Beginners

What will we be covering?

This half day course retains our full beginner course’s over-arching aims:

• get everyone playing together
• learn a few tunes to take away and finesse
• have some fun!

As it will be held in my annex the group size is limited and so there’ll be lots of 1-on-1 time as well as the opportunity to tweak the agenda as we go. We’ll crack on with songs and revise techniques and know-how as we go:

• getting a good set-up
• reading chord boxes, TAB, song sheets and basic rhythm
• forming essential open chords (and a few other cool ones!)
• creating a solid strumming groove
• learning how to change between the chords accurately and cleanly
• maybe touching on some very useful and practical theory aspects to help put things into context
• looking at how to practise
• arming you with a wad of great songs to work on

And if we get time:

• looking at options for playing barre chords but without the barre
• introducing you to fingerstyle and trying some fingerpicking patterns over familiar chords with rhythms you’ve already looked at
• delving into the Blues: chords, shuffle, 12 bar form, basic intro/turnaround, etc.
• explore the use of triads to add colour to a group playing together

The course generally has a smaller class size compared to our others in order to  allow more one-on-one time and we take things at  whatever pace suits the group.

The course will set you off on the right path but the main work is done at home.

Who’s this course suitable for?

It’s suitable for all beginner levels of acoustic, electric and bass guitarists e.g.

• just starting on the journey
• been playing for a year or so but hitting major road blocks

Also

We regularly get people coming along to this particular course who have played for years but are maybe stuck in a musical rut or need an MOT or bump start. They would be exploring slightly more advanced approaches to playing along with the group.

What’s included in the price?

Tuition, materials and tea/coffee and biscuits throughout the day. It’ll be probably be a working lunch and so recommend you bring along a sandwich/other. If you have specific dietary issues I suggest you bring along what you like to have as biscuits/drinks.

This is a non-residential course.

Materials

• Course sheets will be handed out during the day.
• Revision and practice materials will be made available to you after the course e.g. any audio/video recordings, any supplementary PDFs and photos of flip charts.
• If required, prep/reference sheets can be provided in advance.

Book early

This will be held in my annex. Numbers will be very limited and so early booking is recommended.g guitar-fests but they’re paced to suit the group so they’re as much about having fun and enjoying a sociable time with fellow hobby players.

Playing together as a group is the best, and most enjoyable, way of learning and experiencing music. This course has limited numbers to ensure the correct tutor-to-group ratio – book early to avoid disappointment.