Spook H., Online Teacher | Teaches Private Lessons Online

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Guitar

Spook H.

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Teaches online

Teaches all skill levels

Age: 18+

Teaching since 1990

Touring Guitar Workshop Instructor

Learn Guitar from an award-winning, nationally touring acoustic musician with 30+ years experience

I TEACH all of my students - beginning beginners through advanced - that what seems complicated is nothing more than a bunch of simple things put together. The next step in your learning guitar is simple. We just need to identify it and learn it. No matter what skills you already have - or if you are just getting started - we can identify what you already know and build on top of it. If you have holes in your skillset (everybody does!), we can identify them and fill them in. DID YOU KNOW that a lot of fingerstyle guitar moves and improvisation are EASIER than some types of strumming? Beginning and intermediate guitar players learn a lot of "campfire" techniques - how to strum a certain way, how to form certain chords. And this is really good. But there is a whole bunch of other techniques few players know that are just as simple. Just as easy. And when you learn them you will stand out as the accomplished guitar player you can be. THE RESULT is that you will learn a wide variety of simple techniques. And when you put them together you will be making beautiful music. FOR EXAMPLE: My first-year students have learned how to pick and strum a song like "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead. They can fingerpick just about any John Prine song and can strum and improvise over songs like "Country Roads." Others learn to play the blues, how to flat-pick, or music theory. More advanced players are learning how to play songs by Jorma Kaukonen and Larry Campbell.

Instructor details

Subject

Location:

Teaches Online

Teaching Hours

Monday

10 AM-1 PM

4 PM-6 PM

Tuesday

11 AM-1 PM

4 PM-6 PM

Wednesday

9 AM-12 PM

4 PM-6 PM

Thursday

4 PM-6 PM

Friday

9 AM-1 PM

4 PM-6 PM

Times are shown in your local timezone (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Pricing

30 minutes

$46

45 minutes

$48

60 minutes

$50

75 minutes

$52

About Spook H.

5.0

(2)

I'm a lucky guy. After five years of college and earning a degree in math and business administration (and graduating Phi Beta Kappa) I was offered a lucrative job in the actuarial department of a major insurance company. At age 22, I was going to start a business career four rungs below vice president with a promising future. I was lucky because, on the day of my orientation, I decided to bring my business suit to Good Will and buy a $25 used Yamaha Guitar instead. I had never owned a guitar before and had NO IDEA how to play it. But I had a dream. Three days later, a bluegrass guitarist moved in downstairs from me. By week's end, I had a job toting equipment and running the soundboard. I had successfully traded in a nearly six-figure job for a two-figure job. But the benefits were phenomenal. Although I never really wanted to learn bluegrass per se, I learned hundreds of simple techniques as an apprentice to a master guitar player - techniques that can take any folk, country, blues, or pop guitarist levels above most other players in their genre. Starting at the bottom, I picked up one side job after another until I found the best of all - teaching. Since 1990, I have taught thousands of students. I had a 15-year gig teaching the LSAT to future lawyers. I've been teaching private guitar lessons for 30 years. I have led workshops & panel discussions on guitar, performance, songwriting, and social activism at dozens of festivals and conferences all around North America. I have recorded six CDs. My albums have charted as high as No. 3 and my songs as high as No. 2 on the Internation Folk Radio Charts. I've played over 3000 concerts in 49 U.S states and 5 Canadian provinces. Like I said I've been lucky. But perhaps the biggest fortune I've had was performing alongside the folk music icon Pete Seeger more than 50 times over the last ten years of his life. From Pete, I learned much more than songs and performance techniques. I learned humanity. And can you believe it? You can put a lot of respect for nature and for other human beings into your guitar playing. It may sound strange, but from Pete, I have learned to listen to my instrument in a way I never did before, and I have learned how to coax out the best sound and use the best techniques that are called for by the song its self. I have formed such a love bond with the guitar that I can't help but want to share it all with anybody who would like to learn. If that's you, I'd love hear from you. Thanks!

ReviewsWrite a review

100%

5.0

2 Reviews

Experience

Pizza Delivery Guy

Jun, 1982 - Sep, 1999

Campus Pizza

What a perfect job for a musician - especially a songwriter. At one point all of the pizza delivery guys & gals at Campus Pizza were working musicians. We filled in for each other when one of us had a gig. And we co-wrote songs and taught guitar licks to each other. What good times!!

Performing Alongside Pete Seeger

Oct, 2003 - Jan, 2014

Perhaps America's Greatest Folk Musician of All Time

I had the incredible fortune of performing alongside Pete Seeger more than 50 times in the last ten years of his life. The wealth of knowledge I learned from him has permeated every aspect of my musicianship - as well as every aspect of my life. Pete knew how to master a few simple techniques on his instrument and write simple songs that have changed the world for the better. He knew how to turn an arena or stadium into a living room getting everybody to sing along. If I could pass forward a small fraction of what I learned from Pete, that would make my day.

Co-Ordinator of the Princeton Songwriters

Feb, 2001 - Feb, 2005

a Chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association

What a joy working with aspiring songwriters - and learning a lot from them, as well.

Masters Track Coach and Team Captain

Jun, 1999 - Sep, 2004

Raritan Valley Road Runners

Running in the woods is one of the best places for writing songs - especially working on lyrics.

New Jersey's Longest Running Talent Showcase

Sep, 1985 - Sep, 2005

Corner Tavern in New Brunswick

Over the course of exactly 1000 shows, I have seen first-hand over 3000 performers, hundreds of whom were playing in public for the first time. Only a few years into this, it was a natural step forward for me to begin coaching performers on guitar, performance and songwriting techniques.

Education

LSAT Teacher & Teacher Trainer

Feb, 1900 - Dec, 1983

Kaplan Test Prep

Touring Guitar Workshop Instructor

Aug, 2000

At Festivals and Music Conferences throughout North America

Best Folk Artist

May, 1982 - Dec, 1988

East Coast Rocker

Bachelors Degree in Math and Business Administration (Phi Beta Kappa) & (Pi Mu Epsilon)

Sep, 1977 - May, 1982

Rutgers University

Awards

Best Folk Artist

Dec, 1988

East Coast Rocker and others

No. 2 Song

Nov, 2018

International Radio Charts

Affiliations

Phi Beta Kappa

May, 1992

The Phi Beta Kappa Society celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Its campus chapters invite for induction the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America’s leading colleges and universities. The Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large.

Folk Alliance International

Feb, 2004

To nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community — traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional — through education, advocacy and performance.

Nashville Songwriters Association International

Feb, 2001

The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) is the world’s largest not-for-profit songwriters trade association. Established in 1967, the membership of more than 5,000 active and pro members spans the United States and six other countries. NSAI is dedicated to protecting the rights of and serving aspiring and professional songwriters in all genres of music.