Climbing with Jard D.

A sensitive musician with an eclectic repertoire and diverse training, Jard began his fascination with music at an early age. With over twelve years of professional teaching and performing experience, he is well versed in both classical and popular music idioms. At an early age he won first prize in the 1997 Florida Mars Music Electric Guitar Competition. Since then, Jard has received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Central Florida as well a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While at the University of Central Florida he studied with Dr. Eladio Scharron and won the first prize in the University of Central Florida Concerto Competition. He later performed Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez and Vivaldi's Concerto in D major with the University of Central Florida Chamber Orchestra. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Jard studied privately with the esteemed artists David Tanenbaum and Dusan Bogdanovic. As an ensemble player, he has performed in several world premier performances from notable composers. As a recitalist he frequently concertizes at a diverse array of venues from formal recitals to charitable causes such as fund raising dinners and performances at juvenile detention centers. Recent performances include a recital at Pro Arts through Bay Area Classical Harmonies and a benefit dinner through the Canvas Underground organization. Jard has a passion for teaching and has extensive experience with instruction of all age and skill levels. Jard currently resides in San Francisco, California. When he is not honing his performance and teaching skills, he maintains a healthy obsession with cooking, coffee roasting, photography, travel, rock and ice climbing, and ski mountaineering. Jard plays on a spruce top guitar built in 2004 by the late Paulino Bernabe of Madrid. Make sure to check out my sound samples at the bottom right hand of this page. *** Lesson Details *** I am emphatic about getting to know my students and tailoring my approach to their particular needs and interests. While understanding that everyone has different musical goals and needs, I also believe that anyone who wishes to progress as a musician must acquire an understanding of the language of music and maintain a specific technical skill set. My primary goal as a music pedagogue is to give my students the tools they need to become autonomous musicians. Keeping in mind that we all listen to and perform music for enjoyment, I ensure that the foundation of my teaching style rests on student feedback and the pursuit of happiness. Whether my students wish to pursue a professional career, or simply want to learn guitar as a casual hobby, they typically only see me for one hour a week. My main emphasis is helping students view their performance objectively and acquiring an acute sense of self observation. Ultimately, everyone is their own teacher the majority of the time; I strive to give my students the skills they need to make progress when I am not there. To ensure that lessons are both motivational and fun I encourage my students to help create a list of repertoire pieces (whether they are simply riffs or licks from popular music or entire suites chosen from the canon of classical literature) to both aspire to and work on. My job is to help help set goals with these pieces and extract a didactic purpose from them. In doing so I help shift attention to parts that suit the students particular musical and technical needs. I am very passionate about teaching and nothing gives me greater joy than seeing my students rejoice in their their progress and enjoy the ephemeral moments of their performances. *** Studio Equipment *** Family room set up for lessons, an extra guitar and music stands, foot stools and tuners *** Travel Equipment *** I provide many music and method books. I do expect the student to have a guitar and music stand. Sometimes I expect them to buy books. *** Specialties *** Although I am fluent in an array of styles such as rock, metal, blues and jazz, I specialize in classical guitar performance.