Voice Lessons in South San Francis, CA

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Bass Guitar Conga Latin Percussion

Jake has been playing guitar and percussion for over 20 years. He teaches all levels of guitar and congas, as well as beginning piano, voice and drum set. He went to Berkeley High School where he played guitar in the BHS Jazz Ensemble. He then attended the New School in New York City, majoring in jazz guitar studies. He has studied jazz guitar with Steve Erquiaga, Dave Creamer and Jack Wilkins, and congas with Josh Jones, Sandy Perez and other Cuban percussionists. Read More

Instruments: Voice

I encourage all of my students to choose songs that they want to sing to ensure that they are enjoying what they are learning. For children and beginners, it is important that the fundamentals are in place, therefore I tend to spend more time on musicianship skills and music theory. For more advanced students it is important to understand how their unique instrument works, therefore I like to approach technique through pedagogy. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Bass Guitar Organ

For beginner students who are pursing music on the tonal instruments, I typically start with learning the names of the notes on the instrument and the major scale in every key as it relates to the piano. For the bass guitar I start of with basic finger strength techniques and exercises while incorporating the major scale fingering form and Nashville numbering system for all tonal instruments. For voice, I start off by finding the range of the individual and then teaching warmup techniques while building the individuals technique through finding a song and learning how to sing along.  Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice Drums Music Keyboard

For most of my beginning piano students, I use the piano adventures series. They offer a clear and well paced curriculum with numerous supplemental resources in a variety of styles. For beginning music theory, I use the Berklee School of Music texts or the Benward and Saker textbooks as well as many videos and other resources to explore musical concepts. For singing, I use a variety of sight singing books, all depending on the age and experience of the student. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

For beginning students I start with breathing. I ask the student if there's anything they're interested in learning and by the third lesson have chosen something for them to sing. In an hour long lesson there is typically a half hour warm up to introduce new concepts and reinforce old ones. The second half is spent working on music and utilizing the concepts we have just discussed. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

I have been teaching private voice for three years, and feel like I truly thrive when I'm sharing my knowlege of music and performance. At Colorado State University I taught a to wide range of students and styles from freshmen voice majors, choral conducting graduate students, theater majors, voice minors, and even a couple aspiring folk/country singers! I also taught a Fundamentals of Music Theory course to over 100 non-music majors, covering reading music, piano basics, intro to harmony, the physics of music and the psychology of music. Read More