Hi there, and thanks for viewing my TakeLessons profile! I am excited to be a part of the team in Berkeley, CA. I started teaching lessons while in music school for Classical Guitar in 1996. From 1998 onwards, I played with a variety of musicians from Africa and Latin America, as well the as great American traditions of gospel, funk, jazz, and bluegrass. All the while, I continued to study music theory and composition, on my own and in private lessons with both well-known players and local professionals. I also studied North Indian Classical vocal for 2 years with a senior student of Ali Akbar Khan, and have been involved in Flamenco for over 20 years. Though guitar is generally my "go-to" instrument, I often use a MIDI keyboard for composition, and studied/performed on bass for 10 years. Increasingly since 2014, I have been a performing Flamenco singer. I taught music theory and composition at Ex’pression College in Emeryville for over 10 years, and worked at SF JAZZ teaching workshops in audio production and music theory for 4 years. *** Lesson Details *** Whether you are a complete beginner or have been playing gigs for years, are very young or old, I have something to offer you! How we structure lessons depends in part on you and your goals, as well as your learning style. Having taught music for over 20 years, I have a large amount of resources at my disposal, and can either teach from a method book, or a variety of materials, some of which are my own creations. I also like to use technology as a teaching aid, and can show you how to use your own computer, keyboard, or music production application (garageband, etc) to practice and create music at home. Another thing that I offer is to make recordings of key parts of the lesson, either as an audio or video file, or both. These can be shared with you through email, dropbox, or a flash drive if you bring one along to your lesson. Please contact TakeLessons if you have any further questions! I look forward to meeting and working with you or your child. *** Studio Equipment *** Home studio: Front room with computer station, guitars, music stand. Waiting area with couches and table, and parents can sit in on lessons. Street parking available, no pets. College: practice rooms and classrooms available with computers and MIDI controllers. *** Specialties *** On guitar and bass, I have experience in world music including Africa, Latin America, and Flamenco. I also love American traditional music, including funk, jazz, rock, and gospel. I specialize in teaching music theory and composition, no matter what instrument. Rhythmic concepts applied to any instrument are a favorite topic.
Teaches all skill levels
Teaching since 1996
UX Design certification program
Teaches ages 5+
Speaks Spanish, English
Has background check
Hi there, and thanks for viewing my TakeLessons profile! I am excited to be a part of the team in Berkeley, CA. I started teaching lessons while in music school for Classical Guitar in 1996. From 1998 onwards, I played with a variety of musicians from Africa and Latin America, as well the as great American traditions of gospel, funk, jazz, and bluegrass. All the while, I continued to study music theory and composition, on my own and in private lessons with both well-known players and local professionals. I also studied North Indian Classical vocal for 2 years with a senior student of Ali Akbar Khan, and have been involved in Flamenco for over 20 years. Though guitar is generally my "go-to" instrument, I often use a MIDI keyboard for composition, and studied/performed on bass for 10 years. Increasingly since 2014, I have been a performing Flamenco singer. I taught music theory and composition at Ex’pression College in Emeryville for over 10 years, and worked at SF JAZZ teaching workshops in audio production and music theory for 4 years. *** Lesson Details *** Whether you are a complete beginner or have been playing gigs for years, are very young or old, I have something to offer you! How we structure lessons depends in part on you and your goals, as well as your learning style. Having taught music for over 20 years, I have a large amount of resources at my disposal, and can either teach from a method book, or a variety of materials, some of which are my own creations. I also like to use technology as a teaching aid, and can show you how to use your own computer, keyboard, or music production application (garageband, etc) to practice and create music at home. Another thing that I offer is to make recordings of key parts of the lesson, either as an audio or video file, or both. These can be shared with you through email, dropbox, or a flash drive if you bring one along to your lesson. Please contact TakeLessons if you have any further questions! I look forward to meeting and working with you or your child. *** Studio Equipment *** Home studio: Front room with computer station, guitars, music stand. Waiting area with couches and table, and parents can sit in on lessons. Street parking available, no pets. College: practice rooms and classrooms available with computers and MIDI controllers. *** Specialties *** On guitar and bass, I have experience in world music including Africa, Latin America, and Flamenco. I also love American traditional music, including funk, jazz, rock, and gospel. I specialize in teaching music theory and composition, no matter what instrument. Rhythmic concepts applied to any instrument are a favorite topic.
Teaches all skill levels
Teaching since 1996
UX Design certification program
Teaches ages 5+
Speaks Spanish, English
Has background check
I've been taking lessons with David for more than 2 years, he's amazing... he's very knowledgeable, patient, knows how to explain difficult concepts and can adapt to a broad range of topics, covering different areas that I'm interested on, including music theory, songwriting, guitar and bass, and music production. David is both a professional musician and an experienced instructor, and you can tell the difference that makes in every class. We started with at-home classes, but switched to online during the pandemic and that's working pretty good for me to. I'd recommend David to anyone looking to learn a new instrument, get better at it or expand their music knowledge in general.
Simply put, David is a great teacher. His lessons incorporated the perfect blend of theory and patience while opening up new horizons on the fret board. His style of teaching is very flexible so that one can hone in on what excites them. For me, that was jazz and David made a huge difference in my creativity.
David did a wonderful job, teaching me bass via Zoom with a lot of focus on what I wanted to do. Even though my interests ranged from technical to classical to theoretical to funk, he always had something he could show me and proved to have great knowledge of the instrument as well as of music theory and history. I would recommend him to anyone.