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HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — When Robin Harrell moved to Hastings from North Carolina in 1984, she didn't know anyone.
She had just received a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting, but she was also a musician, having played the guitar for six years.
So it was by mere coincidence that the gentlemen who hooked her with cable TV also hooked her up with an opportunity to teach guitar lessons.
While Mark Hoevet was setting up Harrell's cable connection, she learned that his parents, Norm and Joan, owned Hoevet's Music at 838 W. Second St., and it just so happened that they were looking for a guitar teacher.
"I thought, 'Hmm, I could do that,' " she told the Hastings Tribune (http://bit.ly/1GyCYJk ). "That's how I got into teaching."
Since then, over the past 31 years, Harrell estimates that she has taught more than 300 students to play the guitar.
"From day one I was like 'oh gosh yes. I love doing this,' " she said. "It was just the challenge of do I know enough as a guitar player to be a teacher. That was my biggest hurdle to get over."
Some of her students have just needed a jump start and take lessons a short time. Others have been taking them with Harrell 10 years.
Regardless of the amount of time she spends with them, Harrell realizes that each student's expectations and levels of experience is different.
"As I'm sitting down somebody, they're counting on me to bring them something that's going to challenge them and something they'd like," she said. "I'm just a guide to help them fulfill their musical aspirations."
Harrell now teaches lessons in a small sunroom attached to her house.
The weekly 30-minute lessons gives Harrell and her student enough time to review what they've learned and to start something new. She looks forward to seeing her students every week because they also motivate her to keep her hands on a guitar.
"I play music every day," she said. "I hate to say it but if I wasn't teaching, I think with my other job I'd say, 'I'm too tired to pick up the guitar.'
"I love that teaching keeps me playing guitar."
Harrell, who is executive director of The Lark performance space at 809 W. Second St., downsized from 50 to 20 students as her schedule picked up during the planning and construction of The Lark, which opened to the public in December 2013.
The Lark is also home to the Listening Room Concert Series, which Harrell organizes.
"I love music," she said. "I love sharing songs and lyrics and artists, all that kind of stuff, with people. That's the cross between everything I do."
Every week she learns at least one new song.
She learned to play slide guitar at the end of 2014 after receiving an electric guitar for Christmas.
Harrell has thought about giving up teaching altogether but she knows she'd miss it. It's a relaxing way for her to end her day, she said.
Also, she said Hastings has always had a shortage of guitar teachers. It was hard enough for her when she downsized from 50 to 20 students.
"That was heartbreaking because there were 30 students without a teacher," she said. "Most of those have not found another teacher."
She has taught students between the ages of 7 to 70. Of her 20 current students, the group is split evenly between those over 21 and those younger.
In some ways, Harrell considers herself a people person who happens to love sharing music.
"Some of the parents say they're getting a heck of a deal with the guitar lessons because they get a psychologist and a guitar teacher all in one," she said.
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Information from: Hastings Tribune, http://www.hastingstribune.com
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