Suburban Music Center - Teacher Biographies

Guitar- Paul Rodriguez

Paul Rodriguez graduated from Elmhurst college in 2001 with a Bachelors of Music in Music Business. Paul has been teaching at Suburban Music Center since September of 2000. Paul teaches a wide variety of music to a wide variety of students, from classical music to classic rock, blues, punk, alternative and YES even country and rap. Paul enjoys every opportunity to share his love of music with his students and learns as much from them as they do from him.

Brass / Woodwinds/ Strings / Piano -Tom Scheffler

Tom Scheffler earned a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Montana State University, where he learned how to play and teach band and orchestra instruments. Joining the Suburban Music staff in 2003, Tom teaches all of the brass, woodwind, and orchestral string instruments, including trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, and cello. He also teaches piano and beginning guitar. Tom’s teaching style emphasizes the development of music sight reading and creative improvisational skills. Over the years, Tom has learned that great musicians aren’t born. Becoming a fine musician is a goal that can be achieved by determined students who have the drive to put in the time and hard work that it takes to develop the craft of playing a musical instrument.

Piano - Ralph Greco

Ralph Greco has been teaching piano for 40 years and has been at Suburban Music since we first opened. He has the patience and experience to teach piano to all types of individuals (young children to older adults) whether beginning or advanced

Guitar/Bass - Steve Michals

Steve Michals received his AA degree in music from College of Dupage and is currently working on his BA in Musical Performance from Columbia College. Driven by a wide variety of styles, Steve received most of his influence from classical, rock, and metal. Currently Steve is playing in Gideon's Pawn, a metal band based out of the Joliet area.

Guitar - Tim Johnson

Tim has been playing guitar for 19 years and has been involved in the Chicago music scene for the past 15. Having played in numerous bands and performed solo, genres include progressive rock/metal, punk, acoustic, folk, classical, rock, blues, pop and jazz. He has a deep love and respect for songwriting and improvisation. Tim graduated with a Bachelors degree in Music Business, from Elmhurst College, in 2001 and has been teaching private lessons for the past 11 years. Notable past teachers include Chris Siebold, Dave Uhrich, Steve Suvada and Shinobu Sato. He has a general agenda, but will custom tailor lessons to each individual student. His focus is to inspire, challenge and encourage every student to follow their particular creative vision.

Guitar/Banjo - Mark Verbeck www.reverbnation.com/markverbeck www.myspace.com/markverbeck.com

Starting at the wee age of 8, Mark first discovered his love for performing and listening to music while attending a school presentation that was trying to influence kids to join the school band. He was one of the many that where inspired to try playing music. He started playing Saxophone and learned the fundamentals of music until he was 12, at which point he turned his eye to the guitar.

He started playing in the basements and garages of his friends trying to play whatever they could until his interest started to grow and he needed to know more about the instrument he was holding. He began by taking lessons from local teachers until he finally enrolled into local music academy and studied under a man named Richard Wiley, who helped him open up some of the many doors the guitar holds. He then moved on from his friends basements and started playing with local bands around town, performing anywhere from local bars and clubs, to private events and parties, trying to gain as much live experience as he could.

After graduating high school he then attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania as a music performance major. He studied classical guitar under Irving Kauffman, cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as theory and ear training. He also played with many local bands in the area and played for college events, such as the "Pre-Exam Jam," where he opened for bands such as the Black Eyed Peas and Rusted Root. After 2 years of extensive studies, he decided to set his sights at the Berklee College of Music, where he studied various forms of music such as jazz, blues, rock, and funk. During his stay at Berklee, he discovered his love and talent for writing and performing his own music and started his band Scotch Hollow, which he still performs with today, and also discovered his love for teaching. He started by hanging flyers around the city and teaching people in their homes. He found a great joy from passing down the knowledge that was given to him and helping people love and understand music. After 4 years, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Professional Music from Berklee and moved to Nashville, where he continued to teach out of various music shops and perform.

He now resides in Chicago and currently performs around the city while giving private lessons at Suburban Music in Wheaton IL.

Drum teacher - Matt Landry

Matt has been playing drums in addition to an array of percussion instruments for 8 years. He has been involved with drums since middle school band. He is influenced by much exposure to Jazz, Latin and Funk and Rock drumming styles. Studied under previous Suburban Music drum teacher Robert Wimmers. Currently performing throughout the Chicagoland area.

