Guitar lessons in Corvallis
I started lessons at 10 wanting to play Green Day, and my teacher wanted to teach classical. So I’ll ask what you listen to, and we’ll start there. We may not play it note for note. We’ll play it at your level.
Your hands aren’t my hands
Lots of people struggle with barre chords, partly because everyone’s hands are different, and the way I play one might not work for you. Some things are always true: you want all the strings to ring out, and you shouldn’t get a hand cramp three minutes into a song. Past that, we’ll find what works for your hands, even if it doesn’t look like what I do.
Where I’ll push you
Open chords are great, but I teach barre chords earlier than most, because they open up the rest of the neck and make theory easier to understand. I also think everyone should know some fingerstyle, whatever you play.
Getting past the right notes
A teacher once listened to me play “Little Wing” and told me, “That’s correct, but it doesn’t feel like music.” Nobody had asked me about feeling before. If you’re at the stage where you can play it but it sounds like nothing, that’s worth a lesson too.
Guitar goes better in person, because I need to see your hands. You can use one of my acoustics or electrics, so you don’t need to own a guitar to start. If yours has a problem, bring it along. I learned repair on my own Strat.
Lessons are $50 an hour, and you can start with a $20 half-hour trial, which is mostly a conversation.