To me, a truly great teacher is one who fosters enthusiasm and a sense of gratification in each and every lesson. A passionate teacher will engage students and inspire them to be self-motivated in order to learn and grow as a musician.

Each and every lesson is custom tailored to my students' both immediate and long-term goals. I like to focus on little victories in the beginning, with an overall emphasis on building a thorough background in theory, technique, and musicality over the course of study - the foundation of which you will build upon your entire life. I'm firm in not being what I call a "tricks and licks" teacher. I try my best to lead lessons with the big picture in mind: what information is the student actually taking home and do they understand it enough to be able to recall it later and apply it elsewhere?

Topics that I frequently work with students on include improvisation, learning the notes up and down the guitar neck, composition analysis and transcribing, music theory, CAGED system, the 7 modes, jazz guitar theory & soloing, moveable chords & scale shapes, and reading standard notation music.

​

I have Bachelors and Masters degrees in music & music education and teach part-time at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I've been instructing guitarists for more than 10 years and have been proud to watch my students enter and succeed in the music industry.