Silicon Valley Classical Guitar School makes plucky existence in downtown Sunnyvale
Scott Gossage was a young man when he and his band-mates from Baltimore came to San Francisco to seek their musical fortunes.
“I moved here with two guitars and a cardboard box,” he recalls with a wry smile about the band’s naivete regarding the odds of success.
The band didn’t last long at all, but Scott’s love for the Bay Area did.
Many years later, he’s the owner and one of three conservatory-trained teachers at the Silicon Valley Classical Guitar School in downtown Sunnyvale.
The school is located in a corner space inside a low-slung, unassuming post-war building on South Mathilda Avenue, across the street from and practically in the shadow of high rise offices occupied by Nokia.
Inside, the school’s not much to look at, but it’s what comes out of it that really matters: students who have a solid musical foundation on which to build, if they should choose so. One former student, he says, went on to win one of the world’s most prestigious international classical guitar competitions, and others have gone on to study at the competitive San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s pre-college program.
Musically speaking, he says, “We specialize in taking people from nothing to something.” Most of his students are little kids, but he teaches teens and some adults, too. Most of his students come from referrals from other students and their parents.
It’s a myth, he says, that you have to be a kid to learn an instrument. It’s just that adults typically don’t have enough time in their days to devote the necessary practice time. “It takes time. You have to work at it no matter what age you are.”
First lesson free
The school offers the first lesson for free so that potential students can see if they like it. Lessons are offered in either group or individual formats.
Younger children are taught through the Suzuki method, which was originally developed for violin. It was a former employer of Scott’s who had the method certified for classical guitar.
The method grew out of the realization that if everyone can learn to speak their first language, they should be able to learn music by applying the same sort of environment seen in a good home.
“The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, constant repetition, etc., are some of the special features of the Suzuki approach,” according to the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.
Loving his work
It wasn’t easy getting established in such a niche business as a classical guitar school, Scott acknowledges. In other words, while he knew the strings, he hadn’t learned the ropes.
He had been teaching at another school in the area for several years and finally, in late 2009, went out on his own. Luckily, he was able to take some of his students with him, but today he remains grateful for a couple of people who helped him get established and provided business counseling. Because of them, he says, “I get to do what I love to do, all day long,” he says.
So, things are looking pretty good right now. He just signed a three-year lease, and his place in what he calls a “hotbed” of classical guitar is secure for now. A long way from a couple guitars and a cardboard box but still doing what he loves to do.