Private teachers in San Francisco Bay area?

[biggiesmalls]

My friend who lives in Noe Valley has a 14-year-old son who has decided to play trombone in his private school's jazz band. He's a bright kid who has taken piano lessons since elementary school. He's musically gifted, and he's a motivated learner. I have enough confidence in his talent that I'm lending him a Bach NY Mercedes with all the relevant accessories to get started.

Looking for a private teacher in the Bay area who can put him on the fast track.

Any suggestions?

[JTeagarden]

Maybe a threshold question: Is the son into music, or into achievement? Either or both are fine, but I think the kind of teacher sort of depends on whether this is a kid who enjoys music, or enjoys winning.

[biggiesmalls]

Maybe a threshold question: Is the son into music, or into achievement? Either or both are fine, but I think the kind of teacher sort of depends on whether this is a kid who enjoys music, or enjoys winning.

I would say both.

The son plays soccer on his school's team, and the desire to win is intrinsic to team sports. He has also exhibited a strong love of music from an early age, and I think his years of experience on the piano will give him an advantage learning trombone in general and improvisation in particular. His dad plays the violin, and played soccer at a fairly high level in college. Both paternal grandparents were professors at Notre Dame who pushed their kids to excel, so he comes from a family of over-achievers.

[JTeagarden]

I got this sense from your original post: The ambition-curse of the educated upper-middle class.

I have witnessed high achievement in music from both the intrinsic music lovers, and from those kind of programmed not to do anything poorly, or at least better than their competition...

I would suggest a commercially oriented trombonist as a teacher who can give him a solid technical foundation that will serve him well in any kind of playing, he can gravitate to a different teacher years from now if and when he decides to specialize in any kind of way, but before you can play jazz trombone, you need to know how to play trombone.

[biggiesmalls]

Thanks to those who have reached out to me via PM and email, I now have a few teacher recommendations to pass on to my friend. I appreciate your help.

[eubean]

This is a bit late, but Katie Lambert has been extremely helpful to my playing, though her focus is not on jazz. One does need good fundamentals to improvise.