For over 20 years I have been on the path of mastering the guitar. For 15 of those years I have been playing professionally on stages across Canada. I am also a professional educator with a BA and a BEd. My years of playing and my education have taught me five rules for learning the guitar:

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•   Learn the music you love

•   Practice at your edge

•   Sing what you play 

•   Play along to records

•   Use music theory to understand 

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Learn the music you love - Many guitar teachers use a curriculum that works like rail road tracks: everyone works through the same sequence of scales, exercises, method books and songs. This approach doesn't work for most people! Most people get frustrated because either they are bored learning music they don't love, or the exercises aren't meeting their unique learning needs. Making progress in your guitar playing depends on two factors: motivation and guidance. Motivation is simple, listen to your heart and learn the music that motivated you to play guitar in the first place! A one size fits all approach is neither enjoyable nor effective. I will build custom lessons based on your goals, background and genre interests that will keep you motivated and progressing!

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Practice at your edge - You will never improve if you routinely play what you are already good at. You need to consistently challenge yourself. 80% of your practice time should be spent working on something new. After several lessons with me, I will have an idea of what your strengths and areas for growth are and I will help you build a practice routine that will provide you with the next steps you need to improve your playing. 

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Sing what you play - Learning guitar is more than just learning an instrument, it's deepening your facility with music itself. Many guitar teachers use tabs to teach you where to put your fingers. Thinking of playing guitar as an exercise in muscle memory prevents you from learning music. When you sing what you play, you connect your ear and your musical voice to your instrument. This will grow your playing immeasurably, deepening your facility with all aspects of music and guitar playing: rhythm, harmony, melody, ear training and the fretboard. 

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Play along to records - Today's great guitarists learned from great guitarists of the past. They learned their vocabulary, studied it and then innovated by adding to it. The first step is playing along to records. After you've learned all the notes, put on a song and try and replicate the music as accurately as possible. Through this process you will learn rhythm, feel, dynamic and what makes great guitarists and great bands tick. This will teach you vocabulary that you can then take and make your own. 

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Use music theory to understand - Music theory is like a Pandora's Box: it contains as many crucial secrets as it does pitfalls. Many guitar students spend either too much or too little time working on technique and music theory. Understanding music theory is not an end in and of itself, nor is it a formality that you can completely disregard and still become a good guitar player. Music theory should be used as a tool, as a way to understand what makes music sound the way it does. With my guidance, you will learn the music theory that is relevant to your goals and you will use it to understand why the music you love sounds the way it does and how you can achieve the sounds you envision.

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Many guitar teachers overly emphasize theory and exercises, or they underemphasize it and instead teach shortcuts that really only teach you muscle memory. The best guitar teachers and the best guitar lessons will follow the aforementioned structure in one way or another.