The University of Idaho Argonaut

James Reid is professor of guitar and music history at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music and has been playing the guitar since he was 12 years old. Courtesy Photo

Sitting quietly among noisy hallways and rooms filled with the haunting music of violins and the toots of brass horns is a soft-spoken man with a passion that goes beyond words named James Reid.
Perfectly square and filled to the brim with thousands of recordings, music stands, sheet music and guitars, his office is a music
lover’s dream. 

The office, nestled inside the Lionel Hampton School of Music, is also Reid’s dream. It is his home away from home, his career goal for life in a solid, functioning form.
Reid started playing the guitar when he was 12 and said by the time he was in high school he knew he wanted to be a professional musician.
Reid played in various bands throughout high school and said he started out at a community college in Anchorage without any clear goals in mind except he knew he had to have a guitar in his life.

After transferring from community college in Alaska to the San Francisco Conservatory and then the Hartt School in Connecticut, Reid said it was while he was earning his master’s degree in music performance he realized he wanted to teach music at the
college level.  
As soon as Reid finished graduate school, he applied for a teaching job at the University of Idaho and has been here ever since.
He said gaining that full-time spot, however, was not an easy.

“I play an instrument that has not always been accepted as readily as other instruments have been in schools of music,” Reid said. “There are a lot of schools where you cannot study guitar.”
Reid said he has spent his years in Moscow helping to keep UI from being “one of those less accepting schools.”
Because it took such a long time to acquire that full-time position, while he was working his way up, Reid said he spent ample amounts of time on the road teaching and playing guitar at several other colleges.

Reid has performed for art councils and guitar societies throughout the U.S. and Canada. Now that he has established his place at the university, Reid said he can let the music he loves to play and teach run freely through his life. He is now the director of the guitar program at UI and teaches numerous guitar classes, including History of Rock and Roll.

Reid has released seven solo recordings and is the founder of the Northwest Guitar Festival. Susan Hess, assistant director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music said Reid is an asset to the program.
“Not only does he draw outstanding guitarists to the School of Music,” Hess said. “He teaches a very popular course, History of Rock and Roll.”
Hess said Reid has been at the school of music longer than she has, and the outstanding work he does to constantly improve the program is apparent in the ability of the students
he teaches.

“His students perform very well at the regional guitar competitions,” Hess said. “He has hosted the regional guitar
festivals here.”
Reid said while right now he is as content as he ever hoped of being, he knows there is always more to learn and share.

“Aside from teaching here, which I really enjoy, the best thing about my job is I have been able to make contacts with other people,” Reid said. “Not just in the United States, but around the world who do the same thing as I do. I feel very fortunate to be a part of the guitar community.”