Stephen Jones Guitar Tuition

Learn From A Live Performer… I Walk The Line…..
I’m lucky enough to be able to say that I am a professional gigging musician alongside being a Guitar tutor. This means I have the advantage of bringing lived experience into my lessons and into your learning. I regularly share my methods of remembering lyrics and chord sequences and even song writing. Along side how to build the skill to sing and play at the same time or add dynamics to your performance.

Focusing on what you need….Where do we go now
When I started to learn Guitar back in the 90s, Lesson resources were books and possibly videotapes or audiotapes. There has now been a social media explosion of free content out there and so today’s player has a very different challenge. Complex techniques and ideas are conveyed in 10 seconds on social media with absolutely no way of understanding or re-creating what you’ve seen. Alongside which there are world leading Guitar tutors out there that have hundreds of videos and thousands of hours of content. This brings a huge challenge of what to focus on and how to figure out what you actually need. I can empathise because I have found that challenge myself on my own guitar journey. However, I’m lucky enough to be able to devote my working life to music and I have collected the techniques and theory that actually matter to the direction you want to take your playing in. I have then built lessons around those skills and knowledge.

Teaching vs coaching……. I wanna hold your hand
In the past few years my profession has seen a huge change in the way that concepts and techniques are conveyed. Whilst the textbooks and score music methods are still very much available, they have now been joined by a host of methods that have allowed our minds free reign to convey knowledge in a variety of ways to suit you. There has never been a better time to be able to access music in a way that suits the way you learn best and so I tailor my approach to you. I also regularly check how you feel about the pace, content and direction of the lessons in order to give you the best learning experience possible.

Home Practice… I’ll be there for you….
So no one told you live was gonna be this way…👏👏👏👏….Have you ever had the feeling you forgotten something? At the end of every lesson I do a sweep of what we’ve learnt and check what you need from me. I also regularly make short videos for us to share on WhatsApp, Facebook messenger or text so you can refer back to the key learning points from that Lesson. This gives us the added benefit of you having all your lesson resources in one place and tracking your personalised Guitar journey.

The times they are changing
When I first started learning Guitar my guitar Teacher used the cutting edge technology of the day and tape recorded my lessons…. yes I’m that old hence the reason I’m quoting Bob Dylan lyrics in the title….. but as Bob Dylan wrote the times they are changing and today you can expect to be going home with your songs on lyric and chord sheets and also free online play along lesson resources as well as tailor made videos to remind you of your lesson content and learning aims.

Chords….. ch ch changes
The fundamental basis of rhythm Guitar playing is chords. With them, you can play most of the songs that you would like to sing along to. You’ll be playing chords from day one however they are introduced slowly and always contextualise into a song that you can play along with. Practising chord changes slowly helps build up muscle memory however this is accompanied by exercises where you open and close your hand in time with music. This helps you time your chord changes.

Rhythm is a dancer
Most people solely concentrate on the hand that forms the chords, however I train both hands individually right from the start. Lightly holding your chord hand across the strings to deaden the notes effectively turns your guitar into a percussion instrument. This allows us to concentrate on your strumming hand. Together we listen to music be it backing tracks or your favourite songs and we learned to move your rhythm hand in time with what we can hear. This is a much more intuitive way of understanding rhythm and bypasses a lot of the theory that can get in the way of great playing. We then repeat this process on the chord hand purely opening and closing your hand in time with the music. This helps you make chord changes on time every time while improving the flow of movement that will make you sound great.

Absolute beginners
If you’re absolutely new to the instrument, an introduction to the instrument is quite useful. I always start the lessons by showing you what the different parts of the Guitar called how to hold the Guitar how to hold a plectrum and what are the useful things to own alongside your Guitar? Along with how to read chord diagrams.

First lesson ….. start me up
What can you expect from your first lesson? Regardless of whether you’re picking up the Guitar for the first time or you’re a relatively established player, I always ask what inspired you to start guitar lessons and what’s important to you? What kind of music do you like? What skills do you think you might need to improve on. We then work out the steps of a journey plan. This helps plot where you are and where you want to be. I then span that gap with songs and exercises that are fun and also move you consistently towards your goal. https://www.bedfordguitartuition.co.uk