I remember when I was trying to put it all together and I can tell you that it's not easy to find the "answers". I remember many frustrating times trying to get my act together. Learning music and making your own statement is no easy matter.

There's tons of material on the market and no shortage of teachers to help. However finding the right material and approach to learning is essential to rapid development.

I feel that much of the approach to music today is to technical and institutionalized. Music is somewhat like learning a foreign language. Yes, you learn the parts of speech but you need conversational elements - sentences - to speak and make sense.

My approach to learning how to play, no matter what instrument, deals with these conversational elements. Players can get theory, arpeggios and scales the "parts of speech" from any of the thousands of books on the market. How to make music out of them is another matter and that's where I feel I can help.

My books and lessons deal with the "conversational side" of the learning process.

In my online lessons I personally take you through the process, answering your questions and sending you material suited to your stage of development.

The transcriptions books are helpful to those of you who are quick to assimilate and self learn.

For those of you who might not be able to afford to take lessons then I'd highly suggest my "Interpetations of a Standard Series". These books are based on the chord changes of well known Standards & Jazz Standards. I played the examples into my music software in real time so that the musical flow would be there for you to analize and learn from. For the price of lunch you can see and hear the examples right on your computer and start to learn phrases -"conversation"- that will help you develop very quickly. The books are in PDF format, open up using Adobe Acrobat Reader and can then be printed out. The MIDI files will work with most music software capable of opening up standard MIDI files - Band In The Box, Finale, Sebelius, etc.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me by E-mail.

Best Regards,

Mark Elf