Guitar Lessons in Mendota, MN

Instruments: Guitar Bass Guitar Double Bass French Horn

My teaching experience goes back to my high school years, as I began teaching guitar lessons part time about 8 years ago. Since them I have held studios in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Ohio including Double Bass, Bass Guitar, Guitar, and Horn. During my Bachelors degree I had the opportunity to student teach at Red Land High School and Middle School where I ran a concert band and taught private lessons on all instruments. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Voice

I tailor my lessons to each individual student and go from where they are at to build off of that and expand their skill set. For more advanced students I encourage them to keep themselves challenged by choosing to learn songs that are of increasing levels of difficulty as they advance. This often includes songs that are in other languages. Another challenge opportunity I encourage them with is to learn a song that pushes their boundaries and is different in some way from songs that they typically perform. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums

My final goal is how to enjoy singing. In my opinion, the most important thing is that singing should be comfortable to both a singer and an audience. For this reason, I generally help them to sing comfortably. Most of the students have a common problem to sing. I would say it is artificial voice which makes their voice tired and injured. When I taught students some of them struggled with development about their voice quality. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Drums Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Conga Latin Percussion Music Keyboard Electric Guitar Djembe

Whatever type of music they are interested in playing, I find several examples to pull from that and use it as teaching material and relate it back to our foundational training. This keeps our lessons fun, engaging, and rewarding. For Drum set, I teach from Tommy Igoe's "Groove Essentials 1.0/2.0" and John Riley's "The Art of Bop Drumming". I encourage students to perform a recital but I like to stretch the definition of a "recital". Read More

Instruments: Guitar Bass Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

I am straight-forward with my students. I address the issues right away and reference the correct methods. I will explain the answer until the student understands. I will take my time to explain the issue and get creative until we both are on the same page. I value "having confidence in yourself" and use cheerleading statements to bring out their inner-confidence. Some books I currently use or reference with my students include: "Totally Interactive Band Bible", "Music Success in Nine Weeks", "Fast Track - Chords & Scales for Guitar", "The Bass- a comprehensive approach book 1", Total Guitar". Read More

Instruments: Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

My earliest musical memories were of Led Zeppelin, Guns 'n' Roses, and Jimi Hendrix. When I started taking guitar lessons at eleven years old, I pursued the powerful distorted guitar riffs from my classic rock idols. After learning about jazz in high-school, I began to seek out knowledge of every genre of music. McNally-Smith helped me tremendously. I joined a wide range of ensembles, from blues to indie-rock, classical to gypsy jazz. Read More