“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”
Thomas Carruthers
Swan Music School
Laura Shabazz is the nurturer behind Swan Music School, keeping her lessons centered on personal expression. Raised by musicians, she received an early grounding in music theory, classical piano and ensemble singing so that picking up the guitar was a snap. She had her first students mere months after she started learning guitar herself. Now, more than 15 years later, Laura has encountered an array of students and has developed her teaching style ‘on the job.’ Using a flexible, intuitive approach, she targets and loosens whatever holds someone back from free creative expression, from 70% deafness to extreme shyness to a crippling fear of mistakes. She specializes in kids and teens.
Shaheed Shabazz is the ambition behind Swan Music School. After teaching privately for a number of years, he decided to formalize his work into a full-fledged business with a website, newsletter, curriculum, and business plan. His musical background is as a self-taught blues guitarist, spending hours systematically working with a single note until he coaxed all possible sounds from it. Shaheed also owned and piloted a recording studio for 13 years, where he excelled at helping clients achieve the results they wanted, rather than the results he wanted. As a teacher, Shaheed runs the group guitar classes. His signature combination of humor and directness creates a fun, teamwork environment where great results and great fun are had by all.
FAQ’s
All of our teachers love the guitar and seek to share that love with others. Check out our bios for more information.
The simple answer is yes. But learning to read traditional music on the guitar is more complicated than on instruments like the piano, and addressing it too early can discourage students so much that they quit. Reading chord charts and tablature is much more common in modern guitar, so we start there. Once students are ‘hooked’ with some chords, they’re much more receptive to mastering the complexities of reading standard notation.
Yes. Guitar is a tough instrument to learn theory on and students quickly feel overwhelmed. We’ve found that using music theory to explain techniques and concepts that they’ve already learned, rather than as a way of introducing something new, works best and keeps the emphasis on music rather than math.
What can I expect to learn in my first six weeks in group classes?
Your first six weeks will lay the foundation for the rest of your guitar playing. Depending on how much time you commit to practice between lessons, you can learn ergonomic positioning of both hands on the guitar, tuning, reading chord charts, 5 of the most common open chords, a song or two, and everyday guitar and music terminology.
What happens when someone gets ahead of or falls behind the pack in a group class?
That’s never a problem. The classes are designed to be modular & scalable so each subject can be taught for several skill levels at the same time. Private lessons are always available to supplement group classes for students struggling with a certain skill or wanting to explore something more in depth.