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25 Years
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Teachers in Network
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Here are just a few of the many teachers offering Guitar lessons in Santa Clara . Whether you are looking for beginner guitar lessons for your kids, or are an adult wanting to improve your skills, the instructors in our network are ready to help you now!
Instruments: Guitar
My teaching experience dates back to my college days, as I began teaching private lessons part time a 5 years ago, and have been consistently teaching students in my home studio for the last 5 years. Encouraging regular practice on a consistent schedule is one of the key points I like to emphasize for younger students, as it tends to help the student progress and gain a passion for the guitar. My students are encouraged to enter competitions and recitals, as well as work on composing their own original material, so they can feel good about their accomplishments and stay motivated to learn. Read More
Instruments: Guitar
I'm very easy going and very understanding. I have a true passion for teaching and helping others and patience is one of my virtues. I have a real undesrstanding as to how much different we can be from one another in our learning abilities, and it is my main goal to tailor each lesson to the specific student and individual at hand. I do my best to get into the position (point of view) of each one of my students and take into consideration every single aspect of their personality when I'm teaching them. Read More
Instruments: Guitar Bass Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar
For beginners, I use handwritten tablature, online tablature, and Hal Leonard Instructional Books. For those interested in classical guitar, I use selected pieces from the Christopher Parkening Method Books. If you are wanting to learn for casual enjoyment, I will teach you basic chords, popular riffs and selected songs from classic rock, the blues, pop, folk or modern rock. I am a patient, passionate, devoted teacher. I always make my students understand the content of what I'm teaching by asking questions and slowly going over given material. Read More
Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Bass Guitar Organ
It is important that each student progresses at their own pace with reasonable and realistic goals that they can reach. Acknowledging accomplishments helps fuel a students desire to achieve even greater challenges. My desire is to find what motives the student and create a curriculum that will refine them based on their desire. Read More
Instruments: Guitar Drums Bass Guitar Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar
My experience is mostly with beginning students, so I take an easy-going approach. We will begin with fundamentals, either working out of one of my books, one of the student's, or with a different modality depending on the student's learning style. I will facilitate a fun, exciting environment in which the student can choose their path. Possible goals could be: learning your favorite song, memorizing scales, learning to read music, learning to solo, and anything else that pops into the student's head! Read More
Instruments: Guitar
My teaching experience goes back to the late seventies where I started to teach kids in the neighborhood the guitar. As I got older and more knowledgeable about jazz and blues, I taught on a part time basis shareing what I was learning through my own studies with my students. Now many years later I have an excellent knowledge of the guitar and want to teach students how to completely understand it. Read More
Instruments: Piano Guitar
I have been teaching privately since undergraduate college days. In addition to private lessons on guitar and piano, I have facilitated group workshops, directed ensembles, and tutored reading comprehension in some Oakland public schools. It's a profound joy to see young children have their first musical experiences as well as to see the fire of music be rekindled in those who have put an instrument down and have decided to pick it up once again. Read More
Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Violin Cello Viola Trumpet Trombone Saxophone Flute Clarinet Drums Bass Guitar Ukulele Recorder Double Bass Euphonium French Horn Tuba Piccolo Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Shakuhachi Oboe Bassoon English Horn Music Keyboard Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar
What does a normal practice session look like for you?
Since I play so many instruments practice sessions are usually pretty brief on each instrument besides my primary. I try to always start with a warm-up of either scales or exercises. Sometimes depending on time Ill skip right into sight reading as a warm up from an etude book or random excerpts. I then move into my method books to work on a specific technique. I spend about 2-5 minutes on each of these steps so that the bulk of my practice can then be applying these skills into repertoire which can go anywhere from 15-45 minutes. I try to practice a minimum of 30 minutes a day on voice and bassoon and 15 minutes or more on a secondary instrument usually picking a new one each day.
When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
When I was little I always had the childhood dream of becoming a famous singer. I decided I wanted to become a band teacher when I was only in 7th grade due to how much I enjoyed music, helping others learn music, and learning multiple instruments. While I always loved singing it wasn't until my time performing in my high school musicals that I knew I had to major in both band and choral education.
If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
I originally intended to double major in music and either Japanese or Astrophysics! As a Japanese American teaching Japanese is still something I could see myself doing in the future.
What is your favorite style/genre of music to play and why?
Folk music from all over the world is my favorite music to perform because I love learning about other cultures and languages so for me it's a great way to combine two of my favorite things into one. American folk music is some of my favorite stuff to sing and play on guitar.
If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
I knew very early on I wanted to be a band and choir teacher so I started learning any instruments I could get my hands on starting in middle school. I actually switched instruments a few times before settling on bassoon as my primary to which my band teachers told me "if you can play bassoon you can play anything" and I took that statement and ran with it!
Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
I am the first professional musician in my family. My father was a bass player but it wasn't a major part of his life. He and his high school best friend would jam out together in their basement where myself and his friends daughters would be tasked with playing random instruments just for fun.
Why did you choose your primary instrument?
I've been singing as long as I could remember but it didn't start to become my primary instrument until high school. When I started in school band I played flute and quickly got bored of it and so my teacher asked me to switch to bassoon. I picked it because it looked and sounded funny and quickly fell in love with the quirky, challenging instrument.
If you have a Music Degree, what is it in (Performance, Education, Musicology, Theory, Composition, etc) and why did you choose that degree?
I have a Bachelors of music in Instrumental/Choral/General Music Education. I chose this because I knew early I wanted and loved to teach music. I hope to pursue higher education in music theory, composition and/or pedagogy.
What is your dream piece to perform and why?
For voice my dream piece is actually the musical role of Elphaba from Wicked. My dream bassoon piece would be the clarinet piece Rhapsody in Blue which is much more difficult on bassoon!
Do you use specific teaching methods or books? (Ex: Alfred, Bastion, Suzuki, Hal Leonard) Why did you choose them if you did?
I love to use essential elements for the majority of the instruments I play. For bassoon I like to use different Weissenborne and Milde as well as a method book my professor made for me and my fellow college bassoonist. For voice I love to use 4 minute mastery and sight reading factory for young singers. I pull most of my solo repertoire from all different sources via IMSLP, especially for classical repertoire however I also just have an abundance of repertoire readily available.
What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
On bassoon I think the hardest thing to master is the full range of the instrument due to the crazy range spanning from below the bass clef to the top of the treble clef and the challenging fingerings and shear amount of alternative fingerings that accompany the range. For a vocalist the biggest challenge is learning to navigate the head and chest voice and the mix of both. It takes complete control of the breath and basic understanding of the vocal instrument which is challenging when until you obtain your adult voice, your voice is constantly changing especially in adolescents.
25 Years
Since We Started
41,456+
Happy Customers
10,769
Cities with Students
3,123
Teachers in Network
Trusted as the industry leader, for over 21 years the teachers in our network have been providing Guitar lessons in Santa Clara to students of all ages and abilities.
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