GUITAR AND VOICE LESSONS
SONGWRITING AND STUDIO RECORDINGS

As a former guitar and voice teacher at Astoria Music School in Queens, NY, Marty currently gives private lessons on guitar and vocals. Styles include Reggae, Pop, R&B, Neo Soul, Rock and Adult Contemporary. Marty has been writing reggae, pop songs, and ballads for over 22 years.

Marty also does music studio projects and records with his partner of over 22 years “Black Squirell”, They both co-produce songs using Pro Tools in Black Squirell’s home studio in Baltimore City, MD. Marty generally writes songs about love and social issues, but is now pursuing contracts to write music for tv, film, video game companies, and other multi media. He considers his greatest song writing in the originals like his lovesong “Make Things Sweeter”, ” “Get Away Greed” a personal attack on money and materialism, “Rhea’s Revenge” was based on the story of King Zues, but focuses on the Mother of Zues, Rhea. Marty’s song “Devil’s Pool” is based on an epic lovestory of legend in Australia. The song “The Storm” was written based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe’s called “The Maelstrom” about 3 fisherman, Brothers who go on a fishing trip and are pulled into a whirlpool and only one survives to describe what horror is seen and heard inside of a whirlpool at sea.

As a self-taught guitarist/singer/songwriter, Marty has been singing and playing guitar for over 22 years. He is a skilled guitarist, singer, songwriter, recording artist and “live” performer. He has taught many guitar students by incorporating basic recording techniques while focusing on important and overlooked areas of music like tuning the instrument properly and being a good copycat. A basic approach to Marty’s pop songwriting teaching style is helping students to understand the basic arrangements of pop songs; intro, verse1, chorus1, bridge1, verse2, chorus2, outro, etc.

Marty is not a “theory” type teacher, but an “ear” teacher. He helps students focus on copying what they hear and understanding how becoming a copycat requires a lot of patience, but is important to hear subtle differences in melodies, guitar riffs, etc. His style of teaching helps develop singers or guitarists who want to be good “live” performers or “recording artists.” Helping artists develop their own natural style is important and is a main reason why “theory” is not a focus in Marty’s training style. He believes that doing original music is also very important to developing a unique style, but cover songs are equally important to grow as a singer or musician, for development reasons.