teacher profile

Personal Statement/Background

Guitarist/songwriter/teacher/journalist MIKE O'CULL is a familiar presence on the Midwest music scene. He has worked with ex-Sonia Dada frontman Paris Delane and members of Chicago's Grammy-nominated Liquid Soul as well as many nationally known tribute artists including Rick "Elvis" Saucedo, Irv Kass, and Denny Diamond. He currently plays guitar for Midwest country music favorites The White Saddle Band and the acoustic duo The Better Half. He is experienced in original and cover music, plays electric and acoustic, and has a reputation as one of the best sidemen in the Chicago market. A partial list of venues and clients he has performed in or worked with would include House of Blues Chicago, Chicago Blues Festival, WGN-TV News, Soldier Field, the United Center, Fox Theater in Boulder, CO, Chicago White Sox, Special Olympics, The Belly Up in Aspen, CO, Buddy Guy's Legends, Martyrs', Uncommon Ground, Navy Pier, KBCO Radio in Boulder, CO, and many more. Mike is well known as an excellent guitar instructor and has a successful private teaching practice based in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs. He has been a featured instructor at Chicago’s famous Old Town School of Folk Music and also writes the Guitar Tips column for www.Chicagomusicguide.com. He is comfortable working with any age or ability level and covers topics including music reading, ear training, music theory, improvisation, song learning, performance preparation, and more, all in a fun yet still goal-oriented manner that keeps students coming back for more. Many of Mike’s students have gone on to study at prestigious music schools like Berklee College of Music in Boston and Musicians Institute in California and some are already music teachers themselves. Whether a student’s goal is to be a professional player or to simply experience and enjoy guitar lessons as part of the care and feeding of their human spirit, Mike is the teacher to get students where they want to be.

Mike is also emerging as a songwriter and one of his songs, "Look This Nice," received an Honorable Mention in the 2007 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest. Savvy readers may recognize O'Cull's name from his other career, that of music journalist. He is a regular contributor to the Illinois Entertainer, which is the largest music magazine in the Midwest and boasts 200,000 audited readers monthly and which has published O'Cull's reviews and feature articles since the year 2000. He is a contributor to www.Illinoisblues.com , www.gear-vault.com and www.Chicagobluesguide.com and his work has also appeared in Gig Magazine, Bassics, and Bass Frontiers. He does press releases, bios, liner notes, and web content for other area artists, as well.

Education

Columbia College Chicago, 1990