Jerry Snyder composer

Jerry is a musician (guitar, banjo, bass, clarinet, saxophone), author, teacher and clinician. He received his B.A. and M.A. from San Jose State University. Jerry combines 22 years of teaching with 15 years in the publishing field as an editor and writer. For 12 years, Jerry served as the Performing Arts Coordinator for the East Side Union High School District (10 high schools-22,000 students). In addition to teaching strings, orchestra, jazz ensemble, guitar and symphonic band, Jerry was responsible for representing the music, drama and dance teachers to the district office, developing curriculum, organizing the district band, jazz and choir festivals and providing support for arts education. Jerry's teaching experiences include elementary, junior high, high school, college and adult education. Jerry has been a pioneer in guitar education and has presented over 200 guitar workshops around the country. He is the author of over 60 publications for guitar. The first of his class guitar methods, the Comprehensive Guitar Method was introduced to the schools in 1971. He retired from the East Side Union High School District in June 1998 and has since written a new guitar method for Alfred Publishing entitled Jerry Snyder's Guitar School. He is also teaching jazz, rock, and blues guitar at De Anza College and continues to present guitar clinics to teachers who are interested in developing a guitar curriculum. He is on the Board of Directors for the American Federation of Musicians, Local 153 and is the President of the South Bay Guitar Society. A versatile musician, Jerry has performed with the San Jose Symphony since 1974 (bass clarinet for 5 years and now guitars and banjo for Pops concerts), he has done 24 shows with the San Jose Musical Theater, and has performed with the San Jose-Cleveland Ballet, the Plum Forest Jazz Band, Gem City, Gatos (a flute and guitar duo and/or jazz trio), and with various named artists who perform at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts (Joel Gray, Jack Jones, Bob Hope, Al Martino, Frankie Lane, Rosemary Clooney, George Burns, Bernadette Peters and Luciano Pavarotti).