Jeffrey Briggs

I'm a professional solo guitarist and instructor specializing in authentic Spanish flamenco, traditional styles from Latin America, and classical guitar. I also teach acoustic fingerstyle blues and basic rock and pop.

I've taught hundreds of men, women, and children to play guitar in a teaching career extending over 40 years, including 5 years of lessons for the City of Claremont, and bilingual instruction at Candelas Guitars in East LA.

I now do private instruction exclusively, coming to your home for an hour lesson for $40 if you're within 15 miles, and $50 up to 30 miles away. You can take as many or as few as you like.

My only requirement for prospective students is a genuine interest, being available at the appointed time, and paying when the lesson is done.

If you're a beginner, I give you something you can be proud of on the first lesson. I start with the chords of A minor and E, and then teach you Malagueña, a simple melody that's easy to play, and has one of the greatest hooks in the history of music.

It's hard to find a qualified flamenco instructor. I can show you the rasgueados, picados, arpeggios, golpes, alzapua, and tremolos of pure flamenco forms such as bulerías, siguiryas, soleares, tientos, tangos, alegrias, rumba, tarantas, farruca, sevillanas, peteneras, granainas, or zambra - as played by Sabicas, Mario Escudero, Juan Serrano, Paco Peña, Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar, Melchor de Marchena, Serranito, Tomatito, Manuel Cano, and Rafael Riqueni.

If you want to learn Mexican or South American guitar styles, we'll get into huapango, son jarocho, joropo, vals peruano, samba, boss nova, chacarera, zamba, milonga, cueca, huayno, and carnavalitos, in the styles of David Moreno, Antonio Bribiesca, Eduardo Falú, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Baden Powell, Luis Bonfa, Dilermando Reyes, Pepe Torres, Jaime Torres, Los Chalchaleros, Los Machucambos, Los Tres Paraguayos, Inti Illimani, Violetta Para, Mercedes Sosa, Ariel Ramirez, and more.

If you like classical music, Renaissance lute pieces from Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Eastern Europe are beautiful and relatively easy pieces to begin with. Andres Segovia, Alirio Diaz, Christopher Parkening, Liona Boyd, Julian Bream, Rey de la Torre, Narciso Yepes, Presti and Lagoya, and the Assad Brothers are a few of the guitar masters whose playing has inspired me to fulfill my own musical dreams.

I learned flamenco from the great Spanish guitarist Juan Serrano, made a documentary in Argentina about Jaime Torres, South America's foremost charango player (see link below), and also studied with Nubian virtuoso singer/oud player Hamza el Din, one of the founders of World music. 

I will gladly share anything I know with you, and encourage you to find your own musical power, as I have found mine.

Jeffrey Briggs

626 531 7154

My recordings are played all over the world:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jeffrey-briggs/id81604918

https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/JeffreyBriggs

https://open.spotify.com/artist/61x1syBvrLEbXPhQYOHpH8

https://ourstage.com/home/dashboard

Jeffrey Briggs is a classical and flamenco guitarist and composer, and also plays Latin American music on the guitar, the Venezuelan cuatro, and the Andean charango. He has studied with Spanish flamenco guitarist Juan Serrano, Nubian oud player Hamza el Din, and Argentinian charango virtuoso Jaime Torres.

He played guitar in the critically acclaimed musical Twist of Fate at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles, winner of 5 awards from the LA Drama Critics Circle and the LA Weekly, including Best Musical and Best Musical Band of 1995, and composed and performed music for The Bullfight, a play by Venezuelan writer Rodolfo Santana at the Stages Theatre Center in Hollywood in 2000. In 2002 he led the Jeffrey Briggs Trio at the Hollywood and Highland Center.

He has recorded with the Twist of Fate band, Josh Cruze (Banditos de Amor), John Avila (Oingo Boingo), Iranian tar player Kamil Alipour, Persian pop singers Shayyad and Parviz Basmipour, and Israeli musician/composer Smadar Galor; and has played at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Cinegrill, Viva Madrid, Holly Street Bar & Grill, Angelique Cafe, Pacific Asia Museum, John O’Groats, Twin Palms, Euro Cafe, Nuno’s, and Luna Negra in the Los Angeles area, as well as Lahoz Restaurant in Huntington Beach and Café Sevilla in San Diego. 

He has performed at Cornell, Ohio State, Denison, California Lutheran, and Capital universities, as well as UCLA, Cal State LA, Cal State Irvine, Occidental College, the Claremont Colleges, and Cypress College, the Mulholland and Beverly Hills Tennis Clubs, and the Miramonte and other wineries in Temecula.

In March 2012  his guitar reached millions of people via Univision and Fox on the Latin show "Q'Viva: The Chosen", starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, with 11 of his pieces used in profiles of talent show contestants from different Latin American countries.

For several days in December of 2011, and again in 2014 and 2016, his album Christmas Guitar was the top download to radio stations in the world from Airplay Direct, the main source for radio music globally.

His music has also been aired on NBC, MTV, the Independent Film Channel, Oxygen, Bravo, VH-1, Logo, TVLand, Spike, Planet Green, and Mexico's Si channel, KPFK-FM Los Angeles, Radio Belgrano and Radio Mendoza in Argentina, and is available for licensing from music libraries in London, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles. 

Jeffrey Briggs is also an independent video producer, writer, photographer, and graphic artist. Born in Ithaca, N.Y., he went to Ithaca High School and the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. He has a BA in anthropology from Cornell University, an MA in anthropology from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in film from Ohio University; and has taught photography at Cornell University, film production at Denison University, and television production at Capital University. 

From 1969 to 1971 he produced films, videos, and photography of preschool children for the High Scope Educational Research Foundation, whose studies became the foundation of the Head Start early education program, documenting schools in Harlem, Chicago, Greenwood, Mississippi, Florida, and London, England. 

He was a videographer and photographer for the Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County from 1980 to 1988, where his work helped win two National Library Awards for best PR. He also received an Ohio Arts Council grant to produce “Columbus USA”, a feature documentary of the city shot over an entire year, whose purpose was to show as wide a variety of people and activities as possible. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Columbus Museum of Art in 1983.

He was photography critic for the Columbus Dispatch for 7 years. 

El Charanguero, his video documentary about Argentinian musician Jaime Torres, has aired on PBS stations throughout the United States, and is being distributed internationally. 

Before coming to Los Angeles in 1995 Briggs was leader of the Latin American band Sangría, which performed throughout the Midwest. He has also accompanied a number of flamenco dancers and dance classes.

He has taught guitar for the City of Claremont, as well as giving bilingual instruction at Candelas Guitars in East LA, and now does private lessons.

He exhibited his art, photography, and collage at several galleries in Columbus, Ohio, including a one-man show at Capital University. Since moving to LA in 1995, he has shown his work at Quoting Artists gallery and the Pasadena Public Library.

Jeffrey Briggs

(626) 531-7154

[email protected]

Sites:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jeffrey-briggs/81604918

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/jeffreybriggs

https://soundcloud.com/jeffreybriggs

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_khyuoZVqowOvVryMfb6N6P5jmhlQEJvZw

https://www.deviantart.com/jeffreybriggs