Strumming up business / Norman Transcript

Strumming up business

The Norman Transcript
By Andrew W. Griffin
For the Transcript
Posted: June 24, 2007

Wess McMichael loves music.
So do the dozens of teachers and hundreds of students learning various instruments at his Norman-based business, McMichael Music, 1005 N. Flood Ave. Suite 100.

Since 2000 the guitarist-businessman has operated a business in Norman, McMichael Music, and in that time, other music-lovers have come to learn under McMichael and his growing roster of music teachers.

In fact, McMichael said, his music classes, including private lessons and group clinics, has garnered a positive reputation resulting in more and more students signing up to take music lessons in percussion, woodwinds, guitar, piano, bass, violin and voice.

It was simply getting too crowded for his students and teachers at the original McMichael Music in the Elite Plaza shopping center.

“I was having trouble finding places for people to practice and play,” McMichael said. So, McMichael found an available space — a former daycare center — across the Elite Plaza parking lot, and was able to build and expand his business.For McMichael and his students and teachers, the expansion was music to their ears.

“We’re a third bigger now,” McMichael said, adding there are 16 teaching rooms.

On a recent afternoon, McMichael was sitting in the new break room with several of his teachers. All spoke highly of McMichael and the fact that the expanding business is exciting and how they all love working at McMichael Music.

“I have students who range in age from 8 to 70,” said guitar teacher Terry Ware, a seasoned musician who used to tour with Texas musician Ray Wylie Hubbard. “We have every skill level imaginable.” Ware jokingly said in his many years on the road, he’s learned a lot and thinks someone at McMichael Music needs to offer “road and music business advice” to these up-and-coming musicians who may be naïve about the realities of touring and the music business.

McMichael heard this and nodded in agreement, saying that down the road offering such legal advice might be a possibility. One teacher, Chris Wray, has his own jazz group, the Christopher Wray Quartet, and said he was once a student under McMichael and is excited to be working for his former teacher.“I’ve grown musically in this place,” Wray said. “We all really like our jobs.”
In fact, Wray talked about how McMichael hires well-trained teachers and allows them to teach in a style that works best for them.

As the teachers talked, several brought up the fact that they will go the extra mile with their students by offering to show up at local music stores or pawn shops in order to help students pick out an appropriate instrument.

“We help them by showing them what to get and what not to get,” Ware said.

Two guitar teachers, Thomas Anderson and James Spake, offer a rock clinic to students interested in forming rock bands. The teaching duo instructs students on how to do everything from developing a stage presence to maintaining eye contact with a crowd. The latest rock clinic session will conclude in late July with a rock show featuring the new bands at Andrews Park July 29.“There will be eight bands playing three songs each,” Spake said.

Interestingly, members of more established bands are teachers as well, including Norman-based singer-songwriter-guitarist Mike Hosty and Alan Orebaugh, lead guitarist of local Red Dirt rock band Mama Sweet. On this particular afternoon, Orebaugh was giving a guitar lesson to 17-year-old Justin Suman. He has been playing guitar for a couple of years.

“I’ve learned a lot (from Orebaugh) than I’ve ever learned on my own.”

This brings a smile to Orebaugh’s face as he sits across from his student, cradling an electric guitar. Adds Suman: “I’d like to be able to make a living playing guitar or teaching guitar.”

For more information, go online to www.mcmichaelmusic.com or call 360-1199.