BACKGROUND INFORMATION
 Private
Instruction with Howard Morgan, Sal Salvador, Joe
Monk, Chuck Wayne.
Berklee
College of Music Summer Program – Boston, MA.
Master
Classes with Mick Goodrick, Adrian Legg, Alex de
Grassi and Martin Simpson.
Performed
at the White House for President John F. Kennedy.
Toured
with The Everly Brothers.
Composer/Recording
Artist - CD “Closed for the Day” Best Theme Music
Award - Time Warner Public Access TV.
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Pick a number, from one to 15.
That’s what Joe Pollari tells his music students when
they don’t practice the guitar. If a student chose number
two, his excuse would be, “I forgot.” Excuse number
nine says, “I wasn’t sure you meant me,”
and a number-12 excuse means, “I wasn’t exactly
quite sure what you wanted.” Pollari, who owns the Guitar
Study Institute in Palm Harbor, 1009 Omaha Circle, keeps a
list of 15 excuses on hand for students who have not done
their homework. “Henceforth, to save time, please render
all excuses by number,” the list states.
Pollari, 40, has been teaching others to play the guitar
since he was 17 and has performed professionally for just
as long. He said he plays “all phases of guitar, from
rock to Bach,” but his favorite is jazz. Locally, Pollari
performs for parties and private groups on weekends, but he
spends most of his time teaching on Monday through Friday.
Often he works 12-hour days. “I enjoy it,” he
said. “At the end of the day I’m tired, but it’s
great.”
Pollari said he had not planned on becoming a music instructor.
The first lessons he taught were informal sessions with friends,
he said, then neighbors began asking him to teach their children
to play the guitar when he was not performing on the road.
Most of all, Pollari said, he enjoys meeting people, an opportunity
that teaching provides. In addition, he said, he likes to
watch his students as they improve. Pollari said he teaches
his students what they want to learn. He is helping one student
put original poems to music. Often, he said, students want
to learn how to play contemporary music. And, he said, they
are surprised to discover that rock groups such as Rush and
Van Halen incorporate jazz and classical styles in their songs.
That realization opens their eyes to the amount of studying
it takes to become a good musician, he said, and he notices
they begin taking their lessons more seriously.
Unlike others who try a variety of jobs before they choose
their career, Pollari said he always wanted to play the guitar
as a profession and started taking lessons at the age of eight.
“I always had a guitar in my hand,” he said. Pollari
was educated at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. A
native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Pollari is the only son of an Italian
electrician. His father wanted him to join the family business,
but Pollari said he lasted only a day on the job before he
returned to playing guitar professionally. Although his father
was disappointed at first, Pollari said, he changed his mind
after he watched his son perform on the Mike Douglas Show.
Pollari said several of his relatives played the instrument
for enjoyment. And one of his cousins who was with the group
the “Bell Notes” even had a hit record titled
“I’ve Had It.” Pollari said traveling with
his cousin’s group was his first job on the road.
Pollari also played backup for groups from Dicky Do and the
Don’ts to the Evenly Brothers. When he was 19, he recalled,
he worked at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater and played for
popular performers such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Tony Orlando.
Eventually, he joined the Lester Lanin Orchestra and spent
his time on the road traveling by airplane and limousine.
He performed twice for President John F. Kennedy while with
the orchestra. “I don’t miss the road,”
Pollari said. “I feel I’ve done everything from
recording to TV to bars and high society.”
Pollari said music has been “great” to him. “It
hasn’t made me rich, but it’s given me everything
I wanted,” he said. “I want for nothing in life.”
But even as an instructor, Pollari remains a music student
“I never had the attitude that I’m going to be
a star,” he said, “and I never had the attitude
that I knew it all. I always wanted to learn.” When
Pollari left New York for Florida five years ago, he was operating
a mobile music business bringing lessons to his students’
homes. The business, however, proved uneconomical with rising
gasoline prices. As an alternative, Pollari opened his guitar
institute this past September.
Sun Metro News, August 27, 1982
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