Meet Riley, The Founder Of Freedom Guitar
My Story
Hello there! My name is Riley Anderson, and at Freedom Guitar, I help guitar students ages 10 to adults develop the skills, understanding, and confidence to become the guitarists they want to be.
My musical journey started out playing the euphonium in school band. What’s a euphonium you ask? It looks like a smaller tuba. The next year I finally started learning guitar and I actively played both instruments all throughout my life. In high school, I played euphonium in the concert bands, marching band, and guitar in the jazz ensembles. All throughout that time, I had lessons in both instruments.
Interestingly enough, I pursued music school as a euphonium student, guitar was a minor study, and so at one point I was doing more euphonium stuff, but I would periodically do guitar related things too as my love of guitar never died.
I finished my bachelor of music in music performance at Central Michigan University out in the cold, and then I took a plane overseas and finished my master of music in music performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.
Throughout my years I studied with some of the best euphonium and tuba players in the world along with some world class guitar and jazz teachers. While I admit, I don’t play euphonium much these days, my years as a brass musician gave me so many unique and invaluable experiences that helped me not only as a guitar player, and as a musician.
It was during my time at Central Michigan University when I found I had a huge love for private music teaching which started in 2016. I had no interest in being a band director, but I loved teaching and working with students individually, or in smaller groups. I at first was looking at the university applied professor route, until I was inspired and realized the possibility of teaching students on my own terms. Fast forward to the beginning of 2023, I started teaching my own students from my home.
My business names have evolved over the years, but was inspired and came up with the name “Freedom Guitar” because to me, becoming a guitarist is ultimately about developing musical freedom—whether that’s the freedom to pick up your guitar and strum along to your favorite songs with ease and confidence, solo and improvise your own cool ideas on the spot, or being able to learn a song or lick you enjoy on your own, that’s true guitar freedom.
I believe guitar lessons should be both challenging, and enjoyable whether you are a beginner just getting started, or a developing intermediate player. My goal is to create an encouraging environment where students can work hard, make real progress, and develop a genuine love for playing guitar.
Whether you learn with me in person, or at the convenience of your home online, you’ll receive structured instruction tailored to your goals, consistent guidance from an experienced teacher, and a clear path for continued growth. Most importantly, I want students to enjoy the process. Guitar can be challenging, but that challenge is part of what makes learning so rewarding.
Fun Fact About Me-I’m Also A Dancer
During my undergrad, we had an east coast swing dance club at my school, and upon just attending one class…I loved it so much I kept going. Dancing became a nice mental break from the stresses and difficult times during music school, as well as another expressive/creative activity while still being different to what I normally did.
In addition to dancing at school, I discovered in my hometown at the time, the Northern Virginia/DC area, had an amazing dance community. I found myself dancing 3-5x a week during the summers. It was then I got introduced to ballroom dance styles, and what became my favorite partner dance of all time…West Coast Swing. Which I will admit, was frustrating and confusing to understand in the beginning, but I ultimately stuck with it!
After college, when I was looking for work, I stumbled across a local franchise ballroom studio and I found myself training and teaching as a ballroom instructor for a couple of years. From there, my dancing had leveled up in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined, and things that were confusing years ago suddenly clicked. Not to mention the invaluable teaching experience.
When I moved to Raleigh back in 2022, that’s when things changed. I started to take a back step from the ballroom world and put more focus in the west coast swing world. It was then I got introduced to the competitive west coast swing circuit, and started training and taking private lessons with different west coast swing dance teachers.
Within 29 months I qualified for, and now currently compete in, the Advanced WSDC competitive level. When I am not teaching guitar lessons or doing music…I sometimes teach west coast swing group classes and private lessons on the side.
All to say, I thought music would be my whole life. But actually, along with music…dance is also a very important part of my life that has opened even more opportunities for me.