Brad A  

4.5

  4.5 (7)

Instruments: Guitar, Voice, Violin, Cello, Viola, Fiddle, Double Bass, Music, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Pop, Folk, Country, Gospel

I started playing the violin in 7th grade. It was a struggle for me to learn the instrument and how to read music, until I started taking lessons. I was taught using the Suzuki method and have used it to teach all of my students ever since. I was inspired by a best friend to pick up guitar and learned to play as best as I could without a teacher. When I finally signed up for professional guitar lessons, I found that there were not just many things to learn, but many things to unlearn. I went back to school to study music at Florida Southern College in Lakeland Florida where I learned Voice and String Pedagogy. After graduating, I taught in the public school system for several years and left to establish my own private studio where I had almost 30 students at one time. I also formed a community orchestra made up of many my current and past students.

For violin, viola, cello and bass, I teach the Suzuki method. The Suzuki method is based strongly on memory and takes a systematic approach to introducing music of increasing difficulty. For classical guitar, I start off with the Frederick Noad system, "Solo Guitar Playing", and scales. As skill level increases, I assign more etudes and standard guitar repertoire. For acoustic guitar, I teach almost exclusively finger-picking. I teach the same high standard skills for acoustic guitar that I teach for classical, but concentrate on masterpieces of the repertoire. A few examples are Horse With No Name, Dust In The Wind, Blackbird, Here Comes the Sun, Michelle, Mother Nature's Son, In My Life, Scarborough Fair, Danny's Song, Annie's Song, Time In a Bottle, If, Aubrey, Never Going Back Again, Vincent, Harvest Moon. It is my hope that every acoustic guitar student studies voice, and that every voice student studies guitar.