Guitar
Carlos Ufret has been a guitar instructor since 1998. He has taught students of all ages, backgrounds, playing levels, and musical interests. His students have included total beginners as well as undergrad guitar majors. There is nothing better than successfully preparing students for college auditions.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Ufret first started playing guitar at the age of 15. He was inspired simultaneously by all sorts of Latin-American folk music, heavy rock music, and his father’s classical music record collection, which included some of the most famous classical guitar repertoire. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in classical guitar performance from the Conservatory of Music of PR, where, right after graduation, he taught individual guitar lessons to community members at this institution’s Extension Program.
He holds a Master’s degree from Indiana University at Bloomington in classical guitar performance, where he taught group classes and individual lessons as an Assistant in Instruction. He was chosen, and given scholarships, to participate and perform in masterclasses and workshops with some of the biggest names in the classical guitar world like Manuel Barrueco, Pepe Romero, William Kanengiser, Andrew York, the National Summer Guitar Workshop, L’Academie du Domaine Forget.
Carlos settled in Austin, TX, for 17 years, where he directed the Community Ensembles Program and the prestigious Austin Classical Guitar Society. He became a versatile artist, performing as a solo classical guitarist (playing his arrangements of pop and jazz tunes and improvising while live-looping with a pedal), as an accompanist to singers, other solo instruments, and choirs, playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar in music groups of various styles (pop, Brazilian, Latin-American folk music) and electric guitar in pop and R&B settings.
He also co-directed, arranged, and performed with Los Bohemios
Perdidos, a pan-Latin music project, arranging for strings, horns, and percussion, presenting music from all over Latin America.
As a transplant to Pennsylvania, Ufret enjoys teaching all sorts of genres of music on any guitar, including rock styles, pop, metal, reggae, classical, various styles of Latin music and rhythms, and more. While he sees each student as an individual with personal musical tastes and needs, he
strives to make sure they can listen to themselves and enjoy what they are hearing.
Beginner students will approach music like a language, first having them
learn good technique and develop an ear through simple melodies and song riffs to foster a good sense of rhythm, pitch, and finger independence before introducing chords and music notation.
Intermediate and more advanced students receive tailored lessons built around their musical tastes. They will play what they want while analyzing their playing and determining if any musical or technical problems are hindering their progress. They will understand how the guitar fretboard works and how to use that knowledge to adapt their playing to the musical styles they are most interested in.