Lessons // Guitar Lessons Near Me // Guitar Lessons Bloomington

Finger Picking Folk Guitar

5.0 (12)

Best of 2023

7 hires on Lessons.com

56 years in business

About this pro

I love teaching guitar and have taught for 50 years. I began playing guitar at age nine. At age eighteen I studied classical guitar at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem under Joseph Yerushalmi. I also began at that time to teach guitar. In 1970 at age twenty-one I opened ‘The Guitar Studio’ in Bloomington Indiana and continued teaching 40 students per week. It was during this time that I wrote my method book for acoustic guitar called “Fingerpicking Folk Guitar”. My students find this method easy to use, make rapid progress, and can actually start playing guitar and accompany songs within the first few weeks. The book is composed as sequentially progressive studies for my students from the very beginning to advanced players. It is a 'By-Ear' approach to playing folk guitar. The technique taught is based solidly in the ‘Segovia School’ of classical guitar technique. The Folk Music genres taught are ‘Old Time’, ‘Bluegrass’, ‘Country’, ‘World Music’, and Irish. At age twenty-seven I continued classical guitar study at the IU School of Music for four years under Janos Starker. Today I play regularly with the NorthIndy Irish Sessions, Indy Old Time Sessions, at Bloomington Contra Dances and Farmer’s Markets, for Weddings and Events, and the Bloomington Farm Tour. Lessons are 90 minutes with breaks. I teach in Bloomington.

Credentials

Bloomington, IN 47404

Email verified

Phone verified

12 Reviews

5.0

Mary Frances

Dan. He is magnificent and makes the experience the same. Couldn’t be more pleased.

2018-04-01
Catherine Baum-Newlin

Dan is so knowledgeable and has an obvious love of sharing the craft and art of folk music. Great teacher as well. Thanks, Dan.

2017-01-25
Melynne Klaus

I originally started lessons with Dan in a group class. After ‘graduating’ from the group class, I have continued in individual lessons for the last 2+years. Dan is a tremendous teacher. He tailors his lessons and customizes the songs learned to match with student interest. He is also patient during times when I cannot practice as much as I would like (life can be busy with three little children). Additionally, he provides instruction on good technique for playing the guitar. This is a brand new instrument for me, but I have learned so much from his methodology and enjoy playing the guitar so much – all thanks to Dan! He is a wonderful teacher. You can’t go wrong, especially if you want to learn how to play with finger picking the guitar.

2016-12-12
Kent Honeycutt

I've been Dan's student for over a year. I am an older fellow who played a little self-taught guitar (poorly) and I have no formal musical training. Dan is a very experienced guitar teacher. He is knowledgeable and patient and recognizes very quickly my problems and mistakes. Futhermore he can offer practical solutions to my guitar difficulties. Dan is my only experience with musical instruction, so I have no comparisons to offer. But overall I am very pleased with his teaching and can provide my very strong recommendation.

2016-11-30
Damon Dorsey

Dan's a great teacher, an excellent guitarist and an all around awesome human being. The finger picking guitar style he teaches is very robust and has improved all aspects of my guitar playing. I've been taking lessons with Dan for a couple years now and there's always more for me to learn from him.

2016-11-30
Kent Honeycutt

Been taking lessons from Dan for over a year. I am an older student who played a little self-taught guitar (poorly) and have no formal music training. Dan has a lot of experience teaching guitar, and it shows. He is knowledgable and patient and recognizes very quickly my problems and mistakes, and has practical solutions to my difficulties. This is my only experience in receiving guitar instruction, so I have no comparison. But I am very pleased with my my work with Dan and I recommend him most highly.

2016-11-30
Vivien Eddy

I wanted to learn to play guitar just for my own personal pleasure and to play tunes for my little grandson. Dan is a wonderful instructor. He is very articulate and thorough throughout the lesson. He is very patient, kind, personable and a pleasure to be around. Dan is very talented with many many years of experience and he loves playing.

2016-11-27
Tad DeLay

Very patient we me, extremely knowledgeable, great instructor

2016-11-26
Tad DeLay

Patient, very knowledgeable, superb player.

2016-11-23
Kent undefined

Very experienced teacher with patience and strong knowledge. Takes few short cuts and makes sure the fundamentals come first.

2016-07-29
Melynne undefined

I've been taking guitar lessons with Dan for a little over 3 years. I started in a beginners group class and have graduated to private lessons. Dan is a fabulous teacher! He provides excellent instruction on the techniques and fundamentals of playing, how to learn to play by ear and how to become a 'musician' with the instrument. I always appreciate how he approaches our lessons, teaching techniques that let you have fun playing. There is a structure and method to his instruction, but he also allows flexibility to follow a student's interest and to move along at an appropriate pace. He encourages me and pushes me to continue my growth, in a way that many great teachers do - continuing to challenge and introduce new ideas that build upon what you've learned, but introduce new skills to expand your playing. I am playing songs now, that I never imagined I could when I first started!

2016-07-29
Damon Dorsey

Dan is a great teacher and a fantastic guitar player. In just a short time of taking private guitar lessons with Dan my playing has greatly improved and I have more confidence in playing things I would not have attempted previously. Unlike many guitar teachers who only teach you chords and songs, Dan teaches a rich, well-rounded finger picking technique that I think would be a benefit to any style of music you wanted to play.

2016-07-29