Professional jazz guitarist teaches you both how to play and create your favorite music.

Find out more about Telesmar

• When did you first develop a passion for music and your favorite instrument?

  I initially began playing classical guitar at age 6 and enjoyed it as a kid, but it wasn't until I started studying jazz in high school that I began to realize music was my path. Learning jazz forced me to learn how music works as a whole and how to improvise, both of which were deeply inspiring for me. Jazz also gave me the tools to have the ability to creative my own music on the guitar. Not only could I perform off of sheet music like I could back in my classical days, but I could also write my own songs, tinker with different chord progressions, and collaborate with other musicians. I've been dedicated to music and the guitar ever since.

• Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  While I'm always checking out new music, I notice myself constantly coming back to the Beatles, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Pink Floyd, Mozart, and Peter Bernstein. I don't think I'll ever get tired of any of them.

• Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  I make a point to teach just about every student, regardless of skill level or genre of interest, the concept of the diatonic family of chords. While the name sounds intimidating, the idea isn't too complicated when it's taught properly--it basically explains what chords sound good together in any given song and why. When I learned about this concept in high school, I found that it gave me a depth of understanding about the music I was both playing and listening to that I didn't have before. I still think about the idea of diatonic chords every time I engage with music and I always will. That's why I make such a point of teaching it, because it can profoundly enrich your understanding of how all types of music work.

• What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  That's a tricky question. I myself only play the guitar, and it has its own advantages and disadvantages compared with other instruments that make it both easier and harder to learn in different ways. I believe true mastery is equally possible on any instrument, but the easiest instruments to start with are probably guitar, piano, and drums. The guitar is a good instrument to start with because you only need to learn a few different open-string chords to be able to play a lot of amazing, timeless music.

• What are your keys to success?

  Patience, an appreciation of the learning journey, and self-love. Many beginners with music (including myself back in the day) beat themselves up about being a student and having room to grow. They think that if they work hard enough, they'll eventually pass an imaginary threshold where they'll become proficient musicians where they won't feel like students anymore. However, music is truly bottomless and musicians never stop learning. As soon as you learn one thing, you're faced with tackling something else. Being constantly confronted with areas to grow as a musician can feel exhausting, invalidating, and soul-crushing if you don't have a positive attitude about yourself as a learner. We're all students of music whether we've got a month or decades of experience under our belt! So no matter how far you've come, appreciate your current ability for what it is and remember to love music for the journey, not the destination.

• Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  1. Paul McCartney--one of my favorite songwriters. I would love to hear how he thinks about melody and harmony. Plus, he's lived through so many important musical projects and has worked with so many legendary musicians, I'd love to hear him talk about his experiences in the Beatles and Wings and beyond.
  2. Johanna Warren--another songwriter hero of mine. Her songs have a magic to them behind their melody and harmony that blows me away. I imagine I'd learn so much by just hearing her talk through her songwriting process.
  3. Peter Bernstein--my personal favorite living jazz guitar player. I would love to pick his brain about how he's able to improvise in such a nuanced, personal way within the jazz idiom. He's one of those precious few guitarists where you can tell it's him from hearing just a single note, like B. B. King or Jimmi Hendrix. I would love to hear him talk about how he thinks about melody and how he developed his sound.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  When COVID hit, I was a senior in college going to school for jazz guitar. At the time, I was caught up in all sorts of external validators around music. I spent so much time worrying about impressing my professors and my colleagues that I could rarely (if ever) find a good, relaxed headspace when playing the guitar, and my love of music suffered greatly as a result. Once the lockdown started and I was alone with my instrument, I read a beautiful book called Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. It talks about the ways in which fear and the ego block our potential as musicians and ultimately take us away from what makes playing an instrument so beautiful in the first place. It reminded me of why I was pursuing music: because of the joy of playing my instrument, collaborating with others, and endlessly growing and learning. That book is a big inspiration behind my teaching philosophy to this day. That book taught me that everybody deals with insecurity and ego when they pursue an art form, and it's up to all of us to find healthier mindsets around our art and to be gentle with ourselves every step of the way.

• What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  I've developed a teaching model focused not just on learning how to play your favorite songs, but also learning the rules and concepts behind how music works as a whole. I can help you strengthen your rhythm playing, lead playing, improvising, technique, and songwriting in ways that are creatively enriching, inspiring, and open-ended, all while using your favorite music as a model for these areas. I don't want to show you how to copy rock songs note-for-note, or prescribe you mind-numbing guitar drills that ultimately crush the joy out of music. Instead, I want to offer a better learning experience that sustains that initial excitement that made you pick up the guitar in the first place for as long as you want to study music.