David is an excellent teacher: loose, fluid, funny, enthusiastic, and truly well grounded in musical theory, practice, and history. As both a schooled and working musician, he plays and can teach a myriad of instruments: keys, horns, percussion, all things stringed, and voice — although, for me, its always most joyous to hear him add his Rickenbacker bass lines to anything. As a high school teacher, myself, I get to see and hear him work across a spectrum of our students which spans beginning teenaged learners, some of whom are gifted and others decidedly more enthusiastic than gifted, to myself — a middle-aged, consciously incompetent guitarist, playing since I was 15, but wishing to learn all the theory that I utterly do not know. So, intervals, chord progressions and The Circle of Fifths it’s been, for me. But David can also translate any song I bring in, asking What am I hearing here? — even one by, say, a master like Ry Cooder — into both understandable theory and a workable-for-me chart. Meanwhile, I’ve also watched David carefully assist one pitch-perfect student’s painstaking recreation and recording of every layer of a Beach Boys’ number: drums, bass, guitars, layers of vocals, keyboards, ukulele — the full Brian Wilson.  Likewise, I’ve watched David shepherd many other students — working in solos, duets and groups — into graceful, unstressed public performances. And he does the same thing when performing, whether by himself or sensitively backing others. David manages all of these levels beautifully and with a great, palpable joy. Good company, smart and challenging lessons: what more do we want from our teachers?

Reese H.