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Marco teaches bass guitar, acoustic bass, beginner guitar, improvisation, composition, theory and music history in the New York City area and in Tuscany, Italy. He also teaches online by Skype as well as by email.
If you would like to receive more information please send an email. For more information and rates for online lessons, click here. Marco has been teaching since 1990 both privately and academically. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in historical musicology at Rutgers University where he has taught music appreciation to undergraduate students. He also holds a summa cum laude Bachelor of Music in Composition and Performance from Berklee College of Music. He has studied privately with Charlie Banacos, Jeff Andrews, and John Patitucci, among others. From 1997 to 2000 he was Artist In Residence at the NYU New Music Ensemble at New York University where he wrote music and taught both graduate and undergraduate students. |
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 Some Performance Topics: |
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| Hand Position | A good position reduces unnecessary movement and it minimizes the possibility of injuries. |
Technique |
The more we know our instrument, the easier it is to play the music we hear. Many musicians only play what their hands already know because they haven't overcome the gap between hearing a line and playing it without having to try it out first. The ultimate goal should be to overcome the phisycal obstacles which prevent us from expressing our creativity to the fullest. |
| Harmony | Theory is one of most neglected topics when it comes to learning an instrument. A good knowledge of harmony helps create solid and interesting accompaniments and solos. Some of the things a student should learn: intervals, scale harmonization, functional and non-functional relationships, progressions, etc. |
| Improvisation | Everything we play involves a certain degree of improvisation: fills, variations, etc. The extent of the improvisation varies according to both the musician's own stylistic concept and the type of music. The study of improvistation combines all the other topics listed here in a whole, unified approach to playing music. |
| Ear training | Last but not least this skill helps us musicians decide what is appropriate in every musical situation we come across. In a way it can help us be not only musicians but also "producers" as it enhances our awareness of what surrounds us musically. Our ears are the element that links and combines all the skills that we acquire through practice. |
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This is not an exhaustive list of everything a musician should know but, rather, a brief summary of the things which anyone wanting to seriously study an instrument should plan on working on.
A teacher is someone who opens "windows" of insight, not someone who steers the student towards the "proper" direction (usually the teacher's one). In the end, it is the student who should decide the direction, according to her preferences, while the teacher should use her knowledge and experience solely to maximize the student's potential.
Marco's former teachers:
Charlie Banacos
Jeff Andrews
John Patitucci
Whit Browne
Dave Hollender
Furio Di Castri
Bruno Tommaso
Raffaello Pareti
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