Michael Karath

Intermediate and Advanced Guitar and Music Theory

Michael Karath teaches jazz theory and improvisation for all instruments.

Mr. Karath earned a bachelor's degree in music composition at Berklee College of Music in 1982. He is a jazz guitar player who has studied with famed teacher Charlie Banacos (whose students include guitarist Mike Stern), Mick Goodrick, Jon Damian. He's studied jazz piano with Ray Santisi and popular singing with Eddie Watson.

Students will learn to break down and construct music from the ground up and learn to improvise in any musical situation.

Mr. Karath played for years in many bands of different musical styles in clubs in and around Boston, Massachusetts.

Brett Carrillo

Rock and Popular Guitar

Brett has been teaching the guitar in Sonoma Music Arts School since 2007.

Mr. Carrillo is one of the guitarists in Sonoma-based Metal band Apertura.

Brett's students will learn proper guitar tuning, posture and technique and will also learn lots of cool modern songs, chords, strumming technique as well as lead and accompaniment styles.

Brett also enjoys video and film, as well as music, as one of his hobbies. Taught under Peter Hansen through the SVHS Video Production program (Best in Northern California), Brett has made numerous documentaries, short movies, and feature length movies. He also studied live news broadcasting and has acted in short videos for the Three House Multimedia’s television station “SVTV 27”.

Brodie Cumming

Intermediate and Advanced Electric Guitar

Brodie teaches guitar with a special emphasis on advanced rock guitar techniques and on beginning/intermediate guitar with keyboard theory. Some of his rock guitar influences include innovators like Page, Clapton, Van Halen, virtuosos like Malmsteen and Satriani, and recent guitar heroes like Zakk Wylde and the late Dimebag Darrell.

His composition and musical interests cover a wide range of styles. Recently, he has composed in the diverse styles of 12 tone serialism, Javanese gamelan, and fusion jazz.

Recent awards for his compositions include the winning entry in a national Guitar World contest judged by Joe Satriani, several university composition scholarships, and a guitar lesson published in Guitar Player magazine. Brodie would like to encourage students interested in composition to develop their potential regardless of playing level.