Lessons

Dietz Brothers Music has been successfully teaching music in the South Bay for over 45 years.

Mention their names to a friend or neighbor and bet that someone in the family or a friend of theirs has studied with one of the Dietzs’ Instructors.

Want to play drums, piano, or steel drums? Talk to Rich. Gotta play Over the Rainbow like IZ on uke? Call Buster or Conor.

Don’t wait to get started - it’s always easiest to learn it right the first time!

And, remember, the first lesson is Free.  Yep, Free!  After that it's:

$160 = Four 30 min. lessons

  $240 = Four 45 min. lessons

$320 = Four 1 hour lessons

Group Uke Class = $20 per class (Tues Night 6:30-7:30)

 Rock Band Classes = $320 per 8 1-hour classes

Instructors

Richard Schwagerl - Piano, Drums

Richard Schwagerl will help you to explore the three elements of music: Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm. He will have you delve into playing by ear, improvisation, arrangement, and leading a band, all while practicing reading, writing, theory and good technique. Rich also leads group classes, such as School Of Rock, Jazz and Blues (all instruments and vocals welcome).

Richard earned a scholarship degree from USC, toured with Lou Rawls, and composed for MTV and The Travel Channel. With over 6000 performances in 40 countries Richard has learned the art entertaining as well as teaching. He patented the Drum-A-Long System, which is sold nationally and wrote Simple Principles of Learning. He also performs regularly as the bandleader of Island Voyage - steel drum band.

“Proud and honored to be working with the Dietz Brothers since 1981.” 

Devitt Feeley - Guitar, Mandolin

Devitt has been singing and playing string instruments most of his life. He started early playing string bass in the public school systems of Chicago. Along the way he taught himself guitar, electric guitar, mandolin and violin. After high school he attended the Berklee College of Music studying String Bass performance and winning contests and awards throughout these early years. He performs in innumerable genres including rock, jazz, blues, classical, country and show tunes, but his love is bluegrass. He has won the Topanga Canyon Folk Festival Competition several times. Each win highlights his talent and diversity. He won for guitar performance, mandolin performance, best back-up musician, and most recently for best band (Rockyneck Bluegrass Band) in 2009.

His television appearances have been on The Next Great American Band as mandolinist and back-up vocals for Cliff Wagner and the Old #7, on Justified with the Rockyneck Blugrass Band and on My Fair Wedding also with the Rockyneck Bluegrass Band. He has opened for Leo Kottke, IIIrd Time Out and has shared the stage with John McEuen from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He has worked at Dietz Bros Music for twenty years teaching and repairing instruments.

Conor Griffin - Guitar, Uke

Conor was raised right here in Manhattan Beach and began learning to play guitar at age 12. Since then he’s tried his hand at everything from drums and ukelele to bass but the guitar still remains his primary passion. He’s been rockin’ the halls of Dietz Brothers for about a year now and is excited to help you learn to play. When he’s not teaching or attending classes, Conor can be found writing songs for his band Another Side, Another Story.

Alex Madrid - Guitar, Bass, Uke, Banjo

Alex Madrid’s guitar odyssey began in 2001, right here at Dietz Bros! As a fifth grader, Alex became entranced by bands like Green Day and Led Zeppelin, and set out to follow in their footsteps as a true rock n’ roller. Since then, Alex has become a multi-instrumentalist, picking up the ukulele, bass and banjo along the way, as well as acquiring a bachelor’s degree from Musician’s Institute in Hollywood. As an ardent advocate of musical exploration and education, Alex plans to take his students on a journey that will not only help build their repertoire and proficiency, but also inspire them to look beyond the charts, the scales and the boxes, and find ways to stoke the flames of creativity within.  

Alex has performed original music at venues like the Whiskey A Go-Go, Doug Weston's Troubadour, the Canyon Club and the Grove of Anaheim. Among his list of collaborators are John Bender(Paramore, Breaking Benjamin), Adair Defaumbach(Tony Macalpine, Dirk Verbeuren) and Joel Ferber(Sixx A.M., Dusk, Highlnd)

Jesus Sanchez - Guitar, Bass, Uke, Drums

Jesus first picked up the Guitar around the age of 10. He grew up playing a lot of Rock n Roll, from Led Zeppelin to heavier Metal like Slipknot. His musical taste would expand to other styles such as Blues, Jazz, and Latin. As his musical skills grew, he expanded his capabilities onto Bass, Drums, and some Piano. Some of his influences include guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Slash, and (being a fellow Pasadena inhabitant) Eddie Van Halen. After graduating from Cal State Long Beach with a Bachelors in Music Education, he hopes to bring the knowledge and self-fulfilling experience of playing music to anyone who pursues it.