Murphy Music

Every first session starts with me asking the goals, musical tastes and abilities of my students. First sessions are half-price. We establish whether they want to take a more traditional approach (learning how to read musical notation, studying theory) or more of the relaxed approach (learning tab only and just the songs by artists they are interested in). Sometimes students want a combination of both those approaches. After getting to know them, I have a variety of warm-up exercises and beginning songs that we can work on.  I'll leave them with a beginner's packet that gives them some of the foundational information as well as specific exercises to practice.  

I have taught private lessons for five years and created lessons for students of all ages. I studied classical guitar and music theory at the college level. I have also spent countless hours dissecting hundreds of rock and folk songs by ear in order to figure out the chords, riffs and solos. Years of transcribing music for students has given me an encyclopedia of skills to share. I like pushing my technique by learning different styles and always working on a song that is outside my comfort zone. Writing original music is another way I've developed my playing and I enjoying teaching songwriting techniques. 

 After completing San Francisco State's teaching credential program I have taught in both private and public middle schools and worked with many different types of students. At this point, my intuition for assessing student's needs is spot-on and my ability to plan engaging lessons is fine-tuned.  

Yes, $35 for a half hour session and $70 for one hour. 

I started teaching friends and family. People seemed to make progress quickly after learning from me and after many suggestions for becoming a professional guitar teacher, I decided to give it a try. I'm very happy I made that decision.

I have worked with students as young as 8 years old with learning disabilities, middle school students 11 to 13 and older students in their 50's (not that much older:). 

I created a guitar club at the school I worked at this past year. In June we put on a performance for the whole school where we played acoustic and electric guitars and collaborated with the singing club. Students performed songs that they chose and their parents and I were incredibly proud to see how well they did. It was clear they were having fun and excited to play. 

Find someone who you're excited to work with and who seems passionate about what they do. You want your teacher to have a well-organized lesson that is tailored to your specific musical tastes and needs. 

What is their goal with learning the guitar? Do they want to develop a deep knowledge of music or do they just want to learn songs by their favorite artist? What style of music would they like to learn (rock, blues, pop, indie, jazz, classical...). Are they able to practice between lessons?