Lessons

With over 13 years of education experience, I’ve shown hundreds of people how to achieve their creative goals when it comes to playing guitar, bass, synthesizers, or learning audio production skills.

I offer a variety of online lesson options, from traditional one-on-one instruction, to group lessons that keep costs low for each student and allow you to meet and interact with others working towards the same goals as you.

Learn from an Experienced Educator

With formal training in music education, 13 years of experience, and hundreds of students of from ages 4-80 of all skill levels and backgrounds taught as a private teacher and my work at G4 Guitar Schools in Brookline, MA, I’ve cultivated a deep understanding of what helps students achieve their creative goals, as well as the ability to adapt to their particular needs as a student. I offer private lessons as single lessons or monthly packages in 1/2 hour or 1 hour long formats. I also offer group lessons to keep the cost down for you as a student, while also giving you the opportunity to meet and interact with other people working towards the same goals you are!

Lesson Formats And Rates

  • Want a one-off lesson on guitar, bass, synthesizer sound design, or audio production? I offer custom lessons in the topic of your choice, tailored to give you a clear path forward on a specific topic. Want to drill down into the physics of pick technique? Or what all those knobs and sliders on a synth do? Book a one-off lesson and you'll have plenty to work with!

    Single lessons are $55 for a 1/2 hour, and $70 for 1 hour.

  • If you'd like to save some money on private lessons, you can purchase a monthly package! The monthly package entitles you to a weekly private lesson at your scheduled time. Some months that's 4 weeks, others it's 5, but you pay the same rate!

    Monthly packages are $189/month for 1/2 hour weekly lessons, or $249/month for 1 hour weekly lessons.

  • Online group lessons are a 1/2 hour per week in the subject of your choice (guitar/bass/synth/production), with never more than 5 people per group. Groups are formed based on topic, skill level, and schedule of each student. You are always grouped with people of similar skill level, meaning you get a chance to meet and work with others also working towards the same goals as you, while keeping costs down.

    Group lessons are $109/month for a 1/2 hour lesson every week with your group.

Testimonials

  • “Chris helped me develop the confidence to overcome the most frustrating of challenges. Whatever it is, Chris does an excellent job of breaking down concepts clearly and simply. He goes above and beyond to accommodate my individual needs.”

    Alyssa M.

  • "Chris is smart, patient, and knows how to get the most out of me, while understanding I have a career to focus on first, and foremost. I have learned an immense amount about music theory, my playing strengths and weaknesses, and generally all things guitar related. I have seen significant improvement in my playing (I started out as a novice a few years back), and I look forward to going to class each and every week."

    Jason C.

  • "I took lessons with Chris at G4 for almost 4 years. He's a great teacher! As an adult learner starting basically from square one, I appreciated the attention to technique and that we focused on the essentials of guitar and music theory before jumping into songs. It was fun at the same time – Chris is friendly and enthusiastic and I enjoyed learning with the other students in the small classes. I have a really solid foundation to keep going with guitar playing now."

    Lisa A.

  • "I've been taking guitar lessons with Chris for just over two years, and he's been an incredible teacher. He's motivated me to keep practicing and improving my skills significantly, even through the challenges of the pandemic. He's friendly, kind, and down to earth, and he is so knowledgeable and willing to try out so many different styles of music. He's always down to chat about music stuff beyond our lessons, and it's been awesome getting to know him."

    Aaron M.

  • "Chris was able to tailor our lessons to exactly what I was looking for despite differences in preferred musical styles (and I know this holds for other students as well). I learned and am learning so much from him over our lessons, and couldn't recommend him more highly even if I tried!"

    Irina K.

  • "Chris is an excellent guitar instructor. He has a true passion for what he's teaching, and always fields questions (no matter how repetitive!). I've definitely learned a ton about guitar theory in the short five months I've been taking lessons - can't wait to learn more!"

    Arielle A.

  • “I want to let you know that you have been the best teacher for me…I had a wonderful learning experience from you and you really honed my guitar skills. What I am now as a guitar player is because of you.”

    Sudhir T.

  • “Best thing that happened during the pandemic was starting these lessons with Chris! He’s truly inspirational, versatile and has great educational capabilities to tailor his teaching according to one’s individual level, needs and desires”

    Leo I.

Let’s work together

Lesson Policies

When purchasing a lesson or lesson package, you must acknowledge and agree to the following set of lesson policies.

Payments

I accept payments via PayPal and Venmo. If you cannot use either of these services, contact me and we can work out an alternative method. Payments for single lessons are paid before the lesson. Payments for monthly lesson packages are to be paid by the 15th of each month. If you fail to pay by then, I reserve the right to cancel lessons for the remainder of the month until the balance is made up. However, I understand that financial troubles arise, and I am willing to work something out. Please get in touch with me if this is the case.

I use business accounts on PayPal and Venmo, so you are able to file a dispute if needed.

Make-up Lessons and Refunds

When you purchase a lesson or lesson package, you are purchasing a specific time slot for us to work together. It is my responsibility to be there at the scheduled time. It is your responsibility to attend each lesson at the pre-arranged times. If you miss a lesson, I will do my best to offer a make-up time with you, however, make up lessons are not guaranteed if you miss a lesson.

