Learn funk from a working Oakland producer who ran the funk program at the California Jazz Conservatory. Pocket, syncopation, and feel, on bass, drums, keys, or guitar.
First lesson free · instruments at the studio · no commitment
Simon Keyser-Petty is an Oakland multi-instrumentalist, producer, and educator steeped in the East Bay funk and soul tradition. He graduated from the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley and went on to run its funk program, and he apprenticed under Bay Area funk master Otis McDonald. Funk is his native language.
These lessons teach funk the way it's actually played on records: deep in the pocket, alive with syncopation, and always in service of the groove. Whether you're locking a bass line to a kick drum, comping on keys, chicken-scratching a guitar, or holding down the beat, you'll learn to make time and feel your instrument, because in funk, your humanity is your instrument.
Funk lives in the interplay between players. Learn it on the instrument you love, and the groove principles carry across all of them.
The engine room. Build a real pocket, lock to the kick, and learn the fingerstyle, muting, and syncopation that make a bass line move.
Ghost notes, the one, and pocket control. Learn to sit in the groove and drive a band without ever rushing.
Clavinet stabs, Rhodes comping, and funky voicings. Learn to lay in the cracks and add rhythmic harmony without stepping on anyone.
Chicken-scratch rhythm, 16th-note strumming, and tight chord voicings. Learn to be the percussion section on six strings.
No. Beginners are welcome. We'll start with fundamentals on your instrument and build groove and pocket from the ground up. If you already play, we'll dig straight into feel, syncopation, and the vocabulary that makes funk sound like funk.
Yes. Lessons run in person in Oakland or online over video, with the same curriculum and the same feedback on your time and feel. Many students mix both depending on their week.
They're taught by someone who ran the funk program at the California Jazz Conservatory and apprenticed under Otis McDonald. You're not learning funk from a textbook. You're learning it from a working producer who lives it in the Oakland scene.
Book a 30-minute trial. No commitment. Tell me what you play and what funk you want to sound like, and we'll build a plan from there.
Questions? Book a free trial and we'll follow up within 24 hours.