Puerto Rican Mandolin Method: Samuel Ramos

Samuel Ramos, born in Lajas, Puerto Rico, started playing the guitar with his father at the age of 12. At the age of 15, he discovered the cuatro and began taking lessons with Norton Torres. As a high school student, he joined the school’s rondalla (an instrumental group) playing both guitar and cuatro. Samuel holds a BA in music education from Antillean Adventist University in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, with a major in classical guitar. He studied under the tutelage of Dr. Jacques Landre. In 1999, he recorded his first instrumental CD for solo guitar, Meditando en la Cruz (Meditating on the Cross), He joined the faculty of the Juan Morel Campos Performing Arts School in Ponce, as a strings instructor. He later became an assistant professor of guitar at the Inter-American University of San German, Puerto Rico. He also served as a public school music teacher for 6 years in Lajas, Puerto Rico Samuel resides in Winter Haven, Florida with his wife Brenda and two sons, and currently teaches elementary music for the Polk County School of Florida.