Hi! My name is Jason Mitchell, and I’m a guitarist based in Chandler, Arizona. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, I moved to the Phoenix area in 1991 with a rock band and performed original music at various clubs in the “Valley of the Sun” for a couple of years. In 1996, I released an independent album under the name “Universal”, receiving a lot of great press and interest on the shiny new Interwebs. In addition to writing and recording, I’ve played rock, blues, soul, funk, and more in a variety of musical settings.
I’ve been a guitar instructor since the age of 19, and I opened up a teaching studio and music store in north Phoenix in 2001. Always looking for the most direct and accessible way to share musical ideas, I began working on the Practical Guitar Method (PGM) in 2005, intending to create a conventional book. It soon became obvious that the large number of pages involved would be difficult to publish in paper form. The logical step was to keep everything in digital form, using the power of links and multi-media to tie the whole project together. After its initial debut in 2006, I used PGM with many of my students, who were able to provide feedback and help me fine-tune ways to integrate the method with live guitar lessons.
Presently the guitarist for Calumet (funk), The Groove Merchants (rock, pop, jazz, and soul), and The Mark Long Band (classic rock, country, and pop), I enjoy performing a broad variety of music in different scenes, including clubs, resorts, festivals, and house parties.