Guitar teachers in north NJ

[_Sweet Willie_]

Hey y'all,

 

I'm a regular over at the Low Down bass forum. I've come to you for some recommendations.

 

My 7 yr old daughter began playing guitar this past spring. She's very much a beginner, but has made some good progress after a couple of months of lessons. (She isn't up to Mahavishnu Orch material...yet. ). We're moving from Chicago to the Newark NJ area later this month, and she said she wants to continue taking lessons. Thus, I'm givin' y'all a shout to see if you can help.

 

Do you have any recommendations for guitar teachers in the north NJ area (and even NYC, where I grew up and is just on the other side of the river)?

 

She doesn't need a superstar player. It's more important to me that she can work with a solid music educator who likes teaching kids.

 

Drop me a PM or post ideas here. I'll also do some searching on my own, so even the names of music schools or shops that might have info for me would be helpful.

 

I appreciate any help you can give me.

 

Peace.

--Sweet Willie

[BiC]

Since she doesn't need a superstar player, I guess David Powers- The Guitar Mastermind Genius, is outta the question, guys???

 

 

Sorry Willie, a little "inside joke" you wouldn't get if you're new here. Anyways, welcome!

 

God Bless

[cosmo115]

Welcome Willie!

 

One piece of advice since I grew up and worked in NY for many years, DON'T say "y'all" when you're out in public too much when you get there. Here's it's fine, in NYC it might cause some problems.

 

In answer to your question, you can try calling one of these places (FYI some obviously might not apply):

 

Classical Guitar Studio

(973) 744-6900 16 Church St, Montclair, NJ 5.9

 

Church Street Guitar Studio

(973) 746-1717 50 Church St, Montclair, NJ 5.9

 

Valley Road Guitars

(973) 744-6992 127 Valley Rd, Montclair, NJ 6.4

 

Guitar Lessons Studio

(212) 477-7509 356 4th St, Jersey City, NJ 6.4

 

Fano Guitars

(973) 338-5327 56 Leo Ter, Bloomfield, NJ 6.7

 

George Barker Guitar & Bass

(973) 771-0771 32 Claremont Ave, Bloomfield, NJ 6.9

 

Majestic Guitars

(201) 798-4700 720 Monroe St, Hoboken, NJ 7.1

 

Guitar Center

(973) 921-0677 160 US Highway 22, Springfield, NJ 8.2

 

Ferri Guitar Studio

(973) 535-9515 107 E Mount Pleasant Ave, Livingston, NJ 8.3

 

Cranford Guitar & Music Ctr

(908) 232-7122 300 Centennial Ave # A, Cranford, NJ 8.7

 

Guitar Salon

(212) 675-3236 45 Grove St # 1c, New York, NY 8.8

 

Carmine Street Guitars Inc

(212) 691-8400 42 Carmine St # 1, New York, NY 8.8

 

Matt Umanov Guitars

(212) 675-2157 273 Bleecker St, New York, NY 8.8

 

Guitar Study Ctr

(212) 229-5873 55 W 13th St, New York, NY 9.2

 

Guitar Center

(212) 463-7500 25 W 14th St, New York, NY 9.3

 

30th Street Guitars

(212) 868-2660 Web Site 236 W 30th St, New York, NY 9.4

 

and get recommendations from them. NOTE: the 5.9, 7.1, 9.4 after each address is roughly the miles these places are to the center of Newark, NJ.

 

Good luck!

[_Sweet Willie_]

Thanks for the welcome!

 

That list is a great start. Add that and whatever else I can learn here to what Google gives me and I'll have plenty of info to sort thru. Cool.

 

I picked up the "y'all" from 2 years living in Charlotte NC. Just 2 years! Now I write it more often than I actually speak it.

 

Any trace of a NYC accent that I might have had growing up has long been obliterated from living in a few other places in the US.

 

I also don't mind an "inside joke" going over my head...

 

Is anyone currently going to a teacher in NJ/NYC who they really like?

 

Peace.

--SW

[musicalhair]

Cranford Guitar listed above is now in Garwood, the next town over, a little bit further off the parkway than it used to be. That guy Joe is a very good teacher.

 

Melisset Abreau used to teach over at Luthier on 44th St in Manhattan (next to Birdland), but I don't know who teaches there now. There is (or was) a teacher in Fairlawn named Nirit Wexler and she was very good, I don't know if either of these take kids though. Joe at Cranford Guitar does teach kids (it is still called Cranford guitar even though it is in Garwood).

