Gary Shimabukuro sat at his computer in the immaculate home studio where he composes, records and teaches music, reflecting on his life’s work.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life, and it’s because of music and what music has brought to me,” he said. “Just about everything that has happened that’s been good has been connected in some way to music.”

So good, in fact, that since he graduated from high school more than 50 years ago — “just say I’m in my 70s,” he quipped — Shimabukuro has never had a nonmusical day job.

Shimabukuro has worked with some of Hawaii’s biggest stars — think Don Ho, Sterling Mossman, Iva Kinimaka and Al Harrington. Now, he’s using his life experiences to teach new generations of musicians and vocalists.

Before COVID-19, he taught at his Sen Music Studios, located in a building on Kaumualii Street in Kalihi-Palama. The space was large enough that he could conduct workshops for groups of eight to 10 students as well as give individual lessons.

The pandemic changed all that. Now he is continuing Sen Music Studios from his home studio and does most of his teaching online — he has students who log in from Japan and the mainland as well as locally.

And so, as of 2024, Shimabukuro has been teaching — voice, keyboards, songwriting and music theory — to students ranging in age “from 8 years old to 85 years old,” for almost 40 years.

“We get quite a bit of people who come in because they want to learn how to sing karaoke better,” he said. “It’s their primary interest because they want to sing with their friends.”

He shares the studio and teaching duties with his wife, Davelynn. They met at Sen Music Studios in the early 2000s when she was studying music with another teacher, who recommended Shimabukuro. Now Davelynn Shimabukuro teaches voice to her own cohort of students; she also teaches singers the techniques they need to accompany themselves on ukulele.

Looking back at his life, Gary Shimabukuro said his contributions as a teacher are a way of paying forward the knowledge and opportunities he received from the veteran entertainers who mentored him in the 1970s and ’80s — Mossman, Ho, musical director Johnny Todd and Harrington.

But there is another reason he finds teaching especially fulfilling.

“One of the key things why I’m not going to stop teaching is because I feel there’s a small contribution to people feeling really good after they’ve taken a lesson,” he said. “Sometimes they’re not feeling good that day, and then they’ll take a lesson, and then (they say), ‘Wow! I feel better.’ To experience that on the other end, and to feel like you made a small contribution to that end result, is a big feeling.”

Shimabukuro got his start in music after joining his middle and high school bands. His instrument was alto sax, but he also became interested in playing keyboards, charting out musical arrangements and learning how musicians collaborate with vocalists.

By his senior year, Shimabukuro was playing part time with Mossman at the Barefoot Bar in Queen’s Surf, a popular nightclub on the beach in Waikiki. He joined the band full time when he graduated; it was the start of his professional career.

Several years later, Queen’s Surf closed and at Ho’s invitation, Mossman moved to Duke Kahanamoku’s at the International Market Place, where Ho and his musical director, Todd, helped Shimabukuro develop his skills — and interest — in writing and arrangement.

Shimabukuro left Hawaii for several years of study on the mainland. When he returned with a bachelor’s degree in music, he became a keyboardist/arranger, working with Kinimaka and then Harrington.

“I was with Al for quite a while, and he allowed me a lot of freedom. I did a lot of producing (of recordings) and recording with a lot of artists during my time with Al and thereafter. I actually started teaching when I was playing in Waikiki. I had the opportunity to work with some other professional musicians, teaching them from my perspective.”

Eventually, after marrying Davelynn and with young children to support, Shimabukuro decided the time had come for him to transition to work that provided more stable income and allowed him more time with his family.

Teaching music has been his full-time occupation ever since.

These days, he does some gardening, “but for relaxation it’s mostly music.”

“My wife has also gotten into music, so we do a lot of writing as well … and we also do a lot of original composition together,” he said. “When you enjoy doing something, it’s not work.

“Through just about my entire career, I never felt like ‘I gotta go to work.’”