All the Guitar Questions

Questions?

Are there any sheet music or tabs for songs I like?

Yes, there are an abundance of good resources to learn songs with on the internet as well as books. The top ones are Songsterr, ultimate guitar tabs, and guitar pro tabs. For trends ultimate guitar tabs is crowd sourced so it’s faster. For more accurate tablature of songs that have been around for a while, Guitar Pro Tabs or Songsterr is best.

Do I need to learn scales?

Yes, scales are the auto-tune of the guitar, meaning if you play within the scale or key your predictability of sounding good are much higher. Scales are the foundations to which you will learn how the guitar and music work, as well as giving you things to apply techniques too. Learning scales also allows you to create visually on the fretboard by making interesting note constellations and testing out the sound, as well as, allows me to put dance like impulses such as go up the guitar, side to side, into a format that sounds good.

Will students make friends, learn discipline, or get better grades or be more creative?

Yes music is a collaborative experience that requires perseverance and promotes transformative principles. Learning music gives students self-confidence and also builds up their tolerance for failure until they get it right. Often times creativity is showing a connection between two points so questions such as “How would you write a song about nature?” allows students to think about transforming nature into a sonic metaphor.

Music offers any experience that one would desire. If you want to make friends in music you’ll find musician friends, but if your not good at music its going to be rough going. If you want to become disciplined at music you should follow a discipline of music that you acutally like making. If you want to get better grades due to music you should use music as a way to study how you learn and retain information. If you want to be more creative you should try to understand what inspires you in music.

Many studies show that students who do play music tend to have better social, empathic, study, and creativity on both the nature and nurture sides.

How long does it take to be good at guitar?

It takes 20 minutes practicing or playing the guitar every day for one year to be good at the guitar. With 140 minutes a week of practicing scales, songs, chords, techniques, or experimenting with the instrument with melody and rhythm you would be awesome in a year. To be good at anything, good habits must be created, which a habit means consistency; its better to practice 20 minutes a day than 1 hour two days a week.

With any goal that I have going I try to spend 20 minutes every day working on it. 20 minutes helps me focus intensely on a given task and then offers a chance to take a break, wait for more inspiration, and then look back at it with a new perspective.

What equipment do I need?

The most important equipment to have for learning guitar is a music stand with a solid backing, a metronome or drum machine, and a 3 ring binder to print out music and exercises; students that have and use all three of these do much better in music. For electric guitar you will need, guitar picks, cable, amplifier, and a guitar strap. For acoustic guitar you will need a capo, a guitar strap, and a slide. For both instruments you will need a clip on tuner. To begin recommend Daddario capos, straps, strings, picks, and cables Roland or Line 6 amplifiers, Ibanez or Fender guitars and Yamaha acoustic guitars. I recommend a quartz metronome that is analog with the wheel, not a phone app because its good to have one object for a specialized purpose so whenever you see it you think,”practice” where as my phone means many other things.

Which guitar is better to learn on acoustic or electric?

I recommend electric guitar for beginners. They are smaller, have less string tension, easier to adjust for comfortability and repair, as well as more durable. Creatively the electric guitar offers all the same sounds as an acoustic guitar and more. The electric guitar also gives your greater access to the upper registers of the fretboard as opposed to acoustic guitar.

How much should I spend on a guitar when first starting out?

I recommend spending $500 dollars on a guitar. This is because if you end up not liking the guitar you can always sell it afterwards and in the meantime while learning you had a nice guitar. If you get a cheap guitar, they typically have defects and are not fun to play on so they become trash because you don’t want it and can’t sell it either.

 Now I recommend spending $500 based on a guitars performance features rather than its paint, gold hardware, etc. My first good guitar I bought was a faded Gibson flying V which cost me $550 dollars. It has the same features as the painted version, but had a stain instead for $400 less. It has lasted over 14 years now and still going strong. Most students who take lessons will spend at least $1200 for the year on lessons which would be 30 minutes a week so 25 hours a year roughly. Remember you should be practicing 2.5 hours a week so 120 hours of practice time. It should be on a guitar that you want to spend that kind of time on!

How much should I spend on an amplifier?

