Aidan Hamilton

Bio & Experience

Hello, my name is Aidan Hamilton and I am 21 and currently a Senior at Randolph-Macon College. I am pursuing a Music Major with a focus on, you guessed it, guitar and also voice. Some hobbies that I have are going for long strolls and learning more about the anatomy and physiology of the body, especially its musculature. Despite working for my music major, I am and have taken a number of science courses with an intent to pursue work in the field of physical therapy as well. I also quite enjoy poetry and writing my own original material. 

My journey with guitar began on my 15th birthday when I was so lucky to receive a guitar as my birthday gift. Prior to that I had developed a steep enumeration with music over the course of 6 months. I got guitar lessons in Virginia Beach, which is where I am from originally. I have been playing since then in various forms on my own and since coming to college with many others in different ensembles including the band for Randolph-Macon’s show choir program, a jazz improvisation group, and I sang for our schools Concert Choir as well. As it comes with a music major, my musical involvement at Randolph-Macon and the greater community of Ashland and Richmond has not been bare! 

As it relates to my teaching experience, I have been teaching guitar with Birchfield Piano starting in the Fall 2024 term, prior to that I did not formally teach guitar before but I have always enjoyed explaining music and guitar to others! However, I do have teaching experience when I gave tennis lessons for about a year and half which helped expose me to helping others learn! Of which a lot of those soft skills transfer over to teaching guitar. 

Teaching Philosophy

An ultimate moment for any teacher, that can come way before the age-old trope of the student surpassing the “master”, of which very seldom any of us are masters of our instruments, as there is always more to learn, uncover, and look at differently, is that a student gains a kind of self-sufficiency so that they can begin learn and make advancements and connections on their own through consistency, curiosity, and sometimes pure happenstance, but by normally building upon what they learned before. This moment for a teacher is very satisfactory and I see it as the crux of a teaching and a learning philosophy that it is good to aim at. I take the term self-sufficiency lightly as we all stand on the shoulders of giants but we do still need a base level of knowledge to enable it just like we need gas to fill our car so it can drive, however after there is gas, the driver is sufficient to choose where they want to go. 

I like to adapt teaching strategies to the students and their goals for what they want to get out of lessons. However, combining ways of learning, avoiding compromising technique, and emphasizing intentional specific repetition, are commonalities for teaching that can help build the base so students can start getting what they want from lessons. I believe especially the learning curve for guitar can be different from piano, for example, there is generally a higher learning curve, and so that reminding students of the progress they have made and the initial more-uphill nature of learning the guitar is important for motivation and to provide perspective to the journey. 

Attendance Policy

• Should a student need to miss any portion of a lesson for any reason, I require a 24-hour notice in advance of the lesson (unless under extraordinary circumstances, which are handled on a case-by-case basis) via email, call, or text. At this point, a make up credit will be posted to the student's account for a later appointment. 

• Students will not receive make-up lesson credits for lessons in which they do not attend without prior notification of the instructor. Should the instructor need to miss a lesson, the student(s) will be notified and make-up lessons will be conducted at a later appointment. Make-up lesson credits will carry over into a new term as long as students remain an active student at Birchfield Piano. 

• Should a student be late for a lesson, I will wait for 10 minutes before canceling the lesson. If you are planning to be late for a lesson and you do contact the instructor 24 hours in advance, it is recommended that you still reschedule the lesson if you would like your full amount of time. Usually students are taught back-to-back without any buffer time, so it’s difficult to give students their full time when they are late without delaying other students.