STUDY WITH DAVID
LESSONS FOR KIDS & ADULTS
Learn to play and to write songs with Emmy winner--David Williams--folk, americana, swing, country, blues, jazz, gypsy jazz, and bluegrass. GUITAR. MANDOLIN. BLUES & GYPSY JAZZ VIOLIN.
David has studied with greats, such as Jethro Burns on mandolin, and Tim Kliphius on gypsy jazz violin, and he studied jazz guitar at Northern Illinois University, and gypsy jazz guitar with Alfonso Gonzalez, and Robin Nolan. Recently, David lived in Nashville, working as a singer-songwriter. In addition, he has played as a sideman as well (with people such as Kim McClean, Kristina Murray, and Greg Brown). With over100 million hits for his songs on YouTube, David is an Emmy winner for his songs on PBS KIDS; he has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment of the Arts, with numerous CDS of original music, and many performances on NPR stations.
​
"WILLIAMS WORKS MAGIC!" NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE
​
"When I hear music I love, I must learn how to play it,
to get it inside of me--in my fingers, my heart, my head." David
​
​
​
SONGS
"I believe in the power of songs. They were the first mythic tools we humans possessed, and people used the magic of song for everything: a song for a child being born, a song for death, a song for planting corn, for giving thanks, a song for sneaking into a tepee to meet one's lover (as the family slept in the same tent), and there were songs of war, songs of laughter, songs about animals, and lullabies for rocking a baby to sleep. I am more interested in songs that tell a story, or take us into the life of another and make us feel. "Literary songwriters" are the ones that grab me (whose work is of the same quality as great works of fiction): John Prine, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Greg Brown, Joni MItchell, Randy Newman, but there are more commercial songwriters I appreciate too: Hank Williams, for instance, who wrote the best Country music ever made, and the great Jimmie Rodgers. I also love Blues (and taught a course in Blues at CU Boulder), from Robert Johnson to Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters to Bessie Smith, and to my absolute favorite singer of all time--Billie Holiday. I am interested in songs that take us somewhere, that aren't pretentious, that move in us and through us and become part of who we are.
PRACTICE
I have learned to love practice, as there is this wonderful sensation when you begin to improve and things make sense. It feels like we are cheating Entropy a bit, bringing order out of chaos, at least for a moment---making our wooden instruments sing.
​
