Michael Wolfsohn 21 Fayette Street, 2R, Brooklyn NY, 11206
Instruments:Audio Recording, Banjo, Composition, Ear Training, Electric Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Other, Other, Piano, Recording, Theory, Ukelele, Voice
Styles:Jazz, Folk – Country – Bluegrass, Rock – Alternative, Kids, Other
Levels:Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Experience:30 years
Rate:$65 / hr
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Personal Statement
After twenty years of dividing my time between performing (which I love) and teaching (which I love equally), a couple of things became very clear to me:
1. As good as I am as a performer (and I have
enough reliable outside information to believe
that I am very good), I am muchbetter as a
teacher.
2. Too many people are teaching (especially guitar)
who don’treally know what they are doing, and
are as a result
shortchanging their students, and leaving them unable
to become the best possible players.
3. If I were to continue dividing my time, I would be unable to
give teaching the time and effort it needs to make me the
best possible teacher, giving my students the advantage
of every possible tool, method, idea, etc. to help them
become the best possible musicians in the shortest
possible time.
4. There is no way I could be OK with giving my students
any less than my very, very best.
So, I stopped performing, and began devoting all my efforts
to teaching, and to continually becoming a better teacher.
In short, I began my neverending inquiry into The Art & Science of Music Instruction,
Science: I study anatomy, physics, physiology, psychology, Zen, yoga, various methods of physical training, neurology — anything & everything that has a bearing on how people learn (especially how they learn music).
Art: I study education, teaching methods, psychology — again, anything that has a bearing on how people learn (especially how they learn music).
And then I use what I learn to constantly improve my teaching. For example, I have learned that each person has his/her own unique learning style: the specific ways in which that person needs to receive information in order to learn. So, now, I study each student as we work, so I can gain an understanding of that person’s learning style, and then build lessons designed to work with that learning style.
And that’s just one very small example.
My mission is to teach anyone that wishes to work with me how to play well, to understand music thoroughly — to have the richest possible musical life in the shortest possible time.
Education / Training
1972 chicago musical college chicago, il classes
private study with:
voice: laura thomas, ed farran, douglas susu-mago
guitar: joe rumoro, richard pick, carmine damico, alan demause, dave stryker
pedal steel: tom furlong, gib wharton, john widgren, ray gantek
bluegrass banjo: greg cahill, tony trischka
piano: norman curtis, robert komaiko, theodore lettvinn, howard levy,
joanne brackeen