David's Available Teaching Topics

The following topics are examples of what David is currently able to teach.  He is a constant student, so more topics will be available in the future.

“Not only is David an incredibly gifted songwriter/singer and guitarist, but he is also a wonderful teacher.  My background includes 15 years of teaching in higher education and I must admit that David is a superb communicator and understands how to bring his level of expertise down to a very understandable level.”

- Paul Larson, Evangelical Free Church, Bozeman, Montana

“David pushed me to not ‘settle’ for inconsistencies in my songs or mediocrity in my lyrics, but instead to strive to create songs that are going to have some impact.”

- Brett Shoemaker, Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church, Puyallup, Washington

Preparation Concepts
Hand and arm stretches for guitarists
Strength-building exercises for guitarists
Building guitar speed
Re-stringing your guitar
Important accessories for your guitar
Tuning the guitar by ear (equal temperament)

Rhythmic Concepts
Fingerstyle accompaniment patterns
Melodies within fingerstyle patterns
Strumming patterns
Use of multiple textures in strumming patterns
Bass note isolation
Partial strumming
Selective palm muting
Shuffling
Hybrid picking (fingerstyle while holding a pick)
Reading notation or tablature for guitar
Clean transitions between chords
Time signatures
Triplets
Rhythmic landscapes (foreground, background etc.)
Rhythm Guitar as a solo leader (vs. in a band)

Harmonic Concepts
Fretboard mapping
Register and position playing
Harmonic nodes for tuning and composition
Music theory for guitar
Ear training
Chordal analysis
Intervals
Open chords mapped by degree
Moveable (bar) chords
Slash chords (inversions)
Suspended chords
Closely related keys
Secondary dominants
Cadences
Modulations
Polychords
Chord families
Transposition
Diatonic chords (triads and sevenths)
Non-diatonic chords
Chordal embellishment
The CAGED system
Use of 6 different capos (20 uses):
  • The Shubb “Sawed-off ½ open A” custom capo
Relative Major and minor keys
Parallel Major and minor keys
The Circle of 5ths
The Cycle of 4ths
Scales (Major, minor, Major pentatonic, minor pentatonic)
Modes
Strategic music memorization skills

Creative Concepts
Looping technology
Two-hand tapping (the touch style)
Alternate tunings (David currently plays in 14 tunings)  
Artificial harmonics
Guitar percussion
Composition
Lyric writing
Songwriting
Musical creativity (thinking outside the box)
Developing a repertoire of songs (worship or otherwise)