Tim Gebel studied jazz guitar at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California, with renowned teachers such as Jean-Marc Belkadi, Scott Henderson, Bruce Buckingham, Dan Gilbert, David Oakes and Sid Jacobs. In addition, he received formative impulses through lessons and master classes with outstanding artists such as Ted Greene, Mike Stern, Howard Alden, Pat Martino, Joe Diorio, and Barry Harris among others.
At Mozarteum University Salzburg, he deepened his knowledge of music theory in his bachelor’s degree with Prof. Dr. Franz Zaunschirm and continued his studies in a master’s degree with a focus on musical analysis with Prof. Sigrun Heinzelmann, PhD.
As a jazz guitarist, Tim Gebel is artistically active, with around 100 performances per year with his trio The LaRossa’s.
Since 2022 he has been a lecturer for music theory at Berlin University of the Arts, where he is particularly concerned with the connection of jazz theory to traditional music theory in the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs. His research interests include the history of theory formation, transhistoricity and systematics of music theory as well as the development and teaching of improvisational techniques and methods of music analysis. In his teaching, he pursues a system- and application-oriented approach that makes it possible to convey a music-theoretical conceptual apparatus that embeds idiomatic constructions (stylistics) in a system-theoretical context.
As a guitar instructor he has taught hundreds of guitar students in many genres during the last two decades. He published fourteen instructional DVDs with major publishing houses in Germany as an author and/or producer.
Tim Gebel is currently working towards a PhD in musicology, and is also studying for an international master’s degree in philosophy at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg.
He plays a Jean Barault guitar and uses strings by OPTIMA.