If I must miss a lesson due to sickness, travel, or any other reason, I will schedule a make up time with you. Make up lessons ARE guaranteed if I miss a lesson. If a make up time cannot be scheduled within 31 days, I will refund you 25% of your monthly lesson rate per lesson missed.

If you are unable to make most of your lessons during a month where you have purchased a monthly lesson package, I do not pro-rate my packages based on lessons you have missed. Consider purchasing a single one-on-one lesson for months you will be mostly away.

For the months of November and December, I take one week off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s holidays. When you purchase monthly lesson packages, and you are a repeat customer, some months you will get 5 weeks of lessons instead of 4, at no extra charge. The intent is that the extra weeks you get during those months are balanced by my holiday weeks at the end of the year, effectively guaranteeing you 49 weeks of lessons per year. If you are a new student, purchasing lessons for the first time in November or December, I WILL pro-rate those introductory months. (25% off the usual rate in November, 50% off in December). If you purchase a single lesson, I simply will not allow lesson to be scheduled during these weeks.

In Person Office Hours

1-2 times a month, I will book a few hours of time at the Medium Rehearsal Studio at The Record Co. located at 960 Massachusetts Ave in Boston. These in person sessions are done at no extra cost to you. However, I do not guarantee an in person session every month. Each 1/2 hour block is scheduled on a first-come, first serve basis. I will be in touch with all my students about my selected dates, and I will offer in-person instruction to small groups and individuals. The groups may differ from your usual online groups, although the level of experience will be the same. These office hours will be workshops on instrument technique and rhythm, as well as an opportunity to ask me specific questions that you believe will work better in an in-person setting. I will generally book 4 hours of time for these sessions, and will meet with groups and individual for a 1/2 hour at a time. If you booked private lessons with me, your time slot will be individual. If you booked group lessons, you will be placed with a group. I will pre-arrange each 1/2 hour slot with each student, and let you know when to show up! These slots go fast, so try to reserve your time as early as possible.

If you cannot make it to The Record Co., I will attempt to arrange a meeting with you every few months if you live in the Boston area and are near an MBTA subway or bus station.

Working With Audio in Online Music Lessons

Audio quality is very important for online music lessons. I use Zoom as my video call platform since it offers the best feature set for musicians. Here are steps you can take to ensure you have the best lesson experience.

1. Download the Zoom Desktop Client

Although Zoom can be accessed through a web browser, it is much better to download the desktop client in order to ensure best audio quality for lessons. The web browser version does not allow you to adjust advanced settings needed for good audio quality.

Click here to download the Mac OSX Version
Click here to download the WIndows Version
Click here to download the Linux Version
Click here for the Android Version
For the iOS (iPhone/iPad), search for Zoom in the App Store on your device.

2. Enable “Original Sound For Musicians” in Zoom’s Audio Settings

Once you download and install the Zoom Desktop Client, open it and find the Settings. You can find them by clicking on your Profile picture in the top right corner of the Zoom desktop client. You may also find it in the taskbar.

Once in Settings, click on the “Audio” tab on the left side.

Once in the Audio tab, scroll down until you find the “Original Sound For Musicians” marker under Audio Profile (in previous versions of Zoom, this may be under the “Advanced” settings.). Click on the box/circle to enable it. There will be three other checkboxes underneath it - “High Fidelity Music Mode”, “Echo Cancellation”, and “Stereo Audio”. Make sure Echo Cancellation is CHECKED. For the other two, enable them if you have a high speed (above 100Mbps) connection to the internet and a relatively good processor on your device. If you’re unsure about any of that, leave them unchecked.

3. Once you enter the Zoom meeting at your lesson time, look for the “Enable Original Sound” button in the meeting and click it.

Zoom doesn’t enable original sound in the meetings once you enable it under settings - it simply adds a button within meetings to enable/disable original sound. When you enter a meeting, you must enable it for best audio quality. Depending on your version of Zoom, this may be in a few different places - often, it’s in the top right or top left corner of the Zoom meeting. For some versions, you may have to find the toolbar in the meeting, look for the three dots (…) that say “More”, and click “Enable Original Sound” under that.

4. Use headphones during your lesson time, and/or mute yourself when you aren’t speaking or playing in group lessons.

This is more for everyone else in the meeting’s benefit than yours. If everyone has original sound enabled, Zoom’s Echo Cancellation is disabled. When someone talks, there’s a bit of lag from when they speak to when the data and sound is transferred to your computer and comes out of your speakers. If you aren’t wearing headphones, the sound of someone talking comes out of your speakers, gets picked up by your microphone, and is thus played back to the speaker and everyone else in the meeting. Using headphones means your microphone won’t pick up the echo. Alternatively, if you don’t have headphones, you can remain muted when you aren’t speaking or playing. If you are doing one-on-one lessons, this matters FAR less, although it’s still beneficial for me to not hear my own voice echoing back in your room (years of doing online lessons and the COVID pandemic trained me to be able to deal with this somewhat, though).

I will always have a setup session with first time students to walk you through the process. It’s relatively simple if you have the Zoom desktop client installed. It’s still possible to do music lessons while using Zoom in a browser, it can just be much trickier on my end to hear exactly what you’re playing.

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