Tom Rule has been teaching in the middle Georgia area for over a decade. He also has a multitude of recording and live performance credits, including diverse musical styles as classical, jazz, rock, country, and ambient music, and has been teaching at YAMS since 2003.

He is currently an adjunct Piano teacher at Macon State (where he was the head of the Music Department from 1990-1997). He has been the Praise Band director for Vineville North Baptist since 1999, where his band tom&co has recorded two albums - Brethren, in 1999, and Seasons, released in 2003. One track from Seasons was included on Oasiscds.com Fall/Christmas 2004 Acoustic collection, which was sent to several hundred radio stations across the US (and has actually been played on the radio in Melbourne, Australia and on satellite radio). The CD is available at YAMS, on iTunes and many other fine online establishments.

Tom has performed for several years with the Joey Stuckey band and the Bob Huellemeir big band. He earned a Masters Degree in Piano Performance from the University of South Carolina, where he studied with John Williams and served as the graduate assistant and arranger for Carolina Alive, the University's pop vocal group.

Tom has performed throughout the South and East in various guises over the years. Locally he has also been active as a performer, arranger, sound designer, and studio musician. He is also a music technology tech for ShadowSound Studios in Macon. You can get far more details than you probably need to know at his website.

He firmly believes that reading music is critical for success as a musician - and that improvisation is also a critical skill for a musician to be well-rounded. His teaching style is modified to fit the student skill level and personality, and you will often see him out in the parking "stomping" rhythms with his younger students.