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Brandon W.

Burien, WA

Bass Guitar Lessons

Studio

39 Years

About Me

Hello, My name is Brandon and I would love to teach you all things bass guitar! I truly love teaching people and sharing my passion for music with them. Here's little info about myself. I've been playing music for 39+ years starting with cello at age 10, then switched to tenor saxophone at 12 and really fell in love with music. I ended attended university as a Jazz Studies/Performance major. This opened my mind up to music theory, composition, and lots of live performing in cafés, parties, outdoor venues, small clubs/bars, concert halls, and stadiums. I always loved playing funk music, jazz, Latin music, and various forms of rock and metal. This drew me into wanting to learn bass guitar. So I made the switch to bass back 2008 and haven't looked back. I love how it fits into every genre of music as a supportive and featured roll. My playing is heavily influenced by classic Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jamiroqui, Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pantera, Living Color, The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, The Head Hunters, Flying Lotus, Thudercat, Portis Head, Tom Waits, Gogol Bordello, Ron Carter, Jaco Pastorius, James Jamerson, and plenty of 70’s/80s pop, metal, and alternative music. I had a 30 year career as sushi chef/restaurant owner. I was also a strength and conditioning coach for 7 years. This allowed me to work with and train every type of person imaginable. Some of the biggest skills I learned from that experience is how to find each individuals best learning pathway to make them successful. This gave me a good bit of experience with teaching, and training neurodiverse and disabled people. I myself am physically disabled and neurodivergent. A spinal cord injury forced me to retire from the sushi chef life. This is also why I am only available for lessons in my home studio. I am a rabid supporter of all human rights and I provide a LGTBQIA2S+ safe space. In my free time enjoy spending time with my wife and son, fishing, swimming, camping, cooking outside as much as possible, and playing with my band.

Brandon W. has over 39 years of music experience in the Burien area.

Brandon W. is proficient in and teaches Bass Guitar Lessons .

Degree and Field of Study:

Jazz Studies/PerformanceSeptember 1995

University of Colorado Boulder

What to expect in my Bass Guitar Lessons

Beginner - Intermediate

Learning an instrument should be fun and something one really desires to do. Sure there will be some not so exciting things to learn and practice but it should never feel like a chore. I try to keep the lesson fun when learning “boring stuff” like scales and chord arpeggios. We will do things like use various drum tracks to play along with instead only using metronome. This way the student learns to feel music and groove not just strict time. Along the way I like to sneak in some music theory and song structure. This way the student not just learns how to play but also why a song sounds the way it does and how to start writing basic songs. With this solid foundation and fundamental approach to teaching, learning new songs will only become exponentially easier and easier as the student progresses. The better prepared a student is for their lesson the more and faster they will progress. I request that all students practice on their own a minimum of 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes. This is a good amount for beginner students to start with to help build good habits and not burn out. Preferably they would practice 4-5 times a week for 30-60 minutes to see the most progress. That being said. It is better to practice in multiple shorter focused sessions than in one or two long drawn out sessions. It will be less arduous and the frequent focused sessions will yield better skill retention. Main things we focus on are developing good tone and sense of time and rhythm and how apply that tastefully in a real world environment.

Formal Education:

University of Texas Arlington University of Colorado Boulder

Performing Experience:

Played bass in the local Seattle scene at mostly small to medium size venues. Comet Tavern, The Highdive, Blue Moon Tavern, Beacon Hill, Skylark Cafe & Pub, Jefferson Park grand opening festival, MoveOn Rally at Cal Anderson Park.

Experience Teaching:

I no experience teaching bass. I do have experience in the past teaching saxophone so I am familiar with the structure of making lesson plans and keeping fun and interesting.

Age Group Taught: