East Mesa Guitar Lessons

East Mesa Guitar Lessons Formerly East Mesa School of Guitar — now coaching serious guitarists worldwide via Zoom.

Helping adult rock, blues & country players break plateaus, build groove & play with gig-level confidence. 🎸 Replays • Custom Plans • Private & Group. Through use of modern and fun guitar teaching techniques developed specifically for each player, students are empowered to reach their personal music goals as quickly and effectively as possible. Whether you're just beginning or are an advanced player who has hit the "wall", we have a proven solution to take your playing to the next level.

You can know quite a few things about the fretboard and still feel lost when you play.That is especially frustrating whe...
09/04/2026

You can know quite a few things about the fretboard and still feel lost when you play.

That is especially frustrating when you have been playing for years.

The goal is still fretboard mastery.

But you do not need to finish learning the map before the pieces you know start becoming useful.

Work on a small area.

Learn it well.

Start connecting what you know there to actual music.

Then expand.

The better questions become:

Do I know where I am?

Do I know what I can do from here?

The goal is a fretboard you can navigate, not one you can only describe.

Save this if fretboard navigation is something you are working on.

“I’ve been playing for years. I should know the fretboard by now.”I hear some version of this pretty regularly.What make...
09/04/2026

“I’ve been playing for years. I should know the fretboard by now.”

I hear some version of this pretty regularly.

What makes it especially frustrating is that the player usually does know quite a bit.

They know some notes. They know some positions. They know chord shapes and scale patterns.

But those pieces don’t always connect when they need them during actual playing.

That is a different problem from knowing nothing.

Fretboard mastery is a long-term project. I want my students to eventually navigate the entire neck.

But I also want every small area they learn to become useful while we are building that larger map.

That changes the question from:

“How much of the fretboard have I memorized?”

to:

“Do I know where I am, and do I know what I can do from here?”

If you have played for a long time but still lose your bearings on the neck, I’d be curious where it happens.

Certain strings?

Higher up the neck?

When you leave a familiar scale shape?

When you try to connect chords and lead playing?

That answer tells us a lot more than whether you can fill in a blank fretboard diagram.

Where do you tend to lose your bearings?

Try this during your next guitar practice session.Pick ONE thing you are working on.Then ask:“What number is this from 1...
09/01/2026

Try this during your next guitar practice session.

Pick ONE thing you are working on.

Then ask:

“What number is this from 1 to 10?”

1–2 = too easy

3–4 = comfortable

5–6 = strong learning territory

7 = the edge

8–10 = too much right now

Then use one simple rule:

CAN’T TELL WHAT WENT WRONG?

Remove a layer.

CAN DO IT WITHOUT MUCH ATTENTION?

Add a layer.

I usually move through four complexity gates:

1. Learn it without tempo.
2. Add a metronome or drum track.
3. Add the backing track or song.
4. Bring back the real tempo, phrasing, feel, bends, vibrato, dynamics, and everything else that makes it musical.

Here’s the important part.

Every time you add a gate, the difficulty can jump.

That means putting on the backing track might force you to LOWER the tempo again.

That isn’t going backward.

You added complexity.

Adjust the dial and keep learning.

Try it with one problem today.

Then ask yourself:

Did I spend more time solving the problem or fighting the problem?

How hard should guitar practice feel?Hard enough that you make mistakes.Not so hard that you have no idea why the mistak...
08/31/2026

How hard should guitar practice feel?

Hard enough that you make mistakes.

Not so hard that you have no idea why the mistakes are happening.

I like thinking about practice as a Difficulty Dial from 1 to 10.

The numbers aren’t scientific rules. They’re a quick way to check whether the problem in front of you is helping you learn or overwhelming you.

My favorite test is even simpler:

If you can’t tell what went wrong, remove a layer.

If you can do it without much attention, add a layer.

And remember that every new layer adds complexity.

You might play something easily without tempo, then struggle when the metronome starts.

You might own it with the metronome, then struggle again when the backing track comes on.

That doesn’t mean you went backward.

The job got harder.

Adjust the Difficulty Dial and keep building.

The purpose of good practice is to make playing guitar easier.

Save this and try the Difficulty Dial during your next practice session.

I spent a lot of years practicing guitar too hard to learn efficiently.I didn’t know that was possible.If I couldn’t pla...
08/29/2026

I spent a lot of years practicing guitar too hard to learn efficiently.

I didn’t know that was possible.

If I couldn’t play something at song tempo, I kept trying it at song tempo.

If two notes were causing the problem, I kept playing the whole lick.

If breaking something into tiny pieces finally made it work, part of me thought I had somehow cheated.

Because, of course, my guitar heroes had never had to slow anything down or work in tiny pieces. Right?

I confused difficulty with effectiveness.

These days I think of practice as having a Difficulty Dial from 1 to 10.

At 1 or 2, I’m mostly on autopilot.

Around 5 or 6, I’m making mistakes but I can still hear them, understand them, and make a correction.

At 8, 9, or 10, I often stop getting useful information. I’m repeating confusion.

The exact numbers aren’t important.

The skill is learning to move the dial.

If you cannot tell what went wrong, remove a layer.

Slow it down.
Use fewer notes.
Remove the backing track.
Simplify the job.

If it has become almost automatic, add a layer back.

