It doesn’t matter if you’re the guitar player for Paul McCartney, or you're me, Stephen Toon, you have to start somewhere and you definitely need a foundation.
Will you let me give that to you?
I’m Stephen Toon, guitar player/singer/songwriter and music educator, reporting for duty as YOUR new music teacher.
There’s nothing wrong with scrolling through YouTube lessons and reading through method books. It can be a little overwhelming though, right??
Give yourself the gift of a MAP, or a BLUEPRINT, if you will.
Think of your house or the building you might be in right now. Who built it? Someone who used a textbook or a DIY YouTube video? I kinda hope not!
It’s the same with music, especially with the less linear instruments, like guitar. The average person looks down at the fretboard and strings and experiences:
OVERWHELM!
If a property developer put a bunch of building materials in front of me and said, “Build us a house,” I would be stuck with overwhelm and not know where to start.
Do you have dreams of playing guitar, but you feel like I do when presented with a construction job?
Just say no to overwhelm!
BREATHE. I GOT YOU.
I LIVE for guitar. I love it. I would eat it if I could. Well, maybe I wouldn't eat it. But I sure love guitar!
I’ve been playing for 32+ years! I’ve rocked out, folkified, shredded, noodled and studied my way into rock bands, recording studios, musicals, jazz gigs, folk houses stadiums (YES!) and everything in between. I’ve wielded my six string from Chilliwack to Vancouver, across Western Canada, East and South to the States, and farther: Mt. Pleasant to Macau, Mongolia, Mexico and back again. One thing I have learned in all my playing and travels is that everywhere I go, people want to rock.
I was playing at a jazz gig once, and when it turned into a free for all jam after last call, this virtuoso trumpeter from Melbourne heard me playing some Jimi Hendrix and said, “Every jazz player just wants to be able to play a guitar like that!” Haha. The point is, the guitar is a Universal instrument and it’s something we can all relate to. It’s on our radios, on our street corners, and many of us have a guitar of some sort in our home. You can travel the world with it and always find someone to either jam with or to listen to you play.
Another thing I have learned is that most, if not ALL people can learn a song or two. They can learn a few chords, pluck out a riff, and maybe even fake their way through a blues jam. But what happens if all you know is a pattern and a shape, but you don’t know why it works or where to apply it? Or you can only play it in that one key, whatever that is?
What’s missing, even from pro player’s tool belts, is the foundation to both play anything and to continue learning. I’m not talking about bad habits. You can probably force yourself and your motor-skills to fix those. But good technique or not, do you know what one note means to another? What those 4 chords need to change to if you want to play in a different key? Do you know how many E notes are on the fret board? Do you know what to do when it looks like you’re playing it right but it just doesn’t sound right??
OK, so the theory and “how it works” stuff is covered, but what about the playing part? That’s just as important, and I won’t gloss over or ignore that.
In my Guitar Foundations Course, you’ll learn the Theory and Guitar Basics while you learn to play some real songs at the same time.
Every lesson has a concept that guitar players can’t live without, tips and tricks to use it, and songs to play to apply it.
