock guitar player.
So we started learning Journeyand Guns N' Roses and Led
(04:51):
Zeppelin and all that classicrock music, some blues.
But he was also a very goodteacher.
He was a teacher at a prettywell-known school of music in
Chile Well, I'm from Chile andso we got also a little bit of
(05:18):
how to read music, learning howto read music, the basic theory
of the scales, all the keys andall that stuff that at the time
I didn't pay much attention.
It's kind of understandable atthat age, you just want to play.
But it was good to have thatfirst contact with reading, with
(05:43):
sheet music, with theory.
Because later on, you know, whenI was reaching my age of
finishing school, high school,I'm starting to think about,
okay, what I'm going to do now.
And when I finally decided that, okay, I want to continue with
this, I'm going to apply for theconservatory, then it was very
(06:10):
helpful for me to have that.
Even if it was a smallbackground, it was something
that I had a little advantagebecause in my school we pretty
much didn't have any musiclessons, or that was very, very
little.
We had one hour kind of anensemble lesson that we would
(06:34):
play songs, but, yeah, nothingthat could prepare me for, you
know, to apply to a conservatory.
So all that I did it kind of bymy side.
I had friends that were olderthan me, that they were already
studying in the sameconservatory that I wanted to
apply.
So that was also a huge helpfor me and also, again,
(06:55):
motivation to have friends, goodfriends, that they were doing
the same thing, that I liked it.
So that was more or less thepath in my early studies.
Steve (07:09):
Right.
So when you got done with yourstudies at the conservatory, did
you go on to like did you startteaching right away, or did you
play in bands?
Or how did all of thattransition after that?
Miguel (07:24):
Right.
So you know, I started teachingpretty much right away, kind of
you know, as soon as I learneda couple of open chords, you
chords, I was giving lessons tomy classmates.
And then, yeah, since thenuntil now, I've been giving
(07:53):
private lessons mostly.
So yeah, you asked me about theband.
So yeah, so I was playing withmy friend, this good friend, the
beginning we were playing justthe two of us, so just two
guitars and most of the classicrock repertoire.
(08:13):
It's perfect for that, becauseyou have a rhythm guitar and a
lead guitar you can switch backand forth.
So we were playing all thatstuff.
And then at the conservatory Ikind of switched the genre of
the music that I was playingbecause I started learning
(08:35):
classical guitar.
So that was a big change andactually I stopped playing with
a pick at all and I learned theclassical technique and started
playing in all the kind ofensembles.
I got into traditional folkmusic from Chile, from all the
(08:56):
neighbor countries, and LatinAmerican music and I discovered
kind of a new world.
And those were kind of three,four years that I pretty much
didn't play the electric guitarat all and switched to this kind
of new world of music.
(09:17):
But I felt kind of the same way.
You know that when I was eightI was doing kind of everything,
so the conservatory was a greatplace again to to meet people.
So there was this, thistraditional folk band that I was
in.
(09:38):
There was the classical choir,so I was there singing Bach
cantatas, then I was playingwith the guitar quartet and so I
did a lot, a lot, a lot ofstuff, and one of the groups
that kind of changed then mypath in my studies was a tango
(10:03):
orchestra, an Argentinian tango.
So there was this bandoneonplayer from Argentina, daniel
Lewin, that's his name, and heset up this orchestra.
We call it a school orchestra.
He set up this orchestra, kindof we call it a school orchestra
(10:23):
, so we will learn the basics ofthe, the genre, and then play
some repertoire.
And you know, argentinian tangois huge in in guitar.
It's played mostly in in nylonstring guitars and you you have
you got a different also style.
So there's people that playswith with a pick.
(10:44):
It can get very uh shreddy.
You know there's more peoplethat play more in a classical
way with with fingers.
You can play as a lead soloistor you can accompany singers or
other guitars.
So it's a very wide range ofthings that you can do in tango
(11:05):
guitar and that was kind of thething that caught my attention
because I wanted to play allthat and still being able to
learn and go deep into music.
And so I found out there andit's more of a popular music
that you play and people danceand very different to, for
(11:30):
example, a classical guitarconcert.
