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Categories: Specialty Schools, Musical Instruments & Teachers [Edit]
Neighborhood: Marina/Cow HollowFri 12/11: Shred guitar master Greg Howe (Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, Justin Timberlake) - Clinic @ 6:30pm, Show @ 10pm. Buy adv tix!
Announced 1 week agoMon-Thu. 1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sat. 10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
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Twenty-four reviews? What? Where are the reviews from all the parents of the kiddies who line the halls when I'm there, eagerly waiting to strum their little guitars? I slip past them to have my voice lesson - taught by Masha, one of the best teachers I've ever had of anything ever - but they always look happy before and after.
The front desk: wonderful. The location: perfect - a beautiful building to come out of after creative exploration. And Blue Bear has taken the time to interview teachers so that you don't have to rely on some drummer's website for his credentials. And by having a nice place that does scheduling and paying for you, you don't have to worry about musicians being flaky. Wish I'd had something like this when I was a kid.
I took a couple of electric guitar sessions from them. They're very laid back and patient.
Watching some of their kid bands play at Bimbos was very impressive.
I wish they offered classes in the Mission /Noe area.
You know what? I haven't touched Blue Bear for a review, because I didn't know how I would feel about it. I'm not a guitar rocker, don't have a band, and I'm not especially bright as to all things rock related. Hell, even the music I listen to gets questioned by my friends from time to time.
But that's the thing, this place has no rock snobbery, and leaves all that ego bullshit out the door. You want to learn guitar? Then they will set you up with some lessons, and in 10 weeks, if you stick to the lessons, and actually practice, you'll learn how to play something.
I'm glad I went here, even if I only made it up to Guitar 2. (I'm currently not enrolled) Even if you lack money for the one on one lessons, there is a sliding pay scale for those who make less money. My group lessons were much less than the $205 stated on the website. If you do make more money, (ie you rich lawyers) then pay the full price. It's worth more in the long run, than that shiney PRS you have sitting in your guitar stand, that doesn't receive any play-time (because you don't know how to play it).
With the membership, you get a membership card that entitles you to a discount at some local music stores. Bear in mind that these guys who are teaching are professional, cool, and have complete, complete respect for you. Mike Rao especially is awesome. Definitely a great place to learn guitar.
I lack self-discipline. If I don't have someone giving me guided instructions, I probably would never learn anything or do anything with my life.
Okay, I'm exaggerating, but whatever.
A long time ago, I bought an acoustic guitar from a friend in a parking lot. Not as shady as you think. So I went home, took the guitar out of its case and tried to play, went online, wondered what to do with my fingers, put the guitar back in its case and put it in the corner of my room, only to pick it up three or four times throughout the years.
A couple of years ago, I was invited to join a band to be the frontman. Long story short, there's no longer a band. However, during the latter days of the band, I asked my rockstar friend who wasn't in my band where he learned how to play guitar. He said he learned from Blue Bear... I even went to the concert he played in for his Band Workshop final... I knew then I had to go.
The teachers there are pretty chill. They understand you have a social life and that you might not get to practice every day. That's okay... that's what the class time is for. They're also really knowledgeable and love music... which is a really important quality to have in any teacher... the love of what they're teaching.
Now I've had vocal classes before both in high school and in college with some success. Ever since I took classes at Blue Bear, I've felt WAY more comfortable and confident with my singing abilities. I might need to take one more class just in case I ever get to front an upstart band, but hey, I kick ass in Rock Band (unless it's some song I don't know.)
Confident with my vocal training, I decided to take guitar classes just so I can learn how to play that acoustic guitar (and the two electric guitars I had bought after that.) Mike Rao is an AWESOME music teacher. He knows what he's talking about, he's chill, he's willing to help, and he doesn't get mad when you screw up multiple times. He's REALLY patient. I've only had three teachers, but all of them have been great to me.
The only problem I would have with the place is that it's so far away from my neighborhood... but then again, I only need to take one bus (the 28) so that's pretty convenient. Come to think of it, my issue isn't with this place, but with MUNI, and their always-crowded-when-I'm-trying-to-get-to-class 28 line.
I'm starting up my fourth quarter in electric guitar next week and after that, I think I'll want to try out the band workshops they have. The school has revitalized my love for music, just because now I can actually play it. If you have problems teaching something to yourself on your own like I am, and you want to pick up music as a hobby, I definitely recommend coming to Blue Bear and setting something up.
