The key to teaching and learning is to have fun. No one is motivated to take up a leisure activity that promises to be hard work, boring, and uninspiring.
I try to make it fun and enjoyable, and give you a good grounding in the basics.

SOCIAL PLAYING
I generally focus on social playing skills when people first start playing. After just a few short months you’ll be able to play along with well known pop and rock tunes; and be able to play along with other players at a similar level.

Tunes include selected songs by: Green Day, Nirvana, Guns and Roses, Kid Rock, Matchbox 20, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Smashmouth, Police, Nickleback, Santana, The Beatles, Crowded House, Oasis, The Eagles, CCR, and many more.

BAND PLAYING
For social players who want to progress to band level playing it’s really a matter of continuing your tuition.

All the things that you have learnt as a social player apply to playing in a band as well. The main difference is that you with need to master bar chords, more advanced strum patterns and understand the different stylistic techniques for a variety of different kinds of music.

LEAD GUITAR
I help you learn all of the scales licks and tricks that will allow you to play a wide variety of styles i.e. Blues, Classic Rock, Metal/Hard Rock, Southern Rock, Latin Rock, Jazz Fusion, and a wide variety of other styles. The emphasis for players at this level will be learning the correct techniques and skills needed to achieve virtuoso level playing; High level Theory, Pentatonic and Modal scales, and Ear training.

Has got to be one of the best all time fun instruments. Easier to play than guitar, more portable, and comes in four different sizes for every size finger.

And it is now back in fashion !!!!. Taylor Swift, Adam Sandler, George Harrison, Billy Corgan and Pink have all been know to bash out a tune on one!!!

Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's Platinum selling hit "Over the Rainbow" really helped revive interest in this great little instrument

Tunes like Jason Mrazs' "I'm yours" and Colby Caillats "Bubbly" sound as if they were written for the Uke. A lot of Jack Johnson and Beatles tunes sound great on the Uke as well.

And a new wave of players are proving that this instrument is not a toy!

The 3 most played sizes are Soprano, Concert, and Tenor

SOPRANO
Good for younger beginners and adults with very small, slim fingers. Some chords can be a little difficult to play due to the small fret size of the soprano.

CONCERT
I'd recommend the Concert size for most new players. It still sounds like a Uke, but with a little more body to the sound, and a bit more finger room than the Soprano.
A beginner concert size uke can be had for as little as $80-120

TENOR
Is better if you have sausage fingers.
I would recommend this as a first instrument for adult male players.
It has a bigger fuller sound, somewhere between a ukulele and a 3/4 size classical guitar.

GET A UKE STRAP!
IT MAKES IT FAR EASIER
TO HOLD.

Get some advice before buying a Mandolin.
Cheap badly made ones are very difficult to play!

Like the Ukulele the mandolin has made it’s way into the pop mainstream. Rod Stewarts’ “Maggie May” and R.E.Ms’ “losing my religion” are two well known examples. Led Zeppelin featured quite a lot of mandolin on their first few albums. Classical Mandolin orchestras were, and still are popular, and it's well known as a folk instrument in Irish traditional and American bluegrass.

My approach to teaching this instrument is similar to social guitar playing; learn some basic chords and strums to start with, move on to more advanced chords and strums for band playing, and decide what inspires you most .

Some people like to explore the world of Irish music and play jigs and reels; reading music is a great aid to achieving this……..others like the bluegrass/newgrass path and learn to improvise their own solos.

Mandolin is a highly versatile instrument with high profile players in styles as diverse as: Classical, Jazz, Bluegrass , Modern folk, Pop/top 40 and Celtic based styles.

Bass is really a band instrument and needs to be taught as such. No one takes up bass to sit around a camp fire and sing Kum-by-Yah.

Good bass players are hard to find and can always get a paying gig.

For that reason I generally teach Bass players to read music right from the 1st lesson. This makes it’s easier to teach CORRECT bass fingering as opposed to guitar fingering. Learning to read also aids a player to learn the names of the notes on their instrument; something guitarists often don’t do very well.

A good bass player needs a higher level of theory than a guitarist playing the same material, especially if the bassist has to make up their own parts. For this reason I generally start practical music theory at a much earlier stage of the learning process.

I teach pick, finger style, and slap and pop. A career minded bass player in this day and age should be able to use all of these picking styles. 

A great instrument to play, and pretty good results can be achieved in about 12 months (as opposed to say Trumpet or Violin which take about 2-3 years to be proficient)
I teach students to read music, as well as theory and technique. My main interest is in teaching players to function in all areas of the music industry; which includes the skills to play in blues, rock, jazz, and pop bands.

The 2 most common saxes played in band situations are Alto and Tenor.

ALTO
Is the best choice for students under 12 years of age or slightly built adults because of it's size. Just about anyone can get their fingers around the Alto body and it's not too heavy around the neck. Alto has some lovely high notes that have some of the soprano quality about them but has enough lower notes to work in a Pop/Rock/Blues/Funk and Jazz situation.

TENOR
Physically larger and lower in pitch the tenor is best suited to larger teenagers and adults. Tenor is favoured by Blues and Rock bands for it's lower and more raw tone.

CALL ME FOR SOME BUYING ADVICE!

The basic premise behind these workshops is that they should be fun, and a place to try out and perfect your skills in a friendly creative environment. The emphasis is on what you learn along the way....it's not about learning a list of songs for a public performance at the end of the course.

It's about "hanging around in your musical underwear" so to speak.....An environment where you can try an idea out....work on it...And try it again until you perfect it.

For the beginner and intermediate levels it's the opportunity to learn what the other instruments do while you are playing your part...and how they relate to what you are playing.