Learn jazz from a California Jazz Conservatory graduate working in the Oakland scene. Harmony, improvisation, comping, and standards, on piano, bass, guitar, or through theory.
First lesson free · instruments at the studio · no commitment
Simon Keyser-Petty is an Oakland multi-instrumentalist, producer, and educator who graduated from the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, where he later ran the funk program. His playing is rooted in harmony, improvisation, and the feel and time that make jazz breathe.
These lessons treat improvisation as a vocabulary you build, not a mystery you wait to unlock. You'll work through voice leading, chord-scale relationships, comping, and the standards, always connecting theory back to the sound, so you're not just naming chords but hearing and playing them. Fundamentals first, music always.
Jazz is a conversation. Learn to speak it on your instrument, and understand the harmony that ties every voice together.
Voicings, comping, and two-handed harmony. Learn rootless voicings, shell chords, and how to accompany a soloist, or become one.
Walking lines, chord tones, and time. Learn to outline changes and anchor a rhythm section with a swinging, purposeful pulse.
Comping, chord melody, and single-note lines. Learn drop-2 voicings, jazz phrasing, and how to sit inside a changing harmony.
The map behind the music. Chord-scale relationships, functional harmony, and reharmonization, so you understand what you're hearing and playing.
No. We meet you where you are and build theory as you need it, always tied to sound, not memorized in the abstract. If you already read and know your theory, we'll go straight to harmony, improvisation, and repertoire.
Yes. Lessons run in person in Oakland or online over video, with the same curriculum and the same close attention to your time, phrasing, and harmonic choices. Many students mix both.
Simon graduated from the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley and went on to run its funk program. He performs, records, and produces in the Oakland music scene, so you're learning jazz from a working, gigging musician.
Book a 30-minute trial. No commitment. Tell me what you play and where you want to take your jazz, and we'll build a plan from there.
Questions? Book a free trial and we'll follow up within 24 hours.