How do I teach guitar?

I have been teaching guitar since 1998 so I have some teaching years under my belt.

About my teaching

First of all I always ask what are my guitar student’s expectations and goals, as we will work on these particular things. That is if the guitar student knows what he/she wants. If he/she doesn’t know, then I will help to find out what would be the best things to learn first.

Some of my current teaching methods for you 

  • Recommended for you ( student) to commit to 2 months at least. In this case we define achievable goals together and I prepare a step by step program personalised for you.
  • Theory and different methods for improvising over jazz chord changes.
  • Learning all of the notes on the fret board and the best ways how to approach this.
  • Jazz guitar chords and comping.
  • Scales and arpeggios
  • Jazz comping together with walking bass.
  • Rhythm training (bossa nova, funk, odd time signatures, reading and understanding written rhythms, metronome practice and more)
  • Reading
  • Jazz theory or Music theory – how the chords are built, understanding of keys,  best ways to apply theory on the guitar.
  • Best ways to practice scales on the guitar, the use of scales and how to put them into action.
  • Blues guitar lessons! – some cool ways to play blues comping and improvisation examples.
  • Jazz standards – comping, scales, chords, arpeggios, examples for improvisation practice, jazz guitar comping with a walking bass line…
  • Jazz chord and melody arrangements and fingerstyle. We can pick any jazz tune and I can guide student to build his arrangement based on new chord voicings we would learn in the process.
  • I look at 2 – 4 different things in each guitar lesson, so it wouldn’t only be plain theory or only chords or scales. However, I always ask about your expectations. If you want only music theory I am also happy to just teach that!
  • If we are learning a particular song, I make sure you understand what you are doing.
  • More focussed rhythm training, it may include polyrhythms.
  • Creative approaches and ideas to composing and song writing.
  • Ear training.
  • I also ( used to ) prepare for Trinity classical guitar and RockSchool electric guitar grade exams ( for UK students ) ..
  • I want you to have fun as well! I always come up with ways you can practice new chords, scales, licks and rhythms.
  • I prepare lessons very differently for different type of students, always trying to discover their weakness points, or musical direction and style they have chosen. It’s very individual type of thing. I have very different type of students. I really enjoy teaching singer-songwriters guiding them through different arranging ideas, as well as jazz tune chord melody building stuff for jazz guitarists. I also do music theory and chord voicing analysis ( taking a classical guitar piece for example, or any other style) and my process of composing with some of my students.

Be in touch if this interests you.

Check some of the Etudes I have written.