Los Angeles Guitar Teachers

Steve Ostaszewski

Steve Ostaszewski is a professional guitarist and bassist, Music educator and composer . He's received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance from UMass Amherst where he earned multiple performance awards during Jazz competitions. From playing in Big Bands to ever-changing genre Combo Bands, he has developed a very unique sense and approach to music because of his interest, study and development of many different genres/musical styles. 

Steve has been teaching for over 5 years where he's helped many students achieve their musical goals, including getting accepted to Berklee College of Music. Because of his knowledge of the instrument and Music, Steve is a very well reviewed and respected teacher with the patience to break down any musical concept to its core so it can be more easily understood by the student.

Steve is currently the bassist for the LA-based Prog Rock group Alizarin and has performed with such professionals as Randy Brecker and more. He also plays solo guitar gigs in and around LA, all while composing his own music to eventually start his own band, once the right musicians are found.

Pete Risi

Pete Risi has been playing guitar for over 35 years with over 25 years teaching experience. He has a life commitment to sharing the playing, teaching, creating, and generating of music.

Combining a student's interests, Pete can cover areas in Classical, Contemporary, Pop, Folk, Rock, Blues, Progressive styles, Heavy Metal, and others. He can take a wide based approach for note reading, chords, scales, songs, theory, improvisation, techniques, songwriting, and more. Pete truly cares about helping people to learn how to play guitar and will assist students in reaching goals beyond your expectations.

Kä Neunhoffer

Kä is an experienced instructor with over 6 years of experience teaching flute, guitar, piano, and musicianship. She has acute experience working with students to set and master goals while bringing lively enthusiasm to get them excited about music.

Born and raised in Kerrville, Texas, she started piano at age 6. She went on to learn the guitar and eventually the flute in the middle school band, which would become her main focus. Marching band and state competitions were extremely important, while she also performed with the Hill Country Youth Orchestra and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Music was a huge influence on her growing up, so she enjoys sharing it with others in hopes that they’ll have as much fun as she did.

In 2014, her music training led her to Boston where she studied Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. During her time at Berklee, she performed with over a dozen orchestras, including large orchestral studio sessions and a performance as a soloist in ‘The Lord of the Rings Symphony’ at Boston Symphony Hall receiving a standing ovation from composer Howard Shore.

After completing her degree in 2017, she moved to Los Angeles to intern with Hans Zimmer’s studio, Remote Control Productions. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has has been teaching with ‘Piano Teacher Girl’ as well as freelance composing, and released two singles.

Rohan Arora

Rohan Arora is a professional guitarist adept at many styles. Rohan began playing guitar at the age of 10 and growing up was influenced by a wide array of musical artists such as Prince, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, Van Halen, The Beatles, George Benson & many more.  After attending Music college in Minnesota and obtaining Bachelor’s degree in performance Rohan moved to Los Angeles to continue his music career.  

He has worked for such artists as Eddie Murphy, Ryan Cabrera, Sam Butler (Blind Boys Of Alabama), Jamecia Bennett (Sounds Of Blackness) playing guitar both live and in the studio.  He has also recorded and produced music and guitar parts for TV shows such as Lethal Weapon, American Pickers, Punk’d and others.  Rohan also has over a decade of teaching experience and is very well equipped to teach a diverse array of musical styles as well as music theory.

Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva is a professional guitarist born in Bogota, Colombia. Daniel has been playing professionally for over 10 years and has continue to expand his repertoire by studying different styles in his whole career. Since starting a career in music and Guitar Performance Daniel has also had a passion for teaching and has put to work all his knowledge of all the years into cool approaches to playing and practicing guitar and music.

Daniel arrive in LA in 2010 to attend MI, graduated on 2013 and since has been playing all over town in all mayor local venues with his bands Bazerk and Daphne’s Roots. His passion for Rock and Blues with Funk and Heavy Music has inspired him and helped him to go for new sounds and inspiration.

Daniel is a dedicated teacher to help people find ways to improve while at the same time never forgetting that is always about the MUSIC!

Dylan Brenner

An alumnus of Berklee College of Music, Dylan Brenner has been playing guitar for the better half of his life. He has made numerous appearances on national television (on networks such as CNN and E! News), and has shared the stage with artists such as Usher and Chris Issak. His playing is influenced by a variety of music styles, from classic rock and blues to modern progressive metal. He currently plays with his band Yard of Blondes, and alongside pop singer Lexy Panterra.

