What Gets Taught
Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, and music theory. That’s the full list, and it’s deliberately short.
No bass, no piano, no drums. Requests outside those four get a referral to a specialist rather than a booking, because teaching an instrument you only half play helps nobody. If you want the reasoning behind the whole approach, the adult guitar lessons page lays out the sequenced-curriculum argument in full.
Within those four, lessons cover ear training, applied theory, rhythm, repertoire, and performance in an order that builds, bent around the music you actually want to play rather than a fixed method book.
In Person or Online?
Both, at the same price.
In-person lessons happen at the East Riverside studio in southeast Austin, near the ACC Riverside campus, easy access from Highway 71 and 183, about fifteen minutes from downtown. In-person students get one-on-one jam time with drum tracks and real amps, plus hands-on help with their own gear.
Online lessons run live over video for students anywhere. They use the same curriculum and add a video recap of every session on top of the written notes, which is genuinely useful mid-practice.
| Suits in person | Suits online |
|---|---|
| Younger kids | Adults and teens |
| Hands-on gear and rig setup | Theory and songwriting work |
| Jamming with the teacher in the room | Anyone travelling or on a moving schedule |
Plenty of Austin students do both, in person most weeks, online when weather or travel gets in the way.
The one thing online needs
A camera angle that shows both hands. Not good audio, not fast internet. A phone propped on a stack of books beside your laptop solves it.
Scheduling and Hours
Teaching hours are Tuesday to Thursday 10am to 8pm, Friday 10am to 2pm, and Saturday 10am to 5pm. Free consults also run evenings and weekends.
Lessons are weekly or biweekly, 30 or 50 minutes. If you need to reschedule, give as much notice as you can and we’ll look for another slot in the same month where the calendar allows.
What a Subscription Includes
Every tier includes the same things:
- Your private lessons
- Free access to The Sessions open mic, Songwriting Circles, and Jam Sessions
- A detailed written recap after every lesson
- A video recap of every session for remote students
- Jam time with drum tracks and real amps for in-person students
Full tier-by-tier detail is on the pricing page. The short version: $469 for 50-minute weekly, $300 for 50-minute biweekly, $359 for 30-minute weekly, all month-to-month.
Do I Need My Own Gear?
To start, a beginner guitar, a clip-on tuner, and a capo. That’s it. There’s gear in the studio for in-person lessons, and you’ll get honest recommendations at the consult so a first purchase isn’t a mistake.
Electric players should bring whatever rig they own. Dialling in your actual amp is more useful than learning on someone else’s.
Do I Have to Perform?
No, and this comes up constantly. The Sessions and the jams are there if you want them and completely optional if you don’t. If your goal is playing for yourself at home, lessons focus entirely on that and nobody will nudge you toward a microphone.
What a First Lesson Looks Like
Mostly listening, at least at the start. Where you are now, what you’ve tried, what you want to play, and what your week actually allows for practice.
Then playing. Even for complete beginners there’s usually something in the hands within the first fifteen minutes, because leaving a first lesson without having played anything is a poor start. For returning players, the first session is largely diagnostic, finding the specific thing that stalled progress last time.
Everyone leaves with a written recap: what was covered, what to practise, and how to practise it.
Cancellations, Holidays, and Breaks
Give as much notice as you reasonably can when you need to move a lesson, and rescheduling within the same month is usually possible depending on the calendar.
Longer breaks are fine too. Students pause for travel, exams, and busy seasons at work, and the month-to-month structure means that costs nothing beyond the pause itself. Picking up afterwards is quicker than people expect, muscle memory holds up better across a few weeks off than most students assume.
How the Free Consult Works
Fifteen minutes over Google Meet. What you’ve played, what you want to play, and how much time you actually have. Nothing is sold on the call.
Most people leave knowing which format fits and roughly what their first three months look like. Sometimes the honest answer is to wait, or to see a different teacher, you’ll hear that too. Book a free consult when you’re ready.