Guitar · Long Bay, North Shore Auckland

Guitar lessons, taught by me.

One to one, at my studio in Long Bay. Acoustic and electric, complete beginners through to intermediate players, children and adults.

Book a lesson or call or text 021 162 3447

$35 per half hour
3:15–7:30pm weekdays
RSL Rockschool grades

If you have never played

I will show you your way around the guitar from the first lesson. Holding it properly, your first chords, and changing between them cleanly.

Most beginners here are playing something recognisable inside a month.

If you already play

You can play a few songs. You skip the chord you were never shown.

I will build on what you already know. You will play your favourite songs the way they were written.

Whatever you want to play

Blues, rock, acoustic, pop, jazz and fingerstyle. Bring me a song. That is what the lesson works on.

Acoustic or electric, whichever one you own.
Chords, strumming and clean changes between them.
Lead playing, scales and improvising over a backing.
Fingerstyle and picking patterns.
Reading chord charts and tab, and enough theory to know why a song works.

I also teach piano, and singing at beginner level.

The upright piano, bench and open sheet music on the left of the Long Bay teaching room, with an electric guitar and two amplifiers in the foreground on the right — The teaching room in Long Bay. Guitar, amps and the piano, one room.

Grades, and doing without them

RSL Rockschool if you want it

I prepare guitar students for RSL Rockschool exams. Rockschool is the rock and pop board. The set pieces are songs, not studies.

A grade is a deadline. Deadlines suit some players and flatten others.

My own qualification: ABRSM Grade 8 in piano, Grade 5 Theory of Music passed with distinction, and studied toward a performance Diploma.

Past the songs

Some students get to the point where playing other people's music stops being the goal. Writing your own, arranging it, and recording it are all on the table when you want them.

That work uses the same fundamentals. It just points them somewhere else.

Adam Whybro seated beside the Neve mixing console at Roundhead Studios during his internship there — **Roundhead Studios, New Zealand.** Their Neve desk, during my internship. Lessons are at my own studio in Long Bay, not here.

The practical part

$35 per half hour, $70 per hour

Invoiced monthly, so there is no term to pay up front. No enrolment fee, no booking fee, nothing for materials.

Lessons run Monday to Friday, 3:15pm to 7:30pm. The last half hour starts at 7:00pm, the last full hour at 6:30pm. There are no weekend lessons.

There is no free trial. The first lesson is a real lesson at the normal price, with no obligation to continue.

Bring your own guitar. If you are still choosing one, ask me before you spend the money.

The studio is at 24 Westerley Place, Long Bay, Auckland 0630. Street parking is about 20 metres from the door.

Book a guitar lesson