Harmony:
Chord construction, chord form fingerings and execution, reading
chord charts, harmonising of melodies (aka "chord melody"),
comping styles, basic harmonic analysis techniques (Note: I always
advise my students to study harmony separately with a teacher who
specializes in this subject but I can get you started), voice
leading, like-function substitutions, tritone substitutes,
approach chords, block chords, shell voicings, clusters, voicings
derived from chord-scales, quartal harmony, etc.
Fretting hand - single note techniques (i.e. melodies, scales
and arpeggios):
position playing (i.e. vertical), single string and
string-combination playing (i.e. horizontal - across the entire
fretboard), string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slurs, etc.
Pick hand techniques:
alternate and reverse alternate picking, sweep picking (aka
economy picking), pick + fingers (for chording) and a little bit
of finger-style. (Note: I am not qualified to teach correct
classical guitar technique although I can play some of the
repertoire and I do borrow some classical techniques in my own
playing.)
Improvisational Techniques:
chord-scales (including - the diatonic scale and its modes, the
harmonic minor scale and its modes, the jazz minor scale and its
modes, the harmonic major scale and its modes, the blues scale,
pentatonic scales, symmetrical and synthetic scales), chord tone
melodies, guide tones, rhythmic awareness (accuracy and thematic
development), traditional melodic techniques and analysis (i.e.
passing tones, appoggiaturas, tensions, cambiatas, escape notes,
etc.), thematic development, superimposition, back-cycling, triad
pairs and hexatonic scales, intervallic sequences, transcribing
and playing of transcribed solos, etc.
Jazz repertoire development.
Sight reading and studio styles.
Guitar set-up, tuning, (whammy bars etc.).
I have been performing and teaching around Toronto for
over 20 years. I attended Berklee
College of Music (Boston) in the early 1970's where I had the
privilege to study with Pat
Metheny, Mick
Goodrick, Gary
Burton, Hal
Crook, William
G. Leavitt and many other truly great and inspiring musicians.
I have also attended clinics with Lenny Breau and Howard
Roberts. I studied electronic music briefly at York University -
Toronto.
For about a year and a half, circa 2000, I was studying via
correspondence with the great jazz techniques teacher Charlie
Banacos.
I have been teaching privately since approximately 1980.
I have also been teaching jazz guitar and improvisation in the
Mohawk
College (Hamilton, Ontario) jazz program for approximately 20
years. Other faculty members include Dave McMurdo, Mike Malone,
Adrian Farrugia, Kevin Dempsey, Kim Ratcliffe, Pat Collins, Kieran Overs, and Ted
Warren.
