Beginner Guitar Player (30 minute sessions | Ages 4+)
Beginner guitar lessons are designed for people with little to no experience. They focus on music fundamentals that build good habits of guitar playing. Students will learn chords, strumming patterns, rhythm, and how to listen. And get to know guitar anatomy and ways to play it. Lessons also cover tuning, care, maintenance, and repair of the acoustic guitar.
Intermediate Guitar Player (30-60 minutes | Ages 10+)
Intermediate guitar lessons are designed for the intermediate guitar player. Once the basic chord and rhythm vocabulary are established, we can build new skills and understanding on top of that foundation. Lessons introduce single note playing with lessons about scales, melody, improvisation, and phrasing. Harmony is explored with chord progressions, keys, moods, and textures of blending notes.
Advanced Guitar Player (60-90 minutes | Ages 15+)
Advanced intermediate guitar lessons are designed for the intermediate guitar player. Once the basic chord and rhythm vocabulary are established, we’ll build new skills and understanding on that foundation.
Acoustic Guitar Players in Geneva, NY
Michael George is an experienced acoustic guitarist and music teacher based in Geneva, New York. For over twenty years he has been dedicated to studying, performing, and teaching guitar. His patient enthusiasm creates a comfortable learning environment that’s earned him the reputation of being a an effective acoustic guitar instructor. He is confident covering techniques and playing styles of folk, blues, jazz, pop, classical, rock, country, soul, Latin American, Brazilian, and world music. He teaches both steel-string acoustic and nylon (gut) string guitar either playing with a pick or using fingerstyle techniques. Michael George provides private lessons at his studio inside the historic Smith Opera House in downtown Geneva, NY. Students living beyond the Finger Lakes may choose private online guitar lessons.
For more information about private music lessons please answer
A Few Questions.
- Rhythm Acoustic Guitar
- Strumming Patterns
- Counting + Timing Drills
- Genre Rhythmic Profiles
- Implied Bass-lines
- Chord Colors
- Capo + Chord Transposing
- Singing + Playing
- Chord Substitutions
- Movable Chord Forms
- Finger Style Acoustic Guitar
- Travis Picking
- Brazilian (Samba/Bossa Nova)
- Classical
- Jazz/Chord Melody
- Blues/Country Bass Thumb
- Lead Guitar
- Movable Scales
- Pentatonic Grips
- Blues Boxes
- C-A-G-E-D System
- Chord/Scale Grips
- Scale Modes
- Arpeggios
- Fingering/Picking Techniques
- Pentatonic Overlays
- Triad Substitution/Superimposition
About
Michael is a seasoned musician that has performed [and studied] music since age eight. Through his school years [grades 4-12] he studied trumpet and voice playing or singing in concert band, jazz band, marching band, concert choir, vocal jazz ensemble, and more. In high school Michael was selected for all-state and all-county band and choir. He earned top scores at New York State Music Association (NYSMA) solo competitions. [Read full bio]
In college Michael focused on music composition. He studied music theory and composition with Dr. Carol ‘Kia’ Sams and Roupen Shakarian at North Seattle Community College. At NSCC he was mentored in Jazz performance by legendary trumpeter and leader Fred Radke. On campus Michael led the studio jazz combo and played trumpet in the jazz big band. He served as music director and sound designer for Stage One Theater production of ‘Holy Ghosts’ by Romulus Linney. While enrolled he was awarded the Bill Muncie Music Scholarship three times. Under Emmy award winning composer Hummie Mann, he studied film composition at the PNW Film Score Institute.
Michael believes “a musician’s education never stops”. Since college he has continued to study privately with seasoned masters like guitarist Milo Petersen and legendary bassist, composer, and arranger Chuck Israels (Bill Evans Trio) [Read more about Michael’s experience].