One of the serious inadequacies of music education in institutional settings for generations has been its emphasis on styles of music which have proven to be difficult to sustain throughout a person’s lifetime. For instance, after participating in high school band, the percentage of musicians who continue practicing and performing after graduation is shockingly low. The most obvious reason for this unfortunate state of affairs is that these musicians no longer have an outlet for regular group participation, and secondly, during their tenure in band, they do not usually receive a thorough musical education beyond learning basic technique and how to read music. A similar situation exists for the legions of young piano students who discontinue playing, sometimes after years of private lessons. Once again, since piano is largely a solitary pursuit, the lack of viable options for making music with others is limited at best.

On the other side of the coin, musicians frequently pursue what can loosely be called “grassroots music” for a lifetime of fun and learning. These styles include rock, country, blues, gospel, bluegrass, folk, old-time, contemporary Christian, and many others. Opportunities abound to gather with others and enjoy music this type of fellowship in more or less informal to serious settings, but often training, technique, and overall musicianship in these styles is somewhere between inadequate to non-existent. Many times the players in these styles are practically self-taught, and while talent and passion can carry someone a long way, the proverbial glass ceiling will eventually manifest itself.

The Jim Wood Online Acoustic Music Academy offers remedies for these musical dilemmas by providing a solid musical grounding that covers theory, ear training, and instrumental technique in the context of music that most people in the general population who have musical aspirations actually want to play, the music of regular “folks.” The raw materials for an entire lifetime of musical pleasure and development are all woven into the fabric of what we can call, in the broadest sense of the term, folk music, which includes everything from bluegrass to rock. Technique is technique, and it applies to all styles of music, and while different styles certainly each have their own technical and theoretical idiosyncrasies, the core of musical education should be universal.

The goal of the Jim Wood Online Acoustic Music Academy is to provide musicians, young and old alike, with the tools to make music an important part of their personal evolution, and this gives them the ability, in turn, to participate in creative, positive social settings and to give back to the communities in which they live. Music makes the world a better place, and the Jim Wood Online Acoustic Music Academy wants to do its part to promote this vision of a better world.