Rock on, Yelpers.
I've been taking acoustic guitar with Janak on Mondays at 6PM since January 2008. Our group lessons have been fun, and I've started "jamming" with classmates and their friends. The format has been very informal--learn some songs and their strumming patterns and chords. Perfect for busy professionals, actually. I used to play basic guitar when I was 13, but didn't really get back to it until now (I'm 42). I practice when I can, but this is mostly for fun. Janak is very laidback and interested in teaching everything from blues progressions to scales and basic rhythm guitar. For the money, you will not get a better guitar instruction program in place...Parking is $1 for an hour lesson, right outside the building.
I am an aspiring guitarist with no previous musical experience (I don't think playing the radio counts) and a serious rhythm deficiency. What I lack in skills I make up for in enthusiasm and volume!
So, with that background let me tell you about Blue Bear:
I think that Blue Bear is one of those "only in San Francisco" places, and one of the good kind. Everyone from the front desk staff to the guy that runs the show and most importantly, my instructor have been great to work with.
I have been taking individual lessons, although my initial plan was to get into a class, but I found that the extra 1 on 1 time is worth it, and it also lets me work on my own pace.
I started with a different (non-Blue Bear) teacher prior to discovering Blue Bear and the differences are night and day.
If your thinking about learning an instrument, call Blue Bear and meet with them. I'm very glad that I have.
I play guitar as a hobby, and after years of self-study with VHS, DVD, books, etc., I decided I needed more formal teaching with structure.
Blue Bear has the solution I was looking for. After an initial interview with the music director, I had a one-on-one session with the electric guitar instructor who placed me in one of his classes. I just completed my first 10 week session which has helped me clean up my playing, while introducing me to music theory.
Their fees are very reasonable, and the staff seems very helpful. They are located in Fort Mason which has plenty of cheap parking, unless there is an event.
Took a jazz workshop there with a bad instructor who knew his stuff but didn't know how to teach-mediocre experience. Also, if you want to learn how to play rock, just listen to and copy the records-you don't need to pay and go to a school to be in a rock band.
I did go to a groove workshop and learned something from a bass player who knew how to teach-good experience.
If you want to go to a Music school, try Community Music Center. Skip the Rockstar BS.
I've taken band workshops and private lessons (voice and electric bass) at Blue Bear for over four years. Wonderful place; have met some great teachers and people there. Rehearse for ten weeks with a pro, then rock out on stage at a local club - how cool is that?
Took piano lessons there last year. I like their setup and their instructors. You can't beat their prices either!!!!! A+++!!!!!
I got an acoustic guitar as a present for my birthday. I found Blue Bear and decided that's where I'd go for lessons as an absolute beginner.
I'm very glad I did. My instructor Janak (sp?) is a great guy, very patient and a comforting for beginner students. I'm in a small class with 5 other people who very easy to get along with. I'm in my late twenties and I was afraid that going to music lessons at this age might feel a bit weird but it's the exact opposite, I look forward to my lesson every week. I'm learning at a good pace and I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.
Some other random points:
There's a private parking lot right outside the fort mason building if that's where you're taking lessons, $1 per hour parking is a steal, great if you're driving to your lessons. There's also a free parking area right outside of that if you want to spend $0, but it's farther away and gets full quickly.
The initial interview was a somewhat disappointing. The guy (I forget his name) was ok but we rushed through it and got the money situation taken care of, total of 5 minutes. If you're signing up as an absolute beginner see if you can just do the interview over the phone, save yourself some hassle.
Blue Bear is right next door to the Fort Mason park. If you have time before or after your lesson you should go for a walk. The views of the bay are awesome. Helps to clear your mind and think of the music.
I highly recommend Blue Bear for the beginning guitarist, great people and a great experience.
I took a private voice lesson from them before singing as a surprise during my maid of honor speech at my sister's wedding. I sang in choir back in the day, but needed a professional to give good coaching tips before I went all out with Led Zeppelin in front of friends and family. I can't remember my teacher's name, but she gave great advice, knew what my strengths and limitations were and helped me make the song my own. It's now a great memory and I couldn't have done it with the same confidence without Blue Bear
It's hard not to like the whole idea of Blue Bear -- a non-profit, music school that's run by musicians who are there because they love music and want to spread it throughout the world. They offer classes in most Rock / Blues / Jazz instruments (guitar, bass, drums, voice, etc.) for all different skill levels. The group classes are an inexpensive way to learn an instrument and maybe make some friends, although if you're serious about learning, you might want to sign up for the private lessons. You'll probably need to try a few different teachers to find one that fits your style, but they all have some experience teaching, which is great.
