Pablo Nicolas Donvito
About
I'm Pablo. I'm from Argentina and I've been based in Byron Bay for the last few years.
I studied Popular Music at the National University of La Plata and trained as a professional musician at EMU in La Plata and lately in TAMABA, Buenos Aires (ARG). I also did postgraduate work in Cultural Management at FLACSO. I play piano, guitar, bass and synths, sing and I've been teaching for 12 years.
I write and produce my own music under the name PARABEL. That's taken me from playing in Buenos Aires to Copenhagen and now to Australia, between live sets, records and production work for other people. The last thing I finished was an album of music for meditation.
Alongside that, I teach. Private students on piano, guitar, bass, harmony and Ableton, and I also run ensemble groups here in Byron Bay where people at very different levels end up playing together in the same room.
I work in English and Spanish.
Teaching Style
Most of my students already make music. They can play, they've got tracks, and they've hit a wall they can't quite explain. So I don't start from a method book. I ask what you're working on and we start there. I have a lot of experiencie as musician but also as teacher so try to find what are the language weaker points and help the practice be based on theorics.
The first lesson I usually try to dig into student background. What motivates to make music and what is trying to achieve. I focus deeply in the human part and the things they already know or listen to enhace a help them name it correctly.
I'm patient with beginners and I don't rush anyone. But I'll also tell you straight what's working and what isn't. Most people are stuck on something smaller than they think.
Every lesson ends with one thing to work on before the next one, and the next one starts by looking at how it went.
I can usually offer recordings, I write and make my own material and adapt it to student's level.
Curriculum
Everything comes off your own material. If you haven't got anything yet we use a standard or a tune you love, but the aim is always to get back to your own music.
For harmony I start from function, what a chord is doing rather than what it's called, and then move into voice leading, tensions and modal interchange. For jazz language it's voicings first, then reharmonisation, then improvisation, in that order. For production we go from a loop to an arrangement, and from an arrangement to a set you can actually play live in Ableton's Session View.
You don't need to read music for any of this.
After each lesson I write notes for you and send them as a PDF. They're written for your case, not photocopied out of a book.
Books I recommend, depending on where you're at:
— Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book. The standard reference. Dense, but you'll keep going back to it for years.
— Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book. A better starting point if you play keys.
— Ted Greene, Chord Chemistry. For guitarists who want voicings.
— Jerry Bergonzi, Inside Improvisation series. For building vocabulary.
— The Ableton Live manual. It's actually good and almost nobody reads it.
Credentials & Affiliations
— High School Diploma in Arts/Music, ESEA 11, Tandil (ARG)
— Basic training, Isaias Orbe Conservatory, Tandil (ARG)
— Professional musician diploma, EMU, La Plata (ARG)
— Pedagogic training, FASTA, Mar del Plata (ARG)
— Professional musician (piano/keyboard) bachelor, TAMABA, Buenos Aires (ARG)
— Unfinished degree in Popular Music, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina (ARG)
— Postgraduate studies in Cultural Management, FLACSO, Buenos Aires (ARG)
— Recording and performing artist under the name PARABEL. Records and live sets, performed in Buenos Aires, Copenhagen and Byron Bay
— Directs ensemble programs in Byron Bay, NSW
— 12 years teaching privately, one-to-one students, in person and over video
— Teaches piano, guitar, bass, harmony and theory, and music production in Ableton Live
