Mark Simons Guitar Lessons and Performance

I started taking lessons with Mark this past summer and cannot say enough great things about Mark. I’ve been playing guitar for about 10 years, mostly self-​taught so I’ve picked up my share of bad habits.
I wanted to find someone that could help me both with my technique, but also with music theory and Mark has done a fantastic job. He’s patient with me, but also pushes me to become a better player. I’ve made more progress on my playing ability in the last 3 months than I have in the last 3 years.
If you’re a beginner to guitar or an accomplished player looking to improve your technique, you can’t go wrong with Mark. He’s incredibly accomplished, knowledgable, and friendly. I look forward to our lessons every week.

I have been taking music lessons of one form or another for almost 20 years, and Mark is by far the best instructor I have ever had. I can’t recommend him more.

I’ve been taking lessons with Mark for nearly three years now. I started teaching myself simple rock guitar stuff years ago, got interested in classical guitar and soon after that decided I wanted to get serious about guitar and start taking lessons. I googled and asked around for the best teacher in the Bay Area and did trial lessons with several teachers before settling on Mark.
What I think makes Mark the best teacher in the area is that
— his friendly attitude made me feel instantly comfortable, which is important since I was very nervous about my guitar abilities back then;
— he’s obviously an accomplished guitarist, which means he doesn’t feel the need to always prove his abilities (a vibe I got from some other teachers);
— he’s not just a great guitarist but a great musician, which means when I’ve technically mastered even a simple étude, he shows me how much more beautifully it can be played through subtle improvements; and
— he’s an experienced teacher, seems to have an exercise to address just about every technical issue that comes up, and is clear and methodical about the long-​term direction of the lessons (I really liked that he was the only teacher who asked me to bring a notebook so he could write down the things we worked on each lesson).
Learning guitar with Mark has been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done. I look forward to practicing each day when I get home from work, and I now feel proud rather than embarrassed when I play for others!

We hired Mark Simons for our Sonoma wedding on 9÷19÷2010 for playing at our ceremony and cocktail reception.
He was very patient with me throughout the process, from answering our inquiry, sending us his CD demo, answering my all other questions, to, the most important of all, agreeing to playing a song I requested that’s outside of his repertoire without charging extra. Well, I would have let him charge the extra but I was just impressed by how willing he was to provide us beautiful music on our big day.
We loved his music and his service. Highly recommended!

Very patient. Very insightful. He really tightened up my technique and exposed me to a great range of music to study.

Mark Simons is a fantatic guitar instructor and performer. He has been a helpful and patient guide as I learn to play and he seems to have an avid following among his other students. I didn’t want to pick up any bad habits through self-​teaching or a crummy instructor, so I looked for the best that I could find.
Mark helps me to understand not just the mechanics of technique and good form, but the theory behind much of the music that we play. He is generous with his time and he occasionally extends my lesson if another student is not waiting to begin theirs. I am confident that I am building good technique and these lessons are making learning the guitar much easier and faster than I thought possible.
I found him through the San Francisco Guitar Quartet with which he tours and records. Mark also teaches at a number of universities and music schools in the city, Marin and the east bay. But he also gives private lessons in his studio in San Francisco where I find him each week.
He is teaching me classical guitar and I am loving it, but he also teaches other varieties of guitar including rock, pop and jazz. In fact, despite a mostly classical instruction with composers like Bach and so forth, he borrows from other styles to help drive home certain techniques — thus, the music sometimes includes Dylan, KT Tunstall and AC/​DC.
Mark also has an impressive resume — he has a four degrees in music and was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to study classical guitar in Germany. I learned all this after I started my lessons when I discovered his website (
) and was looking for his upcoming performances. He is definitely the real deal: a serious and professional musician and educator. That said, he is very easy-​going and my lessons are always fun and amusing.
With his experience and demand, you’d assume that his lessons are very expensive, but I found his price reasonable and he charges on a sliding scale based on a student’s ability to pay.
Also, I was worried about finding parking near his studio in North Beach, but it has never been a problem for me. His quiet corner of North Beach has always had a parking spot within one or two blocks of the studio.
He comes highly recommended. In fact, when I went to buy my guitar from the shop in San Francisco, the guy behind the counter had a masters degree in music and had taken lessons from Mark, too. So, there you go. If you’re interested in picking up guitar, you can’t go wrong with Mark.