Oh, yes, and there are the Band Workshops; sign up for a workshop with 6 other people, practice some songs for 10 weeks, and then play a 1-hour rock concert at the end of it at some San Francisco bar. How cool is that? (That's a rhetorical question, but I'll tell you anyway: Very cool.)
As for drawbacks... the group classes can be frustrating if, say, you practice in-between lessons and your classmates don't. And the place is definitely run by musicians, meaning that if you ask five different people when sign-ups for classes start, you'll get five different answers, and you might get messages reminding you to pay for classes you've already paid for. But frankly, this adds to the charm. If their billing department were any slicker, I don't think I'd like it.
If you've ever said, "One of these days, I oughta learn to play bass," you owe it to yourself to take some classes at Blue Bear. Because, frankly, you ain't getting any younger...
I'm taking lessons now through the Julia Morgan center in Berkeley. My teacher is very cool. Older guy with lots of experience, but extremely down to earth and patient. He teaches a lot of stuff other teachers don't and also doesn't insist on you reading music...you can also use tablature notation which is much easier for some people. I'm in a small class of three, which means that I get a lot of personal attention (but not too much, LOL). Classes are generally 10 weeks and I think the fees are pretty reasonable. You have to pay a membership fee every year, which I think is like $30 or something, but that's no biggie. They also have a huge variety of other courses available. So to all you wannabees out there I say get enrolled and ROCK ON!
so if you've read any of my reviews, you'll know that i am a wanna be rockstar. when i was in 7th grade, i so wanted to take guitar lessons from this teacher at my catholic school - she was in a local punk band and was sooo cool w/ her hip pink hair. BUT since i had already been taking piano and clarinet for years, and was playing every sport (therefore, my parents were already shelling out wads of cash for lessons and uniforms AND a parochial school education) they said unless i paid for it, i was SOL.
well, my fellow yelpers, i was SOL, b/c on my 50 cent a week allowance, i wasn't anywhere NEAR paying for my own lessons. and my mother regrets it to this day : ). i swear, she really does! so she gave me her vintage martin acoustic guitar circa 1950, got it all shined up and put new strings on it, and said "honey, it's time...go be that wanna be rockstar you KNOW you can be!"
so i signed up for private lessons and got to play with Janak. he's a wonderful teacher, talented, and i liked his teaching style. unfortunately, or fortunately, i went to work in the virgin islands for a spell and when i came back, i didn't start up again, but i still pluck on that gee-tahr, keep my nails real short, and hope to go back to blue bear again someday! everyone who works there is so nice, such a cool and encouraging vibe there.
the only drawback for me is it's far from my home, BUT they have great parking there unless there is an event going on at fort mason, which blue bear always sends out a warning email before one occurs.
BLUE BEAR ROCKS !!!
get it? a music school?? it rocks ?? like musically and figuratively ??
Nevermind. Anyway, this place is a complete non-profit music school. Don't mistake non-profit for being a bunch of hippies sitting around a fire and banging a homemade drum. These people are consummate professionals that have years of experience in all forms of music and its production.
Everything from beginning guitar to band management. Take a course and check it out, you won't regret that you did.
I took the rock/blues band workshop and performed last night at theDu Nord. It was awesome. Bill Spooner was our teacher and he was awesome, especially his spoonerisms "you can't fade out live" or "lets do the vamp twice and then get out of dodge". Do not ever take a class with a guy named Rex. He is a guitarist singer and has a bad record of quitting when things dont go his way.
Park for a buck, learn some classics, practice if you feel like it.
Have taken a couple of classes at Blue Bear now - a beginning guitar class and a voice class. It's a great place to meet other musicians of your ability level and get some practice playing with other people. It's also nice that they have parking right there next to the building.
It's been my life long dream to learn how to play the guitar. I took acoustic I the beginning of this year and just started acoustic II. The instructors are awesome and so helpful. And the class size is really small (the class I'm in now only has 8 people) so it's still pretty intimate. Their prices are totally reasonable too and the location is great.
went to check it out, hippie kind of feel, easy parking, director is very patient, was told it's mostly people in thier 30s and 40s.
small class size. (8 for the voice class) chill place.
