**NEW: LIVE VIDEO LESSONS** I am now offering interactive video lessons, you can schedule a lesson from anywhere in the world! Please email me if you would like to schedule a lesson.
PDF LESSONS If in-person or video lessons are not an option for you, I also offer PDF lessons. For this option, we would have a discussion by phone or email to figure out the topics that need to be addressed. Each lesson would be tailored to the student and the subject matter at hand. This is not a generic lesson where everyone gets the same material. The lesson would be submitted in an email (or by regular mail if necessary) and would consist of a PDF file containing instructions, notation, practice suggestions, and sometimes audio files with performance examples.
If you are interested in taking private or ensemble lessons, I would like to hear from you. Please feel free to send me an email.
If you are the director of a college or festival music program, I'm available for master classes, clinics, and workshops. This could be in the form of me presenting by myself, or with one of my ensembles, or working with a group of students from your program.
Some of the schools where I have taught include The University of California, San Diego, Loyola University, The University of New Orleans, The University of
Nebraska, and the New School in New York City.
Selected teaching concepts for private or ensemble lessons include:
Addressing subconscious phrasing tendencies
Understanding time, gaining perspective of time continuum
Understanding form
Interactive playing
Free/open playing
Ensemble playing
Ensembles within ensemble playing
Solo playing
Duo playing
Accompanying
Composition
Theory
Harmonic analysis
Playing over chord changes
Scale-chord relationship
Sound production
*For guitarists*, I also have some other areas of study that can be valuable:
Picking hand hybrid guitar technique
-Study of all aspects of picking hand possibilities, using the pick, the fingers, and their various combinations
-Classical guitar technique and its incorporation into improvised playing
Breaking away from position playing, studies in vertical playing
Improvising multiple voices
Developing a personal system for constructing chord voicings
Tone/sound
-Understanding the variables in sound production; playing technique, amp/effect settings, etc.
Guitar maintenance/repair (setting intonation, action, truss rod adjustment, etc.)
-Keeping the guitar playing comfortably and in tune has more of an impact on performance than one may realize.
I've seen first hand how this knowledge effects my own playing, and recommend, on some level, everyone be able to deal with adjusting their own instrument.