September, 2025

Listen to Sean’s full Podcast Interview

ETM-LA Music Teacher Sean Marín is a bassist in the Los Angeles area. He has experience playing in jazz, rock, pop, and Latin bands, as well as  in music technology, recording and mixing for the studio, and live performances. Marín received his Bachelor’s of Music in Commercial Music in 2023, and is furthering his studies at California State University, Los Angeles in the Afro-Latin Masters of Music program. He started his teaching career in ETM-LA’s internship program, and is now serving as a general music teacher.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, and your journey with music and ETM-LA.

When it comes to music, I started my journey when I was about 13 years old. My dad’s friend was selling instruments and he was selling this old bass – it was just laying around the house. I took an interest in it and started just messing around with it, then started YouTubing how to play songs. I eventually caught the music bug.

My main instrument was definitely the bass guitar, but as the years go by I respect every instrument and instrumentalist. I understand the work it takes to be able to call yourself a violinist, a cellist, a violist, or anything else. I will only ever say I am a bassist, although I can do basics on piano, guitar, and some percussion.

Growing up I went to Foshay Learning Center, which is in the heart of LA, and they had a jazz band. In my freshman year, I joined the jazz band and I learned a lot. My high school teacher, Vincent Womack, won the ETM-LA Shining Star Music Educator Award in 2017, so I performed at ETM-LA’s Gala that year with the elementary school students. They did a couple pieces with us, “Pick Up the Pieces” and “Red Clay,” and we all performed together.

After the Gala, I graduated high school in the spring of 2018. I had already decided I was going to study music in college because I wanted to do for others what my high school teacher did for me – shout out to Mr. Womack! 

I studied commercial music at CalState LA, and one of my friends was in ETM-LA’s Music Teacher Internship Program. I told him that I wanted to be a music teacher and he said, “You should try ETM-LA. They have this internship, and they ease you into teaching.” That’s when I reached out to ETM-LA. I started my graduate degree in Afro-Latin music at Cal State LA at the same time I started the music teacher internship program. At the end of my first semester, I began teaching my own classroom with ETM-LA – now I’m going into my fourth semester.

What are some of the ways you’ve integrated your studies of music technology and Afro-Latin music into your classroom? 

I have a deep background in pop music and I bring that into the classroom by showing them performances, teaching them pop songs, and showing them things they hear at home. I include music tech by teaching my students how to use reverb and delays, and how to record an audio track. They’re able to record their voice over a track that they’re making, and then they make their own song! I had a student that actually went even further. She didn’t want to use her own voice so she typed up her lyrics into an AI program and made the vocals for her song! 

My Afro-Latin music studies cover a lot of countries, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, and many others. I enjoy sharing music that is native to different regions and countries with my students and bringing them awareness. 

I’m really excited to do something that Instructional Supervisor Tony Sauza suggested: bring in Cumbia music! Traditionally, Cumbia is Colombian, but as the years evolve, other countries grab these rhythms they like and make them their own. Now, there’s Colombian cumbia, Mexican cumbia, and other sub-genres. 

It’s important to also introduce students to the instruments that are native to the genre. Take the güiro, which was originally a gourd that was hollowed out and left out to dry; then they added ridges to it and used that as a percussion instrument. I’m excited to teach them about the clave and Caribbean music, and a genre of music I recently learned about from another ETM-LA music teacher, Sadoc Garcia, called trio music – a style from Mexico that has a heavy jazz influence.

How have you seen it impact your students to bring these kinds of materials into your classroom?

There is a percussionist named Sheila E. I showed the class a video of her performing a song called “Possibilities.” The song was in Spanglish – a mix between Spanish and English. The rhythmic background was Salsa, but the bridge switched over to Bachata (which is from the Dominican Republic). What got to me was, after showing this performance, a student of mine who had been difficult to engage said, “You need to show us more of this.” I thought, “We got an in!”

I want to do for other students what my high school teacher did for me. I want to give to the community, give support, and show that you can do more. I grew up in South Central, so when I started teaching at these schools I thought, “I know exactly where I am! This feels like home.” My goal is to make sure that the students feel better after my class than they did coming in. Sometimes, students are going through rough times. My hope is that with music class I can relieve some of that tension, or relieve some of the things that weigh on their hearts. 

What advice would you give to music educators to encourage them in their journey in this profession? 

I will give the advice that I’ve been holding since high school: it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. Sometimes it can be rough going to a new school or being with a new group of students. Sometimes you’ll have a student that doesn’t want to participate in music, but it doesn’t matter how that student starts – it’s how that student finishes. If you can help facilitate a way for this student to progress by the end of the semester, then you’ve gained. It’s the little successes that matter.

When it came to my fellow interns, many of us didn’t study music education, so we didn’t have that background. What we’re doing is essentially a 16-week intensive music education course. So number one, it can be done. Number two, ask all the questions necessary. Number three, write everything down – every activity you see – because in your first year of teaching, you will be able to pull that out of the bag and put your own twist on it.

All I did was ask questions: “What is this? Why do we do this? Why do we do this approach?” Whoever your mentor is, ask them everything. Why they do it a certain way, why they do a certain activity, what is the goal. Then, when you’re able to figure out why they do things that way, you can figure out how you’re going to lesson plan in the future.

What I think every intern and educator should do is keep the mindset of always learning, sharing, and respecting.