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 your guitar skills.
You want to play the music that you love.
Finding a teacher that’s right for you can be a tough 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.
Questions I Hear Every Week
- 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?
- How do I play a better solo?
- What is improvising?
- How can I sound more deliberate when I take a solo?
- What are triads?
- What are seventh chords?
- Why do some chord patterns have movement?
- When are open chords and barre chords not enough?
- 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?
- How can I learn to shred?
- How can I learn to be funky?
- How can I learn to swing?
- 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?
- 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 without just hunting and pecking?
- 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 any and all of these topics starts with learning not just what to practice but how to practice.
Together, we will use a practical and fun approach to better understand the ways that 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, create your own and know what’s goin’ on!
Contact me!
Interested in working together?
Contact me by email at
Or, fill out my form with some information about who you are and what you’re trying to do with the guitar!
Rates and Policies
Lessons with me are one hour long and cost $80.
I currently teach adult students (18+) only. I love to work with people at all different levels of experience.
Regular lessons help keep momentum going, which is why most students choose to meet weekly or every other week.
In most cases, when we agree on a lesson time that time is reserved for you on an ongoing basis. Because of that, I ask for at least 24 hour notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. Lessons cancelled with less than 24 hour notice are generally charged in full. Of course, life happens, and I try to be reasonable when unexpected situations come up.
For our first meeting, I'll ask you to take care of payment when you arrive. After that, payment can be made anytime before you leave.
I accept cash, Zelle and Venmo.
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!
Who am I?
With 25+ years of experience playing guitar and studying music, I’ll guide you in your quest to improve your musical abilities 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) began a journey that I’m still on now.
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! When I’m not talking about guitar, I’m usually tending to my bonsai trees.