Jose S  
Instruments: Guitar, Ukulele, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, Punk

My BA from Harvard is in Folklore and Mythology, and I am a professional storyteller. For nearly 30 years, I have also been an elementary school teacher. During four of those years, I was a public school music teacher, but music and the arts were always fundamental to my integrated approach. I received training in the Montessori Method, and have applied it to my musical lessons as well . My professional career as a musician also began thirty years ago, and I perform regularly both as a solo musician and with my band, which performs my original songs. I write in many styles, in both English and Spanish, and have recorded five albums worth of material, with two dozen more songs currently in various stages of production.

My goal is always to get the student playing songs with three or four chords in them within about three months. Part of each session is the creation of a handmade booklet to be used as a chord reference. The first session is not about music, but simply about the mechanics of fingers and guitars and I give an initial exercise that focuses on clarity of tone. After that, one chord is introduced each session, with the chords A, E, and D always being first, followed by C and G. Simple songs are introduced, strumming is practiced and up to a dozen chords can be learned in the first three months. After that, the student may choose to go on and learn more about the musical scales and how the guitar relates to the piano, and practice playing more complex songs. When a student reaches this level, it will be time for them to find a more specialized teacher, depending on their genre (heavy metal, jazz, classical).