When teaching, Dylan’s primary focus is his student’s interests. He believes it is crucial to base his lessons around what motivated the student to pick up the guitar in the first place. At the same time, he strives to put an emphasis on improvisation, as he stands behind the notion that it greatly contributes towards building one’s own “sound” as a player. Most importantly though, he insists that while learning an instrument is hard work, it should always feel like something you want to be doing, rather than something you have to.

Arian Mohammadi

Arian is a music producer, teacher and audio engineer. After picking up the guitar in 2008, his love for music led him to pursue a bachelors degree in Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music. Since then, he has had the privilege to work with artists from over 40 countries, spanning a wide array of genres. 

His goal is to help musicians of all skill levels bring their visions to life with his unique and personalized teaching style. He teaches guitar and bass and is heavily influenced by Rock, Pop and Contemporary music. 

Currently based in the south bay area of Los Angeles, Arian works with a diverse age group and has been recognized as someone who cultivates a lifelong passion within his students.

Christopher Youmans

Chris is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Santa Cruz, CA. He started guitar lessons at age 5 and has an extensive background in traditional Bluegrass and Irish flat picking guitar, Jazz voice, and Pop songwriting/composition and guitar. Chris graduated with a B.A. in Music from UC Berkeley, where he studied Jazz Voice and Guitar. He is a recipient of the prestigious Eisner Prize at UC Berkeley for “creative achievement of the highest order in Music”.

In 2016 Chris released his debut album, ‘Make Things Right’, a project he spent two years writing, arranging, producing, and recording with a team of 40 musicians. He has toured the West Coast with his band, the Sound Agency, and as a back-up vocalist for a number of Los Angeles-based artists. For eight years, Chris has taught music across multiple genres in guitar, voice, songwriting, musicianship, harmony, and performance workshops to students of all ages. His philosophy is to teach within the framework of each student’s learning style, experience level, and musical interests. Chris is also a certified Power Yoga teacher and incorporates meditative elements of yoga into his music practicing methods.

Arthur Smeall

A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Arthur Smeall has been playing music all of his life. He started formal training on voice and cello at age five. Since then, he has picked up other instruments including guitar, bass, and drums. In 2012, Arthur was accepted and enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a cello principal, Arthur studied under Eugene Friesen of the Paul Winter Consort, and Mike Block of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Arthur completed his Bachelor’s in Professional Music in May of 2016. Shortly after, Arthur released his first 6-track EP entitled Stuck in Space and Time, consisting of original compositions that he produced and recorded with his peers.

Arthur has lived in Los Angeles since October of 2016. He has sung in the bass section of the Angel City Chorale. He had a residency playing live cello weekly at the Urban Press Winery in Downtown Burbank. He regularly performs in Hollywood as a bassist with the rock band Cinema Patrol. He continues to work as a freelance session and live musician, and private instructor, while writing, producing, and performing his own music. Arthur’s passion for music runs deep because it is the most universal of all languages.

Aaron Shadrow

Aaron Shadrow began his musical endeavors as a drummer at age 9. He quickly fell in love with music, and soon after took on guitar, bass, and piano. He has played in countless bands of different genres and instruments, including; drums in a jazz combo, lead guitar in an indie rock band, keyboards in a pop band, and many more. 

Aaron tested out of high school early to achieve a degree in Music Production from the Los Angeles Recording School. While instrumentation is still a huge focus on his life, his main daily workload relies heavily on the usage of DAW (Digital Audio Workspace) production (specifically Pro Tools and Ableton). 

Aaron is actively excited and eager to engage other musicians in their musical quest. While he is ready and able to teach beginner/intermediate lessons on drums, guitar, bass, and piano, he sees first-hand that the music industry has drastically changed, and that any musician who wants to make a living off of their craft must have a basic-advanced knowledge of DAW production. Ask Aaron about signing up for production lessons in Pro Tools and/or Ableton. Hybrid lessons are also highly encouraged (instrument of choice/DAW production).

Fred Labunikher

Fred Labunikher is a guitarist who specializes in playing, writing and performing music of all genres. He has been playing guitar for 14 years and has been teaching guitar for the past 8 years, specializing in teaching music composition, improvisation, and performance. Fred works with students of all ages and encourages their progress through inspiring a rewarding and intimate relationship with music.

Fred started his musical journey playing piano for 8 years as a child.  As his interests in other instruments grew, Fred began playing acoustic and electric guitar as well as writing his own songs.  Fred obtained his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University, where his study led him to understand the connection between music, creativity and well-being.  Currently, Fred is working on obtaining his Master's Degree in Psychology and is set to release his debut studio album this summer.

