A multidisciplinary musician

Reading time: 5 minutes

This blog issue presents Alex Charette, a professor at Conservatoire de musique de la Montérégie .

My beginnings

I started playing guitar at 14, influenced by the rock music my parents taught me and particularly inspired by Slash. One day, on a whim, I told my parents that I wanted to learn to play. They agreed on the condition that I take lessons, but since it didn't appeal to me and I was stubborn, I built by first guitar prototype with the means at hand and started to learn what I could!

My first prototype

My musical journey

After building my first guitar, my parents realized that I was serious about it. For my birthday, they gave me my first electric guitar. I joined the school band and played in several youth groups. I could spend hours each day learning, practicing, and writing music on my own. Eventually, I felt the need to take lessons in order to progress further and benefit from the experience of more accomplished musicians. Later, I landed a job teaching guitar while studying social work.

Alex with a young apprentice from the musical initiation class.

Teaching

Teaching music quickly became a passion of mine, to the point where I wanted to improve my skills further. That’s how I joined the jazz guitar program at Cégep de Saint-Laurent. Today , it gives me great pleasure to continue teaching as well as disseminate my knowledge of music with young people.

My other areas of interests

I am fortunate to have two jobs that I am passionate about. In addition to teaching guitar at the Conservatoire de musique de la Montérégie, I work as an addiction prevention worker at Antoine-Brossard high school. I enjoy supporting young people, both in their musical learning and in their personal challenges. Outside of my work, I am a big outdoor enthusiast. I spend a lot of time in Canada’s national parks and I love organizing wilderness hikes. Finally, building guitars is another passion that occupies an important place in my life.

Some of the completed instruments by Alex.

Discovering my passion for building instruments

As a teenager, I started doing my own adjustments and repairs on my guitars. I have always been very interested in how instruments work. Little by little, I started repairing and modifying instruments for my friends, then for customers. This allowed me to develop several skills useful for lutherie. As a perfectionist, I thought for a long time about what the ideal guitar for me would be. One day, I decided to design it myself. Then there was a second, a third… Today, what motivates me the most is to offer musicians a creative and collaborative process throughout the process to design an instrument that corresponds to their vision of the ideal guitar. It is very satisfying to arrive at a final result in which the person recognizes themselves!