February 13, 2017

Meet Vreny Van Elslande of ZOT Zin Music in Atwater Village and Echo Park

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vreny Van Elslande.

Vreny was born in Belgium in the 70’s. He grew up listening to the Beatles, The Bee Gees, soul music, disco and whatever else he heard on the radio that was constantly playing in his parent’s house. He was 17 when a high school classmate started playing guitar and got Vreny interested in playing himself. Around the same time, he discovered Jimi Hendrix and was awestruck.

By the time he was 20, Vreny was playing the songs of his idols, The Beatles, Queen, Jimi, Led Zeppelin, including all the great classic rock bands from the 70’s

Vreny finished High School in 1989, and, after a year in the military in Germany, he returned to his hometown of Ypres to attend the Academy for Music and Word (SAMW), where he studied classical guitar and composition.
Vreny finished SAMW’s 10-year intense classical guitar program in about 7 years, graduated with honors, and received special awards for outstanding achievement as a classical guitarist.

In 1998, Vreny left Belgium to go to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he refined his guitar playing and compositional skills. He received Scholarships and Awards throughout his time at Berklee, and in 2002, Vreny graduated Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music with 2 Bachelors Degrees in (Jazz) Performance as well as Music Production & Engineering.

After so many years of non-stop studying, teaching, and performing any style of music in numerous bands throughout the years, Vreny moved to Los Angeles early 2002.

Soon after arrival in LA, he restarted his guitar teaching business and produced demos from his home-based recording studio. He played in numerous bands as a hired gun with the niece of Bobby Womack (Ezina Moore) and the daughter of the horn player in the Commodores (Leah King). He built a roster of famous clients who hired Vreny as a guitar coach & music teacher, including the son of Nicholas Cage, Weezer, Vanessa Williams, and many more.

Vreny’s songs and bands have played on the radio both in Europe and the US.

The single Madland, released with his current band, Automatik Eden, reached 12th place in the national Billboard charts.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The obstacles are too many to mention.

I moved to LA in 2002 with a significant amount of student debt and meanwhile had to find my way in a city where I practically didn’t know anybody, at the other side of the world, with no capital to get my business started.

Somehow, through contacts I made with other alumni from Berklee College of Music in Los Angeles, I got the ball rolling bit by bit, and ultimately found my way in LA.

Other than that, the challenges were the same ones any musician or business owner deals with:
1) networking.
2) finding capital to grow the business.
3) finding ways to find customers, marketing and creating leads.
4) building a website, building a brand, a name and credibility
and so on.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about ZOT Zin Music – what should we know?
ZOT Zin Music provides private 1-on-1 guitar and music lessons, and music recording & production services.

“ZOT Zin” is Flemish. (It’s the language spoken in the northern part of Belgium.)

“ZOT” means “crazy”, with all the same connotations as in the English language: crazy, unconventional, passionate, wild, but also “in love”, and so on. “Zin” means “to be”.

To sum it all up: “To be in love with music”

True to the company name, we have created a unique approach to guitar and music learning, that has shown to create much better results than other guitar learning systems or schools.

Our students experience outstanding results because:

1) Each student gets a personalized guitar curriculum, customized to cater to each individual student’s learning styles, goals, and wishes,
2) That customized guitar plan is conveyed through a teaching approach that applies success principles of super-study, psychology, music pedagogy, time management, and neuroscience.

In other words: on the one hand, there is the fact the students get a completely personalized lesson plan to achieve their specific music goals with the least amount of effort in the least amount of time… and then there is also the way that lesson plan is taught. The teacher uses communication styles, and methods that help the student get the best learning experience and that maximizes the students learning productivity in every lesson.

This leads to a unique approach to guitar education, that more than any approach, really helps each student get the absolute maximum ROI out of his/her talent, focus skills, practice time and lesson investment.

Lessons are fun, up-tempo, with lots of information, conveyed in a very efficient and relaxed way.

Our students have weekly, well thought-off, fun exercises and timed drills for maximum impact and efficiency.

Students see instant, fast, strong progress in their guitar playing, whatever level they are at complete beginner, intermediate or highly advanced guitarist.

That faster progress is also a huge money saver because students get more and better results for their money.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Really everybody in my life deserves credit.

My parents who gave me a strong upbringing. They always believed in me and taught me; you can do anything you want in life, but always strive for excellence in whatever you undertake.

All my family, friends and fans, who come to all my shows, and who are so supportive of all my goals and endeavors.

All my many music, guitar, songwriting and composition teachers, who all shared their knowledge, skills, and insights with me.

My hundreds of colleague musicians I performed, jammed or recorded within past 30+ years.

My students and recording clients, who are making all this possible, and who keep propelling me forward to constantly keep improving things.

The over 1000 authors and researchers whose books I read in past 30 years on psychology, pedagogy, music education, neuroscience, NLP and learning styles.

Pricing:

I charge $75 an hour for guitar/music lessons
4 lessons = $299 (you save $1)
10 lessons = $675 (you save $75)
20 lessons = $1250 (you save $250)
40 lessons = $2350 (you save $650)
50 lessons = $2800 (you save $950)
75 lessons = $3850 (you save $1775)
100 lessons = $4900 (you save $2600)
Specialized 12- week programs = $1199
Specialized 12-week programs include: blues guitar course, fretboard mastery course, Guitar scales and Moving Pictures (Rush Album)
There are payment plans available for larger packages.