Local musician battles recession with ukulele

Tom Olson still remembers his first guitar. "It was the worst thing you’ve ever seen in your life," he said with a broad smile. "We all start with these awful things."

As a child, however, he didn’t see the shortcomings of a particular instrument—he saw instead world of possibilities. Dozens of guitars and several decades later, Olson’s enthusiasm is still there.

Olson currently balances a career as a performing musician (making frequent appearances in pit orchestras and at private parties) with a position as the instructor at Olson Guitar Studios, which he started in 1987, after graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Music. For the past 13 years, his business has been based in his home in Cleveland Heights. "Cleveland Heights is a great place to have a home business," he said. "They’re very liberal about it here."

Throughout his time teaching, Olson has seen numerous changes occur both in guitar pedagogy and in the tastes of his students. These include the use of CD players, a practice that makes learning guitar licks far easier, due to the format’s precision timing, and the popularity of the classic rock radio format. Olson said, "Now kids are coming in and they want to learn all the songs I learned when I was a kid."

Though easygoing and quick to laugh, Olson turns serious when discussing certain changes in music education, specifically, its recent downturn as a result of the recession. Apparently, fewer and fewer parents are willing to pay for music lessons for their children.

Olson sighed. "Kids really need music," he said, adding that formal music lessons should be part of their education." Indeed, recent research has linked musical training with achievement on standardized tests, such as the SAT and the ACT.

Surprisingly flexible and business-savvy for a self-described "classical guitar virtuoso," Olson’s response to the economic slump is simple: offer a wider range of instruction. This year, he is adding the ukulele to the list of instruments that he teaches, where it will join the ranks of guitar (classical, jazz, and rock), banjo (tenor and five string), bass guitar and piano.

The addition of the ukulele to Olson’s repertoire comes in response to a spike in popularity of the instrument. According to Olson, ukuleles are so popular that, "music stores can’t keep them in stock." Indeed, the ukulele is more present in popular culture than ever. Eddie Vedder, lead singer of the group Pearl Jam, just released a solo album of songs featuring ukulele.

As responsive as he is changes in popular culture, Olson is uncompromising when it comes to the discipline of his students. He warns prospective students that becoming a master of any instrument is far harder than they think. "You need to be ready to be in it for the long haul," he said.

Olson tries to understand the psyche of each of his students. "Teaching guitar, like anything else, is about getting into the mind of the student, finding out how they think musically, and changing it." He laughed. "’Cause they wouldn’t be a student unless they needed something to be changed."

Tom Olson can be reached at guitargadfly@yahoo.com. He teaches Monday through Thursday.