But it's also another thing thatwas kind of in my head at that
time was that the classicalguitar repertoire is mostly for
soloists.
You play by yourself most ofthe repertoire.
You get some ensembles andstuff like that, but, yeah, most
(11:53):
of the repertoire is forsoloists, and that was also
something that I didn't likethat much.
I love the repertoire, I loveplaying and I still play
classical guitar, but, yeah, Iprefer playing with someone else
, you know, with a senior guitarplayer.
So that was also something thatinterests me a lot of this music
(12:16):
, so much that at the end Iended up moving here.
I'm living now in Buenos Aires,in Argentina.
So I came here and I finishedmy studies of music here.
Wow, because here it's prettymuch as opposed to Chile, when
we have a lot of traditionalmusic, but it's not something
(12:40):
that you can learn at a schoolwith a full program, a
conservatory program, and herethey have that very well
developed.
So you have a lot of schoolsand conservatories with like a
normal conservatory, like aclassical conservatory, but they
teach jazz or traditional folkmusic or tango, and that's what
(13:05):
I did here.
Steve (13:07):
So you've I mean that's pretty amazing.
You've done a lot of stuff onthe guitar.
You studied a lot of differentthings.
You know I'm primarily a rockplayer.
I mean I did a little classicalin college, but I've always
been.
I really like that.
You've done so many differentthings.
So what I mean.
I suppose it's kind of hard tosay, but from a guitar
(13:28):
perspective, what kinds ofthings do you love most, like
what kind of styles of music orwhat kind of things do you like
to play?
Miguel (13:35):
things do you love most, like what kind of styles of
music or what kind of things doyou like to play?
Yeah, so it's curious, becausewhat I said before is that I
love playing with, with otherpeople.
But one of the things that alsogot me studying classical
guitar was that kind of thatpolyphony of the that you can
play a bass line, that you canplay a bass line, that you can
(13:55):
play a melody just by yourselfwith a guitar.
That's something that reallyblew my mind.
I remember seeing piano playersand I couldn't understand how
they could play both hands atthe same time.
I wanted to do the same withthe guitar when I discovered
that it was through classicalguitar.
(14:18):
So that's something that I love,even though I am not that much
of a soloist.
It's something that I loveplaying that thing and that's
something that can still happeneven if you're not playing alone
.
You can still have thatpolyphony going on if, even if
you're, for example,accompanying a singer, for
(14:39):
example.
So, so that that I love, or Ilove, um, yeah, all the things
that you can do when playingwith, with another guitar player
, or playing harmonies, forexample.
I remember you posted that awhile ago in the in the school
(15:02):
forum, you were playing the theEagles Hotel, california solo.
Yeah, at the end it has that, Iremember.
I comment oh, I couldn't helpmyself, so I grabbed the guitar
and played the second line.
Oh, that's great.
So, yeah, I love those kind ofstuff and those were the kind of
(15:24):
things that also I was playingwith my friends, trying to play,
for example, that exact solo.
You know they have like threeguitar players or they can do
all those kind of stuff.
Yeah and yeah.
And also I love acoustic music.
So I'm a huge acoustic guitarguy and there's something
(15:50):
different than the sound comingout of an amp that I still love.
It's different, but theacoustic guitar has something
that kind of resonates with me abit more.
Steve (16:05):
Let's talk a little bit about your teaching.
What do you enjoy most aboutteaching?
Miguel (16:18):
most about teaching I really enjoy.
You know, when you teach, it'snot only that you pass your
knowledge or you teach a chord,you're accompanying the journey
of someone, and that comes notonly with the musical stuff and
(16:39):
their struggles with the right,the left hand, it comes kind of
with everything, with whathappens in their daily life,
what mood they're in, and so Ilike that to kind of feel part
of their life in a way, andbeing able to accompany all
(17:01):
those processes.
And then in the more musicalstuff, when you are able to see
that one thing that they canchange and in change everything,
those those aha moments that wetalk about all the time here at
(17:26):
guitar soon, that's, that'swonderful, that you know.
That doesn't make me feel very,very good after a lesson, when
a student tells me well, miguel,you really helped me.
I never saw this this way, orno one ever told me this that
thing.