I recommend getting a combo amplifier that is 50-60W and is solid state to begin with that will be about $500. Firstly because you can always sell it back for a little money and at least you’ll have a good amplifier in the meantime. The combo amp lets you travel as well as play inside and the solid state means you won’t have to worry about tube repairs. Similarly to the above mentioned you will be practicing 120 hours a year so get an amp that gives you enough variety and tonal foresight, meaning how the amp sounds distorted, effects, clean, to be able to pivot if you discover a new musical style. I personally like Roland Cube amplifiers.

Do I need to read music notation on the staff or is tablature okay?

Yes, understanding rhythm notation is useful for communicating with other musicians or translating brass instruments onto your guitar. Learning notation also helps make the chord shapes of the guitar make more sense as well as concepts of harmony if you don’t know the scales yet. Tablature is an awesome tool to learn the most convenient or popular way of playing songs you like, where notation allows you to be decided where the most convenient way is.

Can I use an app to learn guitar?

Yes, there are many awesome guitar apps available such as Yousician, Fender Play, and Jam Play that offer good programs and systems on learning the guitar. They offer music theory lessons, sheet music, videos in a variety of styles. It is a good resource to add in a addition to private lessons for more inspiration.

How many books should I get to learn the guitar? How many guitar books have I read?

The most common learn guitar book is the Hal Leonard Method books 1-3 which teaches a good amount of music notation and techniques, I personally like the Hal Leonard Modern Approach to classical guitar book. I have read a dozen or so guitar books. My favorite and most recommended books are “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osbourne, “Blizzard of Oz” by Ozzy Osbourne, Guitar Hero book 1 and Guitar Hero book 3. There are also good magazines like Guitar World which had interviews, lessons, and tablature songs to learn every month which I used a lot.

Do I have a system of teaching?

I teach everyone scales, rhythm, melody, chords and construction, progressions, sequencing, techniques, music theory, and song writing in that order. There is an article you can click here to learn what I’ll teach you on the guitar. The system I use takes these principles and then just applies them to the type of music you like. Every type of music has these principles whether classical or death metal, pop or rap.

The system for personalized lesson is structured exposure to different types of music and techniques and to see which things peak your interest and which things minimize your interest. This helps make your musical DNA. Sometimes I’ll need to show you how boring things lead to what you really want and that connection is valuable in a teacher.

How long should I practice for?

First, practice means playing with a drum beat or a metronome and that there is a goal you are working towards; so first establish a goal and use a drum beat to keep you accounatable. The recommended amount of time is 20 minutes every day until you feel like your playing the scale, chord, song, rather than practicing it. You will be able to play the guitar while thinking about something else or the next section of the number (song).

Do you have any cool riffs that I can practice?

Currently I have the No Bars Held Method on YouTube which has lots of interesting chord progressions and arpeggios to try out. I am going to put out a new Youtube series called Guitar Alchemy which uses the 12 bar blues to write riffs, however to be able to write your own riffs its important you know the Pentatonic, Diatonic, Blues, and Harmonic scales along with the popular chords and music theory which is covered in the No Bars Held free videos.

How do your hands move so fast?

Often times if you know what the obstacle course is ahead of time you can play faster, so since I know guitar scales I’m able to navigate the guitar faster. I also practice different techniques such as legato which involves pressing into or pulling the string with the fret hand lightly, so I’m not always picking the guitar. The best way to play faster is to use a metronome and drum beat and scale up the rhythm using alternate picking, economy picking, finger picking, or legato tricks.

How did you learn the guitar?

My grandma showed me a couple chords and I got them really quickly so they bought me a guitar for my birthday. I spent a lot of time experimenting on it and took some introductory guitar classes before taking private lessons for 10 years. I focused a lot on learning scales, chords, harmony, theory, songwriting, and techniques in the rock, blues, and metal arenas while studying riffs from my favorite guitarists Randy Rhoads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimi Hendrix. Today I continue to dive deeper into songwriting and scalar harmony while branching out to learn about how other instruments work in other genres of music so get inspiration for the guitar.

When and how long until the student will learn and play songs? When do I teach songs?

