Guitar Lessons
Frequently Asked Questions
I have developed concepts that allow students to easily visualise the guitar fingerboard, saving years' worth of learning scale, arpeggio and chord patterns. These concepts have been refined throughout my many years of teaching guitar professionally and they work!
Online courses are the perfect platform from which I can teach these concepts and there is a huge amount of information that can be learnt from each course. You can read more about my online guitar courses at guitartheoryandtechniquebook.com.
I also have a free mini-course available which allows you to easily train your ears, using the resources that I created for myself many years ago. Check out the course at Ear Training For All Musicians.
Guitar lessons are one hour long, although half-hour guitar lessons are also available for younger students.
How often a student comes for a lesson depends upon how much practice time they can put in between lessons. This often depends on work commitments, school commitments, etc. It is pointless for a student to have weekly lessons if they have not had a chance to cover the content of the lessons in between. Some students have weekly lessons and some have lessons every now and again. The most common frequency of lessons is once per fortnight for hourly guitar lesson slots.
There is no right or wrong answer to this question and there are many different points of view on the subject. One teacher might say that there are no left-handed pianos, saxophones, etc. and that left-handed guitars are a gimmick.
Many famous right-handed guitar players are actually left-handed in other activities. It is the left hand that does a lot of the work anyway when a right-handed guitarist plays so why switch to left-handed? Then there are left-handed players who passionately argue these points and swear that they could never play a right-handed guitar and that the left-handed guitar feels natural to them.
I personally am right-handed and when I try to play a left-handed guitar, well let's just say that it’s not pleasant! I once taught a student who was left-handed and started out on a right-handed guitar. He then convinced himself about six months later that he would be a much better player on a left-handed guitar and purchased one. He struggled for a while and eventually returned to the right-handed guitar as he concluded that he was more advanced this way round.
My best advice is to try both out in your local music store to see which one feels best to you. If there is no definite preference, it might be a good idea to stick to the right-handed model. this is because there is a much greater choice of right-handed guitars and you will probably not have to invest as much money to obtain a good instrument. There is also the fact that if there is a guitar lying around one day that you want to play or if you attend a jam session and borrow someone’s guitar, the instrument is highly likely to be a right-handed guitar.
Yes, I do. Many years ago, I was asked if I could provide gift vouchers for a lady who wanted to present her husband with them for Christmas. This has proven popular on many occasions as presents for birthdays, Christmas, etc.
I have more information on my Guitar Lesson Vouchers page.