Vocal / Piano - Amber Fairbanks

Music has been a part of Amber’s life since before she can remember. Her father used to record her and her sister singing onto cassette tapes when Amber was only two years old. At four years of age Amber begged her mother to put her in piano lessons and, after a steady search to find a teacher that would take a student so young, she finally began lessons in Aurora, IL. Amber studied piano lessons with a few different private teachers up until age fourteen. She was taught classical, contemporary, jazz, blues, ragtime, gospel and all sorts of other styles. By fourteen, Amber became more interested in arranging pieces of sheet music and delving into more popular and contemporary cover songs. She discontinued lessons and pursued her studies alone to create her own style and accompany herself while she sang.
Just two years later, at age sixteen, Amber continued lessons in Geneva, IL and participated in the St. Charles Art and Music Festival’s attraction called “The American Grands”. Aside from traditional recitals, this was her first real live performance for the public which set fuel to her fire.
In August of 2002, Amber graduated from Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove with an Associates Degree in Music Theory and Composition. She graduated with honors and was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. For her final project of her time spent at Waubonsee, she took choir for honors. She composed an ensemble for the choir to sing as back up to a piece she composed for piano and sang lead vocals.
This achievement pushed her to further her education at Columbia College in Chicago where she studied Sound Engineering, Physics of Acoustics, and Audio Techniques. After a few semesters at Columbia, Amber transferred to North Central College in Naperville where she was awarded a piano scholarship upon admission. At North Central College she studied Piano, Voice, Women’s Choral, and Music Education. She continues to further her education towards her Bachelor’s Degree.
Amber has participated in church choirs and musicals to school productions and school band to Summer Stage to metal bands to solo performances. She loves to compose her own music and has picked up skills on other instruments such as the clarinet and acoustic guitar. What she loves the most, however, is performing solo on the piano and singing. She has performed solo in various places around the Chicago land area and continues to compose and search for performance opportunities. She has recorded two demo CD’s with different bands and one full length solo album. She is currently working on her second full length solo compilation.
Teaching Piano and Voice became a part of Amber’s “musical self” when she began at Waubonsee way back in 1998. She started teaching at Naperville Music and Sound. This is where she developed a core curriculum for her students that she still uses to this day. She encompasses many important factors in being a well rounded musician such as technique, theory, performance, sight-reading, aural skills, memorization, and the importance of building a repertoire. Amber has a passion and a patience for each student, as she values them as individuals and knows that each and every one learns differently and frequently claims even learning from them. “Music is an art form and should be treated like one. No two artists are the same, even if they are painting the same picture.”
Amber views herself as “a painting that never dries, a song that never ends, and a continuous work in progress.” She may be a teacher, but is also always a student, as well. Education, be it in music or otherwise, has been a great key to her success. Her ultimate goal in teaching is to pass on this value to as many students as she can. She hopes to surround herself and her students in a positive environment for learning which makes music fun, exciting, and the ultimate expression of one’s true soul!

Guitar - Dustin Fairbanks

Coming from a family of dedicated musicians, the earliest memories for Dustin were the sounds of music.
He started his first band at the age of 13 years old and ever since has been playing in rock bands around the Chicagoland area. Currently, Dustin writes and performs music with his brother in their band The Marble-Eyed Kids. At the age of four he took his first piano lesson realizing there was something magical about music. At about 8 years old, Dustin and his brother begged their dad to let them play his drum set. Shortly after that Dustin was enrolled in private drum lessons. A few years later he decided to take on the guitar and the bass guitar. Through out his high school years Dustin marched on snare drum for the drumline and obtained the position of center snare. As his love for music strengthened he felt the need to understand it further. Music Theory, Music Interpretation, Ear Training and Music History were all course that Dustin studied through out high school and college. He is now a certified Audio Engineer Technician and is still living his dream, loving music.

Guitar - Brian Kelly

Brian has been playing music since he was 8 years old. In high school he sang and played guitar in Mayfield and went on three US tours. Since then he graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in music composition. He also wrote/recorded a CD in a project called Earth, Baby (myspace.com/earthbabymusic) in which they made a music video for one of their more favorite songs: 'Situation'. This past summer he played warped tour in his most current band Goodbye Coastline (myspace.com/goodbyecoastline) and is writing a new CD with them. On top of all of this he is interning at Comma Music; a company that writes music for commercials. Brian loves to play guitar and it shows when he performs. Through his various projects he has learned how to write and perform with others as well as on his own. He's a pretty rad dude!