Matt S  
Instruments: Guitar, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Funk, Reggae, Swing, Soul

I began teaching music lessons when I was in college where I got my first job teaching private students. For the past 10 years I've been teaching at Music Academies in Orange County as well as traveling to do in home lessons with students. I emphasis a lot of listening and playing along with recordings and musical performances. In my experience, some of the most valuable lessons in music have come from listening to and emulating the musicians that have inspired me to play and I encourage my students to do the same.

For beginning students I start by showing them the open strings on the guitar or bass and give them exercises to navigate the pick or their fingers through the the strings. Once the student understands the open strings I'll begin showing them single note lines starting with the low strings and working up to the higher strings. For this I'll use examples from simple rock and pop songs. Once the student begins understanding the fret board, I will introduce chords and scale patterns that are essential to playing the guitar along with building a repertoire of songs that the student can perform.