Guitarist's Resource

Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced Guitar Lessons

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Jazz guitarist Chuck Walker is now offering Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Guitar lessons. Specializing in ensemble direction, Chuck is also available to arrange, conduct, and direct for jazz, blues, reggae, and pop groups.

Chuck is a patient, experienced teacher who enjoys sharing the gift of music. He custom tailors his teaching technique for each student to make every lesson comprehensive and enjoyable.

Teaching and performing professionally for over 10 years, Chuck has studied jazz with many renowned masters like Daniel Jackson, John Handy, Tony Shinnault, Dee Spencer, Hafez Modirzadeh, Jim Grantham, John Worley, and Wayne Wallace.

Emphasizing musicianship and music fundamentals at all levels, Chuck encourages, inspires, and challenges his students to learn and express their talent with music. Students can expect to learn music theory, practice techniques, music history, approaches to improvisation, arranging, and composition.

Lesson Rates

Individual Private Instruction - Guitar

$20 / Half Hour

$30 / Hour

Ensemble Direction - Conduction, Arranging & Theory

$10 / Person / Hour

Lesson and practice schedules are determined upon goals and expectations of the student. Generally, preparation for each lesson requires 30 minutes of daily practice. Lessons are normally schedule once a week.

Practice Guide

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Followed daily, this step-by-step practice guide improves music understanding and guitar performance. The times for each exercise are general suggestions and can be lengthened as needed.

Sound Check - 10 minutes

Arrive on time
Set up gear
Tune up
Adjust tone

Warm up / Review - 10 minutes

Get to know the fingerboard by reviewing and exploring scales, arpeggios, and chords.

One note rhythm - generate a rhythm cycle using only one note
Scales - using a metronome, move with fluidity, consistancy
Arpeggios - move across the strings covering 2 octaves
Chords - finger positions, anchor points

This exercise expands musical vocabulary by reviewing and building scale fingerings and chord voicings. By using a metronome, timing, phrasing, and rhythm improves.

Practicing at slower tempos:

Improves overall sound
Develops more control
Increases technical dexterity and endurance
Settles performance experience
Improves ability to respond to other musicians during group performance

Ear Training - 10 minutes

Intervals - identify intervals between notes
Chords - identify chord quality - major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented
Dictation - listening exercise - write down what you hear

Listen / Play along with Recordings - 10 minutes

Select any recording
Listen and play back what you hear
Deconstruct the song, start with short phrases
Hearing and repeating a new musical figure is the goal of this exercise

Folk Musicians - Romare Bearden

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First Things First - Tuning the Guitar

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Standard Tuning

String	1	2	3	4	5	6
Note	E	B	G	D	A	E

Use a tuner, online tuning pitch, tuning fork, or other instrument, like a piano, to produce a tuning note
Start by tuning the 5th string to concert A
Use your ear and harmonics to tune the D string from the A string
Next, continue thru to the high E string
Then, go back and tune the low E string
Now, re-check the A string again with the tuning note and repeat the entire process

A well-tuned instrument improves the ability to hear music intervals, the distance between notes, and chord voicings, the sound of two or more notes played together.