Read Jeff’s Story
Qualifications
Brooklyn, New York native Jeff Germain was educated at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York City and Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York where he first majored in Audio Recording Technology but was later drawn to Music Education.
Having spent much of his time working to shape sounds as he lead his singing group and other ensembles such as church choirs, Jeff was developing as a teacher before ever realizing how much it was an innate passion. While studying to become a music teacher, theorist such as Kodaly (Kodaly Hand Signals/Solfege) and Gardner (Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences) had an energizing impact on him and he was excited to teach other music. He was also very excited to learn about the many benefits to learning music for the young and the old. He also attributes much of his development to self teaching driven by a passion to write original music
Jeff Germain is now a self-produced, Christian, Singer/Songwriter for the cause of Christ whose work is without the restriction of genre. Influenced by a wide variety of music including jazz, hymns, hip-hop, pop, rock, choral, classical and more. Jeff aims to reach many with the gospel Gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraging words that celebrate HIs unfailing love
Jeff’s Story
Hello, and thank you for visiting this website! I hope and pray that God makes it a blessing to you. I also hope in this self-introduction to explain who God has made me to be and therefore the purposes of the pages and links you’ll find here.
My name is Jeff Germain and I am a Christian, Worship Leader, Singer/Songwriter/Producer & Teacher who is blessed to be the husband of a beautiful wife and the father of our two beautiful boys living here in North Carolina. Here’s a bit about how all of that came to be.
Somewhere along the way as a teenager, writing songs and instrumental tracks, I took on the name “Chameleon” because of my desire and decision to create music free from the restrictions of being boxed into a genre. By God’s Grace, I later changed my nickname to HISChameleon, and today God continues to bring new meaning to this character trait of mine as He has taken me to new horizons and adventures with Him.
The basics about me: I am a Brooklyn, New York City native who was the first American born of my family. My parents had moved to the states from the island of Haiti with plans to get established, apply for citizenship and bring my older siblings (temporarily left with family) to a new home and life as Americans. Then, I came into the picture.
Besides break dancing to Michael Jackson songs and asking for a guitar, there wasn’t much sign for a love of music early on. Later, I did ask for a keyboard and used its programmed beats along with my brother to dream of become rappers but my true love for music didn’t develop until the eighth grade.
After developing a habit of singing along with my walkman to, “All I Do is Think of You,” by Troop, and, “Let’s Chill,” by Guy, something strange happened that led me to attend the New York City performing arts school made famous by the show “Fame.” Somehow, my rising eighth grade paperwork got screwed up in the system and I was documented as a special needs student with all high schools except those that were specialized, of which I made it into one: Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art.
I honestly believe that going to such a school would not have been something my dad would have gone for otherwise, but apparently, I would have needed to spend the first six months of my high school career in the Special Needs Program and kind of work out of it or I could just go to Fiorello H. LaGuardia so, the latter was the choice. It was certainly strange considering my main motivations for even trying out for LaGuardia were a Saturday away from home and validating my doodling of superhero characters. Trying out for vocal music and drama were ploys to stretch out the day, but I failed the art test miserably and did very well on the vocal, rhythm and ear training test. From then, my love for music commenced and grew rapidly. That summer, I started singing in the church choir before I even started at the high school, and while in high school, I started a singing group and wrote several songs. Writing led to self-producing as I used the vocal music sight reading education to teach myself piano and eventually guitar enough to write and record song ideas.
Fast forward and my passion for music became subject to my greatest passion today and that is the God who has saved my soul!
He did that out of nowhere! Sure, I believed in his existence and even prayed believing He heard me, but growing up, I didn’t know that wasn’t really knowing Him. One day, I was just offered a temporary job I wasn’t looking for which lead to a part time position in music ministry that I also wasn’t looking for, nor was I looking for God and suddenly He was the biggest part of my life! Really, He just became altogether my new life because, I was born again!
One month into that new position, the church sent me and my boss to a Worship Conference in California at Saddleback Church and I was completely changed there because the Holy Spirit came to dwell inside my heart. I’d been to altar calls before but this was completely different. I knew He’d come in and that it was forever and that He was always going to be what mattered most to me going forward. I understood in a new way that JESUS in complete innocence, paid the price for my sin and I could do nothing else but bow to Him in surrender because His loving act of unsurpassed sacrifice was revealed to me and that was the only way to respond.
Since then, I have given all that He has given me as a musician back to Him and He has made me a Worship Leader with a passion to see His Word saturated in the music we sing to Him and to sing them with prayerful, open and pure hearts intimately worshiping Him because He alone is Worthy.
He also has showed me that He has been making me a teacher all along and how all the “self teaching” He was blessing me to experience gave me a passion to teach others and a flexibility in pedagogy that makes me “learner guided” by nature. I love every light bulb that goes on as I share the things I count a blessing to know, as they are all tools God has given me to glorify His Name.
He has changed me as a songwriter producer from one who tried to make cool music and write over it, to soaking up His Word as I nurture my relationship with Him and singing to Him from my heart as He fills it; and I only document the songs He leads me to. I say that because there was a time I’d run to record ideas so that I wouldn’t forget them, but He showed me I was leaving what could have been something far more precious: intimate time with Him. Now, that time itself is the priority, and I simply trust Him to help me recall melodies and to lead me to record ideas He desires for me to share. Some just stay between Him and I and… Praise the Lord oh my soul!
All the good of what I am in Him I offer to Him to use to bless anyone in their journey He sees fit. That’s my heart as I teach, that’s my heart as I share the music He gives me through His Word and my relationship with Him, and that’s my heart as I share my heart about worshiping the King of Kings.
Testimonials
Music Instruction
Julie Erikson, mom to three aspiring musicians
Recording Services
Lauren Gaskill, author, speaker, and host of the She Found Joy podcast