Guitar Center Tacoma Music Lessons

Hello and thanks for checking out lessons here at Guitar Center Tacoma! My name is Peter Soha and I’ve been teaching music for over 15 years. I picked up the drum kit in 2004 and immediately fell in love! Drums are my passion. I picked up the guitar and piano in high school. After high school I attended the jazz program at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. I have played music ranging from jazz to punk, metal, country, gospel, funk and everything in between! I have studied with a variety of teachers including Jay Douglas, Mark Ivester, David Garibaldi, Christopher Bayman, Randy Halberstadt, James Knapp and many more! I mainly teach the drum kit but also focus on rudimental playing, beginning to intermediate guitar, beginner piano and music theory and composition. I am passionate about helping people along on their musical journey!

Adam Stewart has played bass for 20 years, along with guitar and double bass for nearly as long. Over this time, he has taught numerous students of all ages and performed with a diverse group of artists & genres ranging from jazz and classical to funk, downtempo, and grindcore. A native of San Diego, CA, Adam started teaching while still in high school and continued to work as a music instructor, session musician & score composer through college and into adulthood. In addition to bass, Mr. Stewart is an accomplished guitarist, double bassist, and producer/composer. He currently lives, teaches, and performs in Tacoma, Washington.

Ready to pick up the next side quest on your mission to musical excellence? Looking to start a new adventure? Select Ms. Starr as your guiding light! Together, we can figure out how I can help motivate you and start planning for your lessons with me as your instructor! We're just getting started.

I have been a DJ and Producer for 20+ years. I currently produce background music for TV shows on MTV, HBO, and VICE: Catfish, VICE News, True Life on MTV, Love and Hip Hop. I am a mobile DJ. I have live performance experience with weddings, bar & bat mitzvahs, restaurants, gyms, birthdays, and night clubs. I have been on the radio live. I can teach any software. Digital Audio Workstations that I regularly produce with include: Reaper, Ableton, FL Studio, Reason, and Pro Tools. I can teach any DJ equipment or audio equipment. My current gear includes: DENON PRIME 2, SERATO, REKORD BOX, MPC LIVE. I can teach Music Theory and I also was in Arizona working for a Commercial Studio.

••• PRE 2013 ••• Born an audiophile, Manuel has always had a wide exposure and appreciation for music, and seems to fall in love with any genre in which he gets involved. He roots out of the hard rock and metal genres most, and has always had a big love for movie and video game soundtracks. Manuel was given his first guitar at the age of 14, when he began what would be a self-teaching odyssey until college. In 2011, Manuel took on choral studies, which he fell in love with and became his gateway into music school later on. While breaking into the Choir scene, Manuel had his first Jazz exposure in his last year of high school. Manuel’s hunger for music only grew stronger and stronger, and that was only the beginning! ••• 2013 - 2017 ••• After high school, Manuel attended Pacific Lutheran University and earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition. While expanding his experience into composition, he also started experimenting with creating music through recording and production, and managed to translate the work for his degree into producing original music. While at PLU, Manuel participated in half a dozen ensembles. He sang in a total of 3 choirs, one of which was the internationally known Choir of the West. While Manuel was one of its members, he had the honor of professionally recording an album for major leading choral composer, Ēriks Ešenvalds, “There Will Come Soft Rains.” The album is currently up on all streaming platforms today. Within his time at PLU, Manuel explored more and more different styles and genres. The choral world kept him exposed and familiar with the world of choirs, orchestras, and the craft of composition. The Jazz world exposed him to styles from all times and places in the world, as well as honed his improvisation skills. At the same time, the production world rekindled Manuel’s love for Rock and Metal while also exposing him to the worlds of scoring, sound design, recording, and mastering. Manuel also took on studies in several different disciplines. Voice was Manuel’s primary instrument, and he kept the guitar as a strong second instrument. He participated in the school's Guitar Orchestra and Small Guitar Ensembles. He also took on a lot of Jazz guitar studies and ensembles, and he even recorded a guitar performance for There Will Come Soft Rains. Manuel also had the opportunity to start studying the piano, which would later become a turning point for him. ••• 2018 -2020 ••• After his undergraduate studies, Manuel started various endeavors within the music industry. The first one was joining a band. The group currently known as 48 Degrees North was started by Manuel’s brother and his colleagues. It was built by an all-music-student conglomerate, hungry for music that flexes the brain and touches the heart at the same time. Manuel joined in on the keyboard in 2018, and became one of the founding members of 48 Degrees North LLC later the same year. Manuel took on temporary roles on various musical projects, including playing keyboards for LJ Collective, and multi-instrumentalist for 2get.her. Second, Manuel took on some freelancing work as a live sound engineer. It was here where Manuel learned the standards and conventions of professional audio. Manuel has worked sound for churches, independent event organizers, industrial audio-video firms, and even theaters. He was the sound engineer for some churches, including the same church band instructor Gabe Valdez participated in, and even got to be part of the set up crew for a Peter Frampton show. Third, was taking Manuel’s production skills to the next level. After he had honed his skills taking a song from good to great, he began taking on the process of mixing and mastering. Manuel took on various small projects getting the songs up to a radio ready standard, and began experimenting with recording projects for 48 Degrees North. During the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, he also acquired a small space with the band that eventually became a small project recording studio. ••• 2021 - ON ••• Most of Manuel’s efforts have since focused on 48 Degrees North, but he currently looks to expand into external clientele, as well as his own musical projects. He has become much more active as one of the music writers for the band, and taking a much more hands-on role as producer. Manuel eventually became the band’s producer and audio engineer, and has since served those roles for 6 of the band’s releases. He equipped the project studio with ample recording equipment, and is currently working hard to take his production and engineering skills further and further. Manuel has hopes of continuing to outfit his project studio to be capable of hosting a variety of artists and projects. In the meantime, Manuel is exploring expanding his role within 48 Degrees North to guitar and video work as well. As the band continues to work on future releases, Manuel is very keen on involving himself as a guitar player as well as keyboard. Furthermore, he also got a chance to film some of the band’s side projects, and even tapped into the world of video editing. Manuel also has ambitions of starting his own composition and production projects, which he hopes to eventually release and expand into different mediums.

