Teaching Experience:
I started teaching in 1985, and since then I’ve taught more than five thousand students at numerous retail music stores across five different states and have been employed as a music educator at high schools, the University of Texas, and the National Guitar Summer Workshop. I’ve also been employed to teach up-and-coming instructors ‘how to teach’ at both Lifetime Performing Arts Academy and Danman’s Music School in Southern California. On a side note, I’ve published a guitar instructional book entitled, Guitar Memoir, an arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring Arranged for One Guitar, and a children’s coloring book called, Melody’s Music.

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Performing Experience:
I’ve played rock guitar for hundreds of thousands of people. Hundreds at backyard parties, bars, and concert halls where I grew up in Kansas City, then tens of thousands on tours of amphitheaters across the Midwest, and later at iconic clubs like the Steamboat on 6th Street in Austin, TX, and on the stages of the world-famous Whisky a Go Go, Cat Club, Key Club, and Viper Room on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, CA. I’ve played punk rock at dive bars, and jazz at art galleries, private parties, and fancy five-star resorts like the Hilton, the Ritz Carlton, and Pelican Hill. I also hosted a radio show named ‘Jazz Quest Radio’ on KX FM 104.7 in Laguna Beach for 8 yrs, and not only had the honor of interviewing many iconic artists, but also had the opportunity to perform live over the airwaves every week, and had the pleasure of playing along with great musicians like Quist from the Brian Ferry Band (Roxy Music) and violinist Jessy Greene (Ghost, Foo Fighters, Stevie Nicks, Pink, etc.).
And I might add that I’ve also performed live on local television in Austin, TX, and had bit parts as a musician in two reality show pilots here in SoCal. (As for film work, I scored and performed the soundtrack for a documentary called The Miracle Story.)

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Recording Experience:
I’ve written and recorded well over five hundred rock, pop, jazz, classical, blues, spoken word, and guitar instrumental songs. My Brett Ecklund EP features the legendary Multi-Grammy-winning bassist (and late mentor), Max Bennett, who played with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa. Max hand-picked a band of professionals to play on my record, musicians who have recorded and performed with iconic artists like George Benson, Chick Corea, Bette Midler, Boz Scaggs, Tupac Shakur, Stevie Wonder, and many others. My more recent singles, Many Blessings and Sandy feature bassist Dylan Wilson from Richie Kotzen’s band.

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Areas of Expertise:
I offer a holistic approach to musical truth. The focus of my instruction is not solely the fundamentals of music theory and modern technique, but also an exploration into the use of music as a metaphor for life itself. I can help you to lead a more musical lifestyle based on a natural blend of wisdom from the origins of organized sound, enhanced with a wealth of knowledge of humanity’s rich history of artistic expression, and a perception of practice distilled from the ritualistic disciplines of mantras and meditation. All grounded by the down-to-earth awareness and authenticity of my own real-world experience as a composer, recording artist, and performer.

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Music Style:
Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Blues, World Music.

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Short-Term Goals:
My goals remain the same, to continue to learn all that there is to know about music and to share my passion by writing, recording, teaching, and performing for all who will listen.