How Long is a lesson?
Typically, a lesson will be 30 minutes long, but should you feel this to be too short a time, then at a maximum, I can offer one hour lessons.
Half an hour is usually enough time to give sufficient stimulus for a student to go away with, and work on.
How do I book a lesson?
Booking lessons is easy, just go to the ‘contact’ page, fill out your details, and I’ll come back to you as soon as I possibly can.
Do I have to commit to a block of lessons, a course, or just an ad-hoc session?
All of these questions are quite common. The service that I offer is bespoke for your individual needs. If you want to come on a week by week basis, I can accommodate that. If you just want a ‘top up’ lesson because it’s been a while since you last picked up your guitar, that’s fine too. If on the other hand, you just want a short course, I can also offer that!
How long will it take me to learn?
The answer to this is easily as open-ended as the question! This is largely down to 3 main factors: 1. How naturally musical are you? 2. How much time will you spend practicing? 3. How determined are you to do this?
Where do the lessons take place?
The lessons usually take place in my home studio. There’s plenty of physical evidence of my musical passion in there for you to see!
If you are unable to find your way to my place, and you have extenuating circumstances, then I am happy to negotiate an alternative arrangement with you. If it involves my having to travel out, this will incur additional cost to the lessons.
Do you teach beginners, intermediate level, or advanced?
The answer to all three categories of student is ‘yes’.
What is the cost of the lessons?
My prices do not change very often. The price of a lesson for the foreseeable future is: £14.00 per half hour session.
What’s the ideal age to begin playing the guitar?
My experience has taught me that children aged 9 and up are well suited to begin learning the guitar, (or other fretted instruments that I teach).
Some parents of younger children, convinced of their child’s special aptitude for music, have persuaded me to take their child on for a trial lesson. These experiences have pretty much always led me to exactly the same conclusion; their fingers are not usually strong enough to properly press down the strings against the frets to produce a satisfactory sound.
If your child is showing an enthusiasm for learning guitar before they have reached the age of 9, I would suggest that they try ukulele first. This is a great way of getting into playing stringed instruments. Feel free to contact me about arranging ukulele lessons for your pre-nines!!
Do I need my own instrument before I can have lessons?
I would certainly encourage you to get an instrument before coming for lessons. If you want some guidance with choosing the right instrument, feel free to contact me about this, and I’ll be happy to advise you.
Do I need to be able to read music to learn the guitar?
Reading music is certainly not a pre-requisite to learning the guitar, but it is a very useful skill to have. There are plenty of resources available to help people to learn to read music, and I have developed my own resources for this too. If you book lessons with me, the resources come to you at no additional cost, in the form of A4 handouts.
Some people find the whole issue of reading music a real ‘turn-off’, and I understand this only too well. There’s no agenda coming from me to funnel my students into this against their will, but I will support you in your learning if this is the direction you wish to pursue.
You may have heard of TAB, or TABLATURE. This is a very straightforward concept to grasp, and many guitarists use this written method of communicating guitar music. I shall be only too happy to show you how to read TAB, and please don’t fret, (pun), it won’t take very long for you to ‘get it’.
Some students prefer to do things by ‘rote’. This is the method that I learned with, and am also comfortable teaching this way. What I mean by ‘rote’ in respect of the guitar, is copying what you can hear on a record, and learning it ‘note for note’ by repeating little sections over and over again, until you’ve really ‘got it’.
In retrospect, my experience has taught me that learning to play via written forms of communication is often a much faster route.
Simon Faulks Music Tutor 