Diego D
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Synthesizer, Keyboard, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&b, Gospel, Musical Theater, Latin, Funk, Flamenco, Showtunes, Spirituals, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Punk, Avant-Garde

I started teaching guitar lessons privately when I was 16 years old and, since I tested out of my first year of Music College in Argentina, I was able to receive my first music degree at age 19. Shortly thereafter, I started teaching elementary school music and symphonic band at a private school until I was offered a scholarship to be an exchange student in the U.S., and then offered two scholarships (Tiger Scholar and LMA) to transfer to LSU (Geaux Tigers!) to finish my studies there. During my time at LSU, I taught music to my fellow college students as an LSU School of Music Approved Music Tutor, and I currently teach Music Theory at SAE Atlanta and privately. Given that I am now 31 years old, I have been teaching music for the past 15 years.

When teaching children, I make sure to take advantage of their neuroplasticity by mastering the basics of rhythm, sight-reading and phrasing, all while making it fun and intuitive. The objective here is to give the child the ability to use musicality as an expressive resource, which will improve the child's musical cognition but also his speech and math skills -- I speak from personal experience, as I started taking music lessons when I was five and now I speak five languages, besides never having difficulties with math. Teaching adults is fun, because what you lose in neuroplasticity you gain in life experience and general knowledge, which makes it easier to make a connection. I've had students in their fifties and sixties and we did nothing but practice progressive rock or tango (remember I am from Argentina) because that's what they wanted to do, and I was able to find exercises that would help them achieve their goals, besides practicing the songs that they've always wanted to play! At that age, it's all about their goals, since the students are self-sufficient and able to decide what's best for their goals on their own. As far as method books go, I like Hal Leonard's Essential Elements (I've used those methods a lot when teaching middle school band) for young students, Hanon's exercises and Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos for intermediate piano, and trips to Guitar Center for adult guitarists (I'm serious: John Petrucci has a great method for Rock Guitar, for example).