Meet Hal Oppenheim

HAL OPPENHEIM

Hal teaches nearly forty students a week ranging in age from nine to about sixty.  One of the main aspects he stresses, “It is very important that students learn to take the chords, scales,  arpeggios, ect, ect……and play them  to some kind of groove….and  not to  just a metronome…..you must  play over changes and play songs.  Anyone can blow notes in free time……..plugging them into a section is a whole different story.”Much of Hal’s success in teaching is his sensitivity to his student’s needs and his ability to accommodate them in a manner that encourages their love of music and desire to continue playing guitar.

Here is how Hal began, in his own words:

Hi everybody, here’s at least part of my story.  I started playing guitar after seeing the Four Seasons on the television.  There was also a record in my house that I liked listening to.  It was the music to a TV series called ‘Peter Gunn’.  That’s what got me started.  From there it was folk music and Bob Dylan.  Soul music came next. Then came the British Invasion and I was hooked, that is, until I heard a band called ‘The Cream’.  I dropped everything and started playing with overdrive and bending notes.  About that time, reality hit and I needed to get a job so I did.  I lucked out and worked my way up and was making pretty good dough when I got the drive to start playing again.  Enter my teachers Vince Bredice, Joe Iadone, Jack Wilkins, Joe Diorio, Tal Farlow, Steve Lynch, Jennifer Batton, and Ted Greene.  Pretty good cast if you ask me.  Here’s a Ted fact you may not know.  Ted was very well versed in the finger picking styles of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and Scotty Moore, so I asked, and he showed me those moves as well as dozens of TV and movie themes.  We covered a lot of ground.  From there I just went about trying to make a living in music.  So far so good.

The greatest musical moments of my life happened when I played a duet with Ted during one of my lessons with him.  Everything went perfectly…I surprised the sh!t out of myself.

I am so proud and honored that Ted sent me students.  I actually think that was my greatest accomplishment as a teacher.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thepurplegroup

If you are in the Los Angeles area and would like to take a lesson please call: 818 784-2307