Dear Guitarist,
Playing the guitar can bring you immense joy or unbelievable frustration.
If you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself spinning your wheels and getting nowhere on the guitar. You might even get down on yourself and wonder, “Am I even capable of playing the guitar? What if I’m just not musical?”
A guitar teacher can massively help–or painfully hinder–your progress on the guitar. The right teacher can catapult you forward into being able to play the kind of music you’ve always dreamed of playing. The wrong teacher? Well, the wrong teacher can have you wandering in circles without ever getting anywhere. And that’s if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, the wrong guitar teacher can lead you down a rocky road of bad habits and misunderstandings that you’ll then have to escape–at great cost in terms of time and effort–IF you ever wake up and realize that the problem isn’t YOU.
I want you to find the right teacher to help guide you along the path of guitar progress.
If you ask my students, you’ll discover that I’m a patient, persistent, highly effective guitar teacher. My Nashville guitar lessons propel my students forward as fast and as far as they’re interested in going–IF, of course, they’re willing to WORK.
No, I don’t have a magic pill that will help you play guitar like a virtuoso in 30 days. What I do have is a comprehensive, DYNAMIC approach to guitar teaching that will help you learn more faster than you’ll be able to learn on your own.
Three Guidelines to Keep in Mind When You’re Looking for a Guitar Teacher
If you head out on your search for a guitar teacher without a little preparation, it’s like setting sail for Australia without a compass. You might find your way to Down Under, but don’t bet on it. Here are three guidelines you can use as you hunt for the perfect guitar teacher for you:
1. Know Exactly What You Want to Get Out of Guitar Lessons
It’s up to you to have as much clarity as you can bring to every conversation you have with a prospective teacher. If you’re clear about what you’re trying to accomplish on the guitar, you’ll easily be able to eliminate the majority of teachers you talk to. Find someone who speaks your language and can get you where you want to go. If you’re a total beginner, of course, you won’t know much of what you’ll actually want to learn as you get moving on the guitar. That’s okay. Just be as clear as you can be about your hopes and dreams on the guitar and communicate those to potential teachers.
2. Be Completely Clear About How Hard You’re Willing to Work
Before you start talking with teachers, accept the fact that it’s going to take daily practice to get where you can play even simple songs on the guitar. Are you going to give it 30 minutes a day? An hour? Three hours? Communicate how much you will be working with any teachers you talk to. Ask them how they’ll approach you given the amount of practice you’re going to be doing. Some teachers don’t know how to equip a student with plenty to work on for several hours of daily practice. Other teachers get frustrated with students who don’t practice at least a couple hours a day. Figure out what you’re going to be doing and find a teacher matched up to your efforts.
3. Read Tom Hess’s Guide on How to Choose the Right Guitar Teacher
Tom Hess is a world-famous electric guitar virtuoso. He’s also a prolific educator who has taught hundreds of guitar students and built a seven-figure music business in the process. Tom has a fantastic guide on How to Choose a Guitar Teacher that you should definitely check out. Read it, memorize the 9 questions Tom recommends you ask whenever you meet a new potential guitar teacher and watch as you find exactly the right teacher for you. Yes, I have answers to each of the 9 questions in Tom’s guide, but you’re going to have to read the guide and then get in touch with me to find out my answers!
Nashville Guitar Lessons for Acoustic Guitarists
Whether you live in Nashville and are looking for a guitar teacher to study with in-person or you live anywhere on Earth with an internet connection and are just looking for the best possible teacher to work with through video lessons over Skype, I want to let you know what I specialize in as a guitarist and guitar teacher.
I teach acoustic guitar exclusively. Pickstyle and fingerstyle. For the first 10 years I was playing guitar, I focused on folk, acoustic rock, blues and bluegrass. Then, about 6 years ago, I got very serious about fingerstyle guitar. Classical, folk, blues and Brazilian jazz. If you want to learn any of these styles, then fill in the contact form below so we can get in touch and talk further.
I specialize in helping beginners get started the right way on the guitar with great playing habits and a clear sense of how to learn and master new music. I also love working with serious intermediate to advanced guitarists who want to go deep with acoustic fingerstyle guitar.
