About Ryan

Hello, music enthusiasts! My name is Ryan Waller, and I'm on a mission to ignite your passion for music. With a degree in Commercial Music from South Plains College and 3 years of experience as a dedicated music educator, I've had the privilege of guiding countless students on their musical journeys.

My journey with music started when I was about 10 years old, when a brand-new game called Guitar Hero hit the shelves. My mom bought it for me as a birthday present, and I was INSTANTLY hooked. I played that game day in and day out like my life depended on it.

Eventually, my mom realized that if I loved pretending to play guitar that much, maybe I should try the real thing. So she bought me an electric guitar, signed me up for lessons, and the rest was history… or so I thought.

I officially started learning guitar when I was 12 years old… and if I’m being completely honest, I hated it at first. Like a lot of 12-year-olds, I thought it was just too hard. I didn’t stick with it the way I should have, and over time, I started to regret not putting in the effort to learn.

It wasn’t until years later, when I got to college, that I decided to give guitar another real shot. I started off like most broke college students do, trying to teach myself through YouTube videos and online courses because I couldn’t afford lessons. After a while, I realized I wasn’t making much progress on my own, so I decided that I needed to find a teacher. I signed up for lessons at the local School of Rock and joined their Adult Band, which helped me grow a lot as a player.

After about a year of taking lessons and playing for School of Rock, I realized I wanted to take music even further. I enrolled at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, where I pursued a degree in commercial guitar. While I was there, I gained a ton of experience playing live shows, performing with different bands, and exploring a variety of musical styles. Those two years flew by, and before I knew it, I had earned my degree.

Over the years of teaching and being in bands, I’ve spent most of my time focusing on rock, metal, and blues music. In that time, I’ve realized that having experience across multiple genres helps me give students a more well-rounded musical education and keeps lessons from feeling one-dimensional!