Weekly 45-minute Zoom lessons — $65/session
For adult beginners and intermediate players on dobro, lap steel, and pedal steel.
One useful idea per lesson. We work on it together, apply it to music, and leave you with a clear thing to practice.
Practical Zoom lessons for adult beginners and guitarists moving into steel-family instruments.
You may already play guitar, or you may be new to steel-family instruments. You bought a dobro, lap steel, or pedal steel because you love the sound, but now you are trying to figure out how to actually make music with it.
Where are the chord positions? How do you stay in tune? What should your right hand do? How do you play fills, melodies, and simple solos without just sliding around and hoping?
That is what these lessons are for.
I teach weekly 45-minute Zoom lessons for beginning and intermediate adult players who want practical, song-based help.
Each lesson focuses on one useful musical idea. We work on it together, apply it to music, and leave you with a clear thing to practice during the week.
These lessons are a good fit if:
The focus is on getting you more comfortable and musical on the instrument.
Depending on your instrument and goals, lessons may include:
The goal is not to overwhelm you. The goal is to give you one clear thing to work on, then help you turn that into music.
Lessons are 45 minutes by Zoom.
I like 45 minutes because it is enough time to focus on one practical idea, work through it together, apply it to a song or musical situation, and leave you with a clear assignment for the week.
Weekly Zoom LessonA typical lesson might look like this:
These lessons are not aimed at advanced players looking for master-class steel guitar instruction.
If you are already an advanced pedal steel, lap steel, or dobro player, I may still be able to help with specific practical ideas, song approaches, tone, arranging, or roots and jazz-adjacent applications. But this page is mainly for adult beginners and intermediate players who want help getting unstuck.
Dobro, lap steel, and pedal steel are wonderful instruments, but they can be hard to learn alone. In many places, there simply is not a local teacher nearby.
Zoom lessons work well because we can look closely at your hands, your instrument, your tuning, your bar movement, your picking, and the specific songs or sounds you want to work on.
You do not need to live near me. You just need the instrument, a decent internet connection, and a willingness to practice one clear thing at a time.
Jason Kuykendall is a working musician and teacher based on Bainbridge Island, Washington. After a 20-year career in tech at Amazon, he left tech and shifted to playing and teaching music full time, including Berklee Online work in music theory and jazz guitar.
He now gigs weekly, often more, and plays regularly with other musicians in country, roots, Hawaiian steel guitar, western swing, and jazz and swing settings. One of his current projects is The South Seas, a mid-century instrumental group built around lap steel, jazz standards, Hawaiian swing, and western swing.
Jason teaches from the practical side: how to make dobro, lap steel, pedal steel, and guitar work in real songs and real musical situations. His Zoom lessons are aimed at adult beginners and intermediate players who want a patient, song-based guide.
Before starting regular lessons, we can do a short intro call.
This is not a full lesson. It is just a quick conversation to understand what you play, what you want help with, and whether I am the right teacher for you.
If it seems like a good fit, we can set up a weekly 45-minute Zoom lesson.
Fill out the form below and I will get back to you within a day or two.