Teaching

Jack teaches mandolin at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes

In addition to his performing career, Jack has taught at workshops, festivals, and camps around the country including the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Wintergrass, The Mandolin Symposium, Portland Old-Time Gathering, Dare To Be Square, Olympia Old-Time Festival, Bellingham Folk Festival, The Alaska City Folk Arts Camp, Bluegrass Camps for Kids, and others, and has decades of professional teaching experience, including seven years on the music faculty at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR.  He has also authored two instructional books for mandolin.  As a teenager Jack studied banjo with renowned banjo pioneer Bill Keith, and jazz guitar with Mike DeMicco, touring guitarist for the Brubeck Brothers.

Private Lesson Offerings

Jack offers private instruction in the following areas:

• Mandolin – bluegrass, old-time, country, swing, blues, modern jazz, bossa nova, choro, music theory for mandolin (scales, chords, and rhythm exercises), ergonomics and picking technique.

• Guitar – bluegrass, old-time, country, swing, blues, modern jazz, bossa nova, choro. music theory for guitar (scales, chords, and rhythm exercises), ergonomics and picking technique.

• Banjo – melodic style, Scruggs (3-finger), and clawhammer techniques.

• Bass – electric and upright bass

• Fiddle – bluegrass, old-time, cajun. scales, double stops, chords and accompaniment.

• Music Theory – available on any of the instruments listed here, or as a stand alone pencil and paper class.

• Songwriting – writing exercises, strategies, theory, and editing/workshopping of your original material.

• Singing – tips for singing in an efficient and relaxed way, music theory to help you harmonize with others, and exercises designed to improve your pitch, tone, and rhythm.

Workshop Offerings

Jack offers group lessons and workshops. Here are some of his more popular workshops:

• Harmony Singing 101 – An introduction to harmony singing. This class is aimed at people who are comfortable singing alone, but have never sung in harmony. We’ll begin with some simple scale exercises and then close with a simple arrangement of a song you’ll certainly recognize. Guaranteed to have you singing in four part harmony by the end of the class.

• Major Scales For Mandolin – An exhaustive introduction to major scales on the mandolin, this class will be helpful to players of all levels. Want to play in any key, anywhere on the fretboard? This class is for you. Starting with a basic one-octave, open-position G major scale, we’ll branch outward until we’ve mapped the entire fretboard. Each step is carefully mapped with helpful visual handouts.

Triad Chords For Mandolin – The companion class to Major Scales For Mandolin, this workshop is an exhaustive introduction to three-note major and minor chords on the mandolin. In this workshop we learn to play the all-important I, IV, V chord progression in all three inversions, in all twelve keys. Master the material covered in this class and you have the following: three different ways to play any basic major or minor chord, moveable chord shapes that allow you to quickly transpose chords and chord progressions from one key to another, a map of the fretboard that allows you to follow your ear around the neck as you play through a song.

Barroom Dancing 101 – Get ready to hit the floor at your local honky tonk with this introduction to country two-step, swing, waltz, polka, and more.