Curtis Kamiya Music

Curtis Kamiya is the best! He’s really been able to tap into some creative musical vein of mine that I just couldn’t find when I was a kid. He’s one of the best teachers I’ve had musical or otherwise!
My dad was a wonderful musician. My favorite memories were sitting on the porch with late at night and listening to him sing and play the guitar– tears in heaven, stray cat strut, and as I got older, he’d listen to whatever my favorite song was at the time and then play it for me that night having just heard it once! So when he passed away recently, I inherited all his beautiful guitars. Although he taught me a little and I had piano and guitar classes as a kid and teen, I just wasn’t all that dedicated back then…
But now I wanted to learn really badly, I wanted to keep the music alive in my family.
So I found Curtis. I told him my story and scheduled my free consultation. He was very relaxed, very easy to talk to, and I loved that he cared about why I loved music and what music I loved. He could see when my eyes lit up talking about my favorite band or song and he kindled that fire to bring back things I’d learned and forgotten long ago. I quickly scheduled more classes. Whenever he showed me something, it clicked in my mind, and all of a sudden the random bits I’d learned came into focus. I knew the things I remembered, but he taught me WHY they were so– and it all made sense! He taught me with songs that I chose, and it made it fun for me to go home and practice. I was always amazed at myself after a class, I never felt defeated or frustrated.
Unfortunately I’m having a little financial rough patch now and had to take a hiatus, but as soon as I’m back on track, I’m investing in Curtis/​investing in myself. I’ve had a lot of music teachers, but Curtis really cares about how you learn, and what you should learn to keep your passion for it strong, and that’s a tough skill to find in a teacher.

My wife and I have a couple of ukes, one of which was given to us as a wedding gift after our friend played it on the beach at Hanalei for our wedding march. We decided it was time to learn how to play and I don’t know how we got so lucky to find Curtis, but we are delighted that we did!
Curtis gave us a free introductory hour after which we bought a five-​session package that we attended together. Curtis met us at our level and challenged us the right amount to help us make progress that we didn’t know was possible.
Curtis did an excellent job of discovering what our musical interest is and finding songs that we could manage. He keeps good notes and was always prepped for our sessions.
Curtis’s musical knowledge is thorough without being didactic. I found him to be a perfect ambassador for the transition from a life of listening to music to the other side: playing!
Additionally, my wife used Curtis for a corporate event and he knocked it out of the park. He was able to teach and entertain 18 marketers visiting from the mainland for a retreat. He met them at their level, which got silly at points. He reinforced the themes they were working on and was a success at setting a tone for this week in Hawaii.
Big mahalos, Curtis!

Curtis Kamiya Music is highly recommended. Most importantly, my teen likes the lessons, looks forward to them and does practice. Second, Curtis is extremely talented not just as a musician, but also as a teacher. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music & much of his knowledge is expressed to students. Third, he’s a great entrepreneur too. His lessons are easy to schedule online; he’s available & communicates well with clients. In other words, he not at all like the usual creative-​type-​personalities when it comes to time management & commitment.
I will say this though. Curtis Kamiya is pretty well-​booked, but I think that’s an indicator of his fantastic product.

I’m a beginner but have had a few other teachers. What those guys were lacking, Curtis has. I really didn’t like the little 4×4 rooms I took lessons in from previous teachers, so I was stoked with the big layout of Curtis’s studio. I also like his intro policy; your first lesson’s free and he uses that lesson to get feel from you about what you want to get out of the lessons.
All that other stuff aside, Curtis is a natural teacher. A genuine guy that’s patient and easy to learn from. I move around a lot so I’ll be forced to work with other teachers, but I’m betting that my experiences with Curtis will be the standard that I measure other teachers against for a long time.

Like many chronic guitar-​noodlers, I usually hate guitar lessons. But one day, I found my guitar playing stagnating, and found Curtis on Craigslist.
I took guitar lessons weekly from Curtis for several months before I had to move away from Hawaii, and I loved it. Curtis is a great teacher and a nice guy. Lessons were always fun, always insightful, and always encouraging. Even though I’m not too into structured learning (or practicing for that matter), I still learned a lot and got a lot better taking lessons from Curtis.
In fact, I liked my lessons so much that when myself and my finace got married, we decided to hire his band, Mango Season, to perform. They did a great job.