Music Performance Lessons in Saratoga. Amazing Teachers.

Talented teachers are rare. Like a great coach i sports... the coach doesn’t need to be the top athlete in his field to know how to teach each team member to hone their best abilities, he just has to know and see how to teach you how to get there. Being an outstanding teacher is a great talent all in itself... and that is Jesse. He has that quality and ability to lead, focus and take you where you want to go.

Jesse has given directions on how to successfully become a better musician. His approach and explanation on musical theories was much more understandable than what I was previously reading. Overall, I found the lessons to be very usefull.

Sorry but I'm using my wife's account to post this review...but SERIOUSLY 5 stars!!In just a few short months, Ahmad was able to systematically undo all my self-taught bad habits and incomplete YouTube tutorial learnings of the past and set me on the correct playing/learning path. A path I intend to stay on with Ahmad for a long time. I've "played" guitar for many years (on and off) and it wasn't until my wife gave me a 4-lesson gift certificate with Ahmad almost year ago that I REALLY started to learn the instrument I love. If you are contemplating starting your guitar journey, do not hesitate for a minute longer and contact Ahmad to get started.
He has a way of simplifying the concepts and providing the needed context to eliminate the "intimidation factor" of learning. Combined that with on-going encouragement, a plan customized to you and consistent positive reinforcement, Ahmad is able to maximize your enthusiasm and motivation for learning...I only wish that I would have started years earlier.
I'm having a blast, thanks to Ahmad!

Ahmad is an excellent guitar teacher. He's a very experienced and dedicated teacher that will no doubt improve your level of play.

I recently relocated to Bay Area after happily taking guitar lessons in CT (where I went from absolute beginner to campfire strummer). So the bar was set high for finding a new teacher and, like you, I started reading numerous reviews. Every one of Ahmad's reviews were extremely positive from all levels of students. In addition, his experience (30+ years of teaching) and education (Guitar Institute) were top notch.

So I decided to take a lesson with Ahmad and couldn't be happier right now. From the first lesson Ahmad was able to quickly assess where my level of play was and jump right in. Ahmad focused on teaching good habits and guitar fundamentals, all while improving my timing.

He is very organized, and has thousands of handouts right at his fingertips (so no time is wasted writing down your lesson). He is very encouraging as you tackle new material, and also reads you well to know just the amount of new material that will appropriately challenge you. He will also create as many additional handouts as necessary to bring you to that next level.

And in a little over a year, Ahmad has indeed brought my guitar playing to a new level. His exercises made it fun to learn scales and the guitar fretboard, and I'm now able to identify keys and understand the intervals of a chord. So when improvising to a chord progression, this allows me to make the changes (ie playing the most melodic notes to transition from one chord to the next). Ahmad's teaching has also brought my rhythm and timing to a new level. I'm able to play more advanced rhythms with an even tighter timing. I'm quite pleased whenever I go back to an old song and see how much tighter the rhythm is now. I'm also very pleased how quickly I'm able to learn a new song or riff now (where some would have been too advanced for me only a year ago). His lessons will also improve your picking, ability to move up and down the guitar neck, hitting the desired strings and much more.

In addition, Ahmad if very nice and friendly, so it has been a pleasure to take lessons with him. I'm very excited to see where Ahmad takes my guitar playing as I continue lessons with him, and highly recommend him to anyone looking for a guitar teacher.

I have been meaning to write this review for a while. I have been coming to Ahmad for lessons for about 6 months. I have tried on two occasions to learn guitar from other instructors but quickly became frustrated and gave up. My time with Ahmad has been a completely different experience. He is a fantastic instructor and he focuses on building the fundamentals. Using a foreign language as an analogy, my other instructors started by just teaching me how to pronounce different phrases, without teaching what the individual words meant or how to modify the sentences. Ahmad starts by teaching the vocabulary and how to construct any sentence you want. He is very patient, sends you home with excellent lessons to practice, and once you get to the point where you simply need time to improve technique before you can advance any further, he switches to teaching basic music theory, so that you can continue to learn while you wait for your hands to catch up with your brain.

If you want to spend the least amount of money on guitar lessons, I would encourage you to go learn from some college kid, as you will spend $80 on one or two lessons and then just give up. If you want to actually learn how to play guitar, come see Ahmad.

He’s so patient and very skilled!!

We did online tonight per my request. Michael is so patient and encouraging and he answers my questions that are endless. I feel hopeful that I am learning the correct form and things I definitely would not pick up just trying to teach myself through the book. Thank you Michael!

Great learning process thanks!

Mr. Andrew is kind, funny and engaging.

My son (6) always has the best time at lesson and wants to know immediately when he gets to go back.

Our son has a lot on his plate and watching him have something that's just his that he is happy to do and enjoys this has been such a bright spot for our whole family.

- and Mr. Andrew is in direct correlation to that.

I recommend Mr. Andrew to anyone who is looking for a teacher who is kind, funny, engaging, and wants to help you succeed and gives you opportunities to use the skills you have learned.

Fun again,....you make it a lot of fun thank you

Great

Pretty much let my kids run the show which meant not a lot got accomplished. He's nice the kids liked him though.

Ben was super understanding of my busy schedule. He jumped right in and worked well with my 15 year old son.

Great lesson!

Great instruction, very patient with this beginner.