Justin Davis

         “Let me begin by saying, I LOVE MY MCELROY GUITAR!!  IT SOUNDS, PLAYS, AND FEELS SO AWESOME!!”  

Listen to a cut from Justin Davis' latest CD posibilidades  played on his McElroy Classical

   Justin Davis started playing guitar in 7th grade, and formed his first band in the 8th.  “That band made an awful noise, but was so much fun, I knew I wanted to play the guitar for the rest of my life,” says Justin.  “In high school as my bands got better and we started playing gigs, my involvement with music grew”.  Justin started taking independent study music theory with the school band director, as well as jazz band, wind ensemble, and vocal ensemble- basically anything he could to be involved with music.

     Justin went on to study at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts to study jazz guitar performance.  “I learned a lot, but my band at the time, Honest Abe  was playing out regularly, so I left after a year to focus on performing and writing for my band”.  Also that year, at the age of nineteen, Justin had his first professional “session musician” type gigs.  A&M recording artists, The Songcatchers, hired him for some road dates.  Justin said, “I knew then that I would be able to build a life as a professional guitarist”.

    After a few more years of playing in bands Justin began feeling a need to push himself further and lock into a career in music.  Following the advice of several music teachers he knew Justin enrolled in Ellensburg’s Central Washington University.  He started out in the footsteps of his Grandfather as a music education major,  (this is Centrals specialty, graduating some of Washington State's finest music teachers).  But the pull of the guitar was too strong and he switched majors to classical guitar performance,  he earned his degree in 2001.

    During the years Justin was in college, he played in a folk rock group called Puptulla which became one of the areas most popular acts. Justin also directed the choir for Catholic Campus Ministries and taught guitar in Yakima at Talcotts Music.

   After graduating from CWU Justin decided to move to Bainbridge Island, WA where he started teaching out of Deering Music.  “I joined the Island Music Guild in 2002”, Justin exclaims, “and have been thrilled by the musicians I get to meet and work with as well as the Bainbridge community that has been so supportive of me”.  When Justin’s wife, Shane, started grad school, they moved back to Seattle to be closer to her campus.   “Since joining the guild”, Justin continues, “I have had opportunities to perform everything, from classical concerts to hard rock to old time fiddle tunes.  I released my first solo CD in 2004, Posibilidades, a collection  of solo guitar music by South American composers, and I spent last summer in Spain studying flamenco guitar.”

   “I’m now working with about 40 very different, and wonderful, students a week.  I tailor lessons to match the needs and personalities of each of my students, and try to instill in them the same love of music I have.  To do this I try to keep my lessons as fun as possible, but move quickly enough to maintain an interesting challenge.  I believe in teaching the skills and craft of guitar playing, rather than just how to play songs.  As such, I focus my teaching on technique, music theory and analysis, sight reading (guitar players are notoriously bad at this, but it really is the quickest path to success and understanding the guitar), and an emphasis on creating original music.  Repertoire from other artists/genres is used to develop technical skill, or to provide insight into how some great players solved musical problems.  I use a modified Suzuki approach to teaching children, which has been proven to be very successful with my younger students.  I teach all styles of guitar, ages six and up.  Beginning to advanced”.

Justin Davis' Guitar:

Classical Model: Italian Spruce top, Indian Rosewood back and sides, Koa rosette and binding, Ebony fingerboard, Brazilian Rosewood Bridge, Irving Sloan tuners with Ebony buttons