Thomson Guitar Lessons

The first few lessons are going to be focused on strum rhythyms, open strings and individual string notes. Understanding what note each open string represents is important to understanding the theory behind the instrument.

I am a self-taught Blues Guitarist that has been playing gutiar for 20 years. I have had various one-time lessons from various different instructors and teachers over the years, but the vast majority of my knowledge, I learned on my own with chord books, and diagrams. I was learning basic guitar before YouTube was a thing, so I had to learn it the good old fashioned way of trial and error. Im glad I learned this way, because it produced endurance and fruit. So many people these days want instant gratification, instant results. But, time and effort and practice are what make a real excellent musician.

Over the years, I have given lessons for like $40 each. But, I think given the scope of my ability, I would like to change that by offering, each lesson is 1 hour long:

Beginner Lessons - $30/lesson
Intermediate Lessons - $40/lesson
Advanced Lessons - $45/lesson
Blues (advanced) Lessons - $35/lesson

In order to be considered for Blues, Advanced or Intermediate Lessons, a student must be able to prove understanding and ability.

I started teaching when I was playing one of the guitars at Sam Ash guitar store, and I was just playing, minding my own business and this guy and his kid came up and asked me a few questions and asked if I did lessons, and without hesitation I said "sure, why not" and it just went on from there. I have given lessons to proably close to 20 individual students. Some of them are family, some are friends. Some are just random people who want a lesson or two.

Ive worked with studentst that didnt know how to handle a guitar, and Ive worked with students whom with all consideration were better than I was, but just needed to hone their ability in one or more areas. It doesn't matter what you want to learn in the guitar, or how advanced you are. I am willing to teach anyone who has a desire and passion to learn music.

One of my favorite things to do is to find friends and have "blues battle" with them, which basically just means playing a blues backing track in the backround and playing a blues solo back and forth, often playing off the same notes the last person ended with. Its really fun, and its an excellent way to improve your improvisation skills. A blues guitarist thrives on improvisation, if you can improvise your way through a solo, then you got it made.

The best advice I can offer you right out of the gate is don't worry about price, worry about how well you get along with the teacher. A person has a hard time learning if they first cannot connect with the person teaching. Its a teacher's burden to find a way to make the lesson learnable and fun, but if theres no connection between teacher and student, then its likely not going to go as smooth. So, before you decide on a teacher, make sure you are compatible with their teaching style and their personality. A lot more doors are opened this way.

Just be straight up, what do you want to do with the guitar? Do you want to be able to play a few songs here and there, not really knowing what you're doing or why your fingers go there? Or do you want to be able to play a note or a chord without thinking about it, because you know exactly why your fingers go there, what notes that chord is made of, what the root is and how that correlates to the song? I can teach you both ways, but the latter is way more fun.