Guitar/Bass

I have been teaching guitar and bass for 15 years and counting. I have experience working with every skill level—from absolute beginner to advanced—and students of all ages.

In order to maximize my students’ engagement with their instruments, lesson content is tailored to match each student’s interests and skill level.  The bulk of the lesson is spent working with songs of the student’s choosing.  For beginners, I write arrangements of songs designed to challenge them and help them improve without leading to frustration.  For intermediate students and above I can transcribe even the most intricate guitar and bass parts.  I also work to guide students toward song choices that will help them progress.  The style or genre isn’t important to me—it’s more important to work with music that sparks my students’ interest and keeps them motivated.

Students also have the opportunity to work with both tablature and standard music notation.  Both have their place for guitar and bass, but I place a particular emphasis on learning music notation. Doing so not only helps my students to communicate with other musicians, but also allows us to talk about music outside the context of guitar.

Improvisation is also a key area of focus in my teaching. Even absolute beginners spend part of every lesson working on improvised melodies and chord progressions. In this way, students quickly come to realize that music is not confined to the written page.  Understanding the key signatures and the corresponding chords helps students to feel comfortable when playing with other musicians. It also gives them the tools to write their own songs and guitar parts.  Improvising also provides a great context for working on new techniques, allowing students to take a creative approach and try things out in different places on the instrument.

More advance students begin to explore the theory of music.  I have a unique method of translating music theory to the guitar and bass that gives the student a solid understanding of not only how to play the instrument but also how it works.  We analyze the songs we’re learning and apply the techniques and note choices in other contexts, exponentially expanding the student’s musical vocabulary.   I also encourage students to write their own songs with the knowledge they have gained.  Here, my experience as a producer also comes into play, as I have years of experience helping professional artists to develop their songs and arrangements.

 

If you are interested in private lessons for your child or yourself, please contact me at [email protected].

 

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