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Lessons

Mark teaches individual and group lessons on guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and bass guitar. Drawing on his broad performance and compositional background in various musical genres (including folk, world, classical, rock, jazz, soul, bluegrass, and musical theater), Mark offers his students a wide musical perspective and tailors lessons to match student interests. Mark works with students on music of their choosing to improve technique and develop an understanding of music theory, improvisation, and composition.

For classical guitar students who would like to pursue the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) graded exams, Mark offers coaching in preparation for all aspects of the practical exams.

In addition to teaching at his private studio in Silver Spring, MD, Mark is also a faculty member at Opal Music Studio and Levine Music.

Workshops

Mark is available to teach group workshops and classes. Here are a few that Mark has recently taught.

- Playing the Backbeat on Ukulele
- Advanced Ukulele
- Guitar Workshop: Expanding Your Strumming and Fingerpicking Repertoire
- Fingerstyle Guitar Workshop
- DADGAD Guitar Workshop
- Intro. to Improv. Guitar workshop
- Intermediate/Advanced Guitar Strumming Workshop
- Playing Well with Others (open to all instruments)
- Introduction to Guitar for Teachers of other Instruments

Melodic Ukulele
Graded Melodies for Ukulele in Standard Music Notation

This collection of melodies is intended for ukulele students, especially young ukulele students for whom the ukulele is a first instrument. This book is exclusively devoted to teaching standard music notation, without accompanying tablature. Although musical concepts are not explained in this book, these melodies are presented in a progressive manner to reinforce the musical concepts listed for each chapter. This collection is intended to help students learn notes on strings 1-3 of the ukulele (tuned GCEA). It can be used with either a high G or low G fourth string. © 2024 by Mark Sylvester All music in this collection is in the public domain; it has been arranged and assembled by Mark Sylvester. This work is licensed and offered free to the public under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This work is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council.

Click image to download.