Music teacher John McBurney has always enjoyed instruments. It has become a way for him to try new things. When he was little, he would come home from school and go straight to the piano. And since then, it has expanded. 

McBurney has had a passion for music ever since his childhood that he now uses in the classroom. 

“I love it, I have a lot of curiosity for learning new sounds and new instruments,” McBurney said.

McBurney has spent many years gathering his collection and growing it, but it all started with one instrument. The instrument that they had in the house at the time was a piano, and so he chose to pursue it. He began playing the piano, but that was just the beginning. He would then learn how to play violin, flute, bassoon and then guitar.

McBurney learned to take on many different instruments from those four, but later on in life, his collection of instruments is around 130. He is able to play over 70 different instruments.

Music has been in his life since he was young. He has consistently sung in church and always sung with his family. His brother, Scott McBurney, has witnessed his learning and continues to support it when it comes to him learning all of the different instruments. 

“Some of the most enjoyable times I had as a kid were when we were all singing together,” Scott said.

Ever since McBurney learned the piano, Scott says he always knew music would be in his brother’s life.

He went to school for music and later took a teaching class in his college years. He then decided to put those two together to have what he has now. He teaches piano and guitar classes that students can learn from, but he incorporated music history into the courses he taught.

He shows his class around 80 instruments each semester. He plays many of the ones that he shows, and they all go along with the time period they are from. This correlates to the history portion of his class. 

Senior Zen Cing was one of his students in his guitar class two years ago. 

“He made it easy to understand and a good class to learn and practice in,” Cing said. 

There are many more instruments that McBurney’s class sees, some of the main ones are the piano and the harp set up next to his desk.

“The ones I play the most are piano, guitar and harp,” McBurney said. “And then probably oboe and bassoon.”  

McBurney always knew music was going to be in his life. By third grade, he knew that he wanted to pursue a music career. Since then, he has taken it to the next level.

In the future, McBurney looks to learn more instruments, add them to his collection and proceed to bring them into his class and for his students.

He also hopes to reunite with performing alongside a community orchestra.

“At some point, I would love to get back into performing with a community orchestra. ” McBurney said.