"Such a good teacher to our 10-year old daughter!"
-Karin, Sweden
"The lessons with Samuel are great and very productive. I learned a lot in short time!"
-Ketilin, Brazil
My name is Samuel Edvardsson and I am the one who teaches on Optimum Guitar School. I am a trained guitarist and guitar teacher with a degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and have been active as a guitarist and guitar pedagogue for 20 years. I started playing guitar when I was 13, first my dream was to play electric guitar and to become a rock hero, but soon I discovered that the acoustic guitar was my destiny.
I have been teaching at public music schools and high school music programs and not least I have been teaching many private students.
As a guitarist I have played hundreds of concerts all over Sweden and I have also played in Brazil, Germany and Switzerland. I play mainly classical guitar music, butI also have a passion for Brazilian music, Bossa Nova and MPB. I am also very fond of playing with singers, which I have done for the best part of my guitarist career. I also enjoy very much to play contemporary music, and composers from different countries have written guitar music especially for me.
I never thought that my dream to learn how to play the guitar would come true until I started taking lessons for Samuel. He is very respectful and professional and shows in his teaching, with gestures and words, how important music is for the soul!
-Andressa, Brazil
The course is well constructed so that both fingers and brain are being stimulated and develop. Samuel makes the most inexperienced feel safe during classes. Since Samuel has such a solid background in music and has created the teaching material himself the course can easily be adjusted to the ability and progress pace of the student. You can ask about everything from strings to syncopes.
-Sigge, Sweden
I was teaching for years without managing to actually teach my students that much. I was trying different methods and different approaches but the students only reached a certain level. I especially found it very difficult to teach how to read scores. Then I discovered two things that changed my teaching fundamentally.
The first was the method to start by playing with the thumb on the bass strings, which I first saw in Mårten Falk's book Gitarrmästaren, which is a great book for children learning to play from the beginning. I modified this method slightly and have since used it in almost all of my teaching.
The second thing, which I discovered as a consequence of the first, was that I teach so my better when I teach what I really love and and know, which is classical guitar, or more accurately, classical guitar technique. The goal with my teaching is to give my students the tools to play the music that they like and then a classical guitar technique is the way to go. I became happier and the students became happier too.
I use a method where you start by playing, with a closed hand, simple melodies and scales with the thumb on the bass strings. After a while you can start opening your hand and play with the fingers too. With this method you achieve a good right hand position and technique which will help you develop further. At the same time you learn the notes of the guitar and to orientate yourself on the fretboard in a very natural way.
For the last couple of months I've been playing guitar with Samuel via Zoom and it's been great. At first I thought it was going to be hard to read sheet music, but now I can play some pieces and I feel more confident. He's been very pedagogical and patient and I like the method he uses because you progress little by little and it's not tedious. I am very grateful to have him as a teacher, thank you so much for everything!
-Katerina, Venezuela
Samuel’s lessons are very professional, you can ask anything, no question is stupid. Samuel teaches the basics, different techniques, how to hold the guitar, which you as a beginner think is easy, finger picking and how to accompany with different rhythms to the same song etc. I record sequences of the lessons to use when I practise at home. With other words, he knows everything.
-Lasse, Sweden
I use two different courses, one for children and one for adults. The border between them however is slightly blurry and an adult can very well learn from the children's course and vice versa.
In both courses learning how to play by score, developing playing skills and learning how to play chords are processes that run parallel. The steps are small so that you feel that you are in control and always feel prepared to take the next step.
I would like to thank you and congratulate you to your teaching.
I managed to learn in an easy and fast way with your method.
Thank you!
-Marilia, Brazil
Children's course
In the children's course musical notes are introduced further into the course. The course starts with playing by the names of the notes, A, B, c and so on.
The children's course is divided into 7 levels; two introductory courses, playing music from notes is introduced in Introduction course 2. After that come level 1-5, where level 5 is the most advanced. After the introductory courses the roads join up and level 1-5 consists of the same material as level 1-5 in the course for adults.
For the introduction courses I have composed the material myself, and for level 1-5 I use original music ordered by degree of difficulty.
Course for adults
The course for adults introduces musical notes already from the start.
The course is divided into 6 levels; an introductory course and after that level 1-5 where level 5 is the most advanced. After the introductory courses the roads join up and level 1-5 consists of the same material as level 1-5 in the course for children.
For the introduction course I have composed the material myself, and for level 1-5 I use original music ordered by degree of difficulty.
Make a free website with Yola