For me it's super valuable.
(17:47):
And those are the moments thatI say, well, okay, this is worth
it.
Steve (17:55):
I agree man.
That's awesome, that's awesome.
I love your attitude.
I, I, uh, you know I've beenworking with Miguel for quite a
while, but we just don't reallyget much of a chance to talk
personally about things, so it'snice to hear your story a
little bit.
Um, let's, let's end with acouple, couple things.
So name me three of yourfavorite artists right now.
(18:16):
It can change tomorrow.
Right, let's use three today.
Miguel (18:20):
What would they be Three today.
Okay, let me see.
Well, I will say what comes tomind right now.
There's a guitar player calledHugo Rivas.
It's a tango guitar player andhe's just out of this world.
It's unbelievable what he plays.
I definitely recommend you tocheck it out because it's
(18:44):
unbelievable and he's superversatile.
But he plays acoustic nylonguitar.
He plays with a pick, he playsplays with a pig, he plays with
with, also with the finger style.
So it's pretty much uh, youknow it's, that's my jam right
right then I it comes to myjungle rainhawk.
(19:09):
So also again, another acousticguitar player, but totally
different style, different genre.
Lately I've been playing a lotalso of that music, so, yeah,
that's something I really love.
And the other artist that comesto mind I would say maybe
(19:33):
Julian Lash.
Okay, he's a jazz guitar player, very modern, very authentic,
you could say kind of original,very fresh, and that's maybe
more in the improvisation world.
Yeah, a new, different sound.
(19:54):
So all three of them very, verydifferent.
Uh, but yeah, those are theguys that first come, came to
mind and that really inspired methat's awesome.
Steve (20:06):
Well, thanks, thank you, miguel.
Thank you for your time.
I appreciate it.
I don't want to take too muchtime, but I really do appreciate
talking to me.
And for those of you that areeither watching or listening out
there, um, you know, miguel isone of many instructors that we
have in the academy, and you cansee how he is unique in the
ways that he plays and the waythat he approaches things, and
(20:28):
that's what makes the academy areally amazing place is that you
can work with professionalslike Miguel, whether you're on a
beginner level or you're on amore advanced level, and he's
got a lot of just reallywonderful perspectives on
everything from, obviously,acoustic, picking finger picking
styles to electric and rock andall sorts of different things.
(20:50):
So, miguel, thank you so muchfor taking time out to talk to
me.
I appreciate that, buddy.
Miguel (20:55):
Thank you, steve, my pleasure.
Steve (20:56):
You have a great day.
Okay, you too.
All right, thanks, bud.
Thank you.
Hey everybody, I'd like you to meet Miguel Navarro.
Miguel is one of ourinstructors in the GuitarZoom
Academy.
He's an amazing guy, amazingplayer, really compassionate.
I love the way that I getresponses from students about
the way you teach, and thanksfor joining me today, buddy.
Miguel (00:18):
Thank you, Steve.
It's my pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Steve (00:22):
Well, that's awesome.
Tell me a little bit about yourhistory, like first starting to
learn how to play.
What inspired you to want tolearn how to play guitar?
Miguel (00:30):
Well, I you know what?
I was one of those kids thatwas pretty much into everything.
So you know, in school, when wehave these kind of extra
lessons after the school hours,that you get to play football or
do science, experiments andthings like that.
(00:51):
I was into all of that.
So I was spending all my timeat school taking all these
courses.
I took tennis, kung fu and allthose things.
There was a guitar course thatI took for one semester I think
I was about eight, nine andthere was this very popular kids
(01:17):
show.
It's called 31 minutes okay thetranslation and it was very,
very popular and it was a puppetshow and it has a lot of songs
and very, very, very cool songs.
This is probably like 20 yearsago.
And they're still very popular,especially among people of my
(01:40):
age.
So I started learning thosesongs, you know, basic chords,
open chords with, and I didn'teven had a guitar.
So I I was playing with theguitar at school, learning all
that, and that was my firstinteraction with with guitar and
pretty much pretty much withwith music.
