About
30 years playing and performing experience, 20+ years teaching experience in Europe and Los Angeles. I earned 3 degrees, all Summa Cum Laude, in Classical Guitar Performance (Conservatory), Jazz & Contemporary Music Performance (Berklee College), and Music Production & Engineering (Berklee College) You will improve incredibly quickly, as all my students do. Some of the things you can learn include: Guitar Techniques: Lead guitar, Rhythm guitar, Open tuning, Fingerstyle, Slide Guitar, Vocal Accompaniment, Performance, Improvisation, Jamming Skills, Reading Music, Music Theory, Scales and Exercises, Song Writing, Recording and Production, Guidance In Equipment Selection Music Styles: Rock Guitar, Blues Guitar, Folk Guitar, Country Guitar, Alternative Guitar, R & B Guitar, Metal Guitar, Bluegrass Guitar, Classical Guitar, Flamenco Guitar, HipHop Guitar, Pop Guitar, Jazz Guitar, Ragtime Guitar, Ethnic Guitar, Reggae Guitar I have developed a very strong guitar and music curriculum in past 20 years. The curriculum covers everything music theory you can think off, any guitar style, any guitar technique, many thousands of song charts and chord charts, structured exercises, all combined counting many thousands of top-quality, print-ready hand outs. My teaching studio also has a collection of many hundreds of books on music and guitar topics. The song database in my teaching studio has over 45,000 songs. Lastly: I keep up every year with all the literature on learning techniques, brain optimization, teaching styles, pedagogy, teaching technology and psychology. This involves reading about 90 to 100 books every year. It is one of the things that sets me apart from any other guitar coach, and is one of the reasons why my students learn with much less effort, much more quickly, with much better results. The good news: you not only save a lot of time in faster progress and results... but also in lesson money. While it's fun to get more out of your money... it's even much more fun seeing yourself get really good at guitar in a very short amount of time.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
There isn't really a "typical" process because every person is unique, with uniques wishes, musical goals, hang ups, and so on.
Every lesson I teach is completely different from any other lesson I ever taught in past 20+ years, because I adapt to the student, and customize the teaching plan to their personality, their sensibilities, their goals and wishes.
All that being said: there IS a teaching, developed over decades of teaching music and guitar, that I draw from. All lesson materials are print ready and high quality.
I pick and choose the materials from the extensive vast curriculum, to customize the student's lesson plan. In other words: "adapting to the student" does not mean "improvising the lesson" lol or "making things up on the spot".
There is a plan and an approach for each person.
With some people I move quickly and push the boundaries, with other students I move slowly, and have a more laid back approach, it all depends on the student, how they prefer working and what works best for them.
One constant is that lessons are fun, up beat, and packed with information.
It's always my goal to:
1) make lessons incredibly informative
2) pack the lesson with tons of great, useful, information that will tremendously improve your playing instantly
3) give the student more than their money's worth.
4) make the lesson a ton of fun while it's also intense and challenging.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
3 Degrees, all Summa Cum Laude, in:
1) Classical Guitar Performance (Conservatory Europe)
2) Jazz Guitar Performance (Berklee College of Music)
3) MP&E (Music Production and Engineering, Berklee College)
I also won a full scholarship to study at Musician's Institute in Hollywood for a semester.
Worked as head teacher at various exclusive guitar schools, and developed, wrote or cowrote the guitar plans and music curriculums at various schools.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
Lessons are 75 an hour.
First lesson for completely new students, you only pay 50.
I have various prices for half hour lesson packages, 10, 20 and so on lesson packages.
You can find all that information here: http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/tuition/
How did you get started teaching?
Some of my teachers 20+ years ago in the music schools I studied at, started transferring their guitar students who need tutoring, to me.
I helped them with their theory, their application on guitar of their theory, ear training, their technique, and so on.
These were my first steps into teaching. I loved it so much that I kept teaching as my main profession in the music bizz. All my students do incredibly well. Many of my students have moved on to tour with famous bands, or are famous artists.
What types of students have you worked with?
I have worked with students all over the world, from complete beginners who don't know how to hold a guitar, to really advanced world-class players, session guys, and everything in between.
I've taught students who only want to learn to strum their favorite songs, to people who want to learn songs by their favorite artist only, to people who are so good that they don't know what else to learn, to people who want to learn advanced compositional concepts applied on guitar.
I've taught students who are crazy about metal, blues, who want to become better at jazz guitar, who want to become amazing classical guitarists, who love rock music, who want to know how to play reggae, folk, finger picking, tapping, sweep picking, shredding, bass slapping, improvisation, guitar soloing, Texas Blues rhythm guitar, Latin guitar styles, ethnic guitar styles, African guitar, sightreading, you name it.
Describe a recent event you are fond of.
Very regularly I get emails or texts from students who had "epiphanies" or who can't believe how well they are progressing. That always warms my heart. It's tons of fun to get these kind a messages on a weekly basis. It keeps me on track and makes me realize I'm doing something right. :)
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
You can find the answer to that question in the following blog:
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/top-10-things-to-look-for-in-a-guitar-teacher/
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/5-ways-to-measure-your-guitar-teacher’s-effectiveness/
You can find tons of free lessons and cool stuff on my blog, as following 2 below blog posts.
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/the-best-way-to-practice-when-youre-a-complete-beginner/
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/the-best-fretting-hand-and-thumb-position-on-guitar/
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
You can find the answer to that question in the following blog:
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/the-10-most-important-questions-nobody-ever-dares-to-ask-their-new-guitar-teacher/
You can find tons of free lessons and cool stuff on my blog, as following 2 below blog posts.
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/your-teachers-feedback-and-other-thoughts-about-teaching-music-privately/
http://zotzinguitarlessons.com/blog/taking-regular-guitar-lessons-vs-practicing-more/