Christian began teaching guitar in 1980 to private students and at music schools. Between 1987-93 he taught at the Hilversum (now: Amsterdam) Conservatory jazz guitar as main subject. In 1990 Christian started his own jazz music school, DJAM, with the intention of offering a musical education with an distinct character and structure. DJAM has approx. 130 students each year and a faculty of 20 teachers. At DJAM Christian is the artistic director.
In October 2005 he joined the teaching staf at the Music School Bocholt as a guitar teacher.
Besides teaching Pop, Rock and Classical styles Christian’s main interest is Jazz guitar and improvisation. His goal is to master the guitar, music and the musical self up to the point where you can clearly express your own musical ideas to the outside world. Although he views the guitar as a brilliant improvisational tool Christian tries to transcend the guitar and focus on musicianship mainly.
In teaching and in clinics, Christian tunes in with the student as closely as possible to find out about his/her particular strong and weak points. From there he develops a teaching approach tailored to the student’s personal needs and preferences to help them become a well rounded musician.
This may include practicing the following aspects:
guitar technique (goal: effortless mastery of fingerings and pickings)
ear-training exercises (goal: being able to hear everything you play)
rhythmic exercises (goal: developing a strong rhythmic concept in soloing and comping)
harmony (goal: gain insight into all aspects of harmony for practical use in your playing)
improvisational techniques (goal: the ability to let go to reach the state of mind necessary for creative, intuitive improvising)
study techniques (goal: finding the delicate balance between necessary technical exercise and musicality while practicing)
aspects of interplay and communication
repertoire development
For pdf samples of Christian’s teaching materials click on one of the following links:
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Christian began teaching guitar in 1980 to private students and at music schools. Between 1987-93 he taught at the Hilversum (now: Amsterdam) Conservatory jazz guitar as main subject. In 1990 Christian started his own jazz music school, DJAM, with the intention of offering a musical education with an distinct character and structure. DJAM has approx. 130 students each year and a faculty of 20 teachers. At DJAM Christian is the artistic director.