Steven Richison

Steven Richison is a guitarist and guitar instructor with over 15 years of experience. A versatile and well rounded musician who spent his adolescent years playing Rock, Blues, and Pop guitar, He later took to studying music formally and earned his degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi where he studied under Saxophonist Lawrence Panella and New Orleans-based guitarist Chris Alford. At his time in college, Steven earned a spot in the Southern Miss Jazztet and Jazz lab 1, the University’s top two Jazz ensembles.

Before moving to Los Angeles in 2017, Steven honed his musicianship, playing in the South Mississippi music scene where he played in various jazz groups and led his own creative project, The Spectrum Trio, as well as playing for theatrical productions and as an orchestra guitarist for the Hattiesburg Civic Light Opera.

As a guitar instructor, Steven has a passion for guiding his students to find their own unique voice on the instrument in any style. He has taught guitar lessons since his teenage years and has taught professionally to people of all ages and skill levels for 4 years. His background in jazz makes him a great resource for learning musical improvisation as well as the interactive aspects of music. Keeping music lessons fun and practical while sharing the knowledge that will help a student go as far as they want to with music is a top priority.

William Peterson

William Peterson is a musician, composer, music educator, and audio engineer. He holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College where he was mentored by Matt Wilson, Glenn Alexander, Daniel Wohl, Chester Biscardi, among others. Peterson has been playing professionally since his teenage years. His style is derived from a very diverse taste.  Drawing from jazz, classical, blues, and experimental music, Peterson has developed a limitless perspective on expression.

Currently, he plays bass for Los Angeles based band Thrillers, as well as pursuing his own compositional projects.

Peterson comes from a family of educators, and he himself has been teaching guitar, bass, piano and music production for the majority of his adult life. His students have varied in skill-level and age. He sees teaching as a crucial and fundamental part of being a musician. Helping give his students the tools they need to express themselves through music has been one of his life’s greatest passions. Peterson’s curriculum encourages the fundamentals of musicianship, yet still greatly focuses on what the student wants to learn. He is available for piano, guitar, bass and music production lessons.

Marton Bisits

Marton Bisits is a guitarist, producer, educator and engineer. He graduated from Berklee college of music with a BA in guitar performance and a minor in theory of popular song and jazz.
He has extensive experience in teaching music theory ranging from jazz, classical, counterpoint, ear training and arranging. He also offers teaching in music production and how to use pro tools
and logic to produce, record and mix your own music. When it comes to teaching guitar Marton teaches rock, blues, jazz, R’n’B, Funk/soul, country, folk, top 40 and other contemporary styles.
With Marton you can go deep into learning music theory and how to apply it to different styles and situations. Leaning how to apply different scales and chords to make parts and create arrangements along with many other techniques and concepts. Or if you are simply looking to learn some songs and enjoy the guitar as a hobby he can do that as well.

Ian Lipson

Ian Lipson is an LA-based composer/producer offering lessons in guitar, bass, songwriting, music theory, and audio production/engineering. Lipson graduated from the CalArts Herb Alpert School of Music, and formerly studied at USC's Thornton School of Music as part of their Music Industry Program. He has been playing, writing, and performing with bands for more than a decade. Over the years, Lipson has played in a wide variety of musical styles including rock, blues, jazz, pop, folk, country, funk, klezmer, western classical, North Indian classical and free improvisation. He records and produces albums, and has composed scores for motion picture too. 

Ian Lipson teaches all ages, across a wide variety of skill levels, in either one-on-one or group settings. He embraces a wide span of teaching styles, tailored to age and personality. Ultimately, Lipson has a deep and ever-growing love and excitement toward making and playing music, and feels thrilled by the prospect of helping others tap into their unique and meaningful connection to music-making. 

Katie Gilchrest

Katie Gilchrest is a musician, sound engineer and composer.  Teaching piano, guitar and music production, she also holds a Masters of Music in Music Technology from New York University and a B.A. in Music from the University of Southern Maine.  She began classical piano lessons at age 8 and discovered the guitar and rock music as a teenager.  She began teaching lessons with the Maine Academy of Modern Music in 2012 and led their summer rock and songwriting camps.  Katie has been teaching guitar and piano lessons around the Los Angeles area since 2016.  She currently performs and tours with the LA based heavy rock band High Priestess as lead guitarist and vocalist.
 
Katie believes everyone has a unique learning style and adapts the lessons to fit the student’s needs.  She combines learning technical skills with music the student enjoys.  In addition to music, Katie holds an advanced degree in music technology and has experience in live and studio sound.  She is also available to teach music production - recording, mixing and mastering in Pro Tools, GarageBand or Logic.
 