But that was just, you know, um, uh, six months and, and then
(02:05):
they changed the teacher,something happened and didn't
continue and I didn't play theguitar until maybe when I was 14
, 15, a little older, and thereI got back to play the guitar,
also because of a TV show.
(02:28):
At the moment there was also themain character was this young
guy that was in a music schooland he was playing the guitar
and there were also a lot ofsongs from the TV show.
So again, I grabbed my guitar,my old guitar that I finally got
(02:48):
from the closet, out of thecloset and started learning
those songs.
And with the TV show, youtubewas kind of starting at that
point.
So they were putting out thesevideos of the same guy, the main
character, teaching how to playthese songs with the open
chords.
So I really learned thosechords and started playing those
(03:13):
songs and then I never stoppedfrom since then.
Steve (03:21):
Oh, that's great so when you started doing all of that,
how did you transition into uh,you know playing, like
performing, you know?
What schooling did you havelike?
How did all of that work foryou moving from that into your
later teens, into your your uh,you know 20s?
Miguel (03:39):
yeah.
So one kind of key thing for mewas, uh, that that I was
learning to play the guitar witha friend that was pretty much
my best friend at the time andwe were both watching this TV
show.
Then we started getting moreinto guitar, learning new chords
(04:01):
, new songs, other genres, othertype of music, and we started
taking lessons, so both.
So it was private lessons withan instructor, but both of us at
the same time.
So that, for me, was most of mymotivation was coming mostly
(04:29):
from playing with my friend andbeing able to play together,
more than the music itself.
So that's kind of funny, and soso, yeah, we then we started
playing more rock music.
We switched to electric guitar.
You know, my, my teacher wasalso a huge rock guitar player.
So we started learning Journeyand Guns N' Roses and Led
(04:51):
Zeppelin and all that classicrock music, some blues.
But he was also a very goodteacher.
He was a teacher at a prettywell-known school of music in
Chile Well, I'm from Chile andso we got also a little bit of
(05:18):
how to read music, learning howto read music, the basic theory
of the scales, all the keys andall that stuff that at the time
I didn't pay much attention.
It's kind of understandable atthat age, you just want to play.
But it was good to have thatfirst contact with reading, with
(05:43):
sheet music, with theory.
Because later on, you know, whenI was reaching my age of
finishing school, high school,I'm starting to think about,
okay, what I'm going to do now.
And when I finally decided that, okay, I want to continue with
this, I'm going to apply for theconservatory, then it was very
(06:10):
helpful for me to have that.
Even if it was a smallbackground, it was something
that I had a little advantagebecause in my school we pretty
much didn't have any musiclessons, or that was very, very
little.
We had one hour kind of anensemble lesson that we would
(06:34):
play songs, but, yeah, nothingthat could prepare me for, you
know, to apply to a conservatory.
So all that I did it kind of bymy side.
I had friends that were olderthan me, that they were already
studying in the sameconservatory that I wanted to
apply.
So that was also a huge helpfor me and also, again,
(06:55):
motivation to have friends, goodfriends, that they were doing
the same thing, that I liked it.
So that was more or less thepath in my early studies.
Steve (07:09):
Right.
So when you got done with yourstudies at the conservatory, did
you go on to like did you startteaching right away, or did you
play in bands?
Or how did all of thattransition after that?
Miguel (07:24):
Right.
So you know, I started teachingpretty much right away, kind of
you know, as soon as I learneda couple of open chords, you
chords, I was giving lessons tomy classmates.
And then, yeah, since thenuntil now, I've been giving
(07:53):
private lessons mostly.
So yeah, you asked me about theband.
So yeah, so I was playing withmy friend, this good friend, the
beginning we were playing justthe two of us, so just two
guitars and most of the classicrock repertoire.
(08:13):
It's perfect for that, becauseyou have a rhythm guitar and a
lead guitar you can switch backand forth.
So we were playing all thatstuff.
And then at the conservatory Ikind of switched the genre of
the music that I was playingbecause I started learning
(08:35):
classical guitar.
So that was a big change andactually I stopped playing with
a pick at all and I learned theclassical technique and started
playing in all the kind ofensembles.
I got into traditional folkmusic from Chile, from all the
(08:56):
neighbor countries, and LatinAmerican music and I discovered
kind of a new world.
