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our professional recruiting specialists; personal and professional reference
checks; and annual criminal background checks for the duration of each teacher's
employment with us.
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Levels: Beginner to Advanced
In-Home Lessons: Yes
In-Studio Lessons: Yes
Ages: 5 & up
Subjects Taught
Guitar
Specialties
My primary style is traditional, modern and soul jazz. However, the concepts that I use to teach improvisation can be applied to Brazilian, funk, and "jam band" music. I have also played and/or studied rock, classical, and bluegrass. I also do a lot of singing practice using the Indian syllables, and encourage my students to do the same in order to internalize the music.
Lesson Details
As each student is unique regarding their individual backgrounds, interests, and goals, I do not have a set curriculum. My goal with students is to find ways to move them forward into a deeper relationship with music through various practices that sharpen their ears and give them more musical authority. These would include singing and rhythm studies, among other concepts. This is combined with working on the songs that they want to learn. I specialize in improvisational music, mainly
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jazz-based. However, I am also versed in Latin styles, and what I teach can be adapted to most styles of modern music, such as rock/jam, blues, and folk. We can also work on arranging for solo guitar, and composition. I strive to make the lessons fun AND enlightening. Beginners are also welcome, so don't be afraid of being in over your head.
Hello, and thank you for your interest in taking lessons with me.
As a player, I have always striven to play in a highly melodic style. I have a diverse musical background, as I started off in folk and bluegrass, and then played lots of rock as a teenager. But primarily over the last twenty years I have played and studied lots of jazz-related music, as well as classical and Indian. My main teachers as an adult were: guitarist Steve Frarey, saxophonist Andrew Speight, bassist and Director of
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Jazz Studies at Michigan State University Rodney Whitaker, pianist and author W.A. Mathieu, and guitarist Fareed Haque.
I also strive to combine influences that are both modern and traditional, basically working with the sounds that attract me, past and present. Over the past 18 years, I have had the pleasure of performing with the following esteemed artists: Ron Blake, Rodney Whitaker, Carl Allen, Bill Dowdy, Arno Marsh, Diego Rivera, and David Rosin, as well as the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. My former group, organissimo, played regularly throughout the Midwest, up and down the east coast, and as far afield as jazz festivals in Clearwater, Fl, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Additionally, organissimo released four albums of original material, to national acclaim and airplay. A youtube search for organissimo will bring up about a dozen or more videos for you to enjoy.
" Joe knocked me out; his lines always sing... In particular, his phrasing lays across the beat so subtly and fluidly that after this one encounter, I think I'd know his playing anywhere." ~Chicago-based jazz writer & critic, Larry Kart, October 2005
