Alan P  
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Showtunes, Reggae, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Punk, Mariachi, Avant-garde

I started my teaching career in 1996, teaching at the same music studio where I took lessons when I was younger. I try to carry some of the teaching techniques that were shown to me when I was taking lessons into my own style of teaching. This includes making the lesson fun as well as educational for the student. Daily practice is strongly encouraged, as well as playing with other musicians, recitals, and writing their own songs. While studying at Berklee College of Music I was involved with various projects including recording in their amazing studios and playing with musicians and bands of different stylistic backgrounds.

For beginning students I prefer to use either Alfred's, Mel Bay, or Hal Leonard method books. I generally stay away from method books that use guitar tablature because I find that student will prefer to read the tablature instead of standard musical notation. Tablature is a good way to easily show how guitar parts are played, but is not useful when teaching standard notation, music theory, harmony, etc. In addition to using a method book, I will also teach the student popular songs, which is a great way to start teaching chords and song structure in addition to keeping the lesson fun and the student engaged.