Formative years (1996-2005) Growing up on rock and rap, i was always around different styles, but leaned more towards instrumental genres like rock, punk and metal. Guitar hero was the game that introduced me to many iconic songs, and made me realize I wanted to be a musician at age 7. My first instrument was a guitar for my 10th birthday. All self-taught by ear, I finally found a friend in middle school who was as interested as I was in guitar, who introduced me to tablature, and from there my learning took off. This friend happened to have just been discovered by Tina Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix's niece. He was a musician of color and she invited him to be a part of the Hendrix Music Academy; a non-profit organization that focuses on helping troubled youth channel their passions into more productive and creative outlets, such as music performance and production. Realizing how beneficial this could be to us as musicians, we humbly accepted and became students at the academy. It's here where I began learning the ins and outs of a professional recording studio, from mic setup, acoustic treatment and recording, all the way to mixing and mastering the final song. We were lucky enough to meet many talented local musicians, which opened our minds to completely different styles, compositions, and general skills. We discussed forming a band together, and when we got to high school, we found a third member who could actually read sheet music (which was incredible at our age for people who liked metal), so we immediately recruited them and made it official. First band: Fallen Traitors (2010-2015) Genre: post-hardcore, metal I received drums as a Christmas present at age 14, and found my love of multi-instrumentalism. Our first band consisted of 3 guitarists and nothing else. Realizing we needed some rhythm, I decided to switch from guitar to drums, which was one of the best decisions I could've made for myself as a musician, as it is now my most prominent instrument. We soon began writing music together, and once we had a small set list of all original music, we played our first show. We opened at El Corazon in Seattle for and old black metal band called "Impaler", and even though the crowd insisted entirely of other band members and our parents, we couldn't have been happier. We booked many shows after that, sometimes playing 4 shows a week all over Washington. We grew a small following, and once we had more songs written, as well refined the older ones, we finally decided to record our album at the Hendrix Studio. It's here where I decided to pick up harsh vocals (or "screaming" vocals) along with the guitarist in order to better help with the band's live presence. We released the album "Empty" to the world on January 1st, 2012. With a mix of thrash, melodic metal, and acoustic ballads sprinkled throughout the album, it became a good musical resume for booking more shows, as well as a good way to attract people who wouldnt normally listen to heavier music. During our time as a band, we were able to open up for some touring metal bands like Being as an Ocean, The Ghost Inside, and BLESSTHEFALL. With high school coming to a close, and people lives beginning to drift apart due to college, moving, and general exhaustion, Fallen Traitors officially disbanded in 2015, but with so much drive still emanating from the members, it was only a matter of time before paths crossed again. Throughout my time in fallen traitors and high school, I taught myself to read sheet music, which in turn helped me learn piano. My brother got a bass, but hardly used it, so I quickly learned bass as well, heavily inspired by bands such as Muse and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also joined drumline as center snare, as well as jazz band, where I picked up many of the skills and rudiments that I still utilize today. Children of Seraph (2015-16) Genre: Power Metal After a small break from music to focus on family after Fallen Traitors, a friend asked if I knew any keyboard players for a local band. Looking to get back into playing live shows, I offered my services since I had just recently purchased a stage keyboard. While all of the songs were already written, they were easily the most difficult songs I had learned up to that point. The band challenged me with different chord progressions, time signatures, key changes, etc, which helped me develop a better feel and understanding of the music I had already been playing. With the songs already written, it was my job to learn them and get them studio ready as quickly as possible. This was unknowingly my first look into my journey as a session musician. We recorded a full album within a month of me joining, and due to some conflicts within the band, I ended up having to record drums and keyboard parts for all songs, as well as vocal performances on a few tracks. Children of Seraph released Warriors of Light (still on Spotify) on July 1st, 2016. With a rocky, yet successful album release show wrapped up, it was time to up the ante. We promoted ourselves like crazy to get to opening spots for HUGE Power metal bands like Helloween, Primal Fear, and Rhapsody of Fire, as well as heavier bands like Archspire and Act of Defiance, who happens to be Chris Broderick's band (most recent guitarist for Megadeth) During this time, we went through multiple drummers, and eventually I had to make the switch from keys to drums, just like my prior band. I felt much more at home behind the drums though, so I didn’t mind, and it began to show in our performances. Once we replaced our keyboardist as well, we set off on our biggest quest yet: an international tour! We were lucky enough to get offered a position on the tour schedule with a band called The MÆNSION, who was in the middle of their worldwide tour. We happily accepted, and booked our flights to Europe, where we were going to be touring for 2 weeks through 5 different countries over the first 2 weeks of November. In addition, we had arranged to be on their Japan leg of the tour as well when that rolled around in February of the next year. But so much can happen in such little time, and with creative differences between members becoming too great, I quit Children of Seraph on October 15th, 2 weeks before we were set to depart from America. I'll always regret not going, but I'll never regret choosing my family over it. Guitar center (2018-20) After another musical break, I finally got my dream job at guitar center. Working in retail, I quickly began developing knowledge of not just skills and techniques, but also the inner workings and parts of every instrument I could imagine. It was a musicians dream, and I couldn't have been happier. The knowledge allowed me a better appreciation of my craft, as well as a better understanding of other musicians. I begin refining all my skills from being around music all day, and I eventually got to the point where o felt comfortable offering my services as a session musician. Church Band (2019-present) Soon after putting my name out for session work, I got an offer to play for a small, new church as their drummer. After having worked around music for so long and finally allowing myself to enjoy other genres of music, I decided to give praise and worship try. It was an immediate change of pace: for the first time, I had to play Q U I E T L Y. After adjusting to the volume levels of church, the music director felt good enough to assign me to be a member of the 4 person choir as well, so I was now on double duty. Having to learn to stay perfectly in time, while also giving emotion and power when singing was an INCREDIBLE challenge, and something I'm so happy I decided to attempt. Not only did it improve my time and feel while drumming, it greatly improved and honed my vocal control, since the only real performances I had done were metal vocals. Present As of now, I'm currently in a melodic metal band called Those In Agony, which coincidentally is all of the same members from Fallen Traitors. We have 5 albums and a bunch of silly stuff of bandcamp.com for free, and with Covid restrictions slowly lifting, we hope to play shows again very soon.

