GUITAR LESSONS
Our private guitar lessons are structured according to the unique curriculum that our teachers developed after some years of teaching a wide variety of students in private and public institutions in the GTA, including, among many, York University, International Conservatory of Music, Mavo Academy of Art and Music, and the Royal School of Music. Our curriculum is based on the assumption that each student taking instrumental lessons, regardless the age or musical background is a unique individual with a unique musical personality. The general potential in music, attitude toward playing the instrument and studying music, level of artistic creativity, musical taste and performance focus, general artistic consciousness, musical goals, and the amount of talent in various avenues of playing an instrument are only a few factors that shape the musical character of a person. Every music student has certain strengths and weaknesses. During the normal process of taking lessons many find out that some elements of the performance and musical understanding come easier but some are more difficult to comprehend either on an intellectual or artistic level. During each lesson we put a special emphasis on strengthening the weaker areas of student's technical proficiency and musicianship. The goal of the lesson is to stimulate student's musical potential to the maximum. Here are some of the areas of study covered during the guitar instruction sessions:
- Understanding of chords and basic guitar harmony
- Chord building
- Advanced knowledge of the instrument through study, technical exercises, expanding the repertoire, and deconstruction and analysis of songs/pieces
- Playing melodies and solos ("horizontal thinking" and "vertical thinking", form development, phrasing, melodic contour)
- One, two, and three dimensional improvisation (free, rock, blues, jazz, ethnic, baroque, contemporary, modal, melodic, harmonic), creating and mixing textures (monophony, heterophony, homophony, polyphony, homorhythmic)
- Receptive listening and communication while playing with other musicians.
- Solo playing:
- Classical (pre-composed, half improvised)
- Jazz, folk, and popular (combining bass, chords, and the melody)
- Understanding and basic knowledge of rhythmic vocabulary according to different genres of guitar music
- Reading charts as well as a standard musical notation
- Ear training and the development of musicianship:
- Intervals
- Chord progressions
- Modes
- Polyrhythms and polymeters (especially useful in solo playing and during improvising solo or in a band)
- Productive and efficient practicing
- Precision and speed in playing while maintaining the clarity
- Musicality and personal expression
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