Music Lessons in Kansas City, MO

Instruments: Guitar Drums Bass Guitar Harmonica Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

What musical accomplishments are you most proud of?
I would say my earliest accomplishment was getting into music school after having played guitar for just over two years. At the University of Kansas, I also provided classical guitar accompaniment for a DMA flute student, and played on several of his doctoral recitals. For a 19 year old, it was greatly stressful, but I managed to help him to execute successful performances despite my relative lack of experience. Later, some of my favorite performances were with a gypsy jazz quartet where we performed in an idiom similar to Django Reinhard, and st the same time I performed many solo acoustic shows playing both original compositions and covers.

What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
In terms of mechanics, I believe right hand technique is one of the most tedious to develop, and takes an immense amount of time to hone in. In a larger-scale sense, I would say mastery of jazz or classical styles are some of the most difficult, and for two totally different reasons. For jazz, a guitarist has the dual role (like piano) of rhythm and lead. Many guitarists start on styles more akin to pop or rock, and do not develop sight reading skills that other instrumentalists do, so that is always a battle for guitarists. Also, there are multiple positions you can use to play the same note, so certain judgements have to be made. Sight reading is even more paramount in classical music, thus, classical guitarists must work extra diligently to develop this skill.

Do you use specific teaching methods or books? (Ex: Alfred, Bastion, Suzuki, Hal Leonard) Why did you choose them if you did?
I prefer as much as possible to not use these methods, as I have found them to be disinteresting for most students. I prefer to make notes by hand, or selecting printouts from the internet. I also encourage students to look through various websites, and searching through YouTube to help their practicing throughout the week. For more advanced students, I do encourage them to purchase Real Books and other materials that give explicit education to music theory. I have a printer, and will print materials before a lesson, or will email suggestions as needed.

What does a normal practice session look like for you?
I like to begin with technique warmups for 5-10 minutes. In my most focused practice time, I will set a timer on each idea I’m working on. In general, I like to limit my intense focus on a couple of keys per week, and run through different ideas in each of them. For instance, recently I’ve been looking at half-diminished chords and their inversions and arpeggios. I will take two keys that are generally unrelated (Dmaj and A-flat maj this week) and execute the exercises until they feel comfortable. This extends for all ideas and sets of scales. Then if I have time, I will do some ear training, and sight reading. Afterwards, I usually work on repertoire for the remainder of my practice session. I have a few apps on my phone that I will browse through if I have free time and am away from an instrument.

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