Jumpstart your learning with all the advanced tricks and hacks from an internationally-touring Bay Area guitarist

In the course of a year Ben has introduced me to a variety of ukulele playing techniques (strumming patterns, fingering, muting, hammer-ons, hammer-offs, overtones, slides, pinching etc.) some of which I've been able to learn and execute with some proficiency. He's also taught me how to look at sheet music and puzzle out for myself fingering for melodies and chord fragments based on the chord structures to which these melodies and chord fragments are associated. In this time I've gone from being a nearly 60-year old complete beginner to being someone able to competently play melody and/or chord lines for the following songs "Fly Me to the Moon", "Walk Don't Run", "Sounds of Silence", "Kawika", "The Entertainer", "Hide Away", "Crazy", "Sweet Lelani", "Tears on My Pillow", "Behind Blue Eyes" "Breakdown", "Killing Me Softly" "White Christmas", "Mele Kalikimaka" "Vietnam", and some others.

Ben teaches my three kids electric bass, acoustic guitar, and glockenspiel. He is great with kids - very knowledgeable, patient, and encouraging. They have made wonderful progress with him, and his enthusiasm for music, including music theory, have rubbed off on them. Ben is also very professional to work with. He responds quickly, is accommodating about schedule changes, and is very helpful generally.

Ben has been teaching our son for over a year, starting when he was 6 years old. Our son started off with Ben with no prior musical instrument knowledge. He started on the ukulele, and at the 1-year mark, Ben helped him to successfully transition to the guitar. It is incredible the strides that our son has made in such a relatively short period of time, without prior knowledge, and at such a young age. He also was able to quickly teach him how to read the music/notes, even though at the time, he hadn't learned to read yet in school. Truly incredible!

Within weeks of playing the ukulele, our son already was playing chords and within a couple of months, entire simple songs. Now with the transition to the guitar, he's playing successfully there. We couldn't have asked for more.

In addition, Ben is a very patient and encouraging teacher, and adapts to your child's unique personality and behaviors. He is effective at helping our son to focus and get the most out of each lesson, as he can easily get distracted by his surroundings. When it's one of our son's "off" days and focus is lacking, Ben has a very balanced approach of pushing just enough to get results and help our son progress, even a little, while also not pushing too much to make our son not want to do it next time or resent it. Overall, Ben's wonderful at adapting to each child and helping them recognize their accomplishments and rejoice in all progress made - which makes them keep wanting to come back! We highly recommend Ben for lessons.

I have been studying ukelele and guitar with Ben for a year by now. As I just finished another recording of song on my own just now before writing this, I have to say this year of practice has been fun and rewarding. I had some learning of guitar during childhood but never touched a guitar or ukelele after high school. With Ben’s help, I picked up the fun again smoothly. Ben’s skills are great, playing the instruments himself and teaching me on challenging ones I couldn’t get hold of myself. We sometimes went through music theory as well. With his help, I handled a certain level of songs that I never thought I would be able to play. Plus, Ben can help write up the note of songs I sent over with proper modifications to suit my level. I certainly look forward to more practice in the future.

My kids thoroughly enjoyed their lessons, progressed nicely as the lessons went on, and Ben encouraged their musicality and curiosity towards different music genres. They are enjoying Ben's lessons so much that they often spontaneously play just for the fun of it. A fantastic experience.