Zen Ben Guitar Lessons

02/09/2026

The guitar is a chord machine! This is an intro video into how chords are built and progress both melodically and harmonically.

12/15/2025

This Guitar Moves episode with Jason Isbell is an incredible mini-review for all of the tricks you should know from beginners up to more advanced players. Check it out! He rips.

Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter *Jason Isbell* is one of the most respected and celebrated artists of his generation. The North Alabama native possess...

12/02/2025

Why are we secretly being taught the circle of fifths before we even know what a fifth is!?

10/26/2025

"A lot of people show you what to play, but you need to learn how to learn what to play." - Tomo Fujita

10/26/2025

It's not memorization that unlocks your guitar playing but rather internalization. This means simplifying everything you do down to the simplest and most direct actions and information. Too many beginners get wrapped up in abstract theory that doesn't seem to translate to playing. Let that all go and reapproach the instrument without any preconceptions and a child-like wonder.

10/21/2025

So many beginners quit or make very little progress even after years of playing. When I sit down with them, I start to realize a few reasons why this happens.

Firstly, they haven't developed their own taste in music so they're floating in the void of 'listening to everything.' (P.S no one in the history of music has ever listened to 'everything' even if they tried.)

Secondly, they're unable play an entire song all of the way through from intro to outro. And I don't even mean accurately or more importantly with conviction, I just mean play it all the way through, mistakes and all.

And lastly, they've lost curiosity in how the instrument works and how music itself works, so they don't experiment and make enough mistakes to ignite more creativity.

Overall there's a destructive amount of apathy brewing and due to its 'whatever' nature, it's leading to more and more confusion and complication.

The simplest solution to all this is to take a few minutes to sit down with a song you love and just absorb it. Reflect on what it is in the music that really connects with you. Even if it's the vocal melody, that's actually awesome! You can take that and translate it to guitar. If it's the drums, you can map out the rhythm -you see, guitar is just the tool. When you play guitar, what you're really playing is music.

09/24/2025

We're into our autumn lessons now and I want to share some really important questions to ask yourself if you're a beginner and you're starting to play some parts of songs or exercises that I've shown you:

1) Am I in tune? This doesn't just mean that the tuner says I'm in tune but that it also sounds that way. If not, this could either mean our guitar has some quirks (extremely common,) we're accidentally bending the string with our fretting hand, or we need to work on our pitch recognition.

2) Aside from my finger tips being uncomfortable, do I feel any other discomfort or even pain?

3) When I'm fretting a note (holding down the string with the fingers on the left hand) is it buzzing? Or is it ringing out clear?

Most of all, am I relaxed?

Further in your development of playing or writing music you may want to tackle a song that requires speed and in order to do that, relaxation is key!

Hope everyone is enjoying their first toe dips into playing guitar.

08/18/2025

Hi everyone! I still have a few openings for beginners, so if we've chatted sometime this month and you haven't booked your free half-hour lesson with me, make sure you secure your spot.

07/24/2025

If this sounds like you when it comes to your guitar playing and you're in the Hamilton area, send me a message and let's chat!

03/03/2025

Hello-ello! It's been an eternity and a half since I posted on this page. After a long break full of soul searching I've renamed this page: Learn Guitar with Ben Schillaci.

That's right, my long anticipated return to guiding others through the journey of actually having fun playing guitar,

it's happening. 😜

More to share soon!