GUITAR AT WORK

In 1995, Shane founded the 'Guitar At Work' Program which brings group guitar classes to companies and businesses in the Ottawa area.  From the Absolute Beginner classes, to Advanced classes, these group experiences are fun and engaging. 

Guitar At Work has been successfully launched at Ciena, Amdocs, Ericsson, Cisco, CMA, Alcatel, Nortel, Entrust, Tech Insights, General Dynamics, Blackberry, Adobe, and many other High-Tech companies, as well as Government Agencies such as The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

With the pressure of employees to perform on the job, music is very therapeutic. With the long running program Shane has always noted that workers leave the lesson more buoyant from when they arrived.

“I see their mood when they come in (and) when they go out … and you can tell when you are watching them play, that everything is forgotten."

​

Musical Expression and Your Health

Dr. Barry Bittman, a neurologist and head of the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, Pennsylvania, says the fact workers are seeking solace in making music is not surprising. His research shows that creative musical expression can boost the body’s ability to fight cancer and is three times more effective than passive relaxation in reversing the impacts of stress on the body at the molecular level.

A separate study found that playing instruments lowered feelings of job-related burnout among a group of 125 longterm care workers in a nursing home and improved their moods. The result, Bittman said, was a reduced level of employee turnover and cost savings of nearly $500,000.

That rings true for Karen Seward. She is senior vicepresident of business development and marketing at Shepell-FGI, a company that creates employee health and wellness programs to help drive corporate productivity. Seward says an employee’s mental and physical wellbeing is directly correlated to a company’s bottom line.