 

I'm teaching my 6 year old girl, but we concentrate more on piano with her. We're planning to kick guitar into another gear though this fall. I'm not really happy with the methods out there for kids and I'm kinda writting my own for her, we'll se where it goes. There is some decent sheet music available for kids though, go figure.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Thanks for the info, musicalhair.

 

Originally posted by musicalhair:

I'm teaching my 6 year old girl, but we concentrate more on piano with her. We're planning to kick guitar into another gear though this fall. I'm not really happy with the methods out there for kids and I'm kinda writting my own for her, we'll see where it goes.

If we had a piano or keyboard we'd probably get my daughter going on that also. Her grandparents on both sides have pianos, and she's certainly interested. She did try to convince me to buy her a Fender Precision Jr. so she could play bass like her daddy (how proud am I?!?! ), but I feel like she'll get more out of guitar now and have more fun with it.

 

Props to you for teaching your daughter yourself. My wife and I have learned that our daughter seems to learn best and progress the most when someone besides one of us teaches her -- music or otherwise. Admittedly she does do better with her mom than with me. It works well for her to have a weekly lesson outside of the house and then for me to be around when she practices during the week -- to answer questions, give encouragement, and simply keep her company.

 

I really liked her teacher here at Guitar Works Ltd. in Evanston IL (and am happy to give them a plug).

 

She's been using a Mel Bey book. It's okay, and not written specifically for children. I'd be curious to hear about your approach to guitar method for kids.

 

Peace.

--SW

[musicalhair]

The way I've been approaching this with my 6 year old has more to do with our overall approach to music with her than the guitar. In then end if she ends up playing Oboe or Hurdy Gurdy or singing (well she'll be singing anyway but ...) doesn't matter to me. I'm more interested in teaching her music.

 

My wife has played piano for all her life and was taught by various teachers and her own mother. My oldest has been playing piano for a while now and my mother-in-law, my wife, and myself have all chipped in. She is still learning technics and is working on mostly 16 measure studies out of the method book my wife swears by called "La Method Rose" by George Van Der Veld. It is a french book and not easily found in the states. The book is so good that I understand why we had conniption fits trying to find it.

 

When I first tried to get the kid to play guitar I found the fingers were too weak to do the job. We got her a 1/8 size guitar that fits her nicely but it was a while before her hands were strong enough to reasonably even try to play. What I've done is show her scales in first position and one voice melodies that are songs she already plays on piano.

 

What I don't like about so many kids methods is that they waste so much time thumping out straight 8ths on an open E and while it is instructive I found it wasn't very musical. I've worked on clapping written rhythms from musicianship books and then playing the rhythmn one a single note-- so I guess I would want to de-emphasize the simple rhythms that are designed to get the fingers used to playing particular strings. I mean it has to be done but to write page after page of single note etudes with hardly any rhythmic variation seems not only a waste of time but loses time that could be spent on getting better at reading real rhythmns. I mean, when teaching a kid very young we can kinda assume they'll be really good if they stick with it and are not mislead along the way.

 

The thing we need to do is allow them to see the big picture from the begining. Reading right right from the start and looking for an interpretation from the first time seeing a piece is more important than playing it like a machine. Kids are so expressive and their emotions are bigger than they are, I'd rather emphasize her playing it "like it sounds to her" and personifying each melody and bass line. Finding the "happy" and "Sad" or "here comes the monster" in each song is way more important than automation. To that end, legato/staccato and dynamics are things I emphasize with her on piano and that will transfer to guitar when the time is right.

 

Another thing is that I don't want her playing for years before playing anything in 5 sharps or 4 flats. We work on a scale, we play a melody in that key, then we work on another scale and we learn a melody their and transpose "important melodies". Jingle Bells she plays in in C and in G. We've done this on the piano too, where I think in the long run she's better off. I think it will help her with relative pitch later on.

 

Oh, and I'm teaching her a "fixed Do" way of naming notes as the primary way of reading and sight singing music. I've got all sorts of reasons for this. You can't sing "G-Sharp, G-Sharp, G-Sharp, ... G-Sharp, G-Sharp, G-Sharp, ... G-Sharp, B, E, F-Sharp G-Sharp" and get the begining of Jingle Bells in E. In fixed Do it is: "Si, Si, Si, ... Si, Si, Si, ... Si, Ti, Mi, Fi, Si". And that is distinct from what it is in C: Mi, Mi, Mi .......

