Best Music Instructor Oakland Near Me

4worldlovers: Notes Music Academy is Oakland's premier music school featuring eleven (11) fully equipped teaching studios, instructors, instruments and educational tools designed to help students reach their highest and best potential as musicians.


We offer music lessons in, piano, guitar, violin, bass guitar, drums, saxophone, and more! Lessons are available for infants, K-12, and through adult based on individual levels of proficiency. NMA provides one-on-one training and follow-up from credentialed, university and college level instructors as well as working professional musicians and peers. NMA instructors are passionate about giving their students a well-rounded musical education. They focus on student needs from various backgrounds and educational learning styles. At NMA there is a heavy emphasis placed on music theory (sight reading, notation, chord construction, history, comprehension, improvisation and transcription) which gives our students the crucial foundation to be a successful musician.

Our mission is to bring out the musician in you! Everyone has a heartbeat and it's our heartbeat that is the center piece to all music. Music can bring out the confidence in a child and the child out of the more mature.

4worldlovers: I.R. Guitar Lessons is an Oakland Music School Dedicated to the Guitar.


We provide students of all ages the opportunity to create life-long passion.


We are conservatory-trained teachers with years of experience on the stage and in the classroom. More than instructors, we are role models and mentors dedicated to making sure that every student reaches their full potential.

Our curriculum creates the complete musician, so that students can be any type of player. Students build musical literacy, technique and musical fluency while learning a variety of styles so that they can play Bach today and rock tomorrow.


Our faculty represent some of the most experienced and well-educated players and teachers in the Bay Area. They specialize in rock, metal, classical, and jazz, just to name a few! Each student will have their curriculum tailor-made by their teacher to fit their interests, goals and learning styles.


We’re glad to be able offer in-person lessons at our Oakland studio, as well as to students around the world via Zoom. Take your lessons with you on vacation or your next work trip and never miss a beat. This is learning guitar in the 21st century!


Beyond music, we teach life lessons. Students make goal-setting and accomplishing routine, reinforce self-discipline and learn to work with others. In addition to becoming great musicians, our members have gone on to be great students at Stanford, UC Berkeley and USC.

Our students are part of an encouraging network of like-minded people who are passionate about music and learning. The I.R. Guitar community provides a supportive environment where we can share, socialize and collaborate.

4worldlovers: “Allegra is a knowledgeable, patient, and kind teacher. I have been taking beginner and intermediate guitar and banjo group lessons with her for several years. She is always encouraging and the classes are friendly and fun. Her classes make me happy and a way better player, too. She’s as talented a teacher as she is a musician and I can’t recommend her highly enough..” - Jenny S.

“I have been taking group guitar lessons on Monday nights with Allegra for over four years- starting with the "Introduction to Guitar" and progressing to "Beginner 4". Allegra is an experienced teacher and musician whose enthusiasm, love for making music, patience and humor energizes the class and creates an atmosphere of friendly camaraderie.The group classes are filled with friendly people and are low stress and fun. It is always a highlight of my week.” - Amanda H.J.

"Allegra's classes are super fun. She shares a perfect blend of enthusiasm for the music and technical skill. Allegra has a gift for keeping everyone engaged and learning while managing to get individual help to each student when they need it." - Curtis D.

“I have had several guitar teachers, and Allegra is in a league of her own! She teaches with humor, patience, and grace and makes learning fun and inspiring. She is highly responsive to her students’ needs and musical preferences, and teaches technique through songs that are fun to play and sing. I love the camaraderie and support of her group classes — entering her cozy studio with other musicians is a highlight of my week.” - Nora I.

4worldlovers:
Raphi has been teaching my 11 year old son guitar for about a year and a half. He has always been so easy to work with, and that did not change when we had to switch in-person lessons over to Zoom during shelter-in-place. Before starting lessons with Raphi, my son had wanted to quit guitar completely. Raphi is such a wonderful teacher, and I'm grateful for the way he approaches things - he started by working on songs my son enjoyed and also knew when to push him towards different styles that were new to him. Now, he's working on classical guitar because Raphi could see that was a fit for him. I am so happy with the progress my son has made, and I'm grateful we have not had to drop out of guitar lessons during this season because Raphi has made Zoom lessons available.

I started taking Guitar lessons this summer with Raphi. I was fortunate enough to meet him through my tween-aged niece, who has been taking lessons from him for a few years. She is an awesome player. I was able to overcome my reservations regarding learning new musical instrument at the age of 47 when observing his interactions with his students at her guitar concert last year. He is excellent at adjusting to his students' learning styles and music preferences. I would recommend him without reservation to anyone hoping to learn to play guitar.