2 Hour Lesson

Robert is an entertaining and competent instructor with a wide range of past real-playing experience of the bandstand. Mike provided tech support and sent ZOOM setup instructions before the lesson to avoid wasting time on video-audio snags.

Robert took a few minutes at the start of the ZOOM lesson to review my personal history, music experience, and to assess my technical skills. He came well prepared for my lesson (3 handout documents) with a focus on improvisation, as requested. He “tuned” this first lesson to my level of interest and playing ability.

His approach to improvisation is direct, different, and perhaps unique. He presents a down-to-earth focus on fingering the fretboard rather than using a theoretical approach of pairing various scales/modes to each chord in a progression, one at a time.

Robert demonstrated the wide application of major scale riffs to a surprisingly wide range of chords built from the major scale. This simplification avoid overthinking (my bad habit) which creates lock-up, anxiety, and lag when suddenly called upon to solo on the jazz bandstand. He played these riffs over backing tracks “live” that he called out to Mike who played the audio files on-demand. Both Robert and Mike were attentive to my music lesson. Robert concluded the lesson with additional tips and a clear assignment and challenge to be completed before a future lesson.

To conclude, the “hands-on” Conti method avoids over-complicating the improvisation process and it will re-energize my daily practice routine.

It was a pleasure to spend the two hours with Robert and I must also thank you for the technical assistance and making sure everything went smoothly - I know it’s a team effort on your end.

As for my comments on the lesson : Robert gave me plenty to think about and I’ll be putting the ideas into practice in the woodshed. It was particularly enlightening to hear how he approaches improvisation over certain chord changes and this is something I look forward to picking his brains about in future sessions too on other standards. Roberts teaching approach is something that stands out - he has a way of making you feel comfortable and engaged whilst also being very to the point. I particularly appreciated that he didn’t waste precious time just having me play things over and over as from experience a lot of ‘teachers’ seem to do that instead using the time to impart as much advise and information they can on the student - often a means to get more money out of students and not give too much away in terms of valuable information. As Robert said - he’s not here to teach someone how to play, he’s there to show you what to play and why etc. this is exactly what I need. He had me play the lines to get them under my fingers and ensure I understood the concepts and knew that I am to take them away to practice in my own time. This allowed Robert to use all the time available to feed me more and more ideas and pearls of wisdom.

I will most certainly be booking another lesson after I’ve got some more practice in as there are many more things I’d like to ask Robert and certainly a lot for me to learn!

The world is filled with talented players who may not excel as teachers, and there are excellent teachers who may not be extraordinary players. However, we are fortunate to have Mr. Robert Conti, who is both an amazing player and a fantastic teacher.

I recently had my first Zoom class with Mr. Conti, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He possesses a genuine passion for teaching, sharing knowledge, and witnessing progress. His approach is highly organized, providing PDFs and backing tracks during the class and thoroughly explaining each example.

While I own several of Mr. Conti's videos, the live experience takes it to another level. By the way, if you haven't yet acquired any of his videos, I strongly recommend doing so.

Furthermore, if you are serious about playing jazz guitar, I urge you to book a class and experience it for yourself. Not only is it immensely valuable on its own, but you also receive a video recording of the class, which proves to be incredibly useful.

Once again, Mr. Conti, thank you, and I look forward to our next class.

What I learned in my first lesson with Robert is that he is as energetic and friendly as he is in his DVDs. I’ve watched hours of the DVDs and it was a privilege to be able to personally converse, for two hours. Within the first 15 minutes, Robert watched me play and asked a few questions, and then had his tech email me three pages, which we spent the remainder of the lesson on. During the analysis of those pages, he answered the question I had not asked, which was how do I apply the Etudes from The Precision Technique and the few lines I learned in the Jazz Lines to a song. By focusing me on Green Dolphin Street, he answered this question and gave me some wonderful homework. The most important impact of the lesson though, was that Robert has helped me integrate and focus all of the skills and knowledge I’ve developed over the years into a direction that will allow me to improvise lines easily. Handing someone a scale book or a list or arpeggios to learn is like handing someone a fishing pole and walking off without telling them to thrown the line in the water. Robert wants you to land a big fish…tonight at the gig.

I thought it was about time to update my review of Robert and his teaching. All I can say is that it really works. However, one needs to put the time in to practice and getting comfortable with the neck. This is not a Vulcan mind-meld exercise. Robert can expertly guide you to success. Because of his teaching my gig schedule has increased and I am getting calls to sub. The poster attached is from a past gig. I have more coming but you get the idea.

Also attached is a recent video. I no longer worry about my improvisation skills when they point and tell me to play. Do yourself a favor and book it. Have fun playing...

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to do a 2-hour online lesson with Robert Conti.
Robert’s approach to teaching jazz guitar is to get you playing and that’s exactly what we did in our lesson. Just like his books and DVDs, there is a lot of information packed into a very small space. This can be deceiving, in my opinion, because it’s going to take time and effort on my part to learn and internalize the material. There aren’t any shortcuts.

The two hours went by quickly, and I look very much forward to doing more lessons with him. I also received a video of our lesson that day. As a teacher, Robert Conti was personable, patient, knowledgeable, and encouraging. As a side note, I really enjoyed his stories and look forward to hearing more in the future.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Robert Conti. I started taking lessons with Robert about 2 years ago and picked up a few tricks. I decided to get serious back in February and made a weekly appointment for a 2 hour lesson. It is the best musical investment that I have ever made. The progress has been amazing and his teaching style fits with the way I need to learn.

Robert teaches a no modes/no scales method...and he hates that I use the word “method”. Make no mistake though the guy knows his music theory. Not only does it sound good to your ear but he can explain at a Ph.D. level why it sounds good.

Do yourself a favor and take a lesson from the guy. I guarantee you will walk away with something new. Every week I have met with him save a few times when I was traveling and I walk away exhausted and energized.

He has completely changed my playing...for the good. He’s a rare combination of being a stellar player who can teach.