Colorado Music Quest  since 1999

Private Guitar Lessons

We use a modern approach to guitar instruction that motivates students and helps them play the music that they enjoy as soon as possible.

Students learn by applying a well-balanced curriculum that includes guitar technique, music reading and theory. Our guitar teachers specialize in helping students balance the creative and technical sides of music with the goal of molding them into "complete" musicians.

Student guitarists get the skills they need to play with other musicians by taking advantage of our "jam sessions" and recitals. This is vital to the development of any musician who wants to join a band or perform solo.

Learn Rock and Pop Guitar at Colorado Music Quest.
Just about everyone is familiar with the ultra-popular rock guitar, from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, and everything in between. The guitar reached its zenith of popularity and flexibility with rock and popular music, and it is within this genre that we can truly see how multi-faceted the guitar can be. Certainly the most popular and most often heard guitar music falls into the Rock category. Chances are, if you're listening to the radio, you're listening to a guitar in a rock/pop context. Primarily an electric guitar style, Rock guitar can be extremely diverse, ranging from the simple chord strumming of Folk-inflected music to the extremely loud and upbeat distorted guitar sounds of Punk and the highly technical and fast soloing techniques of Neo-classical Hard Rock.

Learn Jazz Guitar at Colorado Music Quest
Jazz truly illustrates the versatility of the guitar. From the intricate solos of progressive jazz to the understated jazz elements of modern pop music, this style has had a huge influence on just about every form of modern music and, of course, it has greatly affected the way we play the guitar. Read below to learn more about jazz guitar. Each lesson is prepared according to the student's particular goals. Learn to play jazz at Colorado Music Quest.

What is Jazz?
Jazz music grew out of American Blues and Ragtime styles of the early 20th century and is noted for its emphasis on improvisation. When we think of Jazz, we often imagine a complex and confusing style of music full of difficult chords and wild instrumental virtuosity. This is indeed often the case, but Jazz need not be confusing or even hard to play; many Jazz and Jazz-style songs are in fact quite simple even for a beginner. This fact is evident in the widespread influence of Jazz (with the guitar figuring prominently) in a vast array of popular music, some examples of which are listed and described below Jazz guitar can be a theory-intensive musical genre, but the fundamentals of this style can be taught to the intermediate or beginner guitarist, just like any other style.

Jazz Guitar Styles
The "standard" Jazz of guitar legends Wes Montgomery and George Benson, the distinctive flair of Django Reinhardt's Gypsy Swing, and the fiery Spanish Jazz/Rock of guitarists like Al di Meola, are just a few of the styles that fall into the Jazz genre. More than any other form of music, Jazz offers the guitarist the widest range of sounds.

Learn Classical Guitar at Colorado Music Quest.
Many of the world's greatest guitarists, regardless of the style for which they are known, were classically trained. By studying the classical guitar, you can work on many of the aspects fundamental to a thorough knowledge of the instrument, including sight-reading, music theory, timing, and formal technique.

History
What we now call the classical guitar developed from the medieval lute and flourished throughout the 19th century under the mastery of such composers as Ferdinando Curulli (1770-1841), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), and Francisco Tarrega (image, 1854-1909). The guitar was not considered a "legitimate" instrument at the time, however, and it wasn't until the acclaimed performer Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) brought the classical guitar to international renown that the guitar was put on a par with other "classical" instruments like the violin or cello. Following in Segovia's footsteps, contemporary performers such as John Williams and Christopher Parkening continue to popularize the classical guitar, inspiring thousands to pursue the study of this beautiful instrument.

Classical Techniques
Instead of plucking the strings with a pick, as in Jazz or Rock guitar, playing classical guitar requires the use of the right hand fingers to sound the guitar strings. These are represented in classical guitar notation by the letters P (thumb), I (index), M (middle), and A (ring), indicating a particular sequence of fingers to be played. A typical classical guitar lesson includes the performance of right hand arpeggio exercises, sightreading practice, and the study of written classical guitar pieces. Many of the techniques used in the performance of classical guitar can provide a solid foundation for the study of other styles, as the nylon string guitar is not only heard in Flamenco, but a host of other Latin Jazz styles, including Bossa Nova, Samba, Tango, and quite a bit of popular music.

Colorado Music Quest serves Centennial, Aurora, Englewood, Southeast Denver and Parker.