Never practise more than three or four hours a day. Nobody can concentrate longer than that, and you should spend the rest of your time learning about life, love, art and all the other beautiful things in the world. Arthur Rubinstein
What makes a good guitar teacher?
A good teacher can see the whole journey with the instrument and has the teaching and communication skills to guide people, young and old, toward their musical goal. That takes both technical depth and pedagogical foundation, so you can move comfortably between musical styles and learning styles. With a varied range of students, that’s everyday work.
My background
I graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam in the popular-music department, where I immersed myself in jazz and related styles, with a deep fascination for improvisation. Learn to play jazz well, and other styles often come within easy reach. My broad interest spans blues, jazz and country through rock, latin, soul and classical.
On guitar I was largely self-taught, until I was admitted to the jazz-guitar faculty of the Hilversum Conservatory, at the time the conservatory for jazz, which merged with the Conservatory of Amsterdam during my studies. In the year 2000 I took my final jazz-guitar exam there.
In the years before the conservatory I knew no one who could show me how to really become good on the guitar. That’s one of the main reasons I started teaching: to be the help I would have loved to have back then. I’ve been teaching full-time since September 2007, alongside performances, recordings and band projects in various line-ups.
Passionate, dedicated and qualified
A conservatory education is not only about your main instrument, but also about the pedagogy of teaching: teaching every level and every type of learner. Discipline, perseverance, musical insight and the right technical and teaching knowledge are all developed there to a high level.
As a student, you learn from a full-time musician who practises and develops the craft every day. My mission in lessons: to guide students so that later frustrations and obstacles are avoided, and, above all, so that it stays enjoyable. Because making music is one of life’s great pleasures.
