Meet Jon Yerby

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Yerby.

Hi Jon, 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?
To tell the story of how I ended up exactly where I am today, I have to start at the beginning—with my (birth) being born in Celle, Germany, in 1981.

My parents were two young kids from Oklahoma who had never really left the country before my dad was asked to take a job with an oil tool service company overseas. Not speaking a lick of German at the time, they bought German language cassette tapes and learned the language on the go.

This is all relevant because when I first started using words, they were half German, half English. Later on, in high school, I also learned Spanish and being multilingual from an early age opened many doors and opportunities for me.

My father and mother are also musicians – but not of the professional variety. My dad plays guitar and sings, my mom plays the piano and flute. Music was always in our house growing up. When I was 5 years old, my dad decided he needed a drummer to accompany his playing and singing. To the sonic detriment of our household, he bought me a drum set.

My parents enrolled me in drum lessons with a local teacher, which I continued until I was about 10 or 11 years old. During this time, I started to take a keen interest in the guitar. At 8 years old, we moved from Germany to Scotland where I was fortunate to study percussion with Ron Forbes of the Royal Scottish Conservatory. Fast forward 6 years and we move again to Houston, TX. I went from a small international school in Scotland with 8 students in my grade to a public middle school in Texas with 2000 students.

I quickly adapted to the customs and culture of Texas public middle school and had friends from all the various “cliques.” I guess I had become a bit of a social chameleon from all the moving around. Early in high school, I was very involved in sports – varsity soccer and baseball. It was not long, however, before my focus turned more seriously to music. The time came to start thinking about college – what did I want to study? I had many interests: science, math, and languages.

But music was the one thing I always looked forward to during and after school. I played in the jazz and symphonic band and before long was known as the “guitar kid” at school. Stay with me here, this background is important. I was going to school then with my now wife—but it was not until 10 years after high school that we connected romantically.

High school was coming to an end and I decided to pursue musical studies in college. At this time, I had started studying classical guitar. Prior to that, I was focused on electric guitar, blues, rock, etc. So I auditioned for the music program at the University of North Texas. I ended up transferring to the University of Texas in Austin where I finished my bachelor’s degree. I realized that it is not much you can do with a Bachelor’s degree in classical guitar performance, so I realized I would need graduate degrees and further study to be competitive.

Off I went to pursue my Master’s degree at New England Conservatory, followed by my doctorate in classical guitar performance at Florida State University. During my final year in Florida, the Facebook algorithm suggested I reconnect with an old high school friend, who is now my wife, Alexandra Bradshaw-Yerby. So, thanks Facebook!

At this point, I had earned my terminal degree in music performance and reconnected with Alex. The puzzle pieces of life were starting to come together. Alex was living in Salt Lake City at the time, having just won a full-time position with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. At this point, it was becoming clear that a move to Utah was in my future.

After a couple of initial visits to SLC, I arrived once again with an engagement ring in my guitar case. Less than a year later, we were married and living together in Salt Lake City.

An unemployed guitarist at the time, I hit the ground running. I applied to all of the universities and private music schools in the area, as well as began seeking out performance opportunities. Within a year, I was hired at the Utah Valley University and the Gifted Music School, a private conservatory for children. After another 8 months or so, I was asked to serve as President of the Utah Classical Guitar Society (UCGS).

During our 6 years in Salt Lake City, I maintained a private studio and international touring career. During that time, I also curated professional concerts, masterclasses, educational programs, and community outreach for UCGS while holding teaching positions at the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, Westminster College, and the Gifted Music School.

Not unlike professional athletes, modern dancers reach a point in their career when they have to consider a next, less physically demanding, career path. My wife Alex decided to return to school to pursue her MFA in dance, which brought us to Seattle in 2017. We spent two fun years in the PNW – I found a great teaching job at a local classical guitar teaching studio/business and performed concerts around the area while we explored the beautiful coast. At this time we were both applying to teach jobs around the country – and ended up landing positions at SUU!

We are now in our third year in southern Utah and could not be happier. We love the outdoors and all that this beautiful part of the country has to offer. We have two rescue dogs and our newest family member Hannah Jane, our 9-month-old daughter!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My wife and I both chose a road less traveled – that of performing arts and arts education. While I have been incredibly fortunate in my career, I must admit that it did not take the shape I had envisioned when I started on this path. The original plan was to get my graduate degree so that I could seek out a full-time teaching post at a college or university.

While Classical Guitar professorships were not rare in the 90s and 2000s, it is still a niche-oriented field compared to say nursing or engineering. By the time I earned my doctorate degree in April of 2012, these unicorn full-time positions had either been filled by tenured professors, eliminated, or more commonly, farmed out to adjunct (part-time) work. I applied to positions for nearly a decade – keep in mind only about 1 such position would open up each year, and several hundred ambitious classical guitarists would apply.

The unique circumstances of my pursuit for a full-time position led me to fill in my employment gaps with a huge variety of musical and curative work. I played in professional pit orchestras (I met Sting while playing in the pit for his musical, The Last Ship!), collaborated with artists from other disciplines, performed music for dance, and traveled to Europe and South America for performance engagements.

While my original plan may not have manifested the way a young and naive “me” had envisioned, I do not regret my path and feel very fortunate to have been able to work and live as a musician.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The Covid pandemic has been life-changing for us all, to say the least. Educators and artists— alongside just about everyone else—were immediately thrust into the world of remote learning and Zoom meetings.

At this point, around March of 2020, I had already been maintaining a small student base using Skype as a communication medium. I had students in Seattle who wanted to continue studying with me after our move back to Utah, as well as some students in Salt Lake City, and even China!

My most significant takeaway from being hurled into the world of full-time remote teaching has been that video, while inconvenient in some ways, can be a radically useful learning tool. It gives the student the option to start, stop, rewind, fast forward, etc. This discovery, along with encouragement from my remote students, gave me the idea to create a YouTube channel.

“The Space Between” is my branded channel that features instructional and performance videos not just for classical guitar, but for fingerstyle/acoustic and even electric guitar as well.

My ultimate goal is to have my YouTube channel funnel guitar enthusiasts to my subscription platform. The “at home” remote guitar student will be able to become a member for a monthly fee, which will grant them access to customized learning programs with progressive lessons tailored to their particular style of interest.

This idea all became clear when I realized that 1 on 1 instruction limits you to the number of teaching hours available in a day. With an online platform, I can reach exponentially more students around the world to share my knowledge and love for art.

How do you define success?
Success to me is doing something that you love and having the time/freedom to be with family, travel, etc.

Pricing:

• Skype Lessons – $65/hour
• Private Concerts/engagement – Inquire

Contact Info:

• Email: jpyerby@gmail.com
• Website: JonPaulYerby.com
• Instagram: @JonPYerby
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonPYerby
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv5hygu8kUvPj021yeupDQA

Image Credits
Barbara Gracner