A New Beginning

Next semester will be an exciting time for me for several reasons. The first of which is that I will no longer be a student. I will continue to serve as Adjunct Professor of Jazz Guitar at Oklahoma City University, serving alongside our director, Matthew Denman, lutenist/guitarist, Kyle Patterson, and our latest addition guitarist, Stephen Lochbaum. It promises to be an exciting year of new challenges.

I am most excited about the course Guitar Improvisation, which received a total overhaul over the past couple of weeks to become a class that is both challenging and worthwhile to student improvisers. The previous semesters have focused on theory and the application of theoretical concepts, which the students desperately needed, but going forth the class will focus on transcribing the guitar across a myriad of genre including: blues, pop, jazz, and many more. By utilizing this approach, students will not only become comfortable with transcription, an element many guitarists overlook, but they will have stylistically appropriate ideas when faced with a situation where they will be asked to improvise. These situations occur more frequently for guitarists than any other instrument. Often guitarists are left "sight-reading" a piano score, a lead sheet, or a hand drawn chord chart, wondering what in the world they should play. The goal of this course is to give students the confidence and skill necessary to adapt to any musical situation they might be faced with throughout their career. I am excited to see how this class develops over the course of this semester, and I cannot wait to report the results. I have a good feeling about this one!

The future is bright here in Oklahoma City. The music scene is beginning a slow crawl toward improving thanks to a host of new businesses that have opened up or accepted musicians into their house. The growing music scene gives me hope for the future of Oklahoma City. I have high hopes that our culture will grow away from the obsession with sports and reach a middle ground where audiences seek out music. 

I am currently trying to find a local studio to record an album of originals and a couple arrangements of jazz standards. This project has been a long time coming, and will be complete within the year. I will have more information on the album in the coming months!

I am accepting new private students into my studio on Monday afternoons. So if you're interested in lessons, please do not hesitate to contact me. My email address is: bkbelanus@gmail.com or you can use the contact page located at the top!

As always, stay tuned! I will do my best efforts to update the website regularly. I'm currently trying to figure out how to link my domain name without spending a fortune, which seems unlikely at this point. I'm setting a reminder to update the website frequently. Check out the Gigs section at the top and come listen to myself alongside a host of Oklahoma City's finest musicians. My calendar is the most up to date part of the website! Come say "Hello!"