Buddy
Dr. Woods himself. A true master of his craft, Buddy has been teaching music for decades and has been in numerous touring rock bands since the 1970s. Ask him to tell you a 'Road Story'. He has hundreds and always likes to share them.
David has been playing music all of his life. He studied under Buddy Wiegelman & Tom Hess (Guitar), and Douglas Rose (Banjo, Dobro). David has been teaching at Dr. Woods since 1999 but has been playing professionally since 1994. “ In the last ten years, I’ve played with numerous acts around the Chicago area, and toured across the U.S. "I’m currently playing with Chicago-based Indy-Folk group 'Good Evening'". David insists that he mostly just listens to J.S. Bach, but some influences would include Jethro Burns, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Rob Ickes, Bryan Sutton, Clarence White, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Django Reinhardt, Bill Kieth, Courtney Johnson, Bela Fleck, Darol Anger, and Liz Carroll - among countless others.
Eric Justen
Eric has been teaching music at Dr. Woods for the past 5 years and he manages and teaches the Rock U program for young rock stars. He has 17 years of experience playing guitar and as of recently has begun playing a lot of drums and ukulele. Eric has studied jazz with Zvonimir Tot and Mike Basan and has played in various jazz combos in highschool and college. He has done theater work on guitar, mandolin and drums for Broadway in Chicago.
'My favorite guitar player is David Gilmour, after that it's Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, Steve Hackett, John Petrucci, John Mclaughlin and Steve Lukather, in no paticular order. I also love drummers. I dig Phil Collins, Mike Portnoy, Bill Bruford and Bernard Purdie'
Nick Hawkins
Nick Hawkins has been playing music for more than 20 years, and for the past six of those years, he has been teaching drums at Dr. Woods. He studied at Cary Grove High School with 3 years of MCC Music. Through both High School and College, Nick has studied various styles of playing including jazz, swing, jazz, and funk, and is currently playing with local heavy metal band Headlok. Nick's influences are heavy metal, hard rock, classical, classic rock, funk, progressive, jazz, Mike Mangini, Mike portnoy, Joey Jordison, Vinnie Paul, and John Bonham.
Scott Merrill
Scott Merrill has taught drum set, mallet percussion, and orchestral percussion for the past 35 years of his 41 year musical career. He teaches all levels and styles from rock to symphonic. Having studied in Elgin Public School programs, DePaul University, Berklee College of Music, and Southern Illinois University, led him into a succesful music career. Scott has played for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, with dozens of local Chicagoland, Boston, and Southern Illinois bands, for various cruise lines, TV station soundtracks (such as PBS, and WPWR), radio commercials, and venues (such as United Center, Navy Pier, Park West, etc..). Scott's teaching philosophy is:
"Mastery of the fundamentals is essential. Beyond that, each student is an individual and their program of study should be relevant and tailored to their needs, goals, and musical preferences. Learning to play music well is a commitment requiring time, discipline and work but it can also be a lot of fun."
