As a child growing up in rural Maryland, Elizabeth Day lived and breathed music. She studied any musical instrument she could get her hands on, but it was when she got her first electric guitar at age eleven that she knew she’d found her special “thing.” Through playing her guitar, she was able to express herself, communicate, and connect with people in a way that spoken words couldn’t achieve. And that was what she craved more than anything else: connection.
Elizabeth’s father, a professional musician, taught her the basics of guitar. Recognizing her natural ability, he also wasted no time in thrusting her into the professional music scene, where Elizabeth was forced to either sink or swim – and she swam. After she outpaced her father’s teaching, she began taking lessons from more advanced teachers, including bassist Anthony Wellington, whose approach combining music theory and practical “legwork” left a deep impression on Elizabeth as a student. She knew what she was after: effortless musical expression. And she was willing to do what it took to get there.
Elizabeth continued learning from Wellington and other specialized teachers, while also continuing to play in public. Barely in her teens, she’d already been publicly performing longer than most of her peers. Other musicians were now seeking out her guidance, eager to learn about her playing, her approach, her modes of thinking. In the process, Elizabeth discovered that in addition to her passion for music, she had a passion for teaching – sharing whatever could with others who were similarly dedicated to learning. She loved enhancing the musical learning experience and expanding the wonderment of music even for those who had already been playing for years. Most of all, teaching offered yet another way to connect.
Elizabeth finished out high school and took some college courses, but she was impatient to test out her teaching methods in a venue larger than rural Maryland. She found her way to Lowell, Massachusetts, which had a plethora of creative communities. She hobnobbed with beat poets and performance artists and joined a horn band, playing tenor sax. It struck her, however, that for all its artistic offerings, one thing downtown Lowell was lacking was community-based music education. She decided to provide exactly that – by starting a business and running a lessons studio.
Fueled by her conviction that musical expression is innate and music education should be accessible to everyone, Elizabeth began giving music lessons out of her studio apartment. She taught an array of instruments to all kinds of students, and word began to spread. Performance parties and potlucks drew even more people eager to be part of Lowell’s newest creative community. Her teaching vision culminated in the founding of Root Note Studio, a guitar lessons platform providing in-person and online guitar instruction to students of all ages and abilities.
The rates were right, and the community-based approach filled a niche in Lowell. Word of Elizabeth’s innovative teaching methods and the studio’s collaborative feel now spread like wildfire. Catalyzed by a community spirit greater than the sum of its parts, Root Note Studio took on a life of its own, surpassing even Elizabeth’s own expectations. To this day, Root Note Studio continues to embody that grassroots community spirit and love of music – as Elizabeth puts it, something “bigger than us.”
In 2014, Elizabeth decided to move to Nashville, Tennessee, for professional reasons, but she didn’t abandon her love of teaching – or her students. She turned over the running of the Lowell studio to trusted colleague Seiki Imagica and established a second Root Note Studio in Nashville. And she continued to expand her already-global student base, offering a variety of online lesson options suitable for everyone from brand-new beginners to music professionals seeking to take their playing to the next level.
In teaching, Elizabeth utilizes a carefully crafted curriculum honed over years of teaching. She works with students to identify deficits and gaps in skill and helps them get in touch with how they’d like to sound. While the curriculum is set, it’s also fluid – more a moving picture than a rigid rulebook. Elizabeth’s teaching process, too, is far from linear. She equates it to decoding or picking a lock, and what she aims to unlock is effortless musical expression.
It’s one thing to know music; it’s another to be able to teach it. With ten-thousand-plus hours of experience in both playing and teaching, Elizabeth is one of the rare masters of both. As thousands of former and current students can attest, any dedicated student is sure to find what they need to flourish under Elizabeth’s tutelage. In lovingly demanding the best of her students, she creates a bond rather than a barrier, leaving everyone, herself included, the better for the experience.*
In addition to online and in-person lessons, Elizabeth is available for music clinics, panel discussions, and workshops.
