Guitar Faculty
John Paolilli
Guitar, Ukulele & Bass
John teaches in person and remote lessons on Thursdays from 2-8pm.
John Paolilli is a guitarist from Lowell, Massachusetts. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2010 with a degree in Guitar Performance. In 2012, he won the award “Best Guitarist” from WMRC/MyFm Radio. Shortly after that, he was the featured guitar player in the Heineken commercial “Around the World in the Key of G." John has played for a wide variety of artists and in styles from jazz, to hard rock, to country. He has played in places from Fenway Park, to the Worcester Palladium, to the Lonesome Dove in Bismarck, North Dakota. John applies a customized teaching philosophy to each student. He believes in presenting the fundamentals and basics that every musician needs within the genre that the student loves most. This approach creates a natural motivation for developing consistent and quality practice habits. He firmly believes that students will improve faster and have more fun when working in the style of music that they enjoy.
Mike Loce
Guitar, Ukulele & Bass
Mike teaches in person and remote lessons on Tuesdays from 2-8pm.
Mike Loce (guitar) is originally from Boston, has lived in New Hampshire since 2003, and has been working in the professional music forum since 1994. He has taught in a wide variety of private music schools and developed many facets of educational music curricula.
After college, the desire to create original music and to achieve high levels on his instrument took precedence in Mike’s life so he took time and worked on both his musical and philosophical development.
Mike began working at Parker Guitars in a technical position in 2000. He then appeared with musical troupes such as Boston Rock Opera. For four years he worked as Director of Student Support and helped develop a small online company called Personal Guitar School, later to become Sam Ash Music Institute.
Mike is a registered songwriter and music publisher with ASCAP. He works teaching guitar, ukulele and group ensembles in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He enjoys organizing his original groups, composing music, playing gigs, and doing recording sessions of all styles. As a performer of guitar, he has played many diverse shows in a multitude of styles, and with noted acts such as Blue Man Group. He has two current performance outlets for his music, called DoubleNecks Guitar Duo, and Analogue Music Lab.
In 2011, Mike created The Ukestra, a fun Nashua-based collaborative ukulele orchestra which has seen impressive development, being featured in NH Magazine and NH Chronicle.
As a teacher, he’s been active since 1998, in both personal and group settings. Confident and successful with all ages from child to adult, Mike uses a comfortable differentiated instruction approach tailored to the music goals of the student. A tireless experimenter of sound and form, Loce continues to refine his craft and has earned the respect of many other music industry professionals. He is pleased to be on the NCMS faculty for both guitar and ukulele.
Cody Switzer
Guitar & Ukulele
Cody teaches in person and remote lessons on Wednesdays from 2-8pm.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Cody Switzer began playing guitar at 10 years old starting with classical guitar lessons from the professor of the University of South Alabama and continuing throughout middle and high school. He continued his music education at the University of Alabama where he obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance. Post-graduation he moved to Tallahassee, Florida to study with Bruce Holzman at Florida State University. Cody obtained a Master's Degree in Arts Administration at FSU in 2018 and was the president of the Classical Guitar Society at FSU and director of the FSU Modern Guitar Ensemble. Cody also co-directed and directed the Florida Guitar Festival from 2017-2019.
Cody has performed in masterclasses for a variety of world-renowned guitarists, including Jorge Caballero, Pavel Steidl, Andrew Zohn, and David Russell. He has taught guitar for almost 10 years, starting at the University of Alabama Community Music School followed by Music Lessons Express in Tallahassee, Florida. He also taught group guitar lessons to music therapy and music education students while studying at Florida State University. Teaching students a variety of genres including classical, thrash metal, country, and neo-soul, Cody leads with the mindset that students should learn guitar through playing music they love.