Saxophone Lessons in Papillion, NE

"Very friendly and made me want to play more!"

"have never touched a musical instrument in my life. Im 46 years old. Dave brought the lesson to my level beginers and I feel confident that I will do well with Dave."

""Now that I'm studying with Mike, the efficiency of my practice time is way, way up."

Mike is the first coach who emphasizes "practice the hard parts". So much so that any time a note comes out either not in rhythm, not in pitch, or not a great sound, I have the confidence to stop and repeat the hard part until it's no longer hard. Even when learning to improvise, if the notes I pick on the sax don't match the ones I first heard in my head, I have the confidence to stop and really find those notes that my mind imagined. Eventually I'll be able to hit the ones I intend the first time. He also advocates to always know the purpose of any practicing you're doing---there's no more aimless noodling. Even when I'm jamming, there's a specific goal in mind.

The second thing I really get from Mike is that he expects me to know what notes I'm playing and what role they fill in the key. Formerly my method of improvising was to hunt and peck, occasionally hitting notes outside the key and finding a way to "work them back in". But now, if I'm riffing on the note F in the key of B-flat, Mike wants me to know that that's the 5 of the key. And to also know where the 3 and 7 are---like a home base where you know it's safe to play."

"I am saxophone player at an intermediate to advanced level and Rick’s lessons helped my sound and improvisation tremendously in a very short amount of time. What really sets Rick apart is that his method is unlike any other teacher I've studied with I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn how to improvise better. Let me start from the beginning.
I’ve been playing music for the past 15 years. I’ve taken lessons in drums, clarinet, and piano, while self-teaching myself piano, guitar, and bass guitar. Through the years though, I always had a desire to learn the saxophone. Never truly playing a solo instrument with jazz improvisation at its core, I started my quest for a teacher who could teach me how to improvise. I bounced around several local music shops and music conservatories, looking for a teacher that could unlock the mystery of improvisation, but I was subjected to hours upon hours of method books without ever actually being given the chance to start improvising over jazz standards. Of course, the basics are essential when improvising, but I always found myself over thinking things. I took a break for a few months, but when I was approached by my family to play saxophone for my grandparent’s 50th anniversary celebration of over 200 people, I decided that I needed to find a teacher who actually adjusted his lessons based on his student and their interests, rather than a cookie cutter lesson progression. During the first few lessons with Rick, he said that instead of focusing on the specific fingerings on the sax or the specific scales and notes I had to be playing, to really listen to the beauty of the music and just play what I hear in my head. Once I got comfortable and stopped thinking about what the “right” notes were, I stopped thinking and just played. A wall that I’ve tried to overcome for the past 5 years, was finally behind me after only a few lessons. After I got past my own thinking, Rick gave me very simple but effective methods to incorporate into my playing to create a more cohesive solo with stylistic tricks and motifs to really impress the crowd and love what you’re playing. I can without reservation, having studied with some of the top saxophone teachers/players in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, say that Rick changed my saxophone playing life and truly has the secrets to improvising on the saxophone. On top of that, even though he is a Grammy award winning artist, is one of the most humble people I’ve ever met. He is always so willing to impart knowledge from his immense amount of experience but never makes you feel like he is looking down on you or is frustrated with you. He teaches because he loves to do it, and to see his student’s eyes light up when they play their first improvised solo on saxophone, is the very reason he teaches so selflessly. That is what stood out the most to me."