Meet our focused team of instructors with diverse backgrounds that range from Neuroscience to Masters Degrees in Music. Our resumes include teaching for corporations, colleges, high schools, and homeschool coops alongside real world expertise from countless hours of performance and private instruction.

A young man in a brown blazer and maroon shirt smiling while sitting in a music studio. There is a drum set, a keyboard, and musical equipment in the background, and the room is decorated with lamps and artwork.

Andrew Still

Guitar, Bass, Piano, Pedal Steel

10 years teaching experience

  • Andrew studied Neuroscience at Baylor University due to his fascination about how music could be such an affective experience. Andrew employs the information he was taught about how the brain functions, particularly with regards to learning, in order for Cardinal to have highly effective instruction and curriculum.

  • Andrew started his teaching career almost a decade ago at Guitar Center, private local studios, and his parents house. Opening a lessons studio has been a long time dream which is now his primary outlet alongside teaching at Brazos Valley Coop.

  • Andrew has played music since childhood. He has performance experience ranging from shredding in heavy metal garage shows, providing piano ambiance at fine dining establishments, to tracking bass and pedal steel for studio sessions.

Live music performance on stage in a small venue, with a band of five musicians playing instruments, audience seated in front, stage lighting with purple and blue lights, and camera operator filming the event.
A man with brown curly hair, wearing a white shirt, is playing a green electric guitar in a cozy, dimly lit room with a piano, sheet music, and warm decor including a tapestry with a lizard playing a guitar in the background.

Pat Kelly

Guitar, Bass

40 Years of Teaching Experience

  • Pat studied Jazz Guitar Performance at McLennan Community College (where he later returned as faculty) and University of North Texas. After completing this he went on to receive a Masters Degree in Music History and Literature at Baylor (where he has also remained faculty since 1996.)

  • Pats has almost 4 decades of teaching experience instructing at institutions such as String World Music Center, MCC, Baylor University, and Guitar Center.

  • Pat has performed with a plethora of artists and bands encompassing a multitude of genres such as The Javaheads, Freddie Krc's Shakin' Apostles, Dirk Hamilton, James Hand, 35 South, and Cedric Ballou.


A man playing an electric guitar on stage, smiling, in a black and white photo.

Cooper Johnson

A young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a striped blue shirt, smiling while standing behind a drum set in a warmly-lit room.

Drums, Orchestral Percussion

Midway Highschool Faculty

  • Cooper studied Percussion Performance at the Eastman School of Music and then went on to receive a Masters Degree in Record Production from the London College of Music.

  • Cooper currently works as a Drumline Technician at Midway High School and an Audio Engineer at the Texas Music Cafe.

  • Cooper has a wide range of performance experience from session drumming, gigging across London, Drum Corps International and orchestral work.

Young man playing drums indoors, smiling, wearing a blue shirt, with drum set and cymbals, warm lighting, and a wall with framed art and string lights in the background.