Paying it Forward with the Magic of Music

Local Guitarist Sage Mitchell…

When Sage Mitchell picked up his first guitar as a child, he realized something beyond a cool factor of being able to play Nirvana songs. “It was a much better outlet than video games, which had been my outlet,” he says. “It gave me a community, people to hang around. Music wound up being the outlet that helped me manage my emotions.”

Now an award-winning musician and popular music teacher, Mitchell, 29, strives to bring to his students the same benefits he received as a young person. “I had a rough go at it for a while,” says Mitchell, describing a childhood that included some time in foster care and family stressors such as addiction, violence and poverty. His grandparents stepped in to raise him and introduced him to the magic of music, sharing a love of the Beatles and classic rock and roll. “My grandpa was a huge influence on the music I love and the music I play now,” he says. A treasured memory he carries is building a guitar with his grandfather, a talented woodworker, using an old wood sander from 1903.

During a particularly rough patch in adolescence, a work experience program at Sacramento River Discovery Charter School opened a door he needed to walk through. He was set up at Sky River Music in downtown Red Bluff, where owner Dan Massie gave him a job and Brian Birkes, also known as Mumblefinger, a safe community to be on weekends. “Brian told me to come in on Saturdays just to hang out and play guitar,” he says, noting that he didn’t have money to afford lessons beyond the first four his family had cobbled money together for.

While Mitchell stresses that he was frequently quite bad as a beginner, he kept up with practice and was teaching guitar at the store by the time he was 16. “When I started working at the music store through, my teacher was on his way out. Dan Massie asked me if I wanted to teach, and I took over for the music teacher. If he hadn’t have done that, I have no idea where I’d be today. It became something that I love.”
Birkes gave Mitchell his first paying gig, which he describes as a trial by fire, but something that solidified a desire to pursue music as a career. He was eventually referred to renowned Chico music teacher Charlie Robinson, who also provided lessons without regards for Mitchell’s inability to pay. Various adults stepped in to get him to Chico in a concert of collaboration that supported the young man’s dreams.

Mitchell eventually studied at Shasta College, where he joined his first jazz combo and performed his first concerto in the college’s annual competition. His music theory instructor, Dr. Richard Fiske, suggested the competition. “I remember thinking two things,” says Mitchell. “First, what on earth is a concerto? And second, I’m just a kid who was learning to play Nirvana a few years ago.” He won the competition and went on to perform it in 2017 with the Shasta Symphony under the direction of Dr. Dwayne Corbin.
After completing an Associates for Transfer degree at Shasta College, he went on to further his studies in classical guitar and earned a bachelor’s degree in general music at Chico State in 2019.

Today, Mitchell’s knowledge and experience are transmitted through various teaching opportunities at Simpson University and Shasta College, as well as private and small group lessons at his studio in Red Bluff’s Gold Exchange. He teaches guitar, bass, piano and ukulele and directs the jazz band and guitar program at Simpson College. He also has regular music gigs with Mumblefinger as well as the Main Street Band and A Touch of Class. Of his musicianship with Mumblefinger, he says, “It’s really cool that I came full circle with him.”

A hallmark of his teaching style is his patience and understanding that music is about more than technical mastery. “When you start any instrument you kind of suck because you’re a beginner,” he says. “And that’s OK.” The rewards of continued practice and perseverance are multiple. “It’s so cathartic. It slows your mind down in a world of social media that goes so fast. Music helps you cope with whatever you’re dealing with. It’s cheap therapy.”

While he’s on track for advanced degrees in music, he says his ultimate goal is to be that “all-around wise man that you go to when you have a question.

”I just remember how helpful those people were for me. I’d love to pay it forward.” •

Sage Mitchell Music • www.sagemitchell.com