Today we’d like to introduce you to David Stemmle.
Hi David, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Wow, that’s a big question!
Maybe it’s important to start with where am I today? I run a music school dedicated to ultra personalized individual music instruction. Though most of my students are here for guitar, I have several who come for other instruments, from brass instruments like trombone and trumpet, to others who come for ukulele, mandolin, or drums. Then I also have some who come for music production – people who want to learn how to use studio tools and gear to unlock their creative musical potential. Then there are some who come here to explore the world of musical instruments by touring and playing through my collection of about 250 instruments from all over the musical world!
So the question is how did I get here?
I started on guitar with my father when I was 5 years old. He ran the church band in the town where I grew up. By the time I was 10 or so, I was playing in the band with him every sunday. Sometimes on guitar, sometimes on bass or percussion. When I was a teenager I started playing drums and guitar with my friends, mostly cure songs in the basement. It was just like heaven! Then I went to high school and joined the wind ensemble and learned to play brass instruments, I joined the jazz band on guitar and expanded my parameters. I was the drummer in the pep band. I didn’t really love high school, but music really saved me!
After high school, I got a four track cassette machine and started multitracking my own music. This led to my interest in studio and production work.
Around this time I started picking up instruments that my friends stopped playing. Somebody gave me their old flute, or trumpet that they used to play in high school band. I would learn it well enough to use in some recordings. And then pick up something else and learn that well enough to use that a little bit. In this way I started collecting instruments for my personal use, it wasn’t until much later that I realized the greater potential of sharing that music instrument collection with people who were excited about diving into the world of instruments. It’s especially great for kids who are interested in music but aren’t sure what instrument to pursue.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a musician is wonderful! But earning a living as a musician is full of challenges. If you look up the average salary of a musician, you probably won’t get an accurate picture. Just as wealth distribution in society on the whole is skewed to the ultra rich, it’s the same in the musical world. Maybe even worse! There are a few billionaire musicians out there, and that extreme wealth can really skew the numbers.
So most musicians have to do lots of things to make their living. Performing, teaching, writing and recording, and sometimes non-musical things on the side.
Most musicians are also self-employed. So there’s no sick days, vacation, or other benefits like health insurance or 401K.
And if you imagine seeing a professional musician performing, and you think that they’re getting paid for their show, you might think wow they only played an hour and they got a big chunk of money. But what you don’t see is the hours and hours of prep that go into every performance. The big trick of course, is to make it all look easy and effortless – a good musician will do that – that’s part of the magic. But every professional musician I know practices 4 to 6 hours a day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Well, I’ve never heard of anywhere else you could go and play such a huge variety of instruments! When I was a kid, if I was able to go somewhere and try out a bassoon, a guzheng, a valve trombone and a bowed psaltery, my little mind would have been blown! And that’s just the tip of the musical instrument iceberg here. My music instrument explorer series usually takes about 10 sessions.
So I guess in some ways, my specialty is being a generalist. I can pick up just about any instrument and play it (at least a little bit)!
I just want to take a moment to give a shout out to all my friends and colleagues in the music teaching world! Everybody should go hug a music teacher! A real life one! Not just a YouTuber. YouTube isn’t watching you and correcting your technique or sight reading. YouTube doesn’t care like a real life teacher will!
Another thing I’ve been doing (along with a group of musical friends) is to try to establish a used instrument shop here in the triangle. I’ve been collaborating with my friend Blake Addison, the owner and operator of Classic Treasures furniture on chapel Hill boulevard here in Durham. We have a great selection of used guitars, amplifiers, pedals and synthesizers. Also, sometimes banjos and violins and brass! I really think this area needs a place for the musical community to get together and buy sell and trade quality gear. I’m from the DC area originally, and there’s an amazing place called Atomic Music. I really want something like that for this community, and so we’re trying to make it! We are calling our shop Bullseye Music, and it’s right in the middle Classic Treasures. We just set up a Facebook and Instagram presense, so you can look it up there and get notifications about cool new stuff we’ve got going on. It just seems like a natural thing to do. Blake is a excellent musician, and I’ve been shopping at his store for years. So one day last year we just decided to give it a go, and several friends contributed a bunch of used gear to get us started. So I hope people will come by and browse, buy sell and trade!
One thing that I really love about my teaching studio is the shows we put on every year. We usually do two or three over the course of a year. Recently, we’ve been banding together to do a big collaborative project. In this day of streaming music, the album has become less relevant. But my students and I have been performing entire albums all the way through in sequence. It is so fun to play straight through an album! We’ve done some really good ones too: Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie, Rubber Soul by The Beatles, OK Computer by Radiohead, and just earlier this year we did Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
These album projects are huge challenges! So many puzzles to solve. And we aren’t picking easy ones! For me this means I have to learn all aspects of the album. I have to be able to do all the guitar solos, and all the drum parts and other parts well enough that I can teach them. Big challenge. Big fun.
But if you ask what I am most proud of, I would say the relationships that I’ve developed with my students over the years. I need a new word. So many of my students have grown up and gone to college and I still see them and hang out with them sometimes. So they’re not really my students anymore, I guess we’re just friends now. But it seems like it’s something different. I’m so fortunate to have had the chance to be a part of the lives of so many wonderful people, and play a part in their musical development and maturity.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Free climbing El Capitan is risky. Saying I love you for the first time can be a risk too.
I think putting out original music feels like the riskiest thing I’m doing. Making art can be very personal, and sharing it with others and allowing them to scrutinize it can feel just as risky as saying I love you for the first time.
But ultimately, I don’t think there’s much risk in my musical world. (Unless you count trying to pull off ok computer!)
But really, I’m not juggling chainsaws here, I’m just having fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Recklessmartin.com
- Instagram: Bullseye_music_nc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AK2RwbnGJ/
- Other: https://recklessmartin.bandcamp.com/album/mute