I've been taking lessons at BlueBear for over a year now. I want to start out saying that BlueBear is a really awesome place. By far the best part of the school is the Band Workshops. They are a great goal for beginning musicians and an excellent way for experienced musicians to play out.
Positives
- Learn all the basic rock instruments from scratch (guitar, bass, drums, keys)
- Decent amount of classes available for beginners and advanced students
- Cool, chill, easy to approach teachers
- Band workshops are a great goal to work towards
- Each workshop you take will be a different experience
Negatives
- Located in Fort Mason which can be a pain to get to
- Classes aren't super super cheap. It's like 25 bucks per group lesson or 50 bucks per private lesson
- It's hard to get an idea of how good a class is going to be. I've taken classes that were almost a waste of time.
I'm six weeks into acoustic guitar lessons at Blue Bear, and have really enjoyed the experience so far. Classes are fairly small and affordable.
My teacher is obviously experienced at coaching beginners, and is very helpful when it comes to "making sense" of the guitar. I'd recommend this school as a great option for anyone looking to learn an instrument.
Good teachers, mellow vibe, unintimidating place if you're longing to fulfill your lifelong dream of singing, learning guitar, playing in a band...etc. I took about 5 lessons with a private teacher prior to finding Blue Bear, and I wasn't really getting anywhere. After my first lesson at BB, I walked out playing a song, which was so cool.
Be serious about learning music and be disciplined, and you'll get way more than what you pay for at BB. It's a music community, not just a place to learn chords or a couple of songs. The teachers *really* know their stuff and they are very approachable.
What I like best about the guitar classes is that they are structured without feeling like there's no room to play around. I've learned way more than I thought I would in just a few months.
I'm in my 2nd class at Blue Bear now and plan to keep it up (they teach up to I think 8 levels of acoustic guitar, which is pretty darned awesome!).
(No complaints at this time, but I reserve one star for future use, since I'm still fairly new to the school.)
I love the stark contrast between the two major non-profit music hubs in San Francisco: Blue Bear at Fort Mason and the Community Music Center in the Mission. The former for rockers; the latter for traditionalists. Both gems. If you need a practice room with a working piano, you can score one at either place. If you're new to the guitar and half-disciplined, you'll complete Blue Bear's Begining Acoustic Guitar with at least 5 chords under your belt, (and you can play a lot of songs with just 5). If you just want to be around rock know-it-alls, then this is your place. Granted, some guitar instructors were more story-tellers than music teachers, even intimidating. I always enjoyed sitting in the lobby between classes, listening to the veteran instructors interacting with each other. One of the funniest things I ever heard was an instructor sarcastically responding to the guy at the front desk who played a sample from a recently produced recording of his band: "Major fifths??? Uhh, how original!". ...and how originally Blue Bear. Tune those pianos!!
I take my 8 month old to Baby Bear music classes and they've been so much fun. They teach traditional music and the history behind it while giving kids an introduction to music, instruments and other kids. The teachers are fun and obviously love kids.
A great institution! The band workshops are very fun and a great way to learn music by performing in a group setting. The instructors are great to work with and have tremendous experience. They are a bit challenged from an administrative basis, but are overall an excellent friendly establishment playing an important role in the city's music scene. Went from being an absolute musical novice to putting out my own music in one year's time, largely due to Blue Bear's assistance (see http://www.myspace.com...).
Pop, rock, jazz and blues music instruction for all ages and levels -- really! I mean way adult beginners are over half the students -- but the teachers are all professional players and completely tuned to the band scene and their own music-making, as well as teaching. Blue Bear's been in SF since 1971, it's a non-profit, they offer sliding scale tuition, and the programs are both at Fort Mason Center in Marina and now at Lennon Studios SOMA. Check out the website or call for a free catalog -- about 60 ten-week classes (including band workshops) are offered every three months, and private lessons start any time. Okay, I work there! But I've been working there since shortly after I started as a student in 1971, and so many players and singers have found a home in Blue Bear's lively, supportive atmosphere -- you might, too.
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Musical Instruments & Teachers
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Category: Musical Instruments & Teachers
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Category: Musical Instruments & Teachers
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Category: Musical Instruments & Teachers
