Learn guitar with the best. With the guitar coach to the stars. Now in Chicago.
Guitar coach to Bob Dylan and family, Keb Mo, Jackson Browne, Will Ferrell, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Weezer and many more*.
Hi, I'm Fran Banish, guitarist, singer-songwriter, recording engineer, producer, and instructor. Former lead guitarist with The Keb Mo Band and Duncan Sheik. I have Gold Record writing and playing credits (with Duncan Sheik on Atlantic Records**), and a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University. I've been teaching guitar, music theory for guitarists, and doing songwriting coaching since the late-'80's. I was on the teaching staff of McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, CA from 1989-2015. McCabe's, founded in 1958, is one of the oldest and coolest guitar shops in the US.
I recently relocated back to the Chicago area after 27 years of live gigs, touring, playing on TV and film soundtracks, and teaching in Los Angeles, and I have time available for private music instruction, songwriting coaching, recording engineering and live music performance tailored to your needs.
My teaching specialties are:
Beginning guitar: Getting people off to a great start.
The history of Blues and Rock guitar, all the styles over the years: classic songs and solos.
Acoustic and Electric guitar.
Pick and fingerstyle guitar.
Slide guitar.
Organizing your practice and developing good technique.
Music Theory for guitarists
Ear training and playing what you hear.
Improvisation
Songwriting
Reading tab and standard notation
Introduction to Jazz guitar
Introduction to Classical guitar
Guitar set-up and maintenance
Vintage guitar and gear appraisal
Recording engineering and Pro Tools
I teach at my recording studio space at Music Garage Chicago (60607), and online at JamKazam (a free app with great features, much better than Skype). I teach with a guitar, a laptop, and a printer, and can pull up about 2,500 documents stored; song charts and transcriptions, music theory reference sheets, explanations, and more. The lessons are tailored to the student's interests & needs. I often write charts and transcriptions of students' song requests, and explain the process, so they can see it done. I also use, and can teach you how to use Garageband, and Transcribe software during a lesson.
Also, I've been involved with recording since I was a teenager; first with tape, then digital, and have been working with Digital Audio Workstations for almost 20 years, and with Pro Tools for 10 years.
For folks interested in recording, my studio at Music Garage has a Mac Pro/ProTools rig clocked by an Apogee Big Ben and it sounds great. It's loaded with a selection of classic plug-ins by Bomb Factory, Digidesign, Waves, and McDSP. Mics include a Korby convertible tube mic with Neumann U47 and AKG C12 style capsules, two AKG C414's, three 451E's , and a C1000. Electro Voice RE15's, RE20, 666, and 635. Beyer M88, Altec 639a, and a selection of Shure mics: 545, 546, SM56, SM57, and SM58. Mic pre amps are two Telefunken V72S, two channel Chandler EMI TG2, and four Digidesign high res. 003. Monitors are Tannoy System 800 and Yamaha NS-10M, powered by a Haffler 500. There's a bunch of fantastic guitar amps, and a drum set mic'ed up and ready to go as well.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
". . .some of the most incredible, sizzling six-string play around." LA Weekly
". . .wicked slide guitar." LA Weekly
". . .the best young blues player in LA, Fran Banish." Los Angeles Magazine
*Lead guitar and co-writes on Duncan Sheik's debut album on Atlantic Records
that includes the hit, "Barely Breathing" and the radio tracks, "She Runs Away" and "Serena."
Guitar instruction clients have included:
Doug Ardito (Puddle Of Mudd)
Christian Bale
Brian Bell (of Weezer and Space Twins)
Benjamin Bratt
Jackson Browne
Nick Carter (of The Backstreet Boys)
Josh Charles
Michael Chaves (Sarah McLachlan, John Mayer, Five For Fighting)
Eduardo Cruz Jr.
Julie Delpy
Bob Dylan
Jake Dylan
Sam Dylan
Tim Ferguson (of The Cousin Lovers)
Will Ferrell
Ethan Hawke
Peter Himmelman
Emile Hirsch
Jason Lee
John Lithgow
Michael Lockwood (Aimee Mann, Lisa Marie Presley)
Tomo Milicevic (of 30 Seconds To Mars)
Keb’ Mo’
Shameik Moore
Paul Phillips (Puddle Of Mudd)
Brad Pitt
Dan Rossen (Grizzly Bear)
Syd Straw
I'm a 24/7 music lover, guitar freak and audio freak.
I enjoy helping people make music, and play better guitar.
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