Lesson Feesfrom $26.00 / 30 Minutes
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About
Welcome all! Teaching guitar has been my primary professional focus since 2007, averaging 25-35 students weekly, sometimes more. That’s more than 100,000 private lessons, with a high percentage of beginners age 6-12, also many teenagers and adults. Why did many of my students stay with me for 3-5 years? I’ll address that shortly – first, let me describe my other musical activities.
I’ve been learning and performing electric and acoustic guitar since I was 9, and I love to share its fantastic possibilities with all ages and levels of students. I also teach (and perform competently on) electric bass, ukulele, mandolin and piano.
As a leader or member of (or sittin’ in with) many bands, I’ve focused on creating excellent accompaniments and solos for songs, primarily in various rock styles, but also folk, blues, funk, pop, country, and sometimes jazz. Great singers and drummers especially inspired this work.
As a singer/songwriter I’ve crafted 2 CD albums of my original songs, produced with elaborate accompaniments, and performed 80% alone (including drum programming, vocals, piano, bass and other fretted and keyboard instruments).
As a solo performer, my vocals are often accompanied by intricate arrangements on guitar, bouzouki or mandolin.
While living in China since 2007, I’ve played lots of casual gigs, usually as the bass player, walking those jazz standards! I’ve also embraced the new (to me) world of Celtic Folk music, challenging myself to learn dozens of reels and jigs on mandolin, usually performed at dare-devil tempi. Sometimes, I play lead guitar with a crackin’ funk and blues band.
Every good music teacher earns the trust of both hesitant and keen students by assigning fun and easy songs. A master teacher knows just when and how to leverage that trust, to push the limits of the comfort zone by introducing appropriate and stimulating challenges. When this is neglected, the student may never stop stumbling.
A good teacher (or self-teaching online resource) is prepared to offer the student plenty of lessons made of well-known songs. The master keeps this activity in perspective, aiming to prevent the student from going too far down the dead-end obsession/parrot/copycat path. A sense of creativity and originality is encouraged and developed from an early learning period, including studies of harmony, rhythm, melodic improvisation, scales, etc.
A good teacher knows that some students will never develop the ambition, nor the stamina, to master the more advanced technical skills needed to play AMAZING! music, and accordingly, does not push students incessantly, to perfect every kind of technique. The master makes sure to introduce proper hand position, rhythmic discipline and other essential skills early enough in the student’s studies, to insure that any technical problems s/he struggles with along the way do not become rigid habits, practically impossible to correct or improve over time. Perhaps even more important, the master is also prepared to guide the truly gifted and diligent students, who will reach their full potential by practicing very challenging and complex exercises.
A good teacher can show the student how AMAZING! stuff is played. A master has the courage and good sense to say, ‘You might be able play even more amazing things someday, keep practicing those scales, like I did!’ – and chooses the next lesson according to the student’s current needs.
A good teacher is able to communicate to the student many reasons why staying the course, and learning all s/he can from that teacher, will serve the learning goals well in the long run. The master encourages all forms of self-learning (balanced with the value of current studies, of course), and prepares the student for a lifetime of musical discovery and creativity, by including instruction that enables deep understanding of the mysteries of how music works.
The majority of students I’ve seen get a great benefit from having someone to hold up their wings, as they attempt to fly. I’d like to do that for you. I invite you to book a lesson with me, we’ll give it a try.
Experience
Guitar/Electric Bass/Ukulele Tutor – Western International School Shanghai
Sept 2009 – Present
Guitar Tutor – Wellington College International School Shanghai
Sept 2016 – June 2019
Guitar Tutor – British International School Shanghai
Sept 2007 – June 2016
Member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, performing music of Bali
1991-2006
I played mostly tuned percussion with this renowned SF Bay Area troupe. Dozens of concert performances, and three tours to Bali (several other to US locations). My proudest achievement as a composer was a very long and complex composition for Balinese Gamelan Angklung, which was featured on our 1999 tour to Bali.
Film/Video Composer
2003-2006
I composed and recorded scores for four short story-based films, and one industrial promo video. Music of a wide variety of styles – I’m most proud of the film-noir-styled orchestral passages (recorded with samples) in Carl Thelin’s Detective Spoof ‘The Nemisis Within’.
Education
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1973-77
I studied piano and voice (guitar not recognized there!), and majored in Music Theory and Composition. I left before graduating, foolishly, but not before getting a lot of great training in music theory, and doing several ambitious composition and orchestration projects. The advanced skills I gained at University enabled me to grow into a competent and flexible composer and arranger.
I provide most lesson materials, using PDF files. Sometimes I recommend the students purchase RockSchool books.