There are two types of songs: Songs in the public domain, “Ode to Joy” “Yankee Doodle” “Oh Susanna” these songs students can start learning within a month; Second there are copywritten songs by popular artists like The Beatles or AC/DC these songs I teach once the student has mastered the A Minor Pentatonic Scales, power chords and open chords, and can play a 12 bar blues.

Guitar lessons should be about improving your technique and music skills so you can play any song that comes your way. This is because songs are a combination of techniques, chords, theory, and progressions within a song, so a student has to have capability to play these before learning them.

Otherwise, the student isn’t learning the song, they are learning the technique, chord, or scale of the song. Many times students come in and want to learn a song and realize there are a lot of techniques and dexterity that has to be improved before the song is a go. So I focus on teaching students scales, chords, and techniques first and then songs are a way to test if they have the skill.

In keeping with my motto “Make music or make excuses” I try to simplify chord structures or picking patterns so students can try to play along with their favorite songs. Also, students can start learning songs immediately from YouTube, Yousician, or Fender Play which I encourage. With the 20 minute a day rule, a student might have to practice one chord for 20 minutes that day, then another chord for 20 minutes another day in order to get just the introduction to a song down.

Since we have limited time in lessons to cover knowledge, technique, and application it is a better utilization of time to try and learn a song at home and bring in any questions you have to me to show you techniques or subtleties of the song.

At this point in the modern world, any cover song you would want to learn on the guitar is widely available on Youtube or a subscription app, such as Yousician, Fender Play, Guitar Pro, Songsterr, and many more! However I feel their is a lack of teaching creation of music in our age. Possibly because we think making music is for special people with god given talents, but in reality most music is created by the common folk. Those with not much to lose and not a lot of societal expectations or judgements, so they take a risk and explore.  The straightforward answer is there are lots of guitar teachers and music schools available and plenty of information on time. The goal of this treatise is to be as transparent about pricing and the value of music in your life and my life.

I believe if we talk about what type of music you want to play and why you like it so much I can show you the principles and fundamentals that would enable you to recreate that sound or vibe in your own way.

What platforms are you on?

I use Youtube, Tiktok, Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, Patreon, and my website. You’ll find longer more educational videos on my Youtube, Medium, and Facebook. Tiktok, Instagram, and Twitter are for fun musical ideas on culture and trends. Medium is a blogging space where I post journal entries on things I’m working on to document the process. Patreon is where I scream one positive affirmation a day for people who become monthly members. My website is where I sell my products, answer questions, have email list signups, and give away free materials.

Why do I teach? I teach the guitar because I enjoy being people’s advocate for manifesting their dreams. Teaching music is one way in which I do that. I’ve had a teacher that helped me become the guitar player and musician that I am today, and he’s still my favorite guitar player, so theirs some gratitude in it. It’s also really fun to make money teaching rock and metal songs as well as surprising to see students branch out into many musical styles and create their own style. I enjoy helping people become a fan of themselves.

What’s your goal in teaching?

My goal in teaching is to have you not need me as a teacher anymore. It sounds paradoxical but that’s what the goal is. I want to show you the principles of music and guitar in such a way that you’ll be independent and then become interdependent.

Who do I teach best? 

The students that appreciate my teaching style are the students that want to know why and how chords, scales, rhythm, songs, music work through the guitar. These are the students that I show them a principle such as rests (silence) and immediately want to try to create something with that principle in mind. This is where they start creating but also discovering and learning about the guitar for themselves. I show them a scale and they ask why it’s structured that way and it opens up the huge can of worms into history, mathematics, harmony, and atmosphere.

What Genres do you teach?

I try to teach things from all the genres because genres are usually just music composed using different musical techniques such as counterpoint for classical, palm muting for metal, bending for rock and roll, and finger picking for country music. The real question isn’t necessarily what things can I teach you, its more about what I chose to teach and learn myself; what genres are locked into my brain at this point.

I love rock, blues, and metal guitar due to its authenticity, transformative nature, and virtuosity and because the guitar tends to get the biggest spotlight. While I do appreciate learning some classical and flamenco, funk and pop techniques, I always end up putting them into a metal format anyway. So I do best teaching students who want to be virtuosity and creative on their guitar, who aren’t afraid to use their intuition and take risks. I also work best with electric guitar players just because the electric guitar culture is so vast and exciting to me. If you have an interest in rock virtuosity then we’d be a good fit. Its fun working with students who take what I teach them and then bend the rules to create something explorative and true. I listen to music, practice music, and make music every day; so if you do 2/3 those three things then we are a good fit.

