2 Hour Lesson

I first heard of Robert Conti many years ago and bought some of his material (Ticket to Improv, Precision Technique) and worked with them diligently, with real success, yet with less than I had hoped.
This is when I realized that my picking technique needed an overhaul. I tried everything I could think of (the Benson technique, a stint at Troy Grady’s “Cracking the Code” website and even bought The Magnet and paid for a Technique Critique, and of course a smattering of YouTube videos by people who had real chops.)
All of these approaches have helped many, and were of some benefit to me, but none of them got me where I needed to go.
Then I had two lessons with Robert Conti (via Zoom) and now I’m on the way forward on two fronts.
First, my picking is much better. Conti does not teach a specific method for picking; he saw what I was doing, made a few suggestions, and after a couple of weeks, I’m miles down the road in that respect. Thank God and Robert Conti!
Second, the light is coming on in understanding how to APPLY the things I’ve learned. In one way, it’s easier than I thought, though in another, it’s demanding because it requires a more intense and disciplined focus than I’m used to having while improvising.
Learning is necessary, and that includes learning how to use what you have learned! Robert Conti is giving me more help with this than any other teacher I have consulted (and there have been a bunch of ’em!) He might do as much for you.

I was very nervous about playing in front of Robert but he put me at my ease very quickly. Although I had set up as instructed by Mike ahead of the lesson, there were some sound issues and Robert had some difficulty hearing me. Also I was getting an echo of my own voice and my guitar which was disconcerting. However those issues appear to have been at my end so no fault of Robert or his technical team. While I was playing, Robert very quickly spotted that I was not sticking strictly to the fingering protocol having slipped into the bad habit of not using my pinky. He advised me to rectify this and explained his reasoning. We then moved onto my question which had been how learning Robert’s solos would enhance my ability to improvise. Robert clearly and efficiently demonstrated how a simple 4 note riff could be used over different chords and why they worked. The lesson far exceeded the allotted time and throughout Robert was patient when I made mistakes and offered so much advice from his own 60 years of experience. He is a great guitarist and also a wonderful teacher whose enthusiasm is infectious and I found the lesson to be an inspiration to me. Robert squeezed more into an hour than I learned in the last 5 years. I am extremely grateful to Robert for his time and for making the lesson so rewarding and enjoyable. I now can’t wait to get stuck into Ticket to Improv Vol 2.

I have to say that the lesson was truly excellent. I really appreciated the written material and the recording of the lesson, which will ensure an enduring value of the experience. In fact, I have already begun to successfully apply the information in a few musical contexts. I also really liked Robert's interactive approach, his tips, and also his stories. All in all, it was very memorable and useful.

Mr. Conti teaches like you are in the green room of a jazz club in 1960. He cuts right to the chase. No bullshit. I now see brilliant II V I licks right under my fingers. Upper structure chords that give you that "playing outside" sound. Three lessons have completely redirected my playing to sound like a legit jazz cat. Mr. Conti is a living legend so why not learn from the best

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 First Lesson was interesting, I came to know a lot of stuff from Robert which I never knew before and he made sure that I had all my material for practicing. Robert also made music theory so easy that I was able to understand how it works and was able to play it easily on my guitar. I can't wait to learn more from Robert!!! Looking forward to the next lesson as soon as I am ready.

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.