Master Music Teacher John DeFoore
By Tom Geddie
John DeFoore’s first investment in a guitar continues to pay dividends. He bought it for 50 cents when he was 12, and he’s made a living with it — or one of its many offspring — for nearly 50 years.
John’s guitars took him to many states and countries before he settled in Mineola in 1989, where he’s slowly set performing aside to become one of the region’s most successful music teachers. To call him a guitar teacher would be inadequate because his lessons go far beyond the instrument to encompass songwriting, performing, and even survival instincts for those students who want to make a living in the music business.
In a 30-minute lesson, he’ll teach guitar, songwriting, a bit of music business savvy, performance, confidence, and whatever else is called for. He’ll push. He’ll be patient. He’ll encourage and really listen. He’ll open doors and clear paths. Homework is mandatory.
“I teach most of the students as if they are going to do it for a living,” John said. “I ask them for the best they’ve got, and I teach all my musicians to write because if I teach you and you don’t write, then what I’ve taught you to be is a tape recorder that plays back what somebody else has done. You’re not fulfilling your potential if all you’re doing is copying somebody else.”
The method works.
Just this month, one of his students, Kacey Musgraves, is one of 10 finalists – from more than 20,000 contestants – on the “Nashville Star” TV show. Two more of his students, Miranda Lambert and Casey Rivers, used that same national TV exposure to launch careers.
One recent weekend, John counted 27 of his students playing paying gigs, from Michelle Shocked in Australia to Kacey and Casey and Miranda to Kerri Arista in Dallas to Jon Wolfe in South Texas to T-Roy Miller in East Texas to Aaron Jackson from Quitman, who was touring Japan and Europe.
“I kinda call all my students my babies. I’m proud of them because I feed off of their enjoyment and pride,” John said. “Aaron is kinda a prodigy, an amazing guitar player like Django Reinhardt in bluegrass and jazz. He practiced three hours a day and kept his grades up in school.”
The 30-minute formal lesson obviously is the tip of the iceberg.
“I’m pushing some of my newer students, asking them to practice 45 minutes to an hour a day,” John said. “If you want to be famous, you’ve got to give me more than 30 minutes. If you want to be a doctor or lawyer, you spend the time. If you want to be a musician, you need to spend the time, too.
“I ask them, how hungry are you, how bad do you want this, what are you willing to pay in time away from video games or cell phones?”
Among 60 current students (ranging from children to retirees), John also singles out Jarett McAlister.
“He’s going to be good in about a year,” John said. “He’s 15 and I’ve been teaching him since he was 10 — everything from Eric Clapton to Carlos Santana to Stevie Ray Vaughan — and he chose country because he fell in love with a little girl and they do country duets together and both of them write real good songs, too.”
The “little girl” is Karleigh Paige, who’s 14 and also a student.
“I’ve been blessed in a lot of ways. I get good students,” John said. “No matter how good a teacher you are, if your students can’t do it then nothing’s going to happen. I’ve got four who are getting close to being ready for something.”
Last year, he and Randy Brown produced a 21-song Songwriters at the Beckham CD that included Miranda and Kacey along with some of his upcoming students such as Seth Messimer and Brin Beaver with a dozen other students — some proudly amateur — doing original material.
John teaches guitar, mandolin, bass, and banjo in styles ranging from jazz to pop to rock to country, and everything from finger-style picking to lead and rhythm. At the Beckham Hotel, another 60 students take fiddle lessons from Ross Holmes of the “newgrass” band Cadillac Sky, violin lessons from Sarah Masat Holmes of the Masat Family Band, and guitar lessons from Kevin Best.
Kevin teaches John’s method, often working with the beginners to let John focus on advanced students.
“I’ve got a lot of written material he uses,” John said. “He’s going to explain some music theory and do it my way, with his own twist I’m sure.”
John was born June 8, 1946, in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the heart of Delta blues territory, and lived in Alaska, Texas, and Scotland. His dad was a Baptist preacher and missionary. He lived in London for nine years before moving to Texas in 1973.
The 19,500-square-foot, three-story Beckham hosts music lessons four days a week and has a couple of first-floor tenants, Lou Viney and The Artful Oven. The rest of the time, the 29-bedroom hotel with a ballroom and picturesque lobby is home to John and his wife, Nancy. He bought it in 1993.
“God only knows why I bought it,” John said, laughing. “I saw it one time and thought it was a really neat building. I have no idea, a slight form of insanity perhaps.”
John got into music early. His mother majored in violin in college and played piano in church. His grandmother was first-chair violinist in a small orchestra in Jackson, Mississippi.
He remembers his first guitar.
“It was hanging in my grandfather’s barn in Mississippi and had Hawaiian girls on it,” John said. “Once I started playing, there was never any question of what I’d do for the rest of my life. You start doing something, and you realize it’s you.”
His first gig came when he was 15, playing at VFWs in Mississippi. For 18 years, he toured with Tim Holiday.
“We just became great friends. He had some hits back in the mid and late 70s, and I started playing with him about that time and we thought we were going to be famous.”
John has also taught in universities and music stores in Dallas and Abilene.
His East Texas band, Jealousy Motel, quit playing regular gigs a couple of years ago. In November, he shut down the popular, once-a-month Piney Woods Pick’n Parlor shows — which hosted the original Dixie Chicks, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Sara Hickman, Tom Paxton, and many more fine musicians — because insurance costs grew too high.
Teaching — pushing, patience, encouragement, listening — remains. As do the successes of his “babies.”