And those were kind of three,four years that I pretty much
didn't play the electric guitarat all and switched to this kind
of new world of music.
(09:17):
But I felt kind of the same way.
You know that when I was eightI was doing kind of everything,
so the conservatory was a greatplace again to to meet people.
So there was this, thistraditional folk band that I was
in.
(09:38):
There was the classical choir,so I was there singing Bach
cantatas, then I was playingwith the guitar quartet and so I
did a lot, a lot, a lot ofstuff, and one of the groups
that kind of changed then mypath in my studies was a tango
(10:03):
orchestra, an Argentinian tango.
So there was this bandoneonplayer from Argentina, daniel
Lewin, that's his name, and heset up this orchestra.
We call it a school orchestra.
He set up this orchestra, kindof we call it a school orchestra
(10:23):
, so we will learn the basics ofthe, the genre, and then play
some repertoire.
And you know, argentinian tangois huge in in guitar.
It's played mostly in in nylonstring guitars and you you have
you got a different also style.
So there's people that playswith with a pick.
(10:44):
It can get very uh shreddy.
You know there's more peoplethat play more in a classical
way with with fingers.
You can play as a lead soloistor you can accompany singers or
other guitars.
So it's a very wide range ofthings that you can do in tango
(11:05):
guitar and that was kind of thething that caught my attention
because I wanted to play allthat and still being able to
learn and go deep into music.
And so I found out there andit's more of a popular music
that you play and people danceand very different to, for
(11:30):
example, a classical guitarconcert.
But it's also another thing thatwas kind of in my head at that
time was that the classicalguitar repertoire is mostly for
soloists.
You play by yourself most ofthe repertoire.
You get some ensembles andstuff like that, but, yeah, most
(11:53):
of the repertoire is forsoloists, and that was also
something that I didn't likethat much.
I love the repertoire, I loveplaying and I still play
classical guitar, but, yeah, Iprefer playing with someone else
, you know, with a senior guitarplayer.
So that was also something thatinterests me a lot of this music
(12:16):
, so much that at the end Iended up moving here.
I'm living now in Buenos Aires,in Argentina.
So I came here and I finishedmy studies of music here.
Wow, because here it's prettymuch as opposed to Chile, when
we have a lot of traditionalmusic, but it's not something
(12:40):
that you can learn at a schoolwith a full program, a
conservatory program, and herethey have that very well
developed.
So you have a lot of schoolsand conservatories with like a
normal conservatory, like aclassical conservatory, but they
teach jazz or traditional folkmusic or tango, and that's what
(13:05):
I did here.
Steve (13:07):
So you've I mean that's pretty amazing.
You've done a lot of stuff onthe guitar.
You studied a lot of differentthings.
You know I'm primarily a rockplayer.
I mean I did a little classicalin college, but I've always
been.
I really like that.
You've done so many differentthings.
So what I mean.
I suppose it's kind of hard tosay, but from a guitar
(13:28):
perspective, what kinds ofthings do you love most, like
what kind of styles of music orwhat kind of things do you like
to play?
Miguel (13:35):
things do you love most, like what kind of styles of
music or what kind of things doyou like to play?
Yeah, so it's curious, becausewhat I said before is that I
love playing with, with otherpeople.
But one of the things that alsogot me studying classical
guitar was that kind of thatpolyphony of the that you can
play a bass line, that you canplay a bass line, that you can
(13:55):
play a melody just by yourselfwith a guitar.
That's something that reallyblew my mind.
I remember seeing piano playersand I couldn't understand how
they could play both hands atthe same time.
I wanted to do the same withthe guitar when I discovered
that it was through classicalguitar.
(14:18):
So that's something that I love,even though I am not that much
of a soloist.
It's something that I loveplaying that thing and that's
something that can still happeneven if you're not playing alone
.
You can still have thatpolyphony going on if, even if
you're, for example,accompanying a singer, for
(14:39):
example.
So, so that that I love, or Ilove, um, yeah, all the things
that you can do when playingwith, with another guitar player
, or playing harmonies, forexample.
I remember you posted that awhile ago in the in the school
(15:02):
forum, you were playing the theEagles Hotel, california solo.