The goal isn’t hard practice.

The goal is practice that makes playing guitar easier.

Think about whatever you are working on right now.

What number would you give it from 1 to 10?

“I should be past this by now.”Experienced players feel this too. I still catch myself thinking it in my own playing.The...
08/22/2026

“I should be past this by now.”

Experienced players feel this too. I still catch myself thinking it in my own playing.

The problem starts when that thought makes you push harder, add more material, or search for more information.

Try the opposite.

* Keep the musical goal.
* Reduce the amount of material.
* Listen for one specific change.
* Add more only when the improvement holds.

Knowing more gives you options.

Needing less gives you focus.

You can work on two notes, one chord change, or a few seconds of music without lowering the level of the work.

Save this for the next time your practice feels more complicated than it needs to be.

If you keep getting stuck in the same place, send me a message and tell me what you are working on. I can help you identify a smaller target.

“I should be past this by now.”I hear experienced guitar players say some version of this.I say it to myself too.When so...
08/21/2026

“I should be past this by now.”

I hear experienced guitar players say some version of this.

I say it to myself too.

When something in my own playing feels like it should already be easier, my first instinct can be to push harder or keep more of the music in front of me.

What usually helps more is making the problem smaller.

Not because the standard changed.

Because I need enough space to hear what is really going wrong.

If the problem lives inside one chord change, I do not need the whole song.

If the timing slips during four notes, the rest of the phrase does not need my attention yet.

If one bend sounds weak, another scale pattern will not fix the bend.

This connects to an idea I ran across recently: knowing more versus needing less.

Experience gives you more options. Progress often depends on knowing which options you can leave out for a few minutes.

Keep the musical standard high. Make the practice target small enough to hear whether you are meeting it.

Making the problem smaller is not going backward.

Where does “I should be past this by now” show up most often in your playing?

Songs, solos, improvising, technique, or somewhere else?

A rough practice session can turn into several rough days if you start treating the session as evidence about your abili...
08/14/2026

A rough practice session can turn into several rough days if you start treating the session as evidence about your ability.

I saw this recently with a student who had been making good progress by working in small sections. He decided to tackle a much larger chunk at once, struggled with it, and became frustrated enough for the experience to stay with him for several days.

What got him moving again was simple. He returned to the smaller sections.

Here’s a question worth asking the next time practice goes off the rails:

“What is the smallest piece of this problem I can make musical right now?”

It could be two measures instead of sixteen.

One chord change instead of the whole progression.

A slower tempo.

One phrase.

One small area of the fretboard.

You’re not trying to avoid the difficult part. You’re trying to find a version of the problem where your practice can do useful work.

Once you can hear and feel something working again, add the next piece.

A bad session can tell you where the problem became too large. It doesn’t have to tell you what kind of guitar player you are.

⚠️Before you add another guitar exercise, try this. 🎸 ⬇️When guitar feels stuck, adding something new feels like the log...
08/07/2026

⚠️Before you add another guitar exercise, try this. 🎸 ⬇️

When guitar feels stuck, adding something new feels like the logical answer.

Another scale. Another exercise. Another lesson. Another saved video.

But more material does not always create more progress.

Try this 10-minute reset:

STEP ONE: PLAY FOR ONE MINUTE

Choose a song section, riff, chord progression, or short solo.

Record yourself playing it once without stopping to correct mistakes.

STEP TWO: LISTEN FOR THE INTERRUPTION

Find the one moment that pulls you out of the music.

It might be a late chord change, a rushed rhythm, a phrase that loses its shape, or an ending that never feels finished.

STEP THREE: CHOOSE ONE RESULT

Finish this sentence:

“During today’s practice, I want this moment to feel or sound more __________.”

STEP FOUR: WORK ON ONLY THAT MOMENT

Spend five minutes on the smallest part that contains the problem.

Do not expand the assignment.

STEP FIVE: RETURN TO THE MUSIC

Play the complete section again.

Then write:

“Next time, I will begin with __________.”

The goal is not to fix everything.

The goal is to finish knowing exactly where to begin next time.

What is one moment in your playing that regularly throws you off?

If you would like help identifying your most useful next step, message me PATH FORWARD.

We can have a short Zoom conversation about your playing. You do not need to be considering coaching.

What I used to underestimate about guitar lessons:For years, I judged a productive lesson mostly by what happened during...
07/28/2026

What I used to underestimate about guitar lessons:

For years, I judged a productive lesson mostly by what happened during it.

Did we solve a problem?

Did something begin to make sense?

Did the student play better by the end?

Those things matter.

But the better test begins the next time the student sits down alone.

A lesson can feel useful and still leave an adult player with too much to manage afterward.

Before a lesson ends, you should know:

• What musical result am I working toward this week?

• What should I play first?

• How will I know it is improving?

• What can safely wait until later?

When those answers are unclear, the lesson might have added information without reducing confusion.

The same check also works when you are planning your own practice.

Try writing four lines before your next practice session:

• This week I want…

• I will begin with…

• Better will sound or feel like…

• I am not working on…

The lesson matters.

The week after matters more.

Which of those four questions is hardest for you to answer?

I made a short video showing how I structure this in live Zoom coaching for adults. Message me VIDEO and I will send it over.

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Mesa, AZ

Telephone

+14806007349

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