ZOOM LESSONS

I first switched over to teaching online lessons to keep working with clients while on tour with the Killers. I soon realized that online lessons had several benefits, the greatest being the flexibility in scheduling meeting times. In the era of the COVID pandemic, when remote working became a major way of working, teaching online through Zoom has become my primary way of meeting with students.

LESSON PLAN

Overview

My main focus is to help my students acquire the skill set they need so they can have fun playing and express themselves musically in a way their listeners will understand and enjoy.

To achieve this general goal, I focus on my teaching on studying melody, chord progressions, song forms and lyrics/music combinations. As a learning tool, I share follow-up guide videos to reinforce in students the concepts covered during our lessons. This way students to review the examples covered in the lessons as many times as need at their own speed.

Sight-reading and Musical Form

While I am flexible in changing my teaching approach, I believe that understanding musical forms and learning how to sightread are crucial in gaining musical literacy. Musical form is the big picture or the ways in which a composition is shaped to create a meaningful musical experience for the listener. Meanwhile, sight-reading tracks in an accurate and precise way the individual pitches and rhythms that constitute the bigger picture. Becoming proficient in both sight-reading and understand music form will help a person whatever specific musical goals they possess.

The benefits of sight-reading and analysis of musical form include quicker learning of songs, improved timing, faster and more accurate tone and pattern recognition; and accelerated understanding of what story the music is telling. In order to complete homework assignments, I highly recommend that students sign up for a free account at NoteFlight, a cloud-based music notation software company that allows users to create and share their own sheet music virtually.

Recordings

As a rule, I ask my students to send me recordings of their work. Making recordings on a regular basis allows students to hear exactly what they are doing well and what they need to improve. Creating a recording — a product of your work — also allows students to track their progress and grow accustom to presenting their musical work. (Students can easily make recordings using their phones or computers using free open source software such as Audacity for PC users or Garageband/Logic for Mac users.)

REQUIRED MATERIALS

The following materials should be purchased before the start of our first lesson:

  1. Computer

    • The student needs a computer with a solid high-speed internet connection, a camera and microphone. Most new computers (such as MacBook Pros) have a camera and microphone already built into the computer. To improve the audio quality of the lesson, I suggest that you use a set of headphones with a mic attached on the cord.

  2. Recording Device

    1. Given the requirement of students to submit their homework in the form of digital recordings, a student needs to have access to recording software GarageBand or a simple recording device on their phone or iPad to make mp3s/files that can be shared with me via email or Dropbox.

  3. Zoom or Skype Account

    1. The student must have a Zoom or Skype account. If you do not already have an account, please visit the site of Zoom or Skype to join and send me your contact details.

  4. Guitar Supplies

  1. One guitar. Acoustic is preferred, but electric with an amplifier is also acceptable. ($100 and up)

  2. One electronic chromatic guitar tuner ($20)

  3. One pack of medium-gauge picks (less than $5)

  4. One metronome that is loud enough to be heard while guitar is being played ($20)

  5. One Kyser capo ($20)

  6. One music stand ($10-20)

  7. Berklee Method Book ($10). The student also needs to purchase one copy of Berklee Press’s “A Modern Method for Guitar – Volume 1,” available as a physical copy through Amazon.com here or as a digital copy through iBooks at the iTunes Store.