Richardson S  
Instruments: Guitar, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Ukulele, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Musical Theater, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Spirituals, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Punk, Avant-garde

I began teaching private and group public school lessons in my later high school years; from there I decided that a career in teaching and performance was my calling. During college, I continued teaching private lessons and received the opportunity to teach general music for half a year in a K-8 public school. One of the highlights from my time there was leading a group of 8th graders in forming their own contemporary classical ensemble, composing their own music, going to a professional studio and recording themselves, planning and scheduling a concert, and performing their original music live in front of their peers.

For all my students, my lessons focus on three key areas of playing: technique, fluency, and repertoire. Technique includes warmup exercises, chord vocabulary, and scales among other areas. Fluency includes some form of reading music and is catered to the goals of the student. Whether it be traditional sheet music, guitar tab, lead sheets or otherwise, we will develop skills in reading music that is relevant to a student's area of interest. Repertoire includes any songs or pieces that students are interested in learning and will be arranged to scaffold their current skill level. My teaching also places a special emphasis in improvisation - since much of modern guitar music is written from a place of improvisation and involves improvising, I believe it is a vital skill for students to have. Even a beginning understanding of improvising will give students a fresh new perspective on the music they enjoy and will give them the skills to play with any musician they may meet.