Nick Kiekenapp, a 2012 alumnus, has spent nearly six months trying to make jazz guitar easy.

Known as one of the more challenging guitar genres, this is no simple feat. Kiekenapp decided to write his own book taking jazz guitar back to its roots- the 1920’s through World War II.

“From my experience learning jazz guitar … it’s usually really difficult starting somewhere that’s a really developed style,” Kiekenapp said. “It’s best to build from the fundamentals.”

Professor of music and guitar studies Christopher Kachian thinks Kiekenapp’s idea is innovative.

“Nick’s idea is progressive. It’s unique in that it doesn’t follow the pattern of previous books on jazz pedagogy,” Kachian said. “His is a historical, repertoire based perspective, rather than a hard-core harmonic analysis perspective.”

Music major and class of 2013 graduate Murphy Janssen specializes in percussion, but said Kiekenapp’s historic take on jazz makes learning easier.

“I think the guitar songs in that era were somewhat simplistic in that it was an instrument that had just started to gain it’s roots in that style of music,” Janssen said. “So the players were just people who had picked up guitars anyway and wanted to learn and taught themselves.”

Kachian said Kiekenapp was a great guitar player when he entered St. Thomas, and has improved since his time here. He believes Kiekenapp was a “natural” choice for his undergraduate research project.

“Not only was he really good when he first got here … but he’s a really smart guy. So he was a natural for my choice to do a research project with him,” Kachian said.

Kiekenapp hopes to someday publish his book and become a professor specializing in guitar, but for now, he’s hoping to finish his book by November.

“I really want to focus on teaching jazz and popular music as a whole … just because that’s what I love,” Kiekenapp said.

Alison Bengtson can be reached at beng4632@stthomas.edu.