Bay Area Guitar Lessons

John is an excellent teacher. I start learning playing the guitar from him a couple of months ago. He is really professional on teaching guitar. Highly recommended for the following reasons.
1) customized course according to your learning speed
2) different class packages
3) printed materials with audio records of the class
4) video records for each single practice
5) class cancellation policy
I have tried different guitar lesson in Bay Area before I choose to learn guitar with John, and John is definitely the best.

He was on time and always jolly. He was able to listen to my problems as a newbie and was flexible with time. Good job!

I found John through Unilocal.Having had no prior experience with playing guitar before taking the intro lesson with John, I would say I have come a long way. The complementary intro lesson is a very good idea — because I didn’t want to jump to it without knowing his teaching style. I love the way he is organised and focused on lesson plans. He’s incredibly patient, understanding, and wonderfully skilled at what he does. He encourages me to keep practicing and, after just a couple of months, I have learnt a variety of basic techniques and gained a lot of confidence in handling the instrument. He also supplements his lessons by sending audios-​videos and text notes — I find them handy to practice at home. I would highly recommend John to anybody who wants to explore & learn how to play a guitar! :)

John is very passionate about teaching guitar. I’ve been playing guitar for last 1.5 year and with John, I’ve learnt much more in couple of months than I learnt in 1.5 year. He has a very structured teaching approach, He breaks down complex techniques in small modules, which enabled me to learn quickly and everything is reviewed in following class. John tailored the guitar lessons according your skills and interests.
He is a great teacher and I highly recommend him for guitar lesson.

My 12-​year old daughter has been taking lessons for about 6 months now and can already play some songs better than I expected.
She really enjoys lessons with John, for the following reasons (in her words):
«He’s a good teacher because he’s really patient.»
«I like the one-​on-​one lessons because it’s helping me learn faster.»
«He always emails the materials after class.»
During the lessons I’ve watched, John is indeed patient and professional, yet friendly, during the lesson. He is able to, in an encouraging manner, discuss with my daughter the things she needs to practice, and gives positive feedback about the areas where she is showing improvement.
I would recommend John if you’re interested in learning the guitar!

John is very energetic and passionate about guitar and teaching guitar to people. He is very organized and systematic in his teaching. His style of teaching enables students to learn and get to know a wide variety of guitar aspects very quickly. He breaks up lessons into short but consumable modules while at the same time giving something concrete to start playing and get going from the word go whether you are a beginner or not. I’ve been going to him for several months now and would highly recommend John for his guitar teaching skills!

John is such an amazing teacher. I really like his teaching method which works perfectly for a newbie like me. I can tell immediately he has decades of experience in teaching guitar and making complicated things look easy and approachable for beginners. It’s always been my dream to be able to play guitar and thanks to John, I am very glad that I’m on the right track.

Highly recommend John,
awsome instructor with 35 years of experience you can trust his teachings.
2 months went by really quick and I’m learning so much from tuning, strumming, bends, slides, taps harmonics and there’s still so much more to learn. John is here for the long run if you want to shred like him. Take a chance and have fun learning guitar with John.

John is an awesome teacher. Good lesson plans and course material for all ages. Very patient with students and teaches at their pace. I highly recommend John for lessons.

John is a great instructor. He is a very talented guitarist and he teaches in a way that is easy to learn from. I take weekly lessons from him and (depending on your package) he provides video summaries of each exercise so you can review afterwards on your own. It’s a very helpful format because you get to go at your own pace while never running out of things to practice. John is very friendly, and encourages a very low pressure learning experience.

I have been to 3 different guitar teachers and i must say that I have been very impressed with John. He is a combination of knowledge with patience and modesty, something I always look for in a teacher. Very hardworking and dedicated to his work, you will definitely be impressed with his organizing skills from day one.
For people who are looking for guitar teachers and are still making decisions, here is how he teaches.
1. Based on your current skills, he will start with some teachings for the week. (You will be provided with his notes). He goes through each and everything on that notes in details that day.
2. Next week he will spend first few minutes to review last weeks lessons and based on that will proceed forward. (There is never any pressure since be believes every student has a different pace of learning)
3. It for any reason you are not able to practice for the week, he gives you an option to pick up theory /​non-​reviewable things for the next lesson giving you a breather and time to practice.
He will not overload you with notes and will match the speed with which you want to learn. So if you are an advanced student, he will go full gear with you and vice-​versa for a new student.
Anyways enough said. I would advice taking at least 1 lesson with him before trying anything else. I already had good confidence playing amongst friends after learning guitar with him for a month.