Grew up in Seattle, currently live at Browns Point in Tacoma. Retired U.S. Naval Flight Engineer and Logistics Officer in Japan. Performed opening acts for Billboard Artist US and Japan. Performed in bands primarily playing Smooth Jazz / R&B.

Born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, Marco proceeded to move around their entire childhood living everywhere from New York, Seattle & Okinawa. After graduating, Marco moved to Tacoma Washington to pursue music, arts and education in the Pacific Northwest. They spent the better part of 2019-2021 living in Hawaii. As a well-rounded, creative individual, Marco has worked passionately as a sales associate at the Guitar Center stores in Tacoma Washington and Pearl City Hawaii since 2016. Marco wishes to continue their journey with Guitar Center sharing their knowledge & skills with the generations of tomorrow.

I graduated from the WSU with my Bachelor's in Music Education. In college, I played in orchestras, chamber ensembles, musical pits, and wind bands. I began privately teaching in 2015. In 2018, I started teaching in public education as an elementary music teacher. Cello is my primary instrument to play and teach, but I can also teach violin, viola, double bass, or piano.

My name is Stephanie Benjumea. I am an Army veteran that has taught guitar to soldiers world wide since 2015. I have studied guitar performance and music theory at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I have experience playing Guitar, Bass & Drums. Rock n roll, Pop Punk and Blues are my most played genres but I enjoy teaching all genres. Let’s make some music!

Has been with Guitar Center since 2004.

Has been teaching at Guitar Center since 2025.

Has been teaching at Guitar Center since 2025.

A highly skilled pianist, Ben's areas of expertise are piano, song writing, and composition specializing in the Suzuki method for children.

Having studied music since the age of 10, I attended the University of Puget Sound School of Music and finished my degree at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Science where I studied properties of audio and recording. My passion for music runs deep and my goal is to share that with my students! My specialties are Home Recording/Production, Guitar, and Bass in the areas of Rock, Metal, Blues, and Alternative