Bass Lessons

I will help you identify and achieve your goals as a musician, from joining a jam band to acing an audition. I teach a wide variety of styles, genres and techniques as well as music theory and composition. I offer lessons at my studio in New York City and online and will travel to students in the New York metropolitan area.

I've helped beginners and pros alike to reach their goals as musicians and artists. My younger students have been admitted to prestigious music programs including those offered by the Berkeley School of Music, The New School, Princeton, NYU, La Guardia Performing Arts High School and Frank Sinatra Performing Arts High School. I currently teach electric bass to music students from the New School.

About Buddy

I'm a session and live performance bassist, music educator, and composer.

My love for music was formed in Harlem, where I was born and raised. My uncle's home at 409 Edgecomb Avenue was a hot address during the Harlem Renaissance, a gathering place for musicians like Ram Ramirez, Johnny Hartman, and Caterina Jarboro, to name just a few. A cherished childhood memory is of my great uncle Carroll Boyd, a sought-after cocktail party pianist, accompanying my godmother Aunt Ruth and grandmother Momanette, both gifted singers.

My formal study of the bass began in high school under the tutelage of Ed Lord, a New York City studio bass player. I went on to earn degrees in music with Henry Brant and Gunter Shonbeck and in black music with Bill Dixon, Milford Graves and Jeff Hoyer at Bennington College in Vermont. I studied Western harmony at Columbia University and have attended master classes taught by such bass legends as Victor Wooten, Oteil Burbridge, and Michael Manring.

I began teaching electric bass guitar in the early 1980s and have a huge collection of bass instruction materials to share with my students.