Student Spotlight: Oscar Ystenes

This edition of "Student Spotlight" features 22 year old guitar student Oscar Ystenes.Oscar has been a student of mine since February 19th, 2010. I got to start Oscar right from the start. He is a psychology major at Augusta State and will graduate in 2012. Oscar got into playing because his father played and urged him to play when he was younger. He did not start playing until he was older and developed his own liking of music and wanted to start playing and writing his own songs. Along with having a dad that played, he has a brother that plays drums and has a girlfriend ( Candice Litsey, another of my students) that plays bass, ukulele and sings. He sites his favorite bands as Breaking Benjamin, Five Finger Death Punch and Three Days Grace. He would love to play in Japan or Australia because of his love of both of those cultures. Oscar's dream guitar would be a Gibson Les Paul or a Fender Strat. Right now he has a Yamaha acoustic guitar and a Schector Omen Extreme electric guitar. His first concert was Sick Puppies, Janus and Shotgun Opera right here in Augusta Georgia. If he could ever be a fill in guitarist for any band it would be one of his faves, Breaking Benjamin. In the future when he is out playing gigs his dream bands to be on tour with would be Five Finger Death Punch and Breaking Benjamin. Where does Oscar see himself musically in five years? He sees himself in a band playing gigs locally and having a blast doing it! Oscar sites being persistent and motivated to continue practicing everything he needs to play as one of the things he has got the most out of lessons with me. Some advice for someone thinking of playing from Oscar is "Practice daily. You won't master your instrument and get good unless you put the time in." The most embarrassing thing on his Ipod? The Pokemon Theme Song by the boy band N' Sync!!!! When Oscar finishes school he wants to get into being a crime scene forensics worker and work on criminal and crime profiling. He is a very smart and persistent person. I can very easily see him being able to do that. Working with him has been great. He puts in the time and effort it takes to be a player. It is paying off for him now and will continue to pay off for him in the future. Every week he comes in prepared and having shown progress from the week before. He is a model student. I enjoy seeing him get a song down. He is going to develop into a hell of a player. So here's to you Oscar.....Keep Rockin'........Keep Playin'........and Keep Having Fun!!!!!!

John Berret