Lessons and teaching experience
This fall I started a new teaching gig. In addition to Elmhurst College I am at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I am pretty stoked about working with Ellen Rowe and the rest of the great faculty and student body over there. At Elmhurst I teach Freshman Fundamentals, Sophomore Jazz Improvisation and combo as well as private lessons in Jazz Guitar and private Jazz Improvisation on all instruments.
I have taught at Jack Cecchini Studios, the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Camp, the American Conservatory of Music, Niles North High School, Directions in Learning (an alternative High School for B-D kids-a real education for me), Triton College and Midwest Young Artists (founded the Jazz Program and the Chicago Jazz Workshop).
When giving a guitar lesson, I almost never feel like I am giving a "guitar lesson." Rather than guitar lessons per se, it usually becomes more a matter of teaching music to guitarists. When a student focuses on the musical issues the technique is almost self-teaching, with only a little guidance necessary. For instance, 95% of guitarists do not know the names of the notes on their instrument. They play by sight and by ear, but if you do not know what to call things you cannot think. This is a big problem if you have it, but it is not a difficult problem to solve.
Most guitarists do not read music. This was a problem for me when I was a kid. It undermined my confidence and when it was time for college I chose another route instead of music school. I wasted years. Jack Cecchini taught me to read-I got my shot at redemption, and I went for it. As a result I developed an effective method for teaching sightreading. If you are highly motivated but sick and tired of not knowing how to read, I can show you how. I have my own materials that I started developing in 1995, and I tried it out on students for ten years before I printed it in textbook form in 2005. It always worked but now it is perfected.
I teach others besides guitarists. Many of my students are wind players, drummers, violinists, vocalists, etc, who want private lessons in theory, jazz improvisation, sightreading or other aspects of learning music. I will work with anyone who has good basic technique but does not know how to play Jazz and wants to. Such students often study with me at the same time as their instrumental teacher.
A good, organized teacher will save you time and point you in the right direction. Good teachers are not always the ones who are the most convenient to get to, or even the ones who are the best players. To find a good teacher look for six or seven people who can really play, who are in the midst of satisfying careers, people who are living the dream. Ask them who they studied with, and the same names will keep coming up. I like to think that my name might be among them.