Pete Sklaroff is a freelancing professional guitarist, session musician, clinician and music educator/guitar tutor. Pete has taught literally hundreds of musicians over the years. He specializes in improvisational approaches to guitar playing and the study of harmonic techniques for both Jazz and Popular music styles. We asked him a few questions about his latest website for guitar lessons.

Hey Pete, good to have you! Tell us about the website.

I have had several websites for jazz guitar teaching dating back nearly ten years and the current site at www.completeguitarlessons.com is the most recent incarnation. It’s proving very successful and offers Skype 1-1 video lessons, in person teaching and pre-recorded video lessons for intermediate to advanced players. There are lots of free lessons on the site as well, most with backing tracks and PDF teaching notes included.

Now a bit about yourself – how and when did it all start with you and music?

I have been playing for about 30 years now and was initially drawn to Rock and Blues music before discovering jazz guitar in my mid-20’s.

How are musicians different from other people?

I think musicians have something very unique in terms of their outlook on life and in my experience, are generally very supportive of each other. Music really is the universal language, so everybody can relate to it.

How is jazz different from other music genres?

For me it’s the improvisational aspect. There is something very special about having to improvise in real time with other like-minded musicians.

What’s the most important thing you try to teach your students?

Self-awareness and an understanding that music is a life’s work. You have to love it and commit to it for the sake of the music first and foremost.

What have your students taught you?

Great question…I learn from all of my students. Many have really unique ideas and approaches so that’s always something I can learn from and just the process of teaching itself is an education.

How many guitars do you own? What’s your favourite model?

Two electrics and one acoustic. I’ve never cared for very expensive or vintage guitars really; just functional playing instruments are fine by me. Stratocasters and Telecasters are my favourite models.

What do you listen to? Name a few of your musical heroes.

Really too many to mention, if I include all the musical styles I enjoy listening to, but in Jazz music, I especially like Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans and Michael Brecker.

Can music be turned into a real career online?

I hope so! There are a lot of people turning to the internet to find musical work and although there are many guitar related websites around now, I think the good sites are terrific and offer quality products, whether it’s live performance, recording services or teaching etc.

Do you think there are enough places on the web where people can meet other musicians, connect, work on projects together and create real music online? Do you think Drooble can fill this gap?

There are some, but I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen on Drooble thus far. Looks great! Looks very musician friendly too!

Name three bands or musicians we’ve probably never heard of but definitely should.

A tough question, and hard to think of players or bands that aren’t well known. I do like a lot of the session guitar players like Tim Pierce in LA, Brent Mason in Nashville and in the 1980’s I really enjoyed Dann Huff’s guitar playing (who now produces in Nashville I believe) All wonderful guitar players although not jazz players as such. On the jazz front, I like so many players it would be hard to think of specific players but I like Julian Lage a lot too.

One final piece of advice to those of our readers who are just starting out as musicians?

Do it because you love music. It’s a hard business at times financially and you will have to make some sacrifices along the way for sure. Alongside studying music and your chosen instrument(s) I highly recommend being very aware of the business side of things too!