Teaching Method
 1.) In a consultation I find out exactly what the prospective student wants to be able to do. Discovering the person’s goals provides direction for the music lessons so they are relevant and have a purpose. With this aligning factor, the music the student practices has a real-world application to “why” they are doing something. I also gather information about the prospective student’s musical background, experience, likes and dislikes as well as musical strengths and weaknesses. (See the “What I Teach” section for more about the specific subjects I teach.)

With this information I plot out a program that directly leads a person to their musical goals: it could be short and simple or lengthy and involved. If a beginner’s main goal is to be able to play easy songs on their instrument the lessons could be very simple with a short runway to actually playing. A person wanting to master specific musical skills could have a “program” that takes anywhere from one to four years depending on their current ability level and what kind of music they want to be proficient in. (Becoming an advanced player takes years of dedicated work.)

A consultation takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. We talk things over, get an idea of how things work and decide to continue or not. I don’t accept everyone as a student, though 9 out of 10 people having a consultation start lessons.

2.) Phase 1 – We establish the necessary skills in order to start playing the music the student wants to play. We only cover the amount of technique, theory, rhythm skills and ear training skills needed to do whatever it is the person wants to do. A beginning student only needs a tiny bit of theory to get rolling, about 10 or 15 definitions of words, and a beginning guitarist or bassist will need more technique work than a piano player due to the nature of the instrument. Phase 1 takes anywhere from 2 weeks to three months.

3.) Phase 2 – With the foundation set in Phase 1 the student starts doing what he or she came to do. We apply what has been learned to playing songs, reading music, improvising, playing bass lines, taking guitar solos, sight-singing, understanding what they have been doing better, singing more in tune; whatever the original goal is. The student is now doing what he or she came to do. It could be playing songs all the way through with friends, doing public performances for the first time or writing your first song. However it goes according to the ability level the person is at.

4.) Phase 3 – As the student is doing what he or she came to do we tighten up the basics and clean things up. We upgrade the technique for smoother and more efficient playing, take the theory and ear training to the next level so the music is more “real,” and take the rhythm studies to the next level so the music sounds better, cleaner and is more enjoyable to listen to by others. Too much theory or mechanical exercises right away can be frustrating and boring, but at this point these things take on a real purpose and can be exciting and beneficial!

5.) Phase 4 – We actively apply the increased facility and understanding to what the person is doing to upgrade the performance of whatever it is. There is a lot of overlapping between these phases, but at this point we actively put in the fundamentals to the music at hand: direct application.

At this point we continue between Phase 3 and Phase 4 for the duration of the lessons. If a new goal or set of goals is established we’re back at Phase 1 in that area and the entire process is repeated.

Once the student is completely satisfied with what he or she is doing we are done. My personal goals as a teacher are to simply get the student to where they want to be. Once they are there my job is finished.

Students have stayed with me for anywhere from six months to five years: it all depends on what the goals are and how good a person wants to get in order to be happy.

The whole point of this for the student to be successful and happy with what he or she is doing, right?

THE ESSENTIALS

• Attach and release technique.
• Melodic technique: scales and arpeggios.
• Chord technique.
• Basic theory.
• Reading skills, if reading music.

APPLICATION

• Playing songs you like whether by ear, reading music or both.
• Rhythm skills for grooving, accompaniment and soloing.
• Independence skills: learning to sing and play at the same time.
• Tonal skills for understanding music, playing tunes, soloing and composing: scales, arpeggios, pentatonic & blues scales and interval studies.
• Harmonic understanding. This deals with chord types and chord progressions. Depending on the goals, I cover how to play through chord changes, chord voicings (at a beginning and intermediate level), soloing over chord changes and the development of your personal style.