Jeffrey Jo

I have been playing piano since age five, and guitar from age 12.  I also play bass and drums, and played on tour until the age of 25.  I then got into record production, where I have extensive credits.  So I am already in the teaching business, and along the way I have schooled many an associate band member or client with many positive results.  I am level-headed, flexible, and a nice person originally from Fargo, North Dakota, who has been all over the country.  I really like showing the ropes to young people with an interest in music, and I know how to communicate with them in ways they can understand.  As you well know, much of our musical tradition in the folk/rock/country idioms is not well served by tablature or other traditional inscribed formats, and is more about listening and demonstrating techniques that do not lend themselves to more formal written approaches.  Which is not to say that I do not understand modal playing, or the various scales and chordal relationships that make up this vast and rich heritage that has been passed down through the generations.  I usually try to first get someone to associate chords with traditional numeric structures that professional musicians communicate with, I IV V, and such.  If you can get someone to think in those terms, the sky is the limit for their understanding of pop structure, and suddenly when that breakthrough occurs, when they can hear those changes my job is basically finished...

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