Lessons
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Guitar Lessons San Francisco.
Hi and welcome to my web site. I offer individual personalized lessons on guitar, upright bass and electric bass. I’m adept at lots of styles and students of all types of music can benefit from my experience. We can work on everything from jazz, rock, blues, funk, to country/bluegrass and classical music. All ages are welcome—I have students ranging from 7 to 70. I accept students of all levels of expertise and beginners are strongly encouraged. If you’re starting out I’ll provide a solid foundation and if you’re already playing I can help you move to a higher level of musicianship. The lessons are informal, enjoyable and designed to help you make rapid progress on your instrument. I take a practical approach that’s designed to get you ready to play with other musicians. I encourage all my students to find enjoyable playing situations as soon as possible.
Technique and Fundamentals
Playing an instrument begins with good technique. If you’re a new player, we’ll discuss how to hold the instrument, good left and right hand technique and relaxed, efficient posture. Deeloping good playing habits and you’ll be able to play faster and smoother and you’ll avoid common repetitive motion injuries and problems that can cut short your playing career.
Harmony
We’ll begin with intervals and triads and then move on to more complex chord structures. You’ll learn how to identify basic chord qualities (major, minor and dominant seventh) and you’ll learn to put them to use in your playing.
Rhythm
Good time is essential for all styles of music. I’ll give you tips on working effectively with a metronome to develop a good internal rhythmic sense. For advanced students I provide extensive exercises in 4/4 and 3/4 as well as odd time signatures like 5/4 and 7/8.
Note Reading
I suggest learning to read music as a component of learning your instrument. It’s not difficult once you get past the initial hump…you’ll be surprised. I don’t suggest that you become an ace sight reader but just so that you’ll be able to learn from written notation. There are some things that simply aren’t available in tablature or from any other source and you’ll be at a disadvantage if you can’t read standard notation. Just about any music you can think of has been transcribed and published somewhere, from Bach to Charlie Parker to Green Day.
Improvisation
I encourage all students to begin improvising soon after starting to learn their instrument, first by learning pentatonic scales and riffs, then later by studying scales and modes and transcribing solos and ensemble lines from recordings by your favorite players.
Playing in a Band
It can be a big jump going from playing on your own to playing with a band, at a session or at a gig. I’ll help you with practical tips on intros and endings, getting a good blend with the other instruments, hooking up with the drummer and the best way to approach a jam session or sitting in with a band at a gig.
Location
I’m located at 39th and Judah in the Sunset District, convenient to most neighborhoods in San Francisco.
Clark Music Studio 