Yeah, at the end it has that, Iremember.
I comment oh, I couldn't helpmyself, so I grabbed the guitar
and played the second line.
Oh, that's great.
So, yeah, I love those kind ofstuff and those were the kind of
(15:24):
things that also I was playingwith my friends, trying to play,
for example, that exact solo.
You know they have like threeguitar players or they can do
all those kind of stuff.
Yeah and yeah.
And also I love acoustic music.
So I'm a huge acoustic guitarguy and there's something
(15:50):
different than the sound comingout of an amp that I still love.
It's different, but theacoustic guitar has something
that kind of resonates with me abit more.
Steve (16:05):
Let's talk a little bit about your teaching.
What do you enjoy most aboutteaching?
Miguel (16:18):
most about teaching I really enjoy.
You know, when you teach, it'snot only that you pass your
knowledge or you teach a chord,you're accompanying the journey
of someone, and that comes notonly with the musical stuff and
(16:39):
their struggles with the right,the left hand, it comes kind of
with everything, with whathappens in their daily life,
what mood they're in, and so Ilike that to kind of feel part
of their life in a way, andbeing able to accompany all
(17:01):
those processes.
And then in the more musicalstuff, when you are able to see
that one thing that they canchange and in change everything,
those those aha moments that wetalk about all the time here at
(17:26):
guitar soon, that's, that'swonderful, that you know.
That doesn't make me feel very,very good after a lesson, when
a student tells me well, miguel,you really helped me.
I never saw this this way, orno one ever told me this that
thing.
For me it's super valuable.
(17:47):
And those are the moments thatI say, well, okay, this is worth
it.
Steve (17:55):
I agree man.
That's awesome, that's awesome.
I love your attitude.
I, I, uh, you know I've beenworking with Miguel for quite a
while, but we just don't reallyget much of a chance to talk
personally about things, so it'snice to hear your story a
little bit.
Um, let's, let's end with acouple, couple things.
So name me three of yourfavorite artists right now.
(18:16):
It can change tomorrow.
Right, let's use three today.
Miguel (18:20):
What would they be Three today.
Okay, let me see.
Well, I will say what comes tomind right now.
There's a guitar player calledHugo Rivas.
It's a tango guitar player andhe's just out of this world.
It's unbelievable what he plays.
I definitely recommend you tocheck it out because it's
(18:44):
unbelievable and he's superversatile.
But he plays acoustic nylonguitar.
He plays with a pick, he playsplays with a pig, he plays with
with, also with the finger style.
So it's pretty much uh, youknow it's, that's my jam right
right then I it comes to myjungle rainhawk.
(19:09):
So also again, another acousticguitar player, but totally
different style, different genre.
Lately I've been playing a lotalso of that music, so, yeah,
that's something I really love.
And the other artist that comesto mind I would say maybe
(19:33):
Julian Lash.
Okay, he's a jazz guitar player, very modern, very authentic,
you could say kind of original,very fresh, and that's maybe
more in the improvisation world.
Yeah, a new, different sound.
(19:54):
So all three of them very, verydifferent.
Uh, but yeah, those are theguys that first come, came to
mind and that really inspired methat's awesome.
Steve (20:06):
Well, thanks, thank you, miguel.
Thank you for your time.
I appreciate it.
I don't want to take too muchtime, but I really do appreciate
talking to me.
And for those of you that areeither watching or listening out
there, um, you know, miguel isone of many instructors that we
have in the academy, and you cansee how he is unique in the
ways that he plays and the waythat he approaches things, and
(20:28):
that's what makes the academy areally amazing place is that you
can work with professionalslike Miguel, whether you're on a
beginner level or you're on amore advanced level, and he's
got a lot of just reallywonderful perspectives on
everything from, obviously,acoustic, picking finger picking
styles to electric and rock andall sorts of different things.
(20:50):
So, miguel, thank you so muchfor taking time out to talk to
me.
I appreciate that, buddy.
Miguel (20:55):
Thank you, steve, my pleasure.
Steve (20:56):
You have a great day.
Okay, you too.
All right, thanks, bud.
Thank you.
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