• Barry Zito,the Cy Young Award Winner and starting pitcher for the Oakland A's
• Director of the San Francisco Orchestra Micheal Tilson Thomas' manager, Joshua Robeson
• And on the east coast Charles Brewer, founder and former CEO of Mindspring.com.

       I live in Atlanta and travel to San Francisco once a month for eleven days where I offer two hour classes. Cost is $199/session and is guaranteed to be the best instruction of any sort or your money back.  I teach in Union Square at the Hilton Hotel on 333 O’Farrell . This month I will be in town Wednesday, December 11 through Saturday, December 21.  All lessons are paid in advance w/Visa or MC or check and are reserved on a "First come first serve" basis.

Here are some of the courses I teach in San Francisco:

The Blues Guitar Program:

As all indigenous American music comes form the Blues what I teach all beginners is the Blues Guitar Program

       An accelerated, graduated program where you will learn ten songs beginning with Hendrix's Red House (which you will learn to play the first hour) as well as material by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Albert King, T-Bone Walker and others.Each song is carefully graded for increasing difficulty so that by the tenth song you can play anything you can hear. Position Playing, Alternate Stroking and The Three Fundamentals of Time are covered initially to aquire good foundational skills from the start.

The Art of Improvisation:

       Improvisation I and II introduce all of the melodic materials used in the Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll between1954 and1967.Improvisation I teaches you how to improvise using riffs, phrases and runs from the five Blues Scales in the Key of A. Also, there is an introduction to the fun stuff...the Three Principles of Improvisation. Improvisation II teaches you the five Major Pentatonic Scales in the key of A, as well as the intermediate techniques of bends, vibrato, phrasing and key changes.Improvisation III is for developing speed and Improvisation IV is for the Modes, which are materials used from 1976 to the present

Songpulling:

Songpulling is the art of listening to any piece of music and being able to play whatever you hear.

The following topics will be covered in this eight hours(four 2-hour classes)course:

• Intervallic theory
• Pythagorus
• Harmonic Generation
• The “Interval of the Devil”
• Harmonic Relationships
• The Guttenberg Printing Press
• Harmonic Progression
• The Women of 15th Century England
• Tonal Relationships
• “Irrational” Black African Harmonies
• Pulling Songs
• The Beatles

       This course takes four two-hour sessions to complete. A working knowledge of the guitar fretboard from first to twelfth fret on the 6th and 5th strings is all that is required.

Songwriting I:

Requirements: Theory I

• The Copyright Law of 1909
• Blues poetry
• Writing for young men (Big Market!)
• Black/White cultural relationships in America
• The Dorians and Cretes of Ancient Greece
• Writing for young women (Bigger Market!!)
• The Artist, Semipro and The Amateur
• Cathartic writing
• The chance of becoming a Rock Star
• Writing “On Command”

Songwriting II:

Requirements: Songwriting I

• Diatonic Linear progressions
• The acoustical phenomenon of movement of 5ths
• Opening, closing and circular progressions
• Beethoven, John Cage and the musician as Hero or Servant
• Writing for Women
• Writing “On command II”