Who should take guitar lessons from me?

Those who want to make their own music. I believe that if I can inspire you to create a melody or chord progression that resonates with you and is authentic to you, learning the guitar will be converted into discovering music. Learning the guitar is relatively short path, Music on the other hand, that is a journey that lasts a lifetime. I find students that want to make their own music are willing to learn the fundamentals as well as being willing to break the fundamentals. Students who go home and bend what I teach them are my favorites. Some students also have an explorative ear and bring in a lot of different music that they want to figure out. That inquisitiveness is really appealing to me as well.

Who shouldn’t take lessons from me?

Students who just want to learn songs they like rather than the principles that created those songs. It is fun at first to teach cover songs, especially if they are rock or metal songs, but after a while you and I will get tired of it. So I teach students the principles of the song they want to learn before I teach them how to play the song itself. If this order would be upsetting or frustrating to you then we may have difficulties.

If learning the guitar is more of a recitation activity or chore on a checklist to complete, then I don’t think we would be a good fit. Music Mostly because I ask students to take creative risks using the techniques that we learn in class. If you can create something using what I’ve taught, you that is an A plus. If you just play what I taught you that’s a C minus, passable, but nothing to be super excited about. There is an aesthetic to copying or covering a song that is impressive and I do like impression artists, but I idolize those who add and transform a song such as Hendrix covering Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower “ or Van Halen covering  “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks. I willingness to find what makes you “you” on the guitar is what I help students with via their own style.  My style is somewhere between Randy Rhoads and Jimi Hendrix.

How much do I charge for guitar lessons?

Pricing for lessons:

$70 for in studio lessons

$80 for in home lessons

$100 for video response lessons

Okay so most music schools and business try to hide their prices in order not to scare away customers. Or they try to make everything short and sweet. I am not short, nor sweet; I want to educate, inspire, and to be of service to you. Money is a symbol of values and in philosophy we study the values in ethics, beauty, purpose, and knowledge. Talking about values is hard and that’s why some companies hide their reasoning for pricing. I like talking about values so I’ve organized this treatise of pricing in values of Practicality, Aesthetics, Ethics, and Knowledge.

There are four main values in culture: Ethics, Purpose, Aesthetics, and Knowledge. When we decide the value of things we take these into account subconsciously through habit or in debates with other people. Ethics is a game between does it make me happy or does it give me freedom. Purpose is due to simplicity and does it achieve its goal? Aesthetics is about authenticity and transformation. Knowledge is about credibility and belief.

Pragmatics and Purpose. I only teach hour lessons because it’s the best use of your time. What could you accomplish in an hour of focused time versus 30 minutes of focused time? Substantially and exponentially more in an hour.

If a young adult student is going to leave the house, go through traffic, pack up the guitar, it’s better to make it worth the parent’s time, time the parent could use to run an errand or take a break in our lounge area.

You’re getting a convenient reserved spot every week dedicated to your musical success. Which most people only do lessons from 3-8 o’clock Monday through Thursday so maximum spots available are 18-20. (I have to take a break sometimes) Unlike other music studio you’ll also be able to have direct contact with me as the instructor outside of your lesson hour.

Guitar is a musical instrument so its purpose should be to make music and as a guitar player you should become a musician. It sounds obvious however many times students come to lessons because they want to put guitar on their college resume, or learn a way to be disciplined, have fun, or get out of the house. To be blunt, there are much better ways to get into college, learn discipline, attract a romantic partner, or get out of the house than learn the guitar or be a musician.

Note: I’ve always had fun playing music, being disciplined in it, attracting romantic occasions, got into good colleges, explored many different places, met awesome people, and had good occupations, but music comes first. I wouldn’t have made it this far as a musician if the goal was to do any of these things first, I’d be something completely else.

Purpose of music? Music is the only cognitive tool which allows messages and lessons to be repeated in a pleasure-able way. So we’re going to work on what message you want to repeat. This is your musical DNA, your purpose, your core intention manifesting through the instrument to uplift yourself and others.

