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Bryan Rombalski plays during a CD release party for Bryan Rombalski & Three Worlds at the Creative Spirit Center in August.
In a small, back room at Mid Michigan Music on Midland’s Main Street sat a man, surrounded by bits of art and musical equipment and teaching one of his many students the finer arts of the guitar.
“This is my retirement project,” said George Fromhold of Sanford after his session with local guitar instructor Bryan Rombalski.
The student-teacher dynamic was apparent as the two joked back and forth, reminiscing about record players before sitting down to the business of making music. Fromhold played a riff the two had practiced.
“That sounds pretty good, but can you play with a beat?” challenged the teacher, as he cranked up an amplifier with a simulated drum track. The two played the song again.
“I’m going to give you a call on one of these jobs sometime,” Rombalski said, pleased with the results. The lesson went on, with teacher showing student scales and urging him to practice.
“When I call your house, I’ll hear that in the background and your wife will say, ‘I’ll go get him,’” Rombalski said.
Fromhold is just one of Rombalski’s many students in a musical career that takes him back 30 years and a style that crosses cultures and genres.
The then
Rombalski became interested in music at a young age, hanging around halls listening to a lot of live acts.
It all started with his mother and her varied taste in music, which has rubbed off on him, evident by his large collection of albums.
“I immediately was attracted to it,” he said of music. “I would spend hours literally lying down listening to music.”
He got an acoustic guitar after receiving a Beatles album as a gift, but it was Jimi Hendrix who inspired him to make his guitar talk. After hearing “The Band of Gypsys” he had a whole new take on guitar.
“It actually sounded like human language,” he said of the gui tar on that record. “So I thought, ‘I want to learn how to speak this language.’”
He took lessons, playing on his own and in bands. Going to shows and hearing other virtuoso guitar players warming up helped shape his work ethic. Hearing Eddie Van Halen, Bob Seger and others practice taught him that even the big names need to keep their fingers fresh.
The style of choice went from rock to acoustic; he even studied classical guitar. This would be the basis for his future study of world music ranging from African to Latin to Brazilian, among others.
He moved to Toledo and started teaching guitar lessons there. It was in this city he recorded his first album, “Nozomi.” It was recorded without commercial influence and was simply a reflection of him. He didn’t want to sound like anyone specifically, despite being influenced by Van Halen, Hendrix and others.
“I use music solely as a means of expression,” he said. “It’s a way I find balance, it’s like a seeking out of beauty.
“I just find it’s a meditation for me, and I feel real fortunate that I get to share it with people. I love it; I love being around it.”
Rombalski moved to Chicago for a year, still teaching music, and then was on his way back to mid-Michigan to help with a family business, which led him to where he is today.
While back near his original home he worked, tried visual art and tried to find just where he wanted his life to go.
“I played music for myself for several years,” he said. “I just studied … and kind of meditated on what I wanted to do.”
Recharged, he decided to go back to music and focus on that, both personally and through his students.
The now
Rombalski teaches approximately 40 students now at Mid Michigan Music and the total number over his career reaches into four digits.
He tries to give students more than just the mechanics of playing guitar, he said.
He shoots to give them a deeper appreciation of music, “ an awe of what goes into it and a tool to help them relieve stress.”
He can’t keep track of everyone he’s taught over the years, but sees his name pop up on different musicians’ websites as an influence and receives CDs in the mail from former students
“It’s fun to have people come in and say, ‘I wrote this song,’” he said.
Local singer-songwriter Dave Kellan is one musician he works with regularly. Kellan said.
Rombalski’s broad background from having studied so many types of music has helped him out immensely, calling him an “ethnomusicologist disguised as a guitar teacher.”
“He’s really expanded my horizons as far as different musical applications, styles, genres,” Kellan said of his mentor and friend. “He can take one thing, and look at it from every different direction.
“He’s very versatile.”
Rombalski said when he teaches, he just listens to a student’s skill level then hones in on where he needs improvement. For example, he’s been working with Fromhold trying to teach him ways to interject personality into his playing, such as by bending notes and other guitar-specific tricks.
He tries to teach a mix of mechanics and theory, and doesn’t have a specific method or book that he follows, letting the student guide where the session goes by experience.
“Everyone’s different,” he said. “Some people are more tactile, other people are more cerebral.
“I don’t always have a regimented formula.”
The to be
Rombalski just released an album with his band “Bryan Rombalski and Three Worlds” called “The Journey.” The CD was written to give everyone in the quartet his own voice while combining all the various world music he enjoys.
“I have a desire to see a certain type of music around ... I have a huge collection (of music) and not one thing says it all for me,” he said. “The Journey” blends his West African, Brazilian, funk, jazz, bebop, Latin, classical and other influences.
The goal is to blur the lines between cultures into one cohesive sound, making it sound like a world prayer. He compares it to looking at the Earth from space where there are no artificial borders.
At 48, he feels that now is the time to get the word out about his music so he can share it with future fans.
He’s cut back on his number of lessons, spending extra time practicing as he said now is the time to tour and share his work with people. He’s doing more promotions, sending information out to magazines and club owners, planning a tour.
Rombalski encourages local artists to do a similar thing. He sees a strong local music scene developing, a shift from when he grew up in Saginaw, where that was the place to be in the area for music.
“I’ve heard some really good things out there,” he said of local artists and Review This Radio, which plays his music and other mid-Michigan-based groups. “We could always have more places to celebrate it.”
To solve this issue, he suggests bands that feel like they don’t have a venue seek one out and organize shows on their own. His recent album release party at the Creative Spirit Center drew hundreds, showing that a homegrown show can be a success with the right planning.
“Just do it. It’s a challenge, but it’s also real rewarding.”
For more information about Rombalski and his new album visit www.brbelieve.com
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 He tries to give students more
than just the mechanics of playing guitar.
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