Philadelphia Area Guitar Teachers

Benjamin Kutner-Duff

Benjamin Kutner-Duff started his musical adventure in the Philadelphia at age 11.  His passion for performance and improvisation lead him quickly to the study of Rock music and Jazz harmony.  He discovered his passion for teaching soon thereafter and began teaching music to the neighborhood children in his teens as a way of making some pocket change.  While teaching in high school, Benjamin started his first band, playing the improvisational rock music he admired for so many years.

Benjamin took his love of the craft to Boston, where he studied at the Berklee College of Music.  Honing his skills, he graduated in three all too short years to return to Philadelphia and take his love of music to the next level by adding the drum set to his repertoire of instruments.  Benjamin started playing as a drummer full time in his band, Swwik. There is nothing Benjamin loves more than to see the growth and progress of his students and the musical community into which he invests himself. 

Matthew Kelly

Matthew Kelly is an experienced musician who loves to teach music in a exciting and different way. He began playing the guitar at the age of twelve and has only grown more knowledge of the instrument as time went on. As Matthews love for the guitar grew over time, he began to take guitar lessons in High School. He soon found out that learning music is something that he is passionate about and will continue his journey into college.

Having a degree with Music and Marketing, Matthew learned all the fundamentals of theory, teaching, performance and the Music business. He has taught many beginner and  intermediate college students who wanted to see their guitar playing progress and get better. Matthew taught many different styles of genres such as, blues, jazz, indie, rock, metal, country, rockabilly and many more! His versatility around the guitar makes his lessons a lot of fun and can teach almost any genre that the student wants to learn or is focusing on.

As a young 23 year old, Matthew has great experience with younger aspiring musicians, as well as older! He understands the learning process and how tedious it can sometimes be, but his goal is to change that way of thinking and to make it an easy and exciting process!

Jake Garrison

Jake Garrison is a life-long Guitar teacher, singer/songwriter and performer living in Philadelphia. Jake started teaching when he was a teenager at day camps and to his acquaintances. The passion for teaching quickly led to Jake creating his own teaching business and acquiring students of all ages and backgrounds. 

Jake studied musical styles such as funk, jazz, classical, blues, world music and more. Naturally, he fused all his favorite styles of music to create his own authentic sound. Songs with social awareness and instrumental acuity make up his catalog of original material. He has experience touring his original music around the North-East and wants to help others create their own music. 

Teaching has always been a focal point of Jake's musical career. Passing along the joy of playing, learning, and living is what Jake is here to do. 

Paul Galdi

As a Bass and Guitar instructor with over 30 years in music, Paul Galdi brings real world experience along with the fundamentals needed to help students reach their individual goals. This knowledge is acquired not just from the many great teachers he has had personally, but from countless performances in a myriad of venues playing many different styles of music, from playing with recording artists to gigging on a regular basis in local bands in the Philadelphia area.

As an experienced teacher, Paul strives to understand the goals of the individual and formulates a plan specific to that student's needs. He pinpoints trouble areas and is able to help the student break down how to get past the hurdles we have all faced as musicians in trying to reach higher levels of playing. He instills confidence and gets the student to enjoy the process and the journey of learning their chosen instrument.

Jessie Wexler

Growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Jessie performed in over 200 performances prior to starting college. Throughout his academic career Jessie participated in many music programs. In this time, Jessie developed a skill for performance at a young age while studying various composers. Jessie composes and performs various styles of music from rock, jazz, film scores, Middle Eastern and world music.

At The University of the Arts, Jessie holds a Bachelor's with honors in music composition. He has studied with some of the cities most talented composers and artists In college. Jessie focused on music production through classes and personal music projects collaborating and composing music for animators, film makers, dancers and music business students.

Jessie has performed with and produced for original bands in the Philadelphia area such as Seoul Delhi, Juice Wax and Breathing, collectively performing hundreds of shows and creating a fan-base in the Philadelphia area. Jessie's passion for music continued into education with a dedication to teach students to learn their instruments and to play what they want confidently. 

Rob Wickline

Rob Wickline is a composer, producer and rhythm section instrument guru. He started with piano when young and in high school found guitar. After becoming thoroughly hooked, Rob decided he would dedicate all of his energy into preparing to go to school to study jazz guitar. After a semester of guitar study at The University of the Arts felt he was in a place where he could manage his own guitar education with the aid of just private lessons and was growing more interested in composition and decided to make the switch.

Throughout college Rob honed his skills in a variety of different environments of composition: Electronic music was the first addictive fascination but jazz composition for various ensembles, arranging video game music, progressive rock for large ensembles, film scoring, contemporary classical and many more started taking hold. It was also in this time that Rob took the opportunity to play in the many different ensembles available to perform in at UArts. 

While exploring these many different avenues of musical creation Rob was also slowly learning the ropes in the recording arts. He developed a love and admiration for the recording arts be it engineering, mixing, mastering or collaborating with artists on songs and arrangements. Nowadays, Rob continues to wear these many hats. Some days he is a producer, some days a mixing engineer, artist, arranger, church guitarist, wedding musician, educator, bandmate and sometimes composing classical music when spare time permits - and the list goes on!

Herbert Quick

Herbert Quick is a classical guitarist originally from Seaford, Delaware. Herb is a recent graduate (2017) of the University of Delaware's Music program and was a guitar student of Prof. Christian Taggart. His training under Christian has provided him a repertoire in many styles of music from Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic to Balkan folk, jazz, rock and everything in between.

In his personal time, Herbert composes, produces and performs various types of electronic music that incorporates elements of classical, jazz, experimental and world music. He is currently studying violin under local Philadelphian Scott Wagner and is also studying alto saxophone.