JAZZ GUITAR TUITION

by TREFOR OWEN

Internationally Acclaimed Jazz Guitarist, Educator and Author  

Trefor Owen’s approach to teaching has been described as follows:

“Your unique approach to teaching the rigours of facility building through applied practice is ground breaking”.

JAZZ GUITAR TUITION FOR BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED LEVEL
My approach to jazz guitar tuition is practical in nature, that is, at a beginners level. I introduce a method that will enable a student who already has some facility to play a jazz standard with melody, chords and improvisation within a few lessons and will enable him to play live in front of an audience as soon as possible. It is only then that the student knows whether the practice procedure that is being used is working!
Most students who study with me already have some playing experience therefore have  basic facility on the instrument.

As regards the advanced students, we discuss where they are at musically then make a decision as to the direction of the lessons.

I choose the jazz standards for study very carefully and for ease of playing i.e. melody, chords and improvisation, and also to enable the student to gain knowledge of music theory and allow facility building to slowly gain momentum.

 Having a good practice procedure in place is essential.  This ensures that a good facility is established to make certain that no bad habits materialise. (Facility in this context means to have the ability to execute an improvised line, melody or chord sequence in a live situation).

At a beginner’s level, if a pick is used I recommend playing all single lines, (scales, arpeggios etc), with down strokes!

For details on one to one lessons click here: Private tuition 

For details on distant learning packs click here: Distant Learning 

 Jazz guitar lessons now available by SKYPE

Click here – See what the students say

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Trefor Owen, who has a unique approach to improvisation, is one of the foremost jazz guitar teachers in the U.K. He has over thirty years’ experience teaching at the highest level both in Britain and the USA. For eight of those years Trefor was an Associate Lecturer at the highly acclaimed Leeds College of Music. Also, for the last twenty four years he has been a visiting lecturer at Liverpool Community College, and for seven years has taught at Wigan and Leigh College.

Amongst his numerous college and private students there are many jazz guitarists, and also rock guitar players wishing to introduce new ideas into their style of music and some of whom wish to progress to jazz. Trefor has bridged the gap from “Rock to Jazz” by capitalising on their existing knowledge – the Pentatonic and Blues Scales together with his unique chord method the Hendrix Chord System.

He has pioneered a method of utilising the Pentatonic and Blues Scales to improvise over jazz standards by identifying pivotal notes of the Major, minor and dominant seventh chords.

His Hendrix chord system is used to facilitate (from a working and practical point of view), all the altered and extended chords that the guitarist will encounter. It is the perfect introduction to the “Locked Knuckle Technique” which is a method of left-hand fingering based on forming Major, minor and dom7th triads, (root, third and seventh), in which the root note is always fingered with the second finger. In addition the Hendrix chord gives easy access to the m7b5 chord, (half-diminished), which is the most misunderstood chord in harmony.

This method gives the guitarist the facility to form many chord forms out of one basic fingering pattern, thereby “Establishing Economical Chord Forms”, thus giving economy of movement.  (Not all chords can be fingered with the second finger on the bass note, but many can).

Trefor Owen has written over twenty studies, each one relating to specific areas of learning jazz guitar. Each study is self-explanatory and can be obtained as a “Distant Learning Package”. At each one to one tutorial session every student is given the opportunity to obtain a study relevant to the material covered.

Trefor is a great believer in having a “Base to Build From” which establishes a solid foundation for the improviser and can help to eliminate guesswork, and become a useful safety net. A safety net, or fallback system, becomes useful when things go wrong on the bandstand and will help the improviser, who must have the ability to play the time and the harmony from the front, to re-establish the harmonic framework. Also, a “Base to Build From” will give musicians the confidence to bring new ideas into their playing.

Trefor Owen is a director of the North Wales Jazz Society which, since its formation in 1990, has presented numerous world renowned jazz artistes. With co-director Maureen Hopkins, for eight years until 2008 he organized the North Wales International Jazz Guitar Festival/Summer School, and the NWJS continues to present the highly popular Jazz Guitar Weekends at Glyndwr University, Wrexham.  See http://www.northwalesjazz.org.uk/

He has also formed a JAZZ GUITAR CLUB which is held on the second Thursday of the month at Bijou, Massie Street, Cheadle Village, Cheshire. See http://cheadlejgc.wix.com/jazz   http://www.myspace.com/jazzguitarclub