If you’re checking out my website, it’s probably because you love music and you love the guitar.
You likely want to expand your music knowledge and guitar skills, and want to play the music that you love. Finding a teacher that’s right for you can be a process. Please explore my website and if my approach fits with who you are and what you’re looking for on your guitar learning journey.
Here are some of my favorite subjects, and questions that you may have asked:
Practicing
How do I create a practice routine?
What are strategies to quit wasting time in the practice room?
How do I create practice goals?
What is important and how do I decide what to focus on?
How long should I practice?
Soloing
How do I play a better solo?
What is improvising?
How can I sound more deliberate when I take a solo?
Creating better chords
What are triads?
What are seventh chords?
Why do some chord patterns have movement?
When are open chords and barre chords not enough?
Playing with other people
How can I get comfortable jamming with people?
How can I stop getting lost in the tunes I’m playing?
How do I count in a tune?
How can I meet other people to play with?
Technique
How can I learn to shred?
How can I learn to be funky?
How can I learn to swing?
Learning by ear
How can I learn music without tabs or sheet music?
How can I figure out the songs I listen to faster?
How can I figure out what other people are playing?
Understanding the fingerboard
What are the names of the notes and how do the positions on the neck relate to each other?
What are the “shapes” that make certain sounds?
How can I play higher on the neck with out just hunting and pecking?
Understanding harmony
What is music “theory”?
Why do certain chords sound good together?
How do scales make me a better soloist or song writer?
How does chord knowledge and scale knowledge make my ears better?
My approach to helping you address any and all of these topics prioritizes learning how to practice.
Together, we will learn practical and accessible exercises to better understand how music, and the guitar “work” so you can have more fun playing the music that you love.
We will learn how to analyze songs, guitar solos, chord progressions and more, so that you can play them and know what’s goin’ on!
Lessons will be unique to you and tailored to your needs.
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Rates
Lessons are $80 per hour
I recommend lessons weekly or once per two weeks.
I have a 24 hour cancellation policy.
Payments can be made at the conclusion of each lesson by cash or Zelle. Venmo is also accepted.
Location
My home studio is located in Flatbush, Brooklyn, minutes from the Church Ave Q/B station.
I’m easily accessible by bus as well, with the B35 stopping right outside my studio and the B41 stopping less than 5 minutes away.
I have a collection of guitars, amplifiers and effects pedals so you don’t have to bring anything with you!
Contact me!
Interested in working together?
Contact me by email at davideblake@gmail.com
Or, fill out my form with some information about who you are and what you’re trying to do with the guitar!
Who am I?
With 25 years of experience in playing the guitar and studying music, I can guide you in your quest to improve your skills and techniques so that you can play the music you want to play!
Our approach to learning music will emphasize practical and accessible exercises that help guide you–no matter your current skill level–to better understand how both music and the guitar “work” – and how you can better experience the joys and fun of making music!
No matter your level, I aim to help you improve your musical skills – in any contemporary style. Together, our aim will be to help you play music that feels and sounds authentic! Whether that means trying to learn a song by ear, trying to play specific rhythms, learning a guitar solo, or improvising chords behind another soloist, together we will get you where you want to be, while deepening our joy for music!
I’m David, a Canadian born, Brooklyn based jazz guitar player. I started playing guitar when I was thirteen, in the heyday of pop punk bands like Green Day and Sum 41. I was very lucky to have a great teacher in Vancouver who introduced me to the music of Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, B.B. King… the greats! After a few months of listening to these guitar players I asked my teacher, “how do these guys write these guitar solos?” My teacher blew my teenage mind. “They just sort of make them up.”
The simple idea that these solos were “made up” (or improvised, a word I later learned) started a journey that I’m still on now, 23 years later.
I started teaching in 2009 in Vancouver, Canada. I have taught private lessons and ensemble lessons at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music, been hired as a clinician for the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival, the Central Coast Jazz Guitar Workshop, The Vancouver International Jazz Festival and many other places. In 2022 I moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in guitar performance at NYU. While I was there, I was hired as an adjunct graduate student instructor to teach private guitar lessons. Since graduating I have taught for the NYC Jazz Academy and NYC Guitar School. Now, after many years of teaching for various institutions, I have started teaching out of my own studio in Brooklyn.
As well as teaching, I maintain a career as a jazz guitarist performing and recording in NYC as well as other parts of the world!