John is an excellent teacher. He has huge experience in teaching and his lessons reflect that. I would recommend John to anyone who is interested in learning to play the guitar. Cheers man.

John has been teaching guitar to my 14 year old son for a few months now. My son really looks forward to the lessons and he is getting better. John has had patience with him as he learns and tries to master the skills. After each lesson John send us an email with notes, recordings of the lesson, and a detailed list of things to practice so my son knows exactly what to do. John also offered us a number of packages for the lessons, including one with a guitar and amp, which I found very helpful since I would not know what electric guitar or amp to buy myself. So I have been happy with John and feel that he does a very good job.

John is an amazing teacher. He has a ton of experience teaching guitar which is seen in the way the classes are structured. The classes progress in a structured manner, there are reviews for mostly everything he teaches and there are exercises to learn different aspects of playing a guitar. He also never finishes right on time unless some student is waiting. If there is no one waiting, he almost everytime goes 5 – 10 mins overtime.
I have been with him for close to 2 months now, and I had never played guitar before. He is the right person one could learn from when you are beginning to play guitar. Overall, he is pretty solid, very energetic and approachable.
PS: An advise for John: Digital notes are much better than Paper notes. It would be great if you start giving notes on email rather than paper :)

John has been giving lessons to both me and my 9-​year-​old son (both beginners) for a little over a month, and has done a fantastic job of tailoring the lessons to our skill levels and providing us with exercises/​homework that is both foundational and fun. He is very detailed — takes notes and audio recordings of each session, and then has handouts to go along with the exercises/​homework. He is also very knowledgeable about the guitar and about music theory in general. We have found his balance of structure and flexibility perfect, and would absolutely recommend him as a teacher.

I started taking lessons with John a couple of months ago and would recommend him for anyone who wants to learn guitar. You get homework and it gets reviewed at the beginning of each lesson. He tailors exercises based on what you like to play and builds the course based on your goals. I can already notice a significant improvement in my playing and whole understanding of the instrument.
He’s a great teacher, very charismatic and energetic.

I started guitar lessons with John two months ago. He is very accommodating with my schedule and works at my pace. I am very impressed with all the lessons he has ready for me every session. Having homework is a good way for me to practice my guitar. I would highly recommend him to anyone.

John is very professional in his approach, generally the first session is free so you can evaluate the course and also tell him more about your goals. I had no knowledge of music at all and he did a god job in giving me some basic music theory crash course along with my daily practice sessions. He tailors the course as per your routine. its never one lesson fit all for him, he will gauge your level of expertise, your short and long term guitar goals (beginner, advanced etc) and then create a custom lesson for you. I really enjoyed and made good progress in a month’s time. Thanks John!

I started taking lessons from John about 2 months ago. I always wanted to learn how to play the electric guitar to the likes of Metallica and System of a Down. I picked up some guitar technique and songs by myself when I was younger, but I always wanted to get some sort of formal training so I could learn to play the guitar to its full potential and not just know how to play a couple songs here and there.
John is a great teacher, he has a very structured class that allows me to see constant progress and a clear line as to what I need to improve on. He’s very helpful if you have any questions and always allows you to e-​mail/​text/​call him in between lessons if you have any questions. He takes a fun approach to his lessons in which he teaches you a song in little chunks, so by the end of a couple months not only have you mastered some pretty good technique you would also have learned a song or two.
I recommend john as a guitar teacher to anyone in the South Bay, his prices are great and you will improve on your guitar ability by magnitudes.

I’ve been taking guitar lessons with John for almost two months and I must say I’m very happy with how everything is going.
I’ve been playing guitar for years (15+) and truly I had plateaued on my guitar skills and practice routines. My whole idea of taking classes was to mainly be able to improve my overall technique and pull out of the plateau.
In just a couple of months I have been able to start building upon the library of technique tutorials John provides and keep a constant practicing routine. John is smart enough as a teacher to keep me entertained and being able to still deliver good technical advise so that I can build up my skills, without growing bored or unaware of the classes.
His schedule is surprisingly open which is a big plus for me – I usually work ’til 7−8pm.
I see a lot of people taking classes with John at the beginner level but if you already have some experience I’d still recommend John.
Hope this helps \m/!