Description

I teach all styles of contemporary and classic jazz. Including swing, bop, post bop, modal, west coast cool, Latin and fusion. I focus on performance, repertoire, theory, and improvisation and use the jazz standards found in the Real Book fake books for my teaching examples. Some of the areas of my curriculum include: scale and arpeggio application to chords and progressions, jazz phrasing, chord voicing with extensions & alterations and chord substitution.

I’ve been playing professionally since 1975 and have been teaching since 1980. I have a Master’s Degree in Music from San Jose State University in Jazz Composition & Performance and have instructed hundreds of successful students at The Musicians Warehouse locations in Evergreen and Almaden, Tony’s Music in Evergreen, and Steven’s Music in Cupertino. I am currently teaching from my home in Almaden (South San Jose). It’s a quiet and peaceful environment and there are never any distractions that the student may find from taking lessons in a noisy retail music store. Learning to improvise and play jazz piano is a very satisfying and creative endeavor but it’s not easy, however if the student is willing to practice everyday and dedicate themselves to the work, I can teach them to play in the styles of Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and many other jazz greats.

Requirements: The student must have some fundamental piano and note reading skills established, however it is not necessary for the student to come from a jazz background.

I use a Roland A-33 keyboard with weighted and touch sensitive keys for the lessons. I have many types of piano sounds that I use with this keyboard from Steinway & Baldwin grands to classic Fender Rhodes & Wurlitzers, and because it’s electronic it is always perfectly in tune. The student can choose from 1 hour or ½ hour lessons occurring once a week.