JazzWalk - Music Instruction Services

JazzWalk Music Services

Instruction and Performance Services in Northern California

									Welcome!

Besides offering my services as a performing string or electric bass player (e.g., my jazz trio), I offer string bass, electric bass, or guitar music lessons for all ages. My emphasis is placed on developing a more balanced musician, using a curriculum that comprises a custom-tailored mix of the following basic areas of study:

Physical - proper posture with holding the instrument, to foster the best potential for overall playing efficiency and the avoidance of repetitive stress injury
Ear Training - learn the rudimentary skill of really listening to and hearing everything; a critical skill for playing well with others and improvising
Sight Reading - immediately begin and continually develop the ability to read and play music from the written page, in standard notation and tablature; analyze charted chord changes to create good bass lines
Theory - build and identify scales, modes, chords and their possible substitutional interchangeabilities, and locate these on the instrument
Improvisation - tying all the foregoing skills together, we can explore the possibilities how to 'think on your feet', to create logical melodic and harmonious sounds on the fly
Fun - this won't be necessarily all work and no play; there is time for the students to analyze and learn some of their favorite pieces of music to play

By studying these primary disciplines of music, young students can learn the tools that will equip them to further teach themselves for years to come, and not only musically. All areas of present and future educational endeavor can greatly benefit, as a byproduct of learning to play music well on a musical instrument of one's own choosing. Listening, concentration, memory, motor skills, manual dexterity, hand to eye coordination, self-discipline, and self-confidence are all cultivated and enhanced. Needless to say, musical study is great health food for the spirit of the players, and eventually even more so for their audience!

String instruments happened to be my choice, and it's a pleasure to impart to an eager student at least some of the musical knowledge I've accumulated over many years.