Guitarist dreams of music publishing business
by Joe Gosen, Outpost Contributor
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I watch his fingers dance across the strings effortlessly as he plays a jazzy tune called, "Dolphin Dance," by Herbie Hancock. Then I begin to stare at his fingers. They work in perfect synchronization as they create chords on frets decorated with inlaid birds, crafted from abalone and mother of pearl. As he plays, he stares straight into my eyes. "There is magic in these guitars," he says, "they're the only guitars I play now."
We're in a room the size of an elevator. He's playing, talking and staring while I listen and watch. After a short time I find myself not listening to what he's saying or playing. Instead, I'm thinking about all the times I've sat in this room with him, trying to make my guitar sound like his.
It's been a couple of years since I've taken a lesson from Joe Ross. It seems like yesterday when he was helping me find the magic in my $200 guitar. He has patiently given the gift of music to hundreds of students in this room. His brain is in all of us. That's his goal.
Ross is the co-owner of Modern Guitar, a music store on Moana Lane in Reno and home of the Modern School of Music. He's also the creator and owner of Joe's Brain.
For now Joe's Brain is more of a concept than a company. But he plans to expand Joe's Brain into a music publishing company, a music instruction company and a manufacturer of guitar gadgets.
With a big grin on his face, he moves to the edge of his seat and starts telling me about one of the gadgets he's working on. He's designing a small personal guitar amplifier shaped like a brain. A replica of his brain, to be exact. In theory, when you plug your guitar and headphones into the amplifier, you're making music through his brain.
"I see myself being a 65-year-old wise man someday," he says. "I just have crazy ideas now."
His business partner and long-time friend Erik Gothberg has a similar view of Ross. "Joe's a dreamer and an idea man," he says. "It's one of his stronger points. He lives to dream and think. He's the kind of guy who likes to put his feet up with a cup of coffee and think."
He doesn't just sit and think, he puts his thoughts into action. "I haven't watched TV for a year. I don't like watching other people do things, I want to do things myself," he says.
One of the things he's been doing with his time is writing a book. Ross authored a 60-page, draft-quality book idea titled Introduction to Music Theory and Improvisation.
So I'm sitting in a claustrophobic music room looking at Joe's Brain, the company, which is really just a concept and a book that fits neatly in a brown leather, monogrammed briefcase.
"The story of my life is summarized in this briefcase," he says.
Ross carefully takes out his book, which is just a stack of paper, and places it on one of those heavy-duty music stands that you see in every music class across the country. He handles each page delicately as he leads me on a tour of his life's work. His book is the result of teaching more than 1,000 students during the past seven years. He says he was always writing things down in simple terms for his students and along the way he created a formula for teaching guitar.
"My method is proven, it works. In six weeks I can have a beginning student understand and use scale chord construction, chord scale relationships and modal improvisation. This is college-level material."
To prove his point Ross tells me about a 14-year-old student he's been teaching for 22 months. "She'll scare the shit out of you. She can read everything in this book and beyond."
Ross is confident his method can work for anyone. The instructors at his school, whom he refers to as his disciples, use Ross' method to teach their students guitar. "I'm really trying to make my standard the industry standard for teaching," he says.
Gothberg agrees that a standardized method for teaching guitar is needed. "Guitar has always been a "back alley" instrument, and it needs to be taught in an educational setting, not by some dope-smoking hippie trying to teach you "Smoke on the Water."
Ross, who sports a crew-cut and wire-rim glasses, doesn't look like a dope-smoking hippie. In fact, after talking with him, I'm convinced he never was.
"I was a band geek," he says about his background in music.
He started playing the trumpet during fifth grade, around the time when he moved to Reno from southern California. He was more interested in playing the trombone, but his dad brought home a trumpet instead. Ross also started playing the guitar, too, but concentrated on the trumpet until college.
"In college it's kind of hard to find friends who want to jam with you when you play the trumpet," he says.
Ross had plans to major in music education at the University of Nevada, Reno and aspired to play in one of the major ensembles. But he said the chairman of the music department wouldn't let him play in one of the ensembles unless he agreed to be in the marching band, too. Ross didn't like that idea at all.
So Ross dropped out of UNR and went to a guitar school in Hollywood, for a couple of years. "That music department chairman is the reason I started playing the guitar."
When he returned to Reno he began teaching guitar to make ends meet and soon started a guitar instruction business. "After a couple of years of teaching, I got a reputation as the guy to study with," he says. "I became the most popular teacher in town."
As the number of students he taught has grown, so has his perspective on music. "I've gone from egocentric artistic musician to being more concerned about how others play and how I can influence them. It's not fulfilling to jam in a garage with a bunch of guys anymore. What I'm doing now is fulfilling."
He sits back in his chair and tells me about the time when he went to the Little Waldorf Saloon to hear a band. The lead guitarist was a former student of his. The kind of music they played didn't suit his tastes all that much, but he was impressed with how well his former student played. After a couple of sets he went up to the guitarist and told him how impressed he was with his playing ability. Soon a group of guys gathered around Ross to listen in on the conversation. He looked around and realized that they were all former students of his. They all took turns telling him about the influence he's had on their music abilities.
"That was it for me. That's when I realized that I have a positive influence on others. That was a real positive experience for me."
Ross looks relaxed after spending an hour talking about teaching. As he leans back in his chair, legs outstretched, arms folded, he says, "I want people to learn, but I can't realistically teach people to play. I'm more like a cheerleader, it's up to them to learn."
There are plenty of them to cheer for. An average of 250 students walk through the doors of his music store each week to take lessons. But, running three businesses doesn't leave much time for him to personally teach each student. In essence, he is teaching.
"I've passed the torch," he says. "I'm teaching indirectly because I've taught all of my instructors and they use my method to teach their students."
His brain is in all of them.
Posted 11/15/97 Nevada Outpost