Guitar Lessons

Service Description

Lessons are designed with each student’s needs in mind. For classical guitar, I emphasize getting the right hand comfortable in its new pose (different from steel – string guitar position) and plucking patterns, and while I use many of the traditional pieces, I also like to use more modern studies that are actually fun AND musical. For jazz guitar, there are SO many ingredients – again, I tailor each lesson to the student’s needs, but always emphasize building triads in all inversions everywhere on the neck; playing the 5 types of 7th chords, with each chord tone on top; construction of ‘jazz chords’ (chords built above the 7th with diatonic or chromatically altered scale degrees); playing scales & modes in 3rds (as an arpeggio); and construction chord/melody solos. Fingerstyle guitar is very similar to classical in technique – I teach basic Travis style, but build on it to discover new sounds. I teach beginners very often, emphasizing the location of notes on the neck, basic open triads and 7th chords, and moveable chord forms (‘barre chords’). While reading is ALWAYS a good skill to have, I do not insist on it for beginning students. Generally, we can use songs that the student wants to learn as a tool for learning chords and strum patterns.

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