My name is Nicholas Hoell, a guitar instructor currently taking on new students, and the following is (basically) my story/credentials. At the bottom of the page is my contact information for how to get an appointment in Toronto.
I grew up in California, lived in New York City for 5 years and moved to Toronto in late May of 2011. I have been a guitarist for, as of this year, 20 years! That's a long time being involved in music, in various capacities (writing, performing, recording, mixing, etc), and the time has given me a lot of insight into various aspects of musicianship.
By day, I am a research scientist at University of Toronto, where I also teach, mainly technical courses on science and mathematics. This, as well as years spent mentoring and tutoring, has given me a tremendous amount of experience in helping craft individualized programs of study which best match students' own unique abilities. I'm patient, knowledgeable, and attentive. I also am the most recent recipient of the Frederic V. Atkinson Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Department of Mathematics here at University of Toronto. As a guitar instructor, I have helped people of many different levels.
My background in guitar involves private classical training (on a short scale classical guitar) beginning at age 12. This set the perfect foundation for pursuing any style I wanted later to master, as well as giving me the habit of confidence and persistence that learning new styles always takes. My interests evolved into learning and subsequently beginning to master several styles of rock. In those days, practice usually involved playing along (through a tiny Peavey Rage solid state amp!) to the recordings of my idols at that time. The albums I remember most from this period were Master of Puppets from Metallica, Undertow by Tool, and In Utero by Nirvana. This was also when I joined my first band and when I first performed, publicly, in a group. I was 14. During this period I became involved in song-writing, both for this first group and then for subsequent groups. My main band at this point was playing punk-inspired ska, and I had a side project which was more experimental.
A good song, where you can hear my early guitar playing, is in the link immediately below.
Later, in college, I took courses in music theory as well as a year-long course in music production. Around this time, I also ended up recording an EP at the world famous Hyde Street Studios. That was a true honor.
During this period, I became more involved in a progressive hard rock band all through college. You can hear a song from that era, in the link below, recorded at San Francisco State University studios. I chose this song, rather than some that I prefer, because the (single-take) guitar parts involve a lot of different techniques, notably two-handed tapping and several interesting effects.
Other wonderful studios I ended up recording with this group in are Ex'pression Center for Digital Arts in Emeryville, CA and Timeline85 studios in Fremont, CA. By this point, I had performed in at least one hundred gigs (I lost count and this is a conservative estimate), many of which were in fantastic venues throughout California. Several notable venues were in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Eureka. After around 6 years together, we parted ways and I ended up playing guitar in a hard rock band called Index:A as well as roots/blues-based Pappy. My time with Pappy was a growing experience musically, as I was introduced to many amazing new sources of inspiration like John Prine and Merle Haggard. At this point I was also volunteering at the soundboard for local TV station KTLA. With Pappy, I performed on the TV program High School Sports Focus.
During graduate school, I performed much less, but I did spend a fair bit of time writing solo material. Some of this is material that eventually made its way to my album (which you can find below). In Toronto, I joined the band Littleboy, and you can hear some of my playing below.
You can hear, in the above, that I traded my old Les Pauls for a strat! These days I use a telecaster. In addition to my own projects, I'm also the guitarist in the local rock band The Dirty Fix.
And hey, speaking of my own projects, why don't you check some of them out and hear for yourself? You can click on that link, but a personal favorite of mine is this one (these are all just guitars).
If you've made it this far, I think you may be interested in having private lessons with me. I am familiar and comfortable playing and teaching in most styles (with the exception of some forms of Jazz). These days I am influenced by, to name just a few; John Frusciante, Marc Ribot, Johnny Hiland, Chet Atkins, Buckethead, Adam Jones, Tab Benoit, Larry LaLonde, John Prine, John Hammond Jr., Ry Cooder, Ted Greene, and countless others and I can help you get the sound you've always been after in your own playing.
I can provide structured lessons for new or seasoned players and am happy to discuss anything I may have forgotten to mention. My lessons cover elements of theory but focus more on technique and positive, constructive observations and feedback on your current playing. I live and work in downtown Toronto and prefer to provide home-based lessons, though provided distance is not too problematic, in some cases we can work out a "housecall" type of appointment. Don't have a guitar yet? I have plenty for you to play with during the lesson to help you decide if guitar is for you.
Contact me about rates and setting up a trial lesson at reduced cost. Email inquires should be sent to nicholashoell@gmail.com. Looking forward to meeting you and helping you get the most out of your instrument!