Alan L  
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Ukulele, Music, Keyboard, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Electronic

My teaching experience started not too long ago despite me playing professionally for awhile. I decided to start up private lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic over zoom and discord because my day job at the time had laid me off. However, I quickly learned that upon being a private teacher, it was difficult to market and advertise for myself in the hopes to get new students as well as keep up with my professional commitments. Because of this platform, I am now confidentially able to fully commit to my students' success as well as keep on top of any and all professional commitments. Having taken music lessons before myself and not liking it, I have come to realize that music is only fun when one is able to learn what they want to learn. This is important to understand because often times, its the strongest factor and motivator most people have when starting to pursue music. I'm a firm believer that things like "theory" will be appreciated over time and when students have come to actually realize its importance and significance once they have reached a certain skill level. Finally, It's also important for me to know my students music tastes and influences in order to carefully lay out a lesson plan in the hopes of getting them to where they want to be in the most efficient way.

For beginner students, I will teach them the fundamentals of music theory followed by chords every player should know. During this time, students will learn how to handle, maintain, and tune their instrument as well as play both finger-style and with a plectrum (pick) depending on the song. Beginner students will also learn to master their strumming technique as well as cleanly transition between chords in a song and play them in its entirety with the right rhythm. At the later stages of the beginner course, students will dive into complex chords, power chords, barre chords, and playing with a capo as well as learning when and how to transpose songs of various musical keys using a capo. For intermediate to advanced students, I will teach them how to play more melodically as well as improve their finger dexterity. Students will learn how to play in alternate tunings as well as solos and single note lines/riffs in addition to exploring the guitar fret board in its entirety via the CAGED system and chord inversions/triads. We will start with the 12 bar blues (in order to work on finger dexterity) and work our way up into the pentatonic, major, and minor scales. Students will also learn during this time, various techniques to add more expressiveness or feeling to their playing such as slides, bends, vibrato, hammer ons/offs, double stops, etc. For the later stages of this course, students will learn about other scales of interest (melodic minor, harmonic minor, etc.), scale modalitys (the modal scales), five string arpeggios, tapping arpeggios, and advanced techniques such as tremolo picking, sweep picking, hybrid picking, economy picking, harmonics (natural, artificial, and pinch), and tapping (both one hand and two handed). It is my hope throughout this whole process that students will learn how to develop their own playing style and musicianship that will allow them to tackle any musical gig or endeavor that may come their way. I will also during this time prepare students for the rigors of live performances they might have and guide them into choosing pieces of equipment that will cater to their sounds and tastes as well as their budget needs.