Vivek Oswal
About
I have been playing for over 15 years and I love teaching and composing music. I also play guitars for my awesome band Maya's Grid(previously known as The Malakar Experience) which is a rock instrumental trio. As a band we have performed at the the unique and amazing FANGIRL Indie Fest in 2017, the The Big Squat entertainment festival by Fangirl live and the Levis Lounge in Mumbai, India.
For around 5 years I was the educational head for a very famous chain of music academies(RCA Music Academy) based out of Vadodara and Ahmedabad in India.
I have taught students, trained new entrant teachers, help design curricula and course-ware for different music instruments,conceive and stage student performances, conduct workshops and other interesting activities around music education.
I have a background in software engineering too. I have a Masters and have professionally worked in the IT industry for over 13 years.
I specialize in teaching Acoustic/Electric Guitar ,Ukulele and music theory to beginner and intermediate students.
Noteworthy aspects of my teaching method:
-> All the associated material is designed to instill good habits, inspire confidence and keep you, the student, motivated throughout your learning journey!
-> The courses offered have pedagogically sound sequencing. That is, the lesson order is optimized for maximizing your learning and growth. It is wholesome and gives just good enough returns for the effort you decide to put in.
-> Lessons are often backed by additional material for reference and practice .
-> Special emphasis on being creative right from the beginning. Create your own melodies, chord progressions, improvise and eventually write your own songs!
Electric and Acoustic Guitar.
I teach a fun and engaging course that covers the core knowledge necessary to progress quickly and confidently as a guitarist and musician.
For beginners: a student will have learned open position and movable chords, strum and accompaniment patterns, alternate picking, basic music theory towards creating songs. Reading skills uses extended tablature and standard notation in a manner that doesn't bog down a students progress and excitement.
Ample of focus on creative exploration that will allow students to write their own melodies, progressions and a fairly simplified introduction to guitar improvisation that's very effective.
Intermediate students: Apart from lessons that build upon the material from the beginner course there is ample of focus on building more techniques for expression and musicality. Increased focus on creative exploration which translates into better ability to improvise and write music ranging from small snippets to small sections worthy of being a song on their own!
Beginner and intermediate: A selection of fun songs from Rockschool and Trinity's Acoustic and Electric Guitar curriculum, which also allows a student to know where they are in the overall scheme of learning progression.
For kids 5 to 8 years:
I teach a fun copy, play and learn based guitar course for the young ones.
Ukulele
For primary school kids to Adults:
This will guide you through the basics of contemporary ukulele playing. It has been designed to help build your skills and knowledge as you work through the lesson topics.
-> Progressive structure preparing students towards music benchmarked to be playable by beginners.
-> Contemporary music style with equal focus on solo and group playing.
-> Basic technical skills are introduced including single note playing, various strumming patterns, and numerous open position chord forms. Reading skills uses extended tablature and standard notation in a manner that doesn't bog down a students progress and excitement. The course repertoire includes band arrangements as well as numerous exercises and musical examples.
For kids 5 to 8 years:
Kids will learn to play chords for kids and fun strumming patterns and simple melodies. All the fundamental techniques of ukulele playing including correct posture, hand position and fingering technique for playing chords and melodies.
Music Theory
For beginners and intermediate students:
Although I cover enough applied music theory with instrument lessons I do teach popular music theory on its own with the aid of Rockschool's curriculum on popular music theory. These are fun, super applicable and allow you to read scores, understand foundational music theory etc along with objective like examples to test your knowledge gained so far.