Ethics- Choice and Happiness. I tailor each lesson to your individual goals. These are private lessons in the truest sense, so your class is truly its own course. Imagine teaching 50 courses a week! With less volume on my part I have more brain energy to focus on your goals.

This gives you more choice in the direction you feel gravitated to musically and gives you more time to ask questions that come from inspiration in the moment.

When playing music with other people and with songs you’ll come to have awareness and mindfulness of yourself and of other’s musical choices in order to create the maximum amount of happiness. Bands and music tend to be more utilitarian than we think, typically the least happy members of bands quit, or call it “Going Solo”. There are even studies suggesting that music build mirror nuerons in the brain which improves empathy and socialization skills.

Then the amazing line between improvisation and recitation. Improvisation, thinking on your feet, building intuition, and recitation the satisfying feel of preparing, self constructive criticism, and strategy honing skills are fundamentally in building a happy life.

Building Knowledge- For all students, every class I need to review (scales, chords, techniques) add another technique, show the musical theory principle, work on songs they like, and also make their music with the new skill. With more time to process and practice with me students also have more time to ask questions that come from inspiration thus motivation to practice for the rest of the week.

When a student joins in my classes they also get added to a Google Classroom with 300 practice audio guitar scales, sheet music, play along videos, and where they can ask me any guitar question they want during the week and I’ll respond within 48 hours.

Students should be practicing the guitar at least 20 minutes every day in order to show significant results in their playing, which is about 2.5  hours a week, which in one hour of private lessons I can teach 2-3 hours of material to prepare them for that.

Aesthetics- Learning the guitar isn’t always pretty The price of beauty is high! On average men spend about $3000 a year and women about $3700 a year on beauty products, hair, clothes, jewelry, photography.  Aesthetics is all about transformation and authenticity. I teach the guitar in a way that prompts students to transform these skills into music that is true to them.

There’s a reason we are so amazed by great guitar players seemingly unlimited virtuosity and style. The guitar is the most dynamic, versatile, complicated, and beautiful instrument ever invented within it has the freedom to express any idea you could ever want. Silky bends, soothing lullabies, grating emotional metal guitar riffs, wailing blues solos, passionate flamenco strumming. On the deepest level I’m impressed by those who have the power to create beauty from within.

This is the world that you are entering. A world where you no longer have to consume beauty. Now you’re in a world where you can create it.

Makeup policy:

I try to be flexible with people because “Life” happens to me too. Guaranteed makeup lessons are only given within 48 hours notice, or due to illness or vehicular problems. I plan my weeks and time to accommodate you and assist in your musical goals. When students cancel for recreational activities, miscommunications between activities or parent transportation, time management miscalculations, they’re are other opportunities that I miss out on such as giving another student a makeup lesson.

If money is a concern for you then consider coming in twice a month instead of 4 times or watching my youtube channel for the No Bars Held course, or checking below for discounts.

When you become a student you are added to a google classroom where I give you access to both of my online courses with practice media and lessons where you can ask me questions. If you are going to miss a class on short notice just let me know and I will prepare materials for you to still practice during the week.

If I have other gaps then I can try to fit you in. I do makeup classes the second and fourth Sundays of the month. If you miss a lesson you have 10 days to make it up.

I suggest that when you take guitar lessons you should have some alternative times in order to do a makeup lesson when you have to cancel.

Lessons at your house

Yes $80. Most professional music schools will charge 80$ per hour in the bay area for guitar lessons and there are some that charge less. However when I do in home lessons I have to leave a 30 minute gap in lessons for travel time, I have to account for gas and wear and tear on my vehicle, and bring all of my musical equipment, amps, computer, speakers, etc and set up in your home. This also reduces the amount of people that I can teach, so if you happen to cancel a lesson for the week and I don’t get paid then I’ll still have enough money to save to compensate.

This saves you the 30-45 minutes of transport and load up time that you would have to do to get to lessons and then return home. As well as when the lesson is occurring you can still work on errands, business, cooking, etc.  So essentially you’re paying for 1 hour and 30 minutes of my time while saving possibly 2 hours of your own time.