What happens if you LOVE guitar, but have ZERO natural talent?

Well, that was me. I couldn't figure out how to tune my first acoustic, but I wanted to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan-Wes Montgomery-John Petrucci hybrid. Living in the New York City area gave me access to excellent music education, but I always felt lost on guitar. This led me to a profound realization: most music education isn’t designed for average people.

Just as the NBA is filled with the abnormally tall, the music world is filled with the abnormally gifted. Music colleges are gifted professors teaching naturally talented kids. And professional performers are the very best among the incredibly talented. We're all grateful for the beautiful music skilled musicians create, but there's a problem for us normal people...

it's extremely difficult to learn from prodigies.

You ask a guitar teacher how they play something, and they struggle to explain it. You buy a book or course, and it’s just a series of licks or scales. How do we turn that into music? I worked through that struggle at every stage of my music journey. 

From my first guitar lesson at age 12 to graduating with a doctorate degree in music, my process has remained strangely unchanged: I get stuff that feels impossible to grasp, and I rework it until it’s simple and crystal clear. After 20+ years of this process, I learned my true gift and passion is helping normal adults achieve their guitar goals even when they have limited time and big plateaus. 

Normal adults don't progress using lessons designed for gifted teenagers with unlimited practice time.

I've taught hundreds of students in every setting (universities, one-on-one, groups, and online). I’ve worked with adults from ages 20 to 68, and experience levels from 18 months to 30 years of being stuck in pentatonic boxes. All of my students report having huge realizations and making noticeable improvements whilst practicing just 15 minutes a day.  Beautiful music isn't reserved for the gifted few. With the right guidance, it's available to us all.