Clear explanations,
Practical tools,
No intimidation.
Office Hours with Kris Johnson is an online learning space for musicians who want clarity, confidence, and real progress without intimidation or fluff.
Created by professional musician and educator Kris Johnson, with decades of experience performing, teaching, and mentoring musicians at all levels, including work on GRAMMY Award–winning projects.
Different musicians get stuck in different places.
Choose the path that feels closest to
what you’re working on right now.
Improvise with Confidence
You understand some scales and chords, but when it’s time to play, things feel stiff or unclear. This path focuses on developing vocabulary, hearing the music more clearly, and learning how to make musical decisions in real time.
Production & Composition
You have ideas, but you’re not sure how to develop them into something finished. This path focuses on composition, arranging, and creative frameworks that help ideas turn into music.
Trumpet Technique
You’re putting in the time, but results feel unpredictable. This path focuses on fundamentals, coordination, sound, and building a reliable physical approach that supports your musical ideas.
Want a sense of what learning here feels like?
These short videos share real moments from lessons, so you can get
a feel for my approach and teaching style.
Hi, I'm Kris
I didn’t arrive at this teaching approach because everything came easily. I arrived here because it didn’t.
I know what it feels like to practice hard, love the music deeply, and still feel confused or stuck. Over time, I learned how to teach in a way that respects different learning styles and different nervous systems. Some of us need to see it. Some need to hear it. Some need to feel it in the body. Most of us need a mix of all three.
Everything in Office Hours is designed to meet you where you are and help you move forward with clarity, patience, and care.
I’m a professional trumpeter, educator, and composer, and I’ve taught these methods in classrooms, ensembles, and studios at universities and schools around the country. The goal here is simple: to help you understand the music more clearly and enjoy the process of learning it.