Jake of All Trades; Obtain a Hands on Experience to reach an In Depth Understanding.

Hello! My name is Jacob, and I bet you're wondering: "How could this 19 year old have ANY experience to make me a better guitar player?" And although I totally get your concern, I promise you that you are in great hands when it comes to learning. Having grown up in a very musical family, with influences from a plethera of genres, I have been passionate about the creation of music my entire life. I started playing guitar at 7 years old, and in the past 11 (and a half) years, I learned the art of ear training by playing in jam sessions early on, I started writing my own music at 10 and learning song structure and how chord movements relate to one another, and starting at 14, I finally started being taught classically through means of sightreading concert sheet music, as well as starting to practice personal composition for larger groups. At 15, I started my own personal "Emo-PopRock" band, which although never made any significant physical accomplishments over its lifetime, taught me much about how to teach and communicate to others about my musical understanding and vision for different songs. After I turned 16, I realized I one day would want to become a music teacher in hopes to show people the importance of music and how it affects us on a daily basis. My junior and Senior year of highschool I got the pleasure to T.A. both elementary and middleschool music students to improve my teaching ability, and I've held guitsr cosching seminars once a month for the past 2 years. I have hand-on experience in many genres, including: Americana, Bluegrass, Blues, Metal, Rock, Pop, Country, Fingerstyle, and Classical. I've dabbled in Jazz and Bassa Nova, but I am not confident enough in those genres to properly teach them. I am happy to help you in any way possible, and I really appreciate your time!

I try to be as hands on with teaching as possible, emphasizing the WHY things work over just WHAT works in general. When learning mathematics, it is better to understand that 5 times 4 equals 20 because you are adding 5 to itself 4 times, rather than just solely trying to get them to remember that 5X4=20. When you understand the process that causes 5X4 to be 20, you can further apply that process to lets say, 5X5, 6X5, 6X6, and so on. MUSIC IS EXACTLY THE SAME! By understanding the musical concept thats applied in a certain piece, instead of solely learning it by itself, you will have an easier time learning a different song that applies the same concept overall. If you do this over a long list of concepts, then you're ability to pick up songs quickly will grow exponentially. I am also a believer in specifically having information handwritten for the sake of deeper learning. Studies have proven handwriting things will allow you to remember it for longer and more vividly. For example: when people want to learn music theory and scales, I have them map out the fret board by hand one string at a time, which allows them to learn the patterns of how scales work and how they repeat themselves by their own problem solving (with me always there to assist them of course) which is more effective than me just telling it to them overall. My communication skills are upfront and deliberate when it comes to explaining what someone needs to work on to improve. I never belittle my students, and always remind them that most mistakes early guitarists make are mistakes that even professionals made at some point. I have worked with both people as young as 7 and as old as 70, and Im able to change my teaching style to best benefit each client. I am quick to adapt to what best "makes the pieces click together".