What do you want to work on? Fill out the contact form below and let me know so we can figure out if we’re a match!
So What’s It Like to Take Guitar Lessons With You, Matt?
I’m glad you asked! Here’s how I approach every single person who enters my teaching practice.
First off, I learn as much as possible about what’s drawing you to learn to play the guitar. We talk all about your motivations, your passions, your dreams and goals. Your favorite music. Your favorite songs. Once we’re clear about why you want to learn to play guitar and what you want to be able to do, we chart out a clear course that will get you where you want to be on the guitar as fast as possible. Your efforts will absolutely determine the speed of your progress. I can only lead you to the best possible methods and most efficient and powerful possible techniques I’ve found in over 16 years of playing the guitar. It is up to you to do the work of practicing and applying the methods to your own playing.
My mission is to create powerful Full-Spectrum guitarists. If you are serious about learning to play the guitar, then it’s time we met and got to work helping you understand the guitar fretboard, how your fingers make things happen on the strings and what it means to hone your entire Being into the purest possible intention for each and every note you play.
Did I mention that we’re going to have a lot of fun?
Music is all about the entire experience of being alive on Planet Earth. If you’ve heard my music, then you know that I’m committed to joy, celebration and gratitude.
Guitar lessons with me include lots of laughter, lightness and play.
The laughter is the medicine that helps all the intense focus go down easy!
It’s called PLAYING the guitar for a reason!
But how much does it cost?
You’ll find out more about how to think about the price for guitar lessons when you read that guide I mentioned above about How to Choose the Right Guitar Teacher.
I do want to take a moment here, though to address the issue of price.
If you’re looking for the cheapest guitar lessons in Nashville, then you’re in the wrong place. I’m not a McDonalds churning out guitar lessons as a commodity. I care about my guitar students. I will fight tooth and nail to help you develop into the guitarist of your dreams. If that means recording special videos to post in an exclusive password-protected area on my website so you can work on your own, I will do so. If it means taking phone calls or text messages outside of your lessons to help you get clear on questions that have come up in the course of your practicing, I will do so.
I am extremely committed to your full development on the guitar. I strive to go above and beyond your expectations of how much you can learn and how quickly you can improve as a guitarist.
Also, my favorite students are the serious ones. The ones who are really giving it their all and practicing hard by applying the full method I teach. Those are the ones who get great benefit from working with me, and that’s what I live for as a teacher–the experience of watching a student flower and blossom into a full-power fluent guitarist. I find that a slightly higher price for lessons separates the truly serious from the dabblers.
I’ve paid as much as $200 for an hour of a guitar teacher’s time–and it was absolutely worth it. My lesson rates are nowhere near $200 an hour, but let’s just say you get what you pay for.
Ultimately, how much you pay for a guitar lesson depends on a number of factors that you need to keep in mind as you consider which guitar teacher will be the best teacher for you. If you find a fantastic teacher who answers all your questions, has a lot of great experience and inspires you with his/her approach to teaching but costs more than other teachers, consider how much you’ll save in the long run by taking fewer lessons with a better teacher. My $200 lesson was easily worth 20 lessons from a run-of-the-mill $30 teacher.
- My lesson prices are $60 for hour-long lessons and $30 for half-hour lessons.
- Purchase lessons in batches of four to take the per-lesson price down to $50 for hour-long lessons.
- If you work with me and you practice at least 30 minutes a day, you WILL develop into an incredible guitarist. Musical development takes time, but if you’re willing to practice hard, you will love the results.
If I’m the Right Teacher For You, Then Let’s Get To Know Each Other
If you’ve read this far, then you’re likely clear that I’m passionate and serious about helping people learn to play the guitar. And I’m pretty clear that you’re serious about learning to play the guitar. So let’s find out if we’re a match. Just fill in your answers to the questions below and I’ll get in touch with you to discuss how we can help you play the guitar as well as you want to be able to play it.
String Love Guitar lessons are tailored specifically to You and Your present situation and future goals. For this reason, I need some information about You in order to help You as effectively as possible. Please fill the form below.
