On the peaceful Lynx Lake in Eagle River lives long time musician and music teacher, Mark Waldoch. Mark Waldoch, also known as Mark The Guitar Teacher, has been teaching guitar since he was fourteen years old, and as the years have passed, he has continued to grow and expand his musical skill set. He now both plays and teaches stringed instruments from ukulele and bass guitar, to banjo and mandolin, but the instrument that started it all was the guitar that he learned to play because of his mother when he was only eight years old.
“I had the same teacher for about, oh, four or five years and, you know, I didn't want to practice and my mom made me practice, all of those things, and a lot of the things that I do now as a teacher are because of what that guitar teacher had told me, and made me do and so I really respect him.” said Waldoch.
It was also through this first teacher that Waldoch began his own teaching journey in Southern Wisconsin when he showed up for a lesson one day only to find that his teacher had left and in doing so, passed on his students to Waldoch.
“I said, "Well, rats, who am I going to take lessons from?” Well, we don't think anybody, but he wants you to take over his students. And so that's how it all started and it was about three days after my 14th birthday.” said Waldoch.
Along with teaching, Waldoch says that he has also been performing since he was twelve, a skill that carried him through high school and beyond alongside his lessons.
“You know, the DJs weren't around back then everybody had to have a live band in for their wedding and I was always just a hired gun. And I did that through high school, college, graduate school, postgraduate school, playing in the band and teaching.”
While he was in college, Waldoch was already teaching 50 students a week along with attending classes and working at the music store. Waldoch later took a break from teaching music while he worked at a consulting firm, but after a number of years, in an almost repeat of history, he finally got back into teaching when he took one of his daughters to her clarinet lessons for the first time at a music store.
“I called the owner of the store and I said, Hey, if you're ever looking for a guitar teacher, I'm back in the market. There was dead silence on the phone and she goes, Why are you saying that? I said, Well, I just told you, done traveling. She said, our guitar teacher just quit yesterday. So, I shoehorned into that.” said Waldoch.
After teaching there for 15 years and continuously taking on more students, eventually Waldoch moved away from the area where he had been teaching music, but he didn’t stop giving lessons. In fact, many of his previous students continued to take lessons with him online so they could still learn from him even if they no longer lived close by.
Regardless of where he teaches, Waldoch says that he has always loved seeing his students progress and grow their musical skills throughout their time taking lessons with him.
“It was, first of all, scary as all get out when I did it at age 14, but it quickly became very rewarding very, very quickly. You see progress in people and people aren't the same. I mean, I had one guy and he was very, very quiet and easily intimidated and he eventually blossomed, and he began playing.”
Not only does Waldoch enjoy watching his students grow these skills, but he also helps them to be able to play in a way that works for them and their own limitations, whatever they may be, while still following the notes and sounding good. He even has one student who is missing an index finger which he says is one of the most important fingers when it comes to playing guitar.
“Every guitarist knows that, that's the second most popular finger. The most is the third finger, the ring finger, so she's got that one, thank goodness, but this is the second most powerful finger we use when we're playing and she doesn't have that. So we're working through, again, alternative ways of playing and so it is an accommodation. So not just some people can play, but a lot more people can play.”
Waldoch believes it is important for people of all ages to learn to play an instrument and grow their musical knowledge not only to gain skills that are valuable musically, but also, as he says, to develop their intellectual and motor skills.
“Music’s a foreign language because you're putting meaning to abstract symbols. But there's more to it, because you have to execute that meaning with two hands and that's different. That's a motor skill on top of an intellectual skill. it's a good developmental tool, and it's a good tool to keep people sharp that are a little older like me.”
Regardless of their age, background, or skill level, Mark Waldoch will teach any person who takes lessons with him the art of playing these stringed instruments and developing lifelong skills that will serve them in more ways than one. To learn more about Mark Waldoch and his teaching, you can visit his website at marktheguitarteacher.com