 

Another reason to use fixed over movable do for a lot of things is for music that changes keys or modern music that sort of don't stick to tonal centers the way student's melodies do. When a tune modulates for the B section or whatever, the relationship between the old and new key is significant and isn't like a whole new game. You mind or ears don't wipe away memory of the old pitches and the new pitches are heard in relation to the old and when the tune returns it doesn't sound "new" it sounds like returning home. Fixed do accepts that different Keys sound different.

 

I've introduced the idea of "fixed" and "Moveable" do, but she probably don't remember it. She hears a 3rd scale degree as "mi" regardless of what key something is in when she listens to a melody, and yet her sense of "perfect" pitch is developing too.

 

I don't want to make it sound like she's Rachmaninoff. She spends a lot more time Ice Skating than on the piano and not that much time on guitar at all but we're laying the ground work for musicianship-- I think.

 

Once we get moved into our new home and I get back from a little mini two week tour I supposed to do I'm going to work out a more detailed game plan for her guitar playing. It took me a while to figure out how in Sibelius to get pages to print that look like I want them to for her instruction. That will hopefully turn into an actual method book for kids that is dead opposite of things I've seen.

 

Oh, and I'm going to show her the chords to "Baba O'Reilly" because she loves the tune.

 

I fear I'm kinda rambling here, but I want her to have a both great technic and great interpretation, and I want her to understand the construction of music and various styles so she can play rock or classical or jazz if she wants without ever getting locked in. Too many classical players can only do that and I think the imagination was sucked out of them early on.

[steenland]

The American Institute of Guitar (www.aiguitar.com) teaches classical and acoustic guitar.

 

They have studios on 54th Street in Manhattan

and in Linden, NJ. NYC phone is (212) 757-3255.

 

Regards,

 

T. J. Steenland

[_Sweet Willie_]

Thanks, musicalhair, for laying all that out. Really interesting. It deserves a longer response from me, but I don't have the time at the moment to do more than offer "thanks".

 

I appreciate the suggestion, T.J.

 

Peace.

--SW

[musicalhair]

Hey Willie, your moving in to Parsipanny-- right?

 

I'm not sure really what music stores or teachers are over that way. AT my kid's school the other kids taking piano or guitar lessons learned practically nothing. Our six year old was the best musician on either guitar or piano of the whole K-8th grades, it isn't even close. I'm not like "bragging on my kid" because she plays every day and others don't have that chance nor do they have a family of musicians-- but that is what they trust a teacher to do. We were severly unimpressed with the teacher the other kids got through the school. We didn't realize that till the end of the year and we saw the recital, but it does feel good when your kid stands out like ours did.

 

Oh, and I really left out the main reason we're using "do-re-mi ..." over "C, D, E ..." and that is because my wife and her mom only know that way. I had to learn it just to talk about music with my wife. Still, I see the advantages in it that I mentioned in the other post.

 

Fixed do is not very popular, but the advantage gained in singing all sorts of chromaticisms and altered scale degress and for temporary key changes and all seems worth it.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by musicalhair:

Hey Willie, you're moving in to Parsipanny-- right?

 

No, Maplewood.

 

My experience as an educator and as a parent (and as a kid growing up!) has suggested to me that public elementary school music programs are limited -- by funding, by schedules, etc. If a child is really interested in music, he or she needs to pursue additional music education in other places.

 

I have seen really strong public school music teachers in action, but even their efforts can be hampered by limited time with the students or an inability to have all the resources at their disposal that they might need.

 

My kid is no whiz at guitar, but she's bright and she likes it. My goal is to keep it fun for her and give her the opportunity to grow on the instrument at her own pace while learning about music. Her music teacher last year held a voluntary mini-recital during the last music class for any students who wanted to participate -- they could play music or bring artwork or do whatever -- really a chance to present themselves and something that they enjoy to their classmates. On her own initiative, my daughter brought her guitar to school and played one of the 16-bar pieces from here book (maybe "Aura Lee"?). How can I not support or encourage that?

 

Peace.

--SW

[_Sweet Willie_]

*bump*

 

This was about to slide off the first page, so I'm giving it one gratuitous bump to see if anyone else has anything to contribute.

 

Thanks all for the responses so far.

 

Peace.

--SW

[EoS]

Originally posted by Sweet Willie:

No, Maplewood.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood! Been living here for 40 years.