Students ask me this all the time: “Should I be spending more time learning songs?” The answer depends entirely on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you just want to play songs – covers at open mics, jamming with friends, playing around the campfire – then yes, spend most of

I met a guy at an open mic night in Newbury a while back. We’ll call him Steve to protect his identity. He told me he’d been playing for years, had a lot of really nice guitars, but could use a little help cleaning some things up. He called me

(And Why It’s the Key to Playing Things You Think Are Impossible) I’m going to tell you about the single most resisted change I make with new students. Not a chord. Not a scale. Not some advanced technique. How they hold the guitar. I’ve been teaching for over 30 years.

In today’s digital age, the availability of countless guitar learning resources—YouTube videos, online courses, books, and forums—may seem like a blessing. However, while access to many learning sources is beneficial in some fields, when it comes to mastering an instrument like the guitar, too much information from different sources can

Two guitarists play the same song at a jam session. Same notes. Same structure.   One sounds professional. The other sounds… okay.   What’s the difference?   Not years of experience – some players sound great early on, while others struggle for years. Not gear – expensive equipment doesn’t automatically

I can usually spot them within the first five minutes of an intro lesson.   They sit down, and before they even pick up the guitar, they start talking. They tell me about modes. They mention the pentatonic scale. They drop terms like “relative minor” or “circle of fifths.” They’ve

I’ve been teaching guitar since 1994. In that time, I’ve watched too many people walk into their first lesson excited to learn — and carrying a guitar that’s going to fight them every step of the way. A $90 Amazon “deal” that won’t hold a tune for thirty seconds. A

I see students get overwhelmed by effects pedals constantly. They go online, see videos of pedalboards with 15 pedals, and think “I need all of that to sound good.” Or they buy a bunch of pedals randomly without understanding what they actually do or how to use them. Here’s the

If you play guitar — any kind of guitar, any style — you need legato technique. Period. Most players hear “legato” and immediately picture someone like Richie Kotzen blazing up and down the neck at 200 beats per minute. And yeah, legato is a huge part of fast lead playing.

You’ve learned the songs. You’ve rehearsed with the band. You feel ready.   But playing a gig isn’t the same as playing in your practice room. Things happen on stage that you can’t predict, can’t control, and can’t pause for. How well you’ve prepared for those moments is what separates

If you’ve been playing guitar for a while, you’ve probably noticed something frustrating. Every time you solo, you play the same licks. The same patterns. The same shapes in the same positions. You know you should be more creative, but when the moment comes, your fingers default to what they

Greg from Burton had been playing guitar on and off since his twenties. Let’s just say that was a long time ago. He’d bought the books. He’d taken some lessons — not with me. He’d watched more YouTube tutorials than he could count and purchased a few online courses. And

Two of my newer students, Joseph and Stephen, both came in recently wanting the same thing: to play that big 6th-string major barre chord. The F chord. The one that makes many people want to throw their guitar out a window. They could get the shape. They could put their

You know the scales. You’ve learned licks. You can play fast enough. But when you solo, something’s off. It sounds like you’re running through patterns instead of playing music. The notes are technically correct, but they don’t say anything.   This is one of the most common problems intermediate guitarists

Every week, another YouTube video promises “the exercise that will transform your playing.” A new speed drill. A new finger independence pattern. A new scale sequence that some guy with close to a million subscribers swears changed everything for him.   So you try it. You add it to the

After 30 years of teaching guitar, I’m still amazed at how much information kids can commit to memory when they’re learning an instrument. It’s truly impressive. A child can memorize five or six complete songs – that’s hundreds of individual notes, dozens of chord changes, multiple rhythm patterns, all held

Most beginners struggle with chord changes because they’re doing one thing wrong: They place their fingers one at a time instead of all together. This makes chord changes slow, hesitant, and inconsistent. You’re always behind the beat, fumbling to get fingers in place. The solution: Train your fingers to move

If you play guitar and sing, I need you to hear this — because it might be the single most important thing standing between you and actually sounding good. I had two students — Tom from Bainbridge and a guy named Carl from Concord (not his real name, but you’ll

Most parents assume private lessons are better than group lessons. One-on-one attention. Customized pace. No distractions from other kids. Then I tell them about the kid who was running his own lessons. The Student Who Was Running His Own Lessons This 11-year-old’s private teacher would start each lesson with “What

Here’s something that happens to almost every guitar player at some point.   You sit down to practice. You start working on a scale, a riff, a chord progression — whatever you’ve been assigned or whatever you’re trying to get better at. You play it over and over. Somewhere around

A mom brought her 11-year-old son to me last year. He’d been trying to learn guitar from YouTube for six months. Smart kid. Motivated. Practicing an hour every day. And making zero progress. His mom was frustrated. “He loves music. He really wants to learn. But he keeps saying ‘this

The impulse makes perfect sense. Summer’s coming, work is crazy, the kids have travel ball — something has to give, and guitar lessons feel like the easiest thing to set aside for a while. You’re not quitting. You’re just pressing pause. I’ve been teaching for over 30 years, and I’ve

There’s a question I ask myself about every student who walks through my door: Do they see themselves as someone who owns a guitar… or as a guitarist?   It might sound like a small difference. It’s not. It’s actually the difference between the people who stick with this and

I see this all the time with people before they become my students: Parents buy their kids a $500 guitar, and within months it’s leaning against the wall gathering dust. No case. Same strings from the day they bought it. Action so high the kid can barely press the frets

Here’s something that comes up in almost every conversation I have with new students — or their parents.   “Shouldn’t we start with reading music?”   I get it. If you took guitar lessons in the ’70s or ’80s, that’s probably how it went. You sat in a chair, squinted

Most students wait way too long to change their strings. I can hear it the moment they start playing. Dull tone. No brightness. Strings that sound dead because they are dead. Then they wonder why their guitar sounds bad. Here’s the thing: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how often you

Most guitarists avoid ear training because they think it’s boring, repetitive, or too hard. But that’s not really the problem. The problem is that the way most people approach ear training is completely disconnected from how music actually works. Take those ear training apps everyone recommends. They start you off

In my  30 years of teaching guitar here in Geauga County, I’ve heard every reason someone almost didn’t start. “I’m too old.” “I don’t have the talent.” “I tried once and couldn’t do it.” “My hands are too small.” I hear these in almost every first conversation with a prospective

Most people practice guitar wrong.   They spend hours playing but don’t actually improve. They wonder why they’re stuck at the same level months or years later.   Here’s the problem: Playing guitar and practicing guitar are completely different activities.   Playing is fun. You strum songs you know. You