One-on-one piano, guitar, bass, drums and voice lessons — taught inside a working Santa Barbara recording studio, by musicians who tour, score films, and cut records.
Pick your instrument — we'll print your ticket. The first lesson is free.
Pick an instrument
ADMIT ONEFIRST LESSON FREE
The Journey · 01
You walk in with a borrowed guitar and a song stuck in your head. Thirty minutes later, you can play the first four bars of it.
The Journey · 02
Our band program puts students together — real setlists, real rehearsals, and a first gig under the string lights.
The Journey · 03
The rooms get bigger. The lights get brighter. The nerves turn into something better.
The Journey · 04
Same building. Same teachers. You walk down the hall, the red light goes on, and the song you learned becomes a song you made.
Detar is a full recording studio — tracking rooms, vintage outboard gear, and a control room that has cut records, scored films, and produced for artists across the West Coast. Students record here. So do professionals.
Control room
Live sessions
The rack
The live roomLed by founder Gus DeTar — producer, composer, and film scorer. Studio time is $120/hr, one-hour minimum; student recording sessions are built into the lesson journey.
Not a franchise, not a rotating cast of college kids. Teachers who gig, record, and score — and teach because they love it.
We also teach online, so students can keep lessons going from anywhere — Alex Nishi, Jake Weinstein, Jon Finnigan teach over video.
Detar is adding teachers for fall — piano, guitar and voice first. Working musicians only: bring your gig calendar, keep your gig calendar.
The Band Program
Students are grouped by age and level into working bands — real rehearsals, a real setlist, and a show at a real Santa Barbara venue. It's the engine behind the journey above, and the reason our students actually stick with it.
Add-on for enrolled students · all instruments · all ages
No registration fees, no contracts. Month-to-month, and your first trial lesson is free.
Studio recording is $120/hr, one-hour minimum. Seasonal band camps run through the year — email us for the next dates.
Book your free trialThirty minutes, any instrument, no strings attached — except the six on the guitar.
Book a free trial lesson146 Powers Ave, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 · (805) 280-5439
