Visiting Artist - Music

John Horne

19 Farhills Drive
Athens, Ohio  45701
Phone: (740) 591-7235
Email: john@johnhorneguitar.com
Website: www.johnhorneguitar.com

I am a guitarist who has made the teaching and sharing of music a primary goal in my life. I am interested in working with middle to high school age students in either school or community-based projects. While I do love to teach students how to play the guitar, the guitar can also be used as a medium to support the school curriculum and the Ohio Fine Arts Academic Content Standards. Some examples include: exploring writing skills through analyzing and composing lyrics for common song forms, enlivening historical discussions with American music that echoes the social and political changes of the time, and putting math and science skills into action to discover how a guitar string produces sounds waves or how the sound is when electronically altered to produce the tonal effects heard on classic recordings. I've found that the guitar is an instrument particularly well-suited to capturing interest in related subjects because of its undeniable "cool factor" with kids.

For the past several years I have been exploring solo guitar compositions that imply underlying rhythmic and harmonic content using the interplay of melodies, harmonies, and silence rather than relying on only more complex counterpoint-oriented arrangements. I also enjoy working with the many tonal possibilities available to guitarists, and I like to find an appropriate voice from the broad palette of electric and acoustic guitar tones to match each piece that I perform. I perform regularly with my jazz quartet throughout Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia.

I have been actively involved in making music since I was a child. Upon deciding to pursue the guitar as my primary instrument, I studied with the outstanding instructors at Duquesne University School of Music in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I received my Bachelor of Music. I am currently on faculty at Ohio University, and the National Guitar Workshop. I have also taught for the Univeristy of Rio Grande and Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, and have led residencies and informances at many elementary and middle schools in the area.