Michael Silvestri is an American recording artist, singer/songwriter, guitarist, teacher, & producer. His own music style emulates folk and rock. Mike brings a unique style of playing guitar to the table as a session musician, and each of the 200+ shows he plays every year. There are many different types of music to learn for each of the shows, which makes him an extremely versatile guitarist, and a master at learning songs extraordinary quickly. Be sure to check out his music on any digital music streaming site.
 

Jordan Hemphill

Jordan Hemphill has been performing and teaching music for over 10 years. At 19 years old he studied at Musicians Institute with world class musicians such as Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, Racer X), Chris Broderick (Megadeth, Nevermore), Scott Henderson and session guitar legend Carl Verheyen.

As a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Jordan worked alongside notable industry professionals like Grammy-winning engineer Robert Margouleff and has done recording work for movies including the title track to Drive Angry (2011). 

Fabian Fernandez

Fabian Fernandez was born in Romford, England and was introduced to music at a very early age. He graduated from Leeds College of Music, UK with a BA in Jazz Studies and moved to USA to begin his music career.

He is an in-demand guitarist, teacher, producer, arranger and session musician, and composes and records guitar on the current hit Nickelodeon TV series "SpongeBob SquarePants". His music has also appeared in various movies and TV commercials in the USA.

Fabian has performed with The Phil Woods Big Band, recorded with The Miami Sound Machine, performed live with The Gypsy Kings and performed live on Lopez Tonight with Michael Jackson's nephew. He has performed alongside many A list musicians all over the world and continues to have fun doing it!

Amy Avila-Sterling

Amy Avila-Sterling, a Los Angeles native, is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actress who recently graduated from the American Musical Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Hollywood with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Performing Arts. She has been singing and playing guitar since she was 9 years old and was the first in her family to pursue a full time career in the arts. She has performed in many cabaret settings, college shows and other gigs alongside professional artists.

Amy has been teaching for several years and has extensive experience with children, teens and young adults. Her passion has been in music from a young age has always found immense joy in teaching and passing on knowledge to anyone looking to learn. Due to the nature of her college degree she has undergone the training necessary to fully understand music theory and enjoys breaking it down for students to comprehend in a simple and fun way. 

Amy currently makes the majority of her living teaching and performing music and continues to work on creating original music and content.

Jimmy Copenhaver

Jimmy Copenhaver grew up in southern California and has a BA in composition and orchestration from Berklee College of music. A guitar and piano player for over 30 years and a music instructor for 20, Jimmy has taught hundreds of students of all ages and styles. With a personable and enthusiastic approach, he is known for his use of traditional methods. He encourages the teaching of technic and theory while employing contemporary schools of thought on current styles. Throughout the years, he has have developed a systematic but flexible approach to achieving the goals of the individual student. 

Interested in music at an early age, fostered by his parent's love of music, Jimmy started playing guitar and piano soon followed. Never satisfied with his current state of knowledge he always pushed forward to learn and understand the mechanics of music and ways to efficiently progress on each instrument. Still learning and moving forward, he is currently working on a text on the subject of modern orchestration.

Crossing paths with many talented teachers he has felt fortunate to be able to study with composers such as John A. Bavicchi, who studied composition under Walter Piston, Dennis Leclair, Professor at Berklee and guitarist Al di'fino, Garrison Fewel and Rick Peckham.

Jimmy has two albums available and has written numerous works for various ensembles, from full orchestra to solo instrumentation. Currently, he is working on a new orchestral piece consisting of 45 short song cycles based on the book Walden; or, Life in the woods.

Jess Kallen

Jess Kallen is a versatile artist with a well-rounded musicianship. As a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer and vocalist holding over fifteen years of musical experience, she immerses herself in a wide variety of musical genres including jazz, neo-soul, indie, folk, classical, Americana, rock, blues, funk and other styles and has studied with the best at USC's Thornton School of Music in the Studio/Jazz Guitar and Songwriting Departments. She is a working musician who plays for various artists throughout the Los Angeles area including MOTHER, Grace Corsi, Kendra Calhoun and Olivia Morreale. 

Jess has written a variety of original material for several bands and artists and is currently curating songs for an upcoming EP as a solo artist. She enjoys sharing and connecting with her students through art and learning and loves to be a part of their musical growth.

Seth Jeremy

Seth Jeremy is available for one on one or small group lessons on the saxophone, clarinet, piano, guitar, vocals, beginning bass and drum. Available to all styles, ages and levels in your home or mine in Los Angeles, CA. Lessons are tailored to individual styles and goals. 

Seth has been teaching for over sixteen years, primarily working with children. He has worked with Grammy winning producers and touring musicians in helping them hone up on their music theory and piano chops. 

Seth Jeremy teaches the fun way by tailoring each lesson to fit the student's needs and goals.