Alexander St. John

Whether you are an amateur looking for a greater command of the instrument for accompanying yourself, or a more advanced player looking to polish up some fossilized errors, I can offer insightful instruction. 

I teach the importance of bringing out the natural, sympathetic sonority of stringed, plucked instruments, bringing out the overtones to the fore.  (Few video-recordings do the music justice; one need be there in person.) 

My aim has been to raise the level of guitar-playing up a notch by implementing a wide range of techniques that only few guitarists may be aware of.

In my arrangements and transcriptions of both classical and pop rock songs I use alternative tunings and a fingering system that supersedes those standardized and simplified ones you find in commercial transcriptions. 

The guitar has been with me since the age of 8, and so I have come to understand the instrument's qualities and developed techniques for making the instrument sing.  On the way, I taught myself the santoor, sitar and the ukulele.  In high school I played the e-bass in the jazz big-band and the tuba in the concert band, which gave me valuable insight of both rhythm and the lower registers. 

Most importantly, an awareness of one's breathing and of singing and dancing the music is the path to mastery. 

 It is not enough to play with the metronome but to be able to play against it, to conquer it.