Guitar
Reid Zuckerman is a New Hampshire-born musician and graduate from the University of Rochester, with a B.A. in Economics and minor in Music that includes studies from the Eastman School of Music. Reid has been playing music since he was nine years old. He took up the trombone as his first instrument, then moved on to the guitar at the age of 13 and began teaching other guitar students only two years later, at the age of 15. Since then, his musical endeavors have included participating in his high school's stage band and the music honor society, playing with his college's jazz band, forming his own bands; and more recently, writing and recording original music and volunteering as a therapeutic musician at local hospitals. He has also received a reward for "Best Jazz Solo" at Hershey Park's annual high school jazz festival and qualified in the top 100 compositions for the "7 Note Challenge" hosted by Serj Tankian in association with Creative Armenia.
Reid's inspiration to become a teacher came from his own progress at a young age. He had a desire to teach with perfection in the way that his teacher did for him. His teachings are very focused on a step-by-step approach wherein half the lesson focuses on music theory and the other half focuses on guitar technique. He believes that it is fundamental that a student learns the context of the music he or she is playing and where it is derived from. If that is not understood, then it can be very difficult for a guitarist to progress, as the focus becomes memorizing rather than truly understanding the intricacies that the foundation of music is built upon. In his observations, this is the main reason why some people quit learning, and his teaching approach strives to change that.
Reid currently resides in the Denver area. When he is not teaching lessons, he works at a real estate tech brokerage, enjoys snowboarding in the Colorado mountains and working on individual compositions. His compositions vary from rock, jazz, metal, world and movie/video game soundtrack oriented pieces.