Onset Music Lessons

The kids enjoy taking lessons from Jared

Jared is not only a good person, but he's an excellent teacher as well.

Shawn is great. A very talented drummer. Our son is young, 5, and Shawn had patience letting him explore the drums and learn a simple beat to start his first lesson.

Shawn is bright and pleasant and knows his drums! My son is super excited to continue with him!

Excellent. Needs some coaching on keeping a 4 year old focused/ task oriented. Maybe lesson for Christopher needs to be longer. And lessons need to be weekly.

Dave is the perfect match for my son. He is so encouraging and upbeat. This past week my son was discouraged about drumming and Dave went above and beyond to encourage him by sending him a motivational video. This meant a lot to my son and helped to challenge his mindset. We are so happy to have found Dave on Take Lessons!

It was actually really good I learned a lot from Dave

Jean's passion for singing inspires me to become the best singer I can be. She is professional and easy to talk to. She creates a comfortable atmosphere and only wants her students to be the best they can be. She has helped me work towards my goals and is nothing but supportive. I would recommend her to anyone in need of a voice teacher.

She is a great teacher, very patient with student. Her love for music and teaching definitely gets you motivated! She is beyond excellent!

Absolutely amazing coach!!! Would recommend her to anybody in the east coast. Totally understanding and helpful.

Bill is the best teacher around. His extensive performance experience makes all the difference - he knows every tip, trick and nuance in the book that changes every piece from just a set of notes to a performance of color, grace and subtlety. His knowledge of the guitar repertoire never fails to amaze. And he's wonderfully patient with everyone - you don't have to play like Bream or Russell

I have always wanted to learn guitar but never had the opportunity, finally when I was 16 I bought my first guitar. I realized how hard guitar was, and almost felt embarrassed to learn. The guitar collected dust for almost 6 years, until September 2014, when I found Gene on Craiglist. I was very nervous as I had never played a day in my life and I was scared I would be terrible.. well I was! but Gene immediately made me feel comfortable with learning a new skill as an adult. He has been so patient through this long learning process and always encourages me to keep going and is good at pointing out my progress when I think I have not made any. Gene is just awesome, he is super caring and understanding. He has become more than just a guitar teacher, he is a friend. Whenever I am having a bad day I love that I can go to guitar, learn some awesome stuff and get out some much needed venting. He's like my guitar therapist! I honestly believe I wasn't meant to learn till I could learn from him! :D he's great and I would recommend him to anyone!!!

I’ve taken guitar lessons with Gene for over 5 years. My guitar experience prior to meeting Gene was very limited. So limited that I didn’t even own a guitar pic nor how to properly hold/use one. I never felt that I needed guitar lessons as I had taught myself many other hobbies in the past. “Practice makes perfect” was a motivational phrase I often told myself. It wasn’t till a failed audition at my local church that I realized my practicing wasn’t producing the results I had wanted/expected. I started working with Gene and immediately identified that a majority of my current abilities were based upon improper techniques.

I didn’t fully appreciate or understand proper technique as its affects were not always apparent in my playing. As my lessons progressed and technique improved, I realized that my motivational slogan wasn’t complete. I now say; “proper practice makes perfect”. Working with Gene got me back on track with learning to play guitar. I have confidence when practicing knowing that the time I’m investing is not being wasted on bad habits.

A lot has changed since starting lessons with Gene. I re-auditioned at church and made the worship team! I regularly played lead guitar at my church and was content with my playing ability. I decided to stop lessons as I now had a solid foundation and figured that I could pick up anything I didn’t know from online videos. This was one of biggest mistakes I’ve made.

Quickly after being on my own, I began to realize the lacking quality and musicianship in the countless “tutorial” videos found on YouTube. It’s easy finding online song lesson, however, it’s very rare to find someone teaching it correctly or true to the album. I remembered working with Gene and not only learning the EXACT riffs and leads to a song, but also the artist’s style, tone and effects used. Over the years I became accustom to learning and sounding just like the artist I was trying to replicate. This quality of instruction I have only been able to find while working with Gene.

I noticed that my interested in playing guitar faded after I ended lessons. I just didn’t have the excitement to learn new songs or challenge myself to play better on the ones I did know. After a long sabbatical I decided to start back up lessons with Gene. Fast forward a few years; I now look forward to practicing nightly and regularly play with multiple churches within the Denver Metro area.

I would not be where I am musically today without Gene’s guidance and inspiration. He’s a great mentor and continues to challenge me to be a better musician. Looking back, if I could change anything about my experience with Gene, it would be starting lessons with him sooner and never taken a break.

I've been taking vocal lessons with Gene once a week for about a couple of months now. I can, without reservation, recommend Gene as a teacher due to the following competencies.
A. Very knowledgeable in the subject matter - Gene has a wealth of experience, clearly knows music theory and has diverse musical background to draw from
B. Can explain musical concepts to beginners in an approachable and easy-to-understand fashion. I have no previous vocal training, and very little formal musical training altogether, and I find Gene's explanations easy to follow to understand.
C. Flexibility - Gene has been very willing to work with me, and remain an effective instructor on, for example, assessing my singing in Russian, a language he does not speak.
D. Results - After 7 classes, I feel Gene has provided me with practical instruction that, when applied, has resulted in improved singing .

Emily has a beautiful voice and was excellent with my daughter! She was excited every week for Her lesson!