Matthew Z.

Not only is Matthew a professional performance musician, but he has also spent many years enjoying his career as a guitar and bass instructor. Matt has his Specialist Certificate in Guitar Skills from Berklee College of Music in Washington DC. He has been teaching private lessons for the past 15+ years in Virginia and California. Most of Matt’s students over the past several years have been acquired through student referrals due to his pleasant demeanor and patient attitude. His students have said with Matt teaching them, they have “gained confidence” and “improved technique.” Overall, Matt challenges his students by teaching them different ways of playing songs and learning technique without learning feeling like hard work.
Matt uses a variety of methods to teach his students, such as Mel Bay’s Mastering the Guitar, Progressive’s Guitar Method, and Hal Leonard’s Electric Bass. He also incorporates arpeggios, alternate picking, and timing exercises. For Bass guitar he includes slapping, popping and two hand tapping techniques in his teaching repertoire. And most important, he enjoys working with any songs his students are interested in to apply technique; also teaching note reading and tab reading to students through their song choices because it helps maintain their interest while learning difficult technique and theory concepts. Matt tells his students “do your best at all times, your best, not someone else’s best. Try not to only practice things you do well. Challenge yourself constantly. And never stop having fun!” He remembers a story at age 13 when he first started taking guitar and bass lessons:
I was able to take upright Bass in Orchestra in 7th grade. Combined with my guitar lessons, these two new aspects of music in my life gave me more confidence in school and also helped me make a lot of new friends with whom I had music in common. These endless gifts from music continue to add to my life still to this day. It all stems from those beginning lessons. Matt is currently accepting new students Monday thru Fridays in the Huntington Beach and surrounding areas.