mp3 of my students

dennis

i finally have a home recording setup (simple but efficient) and started recording the lessons i give... just 2 yrs ago, this style was near non-existent in montreal... things are really starting to pick up now and hopefully montreal can become one of the happenin places like london has become in recent years....

some of my students are as young as 15.. some have been playing only 6 months! here are some quick clips..

it's an enormous pleasure for me to give lessons to dedicated students... about 2 yrs ago, i was forced to give lessons to kids who didn't give a crap about music... now i have enough students to accept only dedicated students...

also giving lessons has allowed me to partially fulfill my dream of playing nothing but rhythm guitar (while my students work on their improv)

the first is our own fellow forumer pdaigle hehehe who s made tremendous progress in the last few months!

dennis

pat playing rhythm for me...

dennis

showing pat , bireli style arpeggios

dennis

josh has been playing guitar for only 6 months and he's already improvising hot lines on autumn leaves!! it's not gypsy jazz

dennis

one of my top students, 17 yrs old... in this mp3, i'm making him try some concepts (bireli style arps, descending pedaltone chromatic triplets) that i just showed him so there are some rough spots... but he learns really fast

dennis

here's another student who's come a long long way.... he started soloing just 2 months ago (after new year's).. before that we only worked on rhythm playing.. he's been playing guitar for 2 yrs!

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same student, trying to play a django solo

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me showing another student how to play pompe on all of me

CalebFSU

Cool Stuff Dennis. Now I really hate having to learn this stuff in a vaccum. Hopefully I can get up to Montreal soon If so I am definately looking you up for a few lessons or a long masterclass or something.

pdaigle

Hahaha...I did not expect to hear those recordings on the net!

When I started taking lessons with Dennis in September I hadn't touched my guitar for close to 4 years (since my son was born).

Now, thanks to Dennis, I have a decent right hand technique (although not fast yet, as you can now tell but I'm speeding up), I can play 'la pompe' at medium/fast tempos and I am able to jam at slow speeds on simple progressions (like Minor Swing)...all this in six months!!

I can only recommend Dennis' classes, so if he shows up to your town for a masterclass, do not hesitate! Your playing will only improve.

Kcox

My last lesson was before Dennis' trip to Europe (and before this recording setup) but luckily I record all of our lessons myself... hopefully I have enough "Worst of Dennis Chang" blackmail material to prevent any of my future lessons making it to the net

I can only second PDaigle's experiences, however. Dennis has helped not only my technique but my mental approach, opened a few doors in ways to think about phrases and constructing solos that I probably would have taken years to catch on to myself. Not that I have internalized all he has taught me yet, of course, but that is no fault of his as a teacher.

I look forward to our next lesson (next week, I hope?) even if we do have to have it in the middle of the night (my scheduling problem, not Dennis's... I am sure I would have trouble finding any other teacher who is prepared to give me a lesson at 10:30 pm...that is dedication to the cause, my friends!)

Kevin