Meet Riley Anderson

Hi there, I’m Riley aka Riley from Raleigh (a nickname people gave me since I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina). I’ve been involved with music for nearly 20 years. I started out playing euphonium in my middle school band, and in the next year I picked up the guitar in which, I played guitar in my school jazz bands, and I played euphonium in the school wind bands and marching band. In high school, I was playing in at least 4 ensembles by my junior year.

I hold a Master of Music from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England where I studied euphonium and secondary studies in guitar, and a Bachelor of Music from Central Michigan University. Between both instruments, I have been involved in hundreds of performance situations.

My passion for teaching music came about during my undergrad. While I wasn’t particularly attracted to the idea of teaching in the school systems like as a band director, I found I loved working with students individually helping them achieve their personalized goals. This eventually led me to wanting to run my own guitar teaching studio which has evolved to now…Freedom Guitar where I help guitarists unlock their voice and freely express themselves on guitar.

In addition to guitar and music, I am also a passionate dancer to which I’ve dabbled in various styles including ballroom, salsa, swing, but my favorite and primary dance these days is west coast swing. I currently compete in the Advanced West Coast Swing division, travel to several events a year, and when I’m not teaching guitar, I am teaching west coast swing lessons and classes which has led to a fulfilling and diverse lifestyle between the two.

In my downtime, I love going on adventures and traveling, meeting new people, enjoying great food and drinks, hanging out with friends, binging a great Netflix series, social dancing at weekly dance events, working out, you name it.

Whether you’re a beginner looking to build your foundation, or an intermediate player that wants to improvise and be more expressive, I look forward to helping you achieve your guitar goals!