►I’ve been teaching guitar for well over 20 years. I am a currently a faculty member of both the ‘San Francisco Community Music Center and ‘New Mozart School of Music’ in Palo Alto. With the knowledge I've gained from many years of teaching, I’m able to tailor lessons to the goals and ability of each student. I’ve taught all ages and levels (from 9yrs. to 79 yrs. and from beginners to advanced) and many different genres and techniques.
►As a published songwriter (ASCAP) I also teach/coach songwriting, often using materials from 2 songwriting courses I’ve recently written 'Songwriting Fundamentals' and 'Lyric Writing: the Language of Lyric'.
I've included the intro descriptions for both songwriting courses below as an overview. Please feel free to contact me for more about these courses and/or for guitar lessons.
Lyric Writing: The Language of Lyric
Truman Capote stated in an interview, “Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself”. This course is designed to provide a foundation and an understanding of these laws of perspective for those of us who weren’t born knowing them. A songwriter is both a lyricist and a composer, a story teller with a passion for combining language with music. This course focuses on the lyricist, on the craft of writing the ‘language’ in a song.
The concepts we’ll look at in this study are all primary elements in lyric and include an examination of the main figures of speech in figurative language (metaphor, simile, symbolism, personification, among others). We’ll also look at story development (the: who, what, when, where, how, and why of it). We’ll examine the 4 points of view common in narrative and the degrees of perspective and shadings each cast on song lyric. We’ll look closely at rhyme and the phonetic connections inherent in each of the rhyme types and how they can be used to support, expand, and create motion in narrative. All this will prepare us for the development of the primary sections in a song: the verse, the refrain, the chorus, and the bridge. As the study begins, we will learn to ‘object write’. This is a creative writing technique that focuses on developing the ‘sense bound’ imagery associated with memories and experiences…the stuff stories come from. All of the elements we’ll be studying are accompanied by exercises, so, there’ll be plenty of ‘hands on’ fun ahead.
Songwriting Fundamentals
This course is designed to give the aspiring songwriter a working understanding of the fundamentals that make up a song. Within the craft of songwriting, there live some primary elements, common to most popular songs. These elements serve as the foundation a song is built from: melody/lyric phrasing, harmonic structure and progression, lyric writing and development, and song section structure. The study of harmony and melody (the music) is a broad subject that can easily be treated as a separate course, as is the case with lyric writing and development (the words). I’ve condensed the two (words and music) into what I hope/believe to be a comprehensive course, that teaches an aspiring songwriter many of the essential tools and techniques that aid in the songwriting process. We will apply these techniques, learned through assigned weekly exercises, as we write songs.
►As a published songwriter (ASCAP) I also teach/coach songwriting, often using materials from 2 songwriting courses I’ve recently written 'Songwriting Fundamentals' and 'Lyric Writing: the Language of Lyric'.
I've included the intro descriptions for both songwriting courses below as an overview. Please feel free to contact me for more about these courses and/or for guitar lessons.
Lyric Writing: The Language of Lyric
Truman Capote stated in an interview, “Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself”. This course is designed to provide a foundation and an understanding of these laws of perspective for those of us who weren’t born knowing them. A songwriter is both a lyricist and a composer, a story teller with a passion for combining language with music. This course focuses on the lyricist, on the craft of writing the ‘language’ in a song.
The concepts we’ll look at in this study are all primary elements in lyric and include an examination of the main figures of speech in figurative language (metaphor, simile, symbolism, personification, among others). We’ll also look at story development (the: who, what, when, where, how, and why of it). We’ll examine the 4 points of view common in narrative and the degrees of perspective and shadings each cast on song lyric. We’ll look closely at rhyme and the phonetic connections inherent in each of the rhyme types and how they can be used to support, expand, and create motion in narrative. All this will prepare us for the development of the primary sections in a song: the verse, the refrain, the chorus, and the bridge. As the study begins, we will learn to ‘object write’. This is a creative writing technique that focuses on developing the ‘sense bound’ imagery associated with memories and experiences…the stuff stories come from. All of the elements we’ll be studying are accompanied by exercises, so, there’ll be plenty of ‘hands on’ fun ahead.
Songwriting Fundamentals
This course is designed to give the aspiring songwriter a working understanding of the fundamentals that make up a song. Within the craft of songwriting, there live some primary elements, common to most popular songs. These elements serve as the foundation a song is built from: melody/lyric phrasing, harmonic structure and progression, lyric writing and development, and song section structure. The study of harmony and melody (the music) is a broad subject that can easily be treated as a separate course, as is the case with lyric writing and development (the words). I’ve condensed the two (words and music) into what I hope/believe to be a comprehensive course, that teaches an aspiring songwriter many of the essential tools and techniques that aid in the songwriting process. We will apply these techniques, learned through assigned weekly exercises, as we write songs.