Wichita Guitar Academy

Kids are gonna play/sing this and be like “felt” or “big mood” or something. Idk. Skibidi?

I’ve been structuring/planning for lessons with younger kids under the assumption that it’s their only guitar time for the week, and so far it’s like top 10 things I’ve ever done. May end up changing how I plan for kids that do practice

Yes, plans are indeed coming together

Yes I am milking this for all it’s worth 😂 music stand I made. No filter

Cute Christmas card from one of my kids yesterday. Life is good 🙂

New YouTube video. Please like & subscribe 🙂

Teaching First Species Counterpoint FOR REAL Forgot to mention--I like to teach counterpoint both starting with a bass line AND starting with a melody. Traditionally, counterpoint always began with a ca...

Middle school duo started on some Sor today. I’m super excited

8 year olds make up the best song lyrics. 10/10

Back on the YouTube grind 🤷🏼‍♂️ we’ll see how it goes

New arrivals 🙂 can’t wait to get the kids started on them. Let me know if you’d like one and/or all of them

Have a couple lesson spots that opened up--get in while you can, they generally don't stay open long :)

Y’know when I was younger I used to like… plan every aspect of guitar purchases—“I want this model in this color and I’m gonna put these pickups in it”. Problem is… guitars are made of wood, and only 2 of the probably 6 I had during that time didn’t end up getting sold, because even though on paper they were perfect… in the hands & ears they weren’t.

That’s why local shops are so important. You wanna get a pedal off Amazon so you don’t have to go anywhere, fine, but for a factory made instrument, you HAVE to play it first. Play them all, if one speaks to you, take it home.

This one spoke to me in every way I wanted to be spoken to. Indifferent about the color, but again that’s the absolute least important part. Buy local. E. M. Shorts, Phil Uhlik Music, and Senseney Music all put in work bringing you the best instruments they can

Morning and night practice materials for the next little while. First one… well, I have a few kids who’ve asked me about neo-soul guitar, very popular with kids right now. I’ve been working on that one for a while & it’s in a good spot for the time being… so I’m going back in time a bit to make some materials for the classic soul/r&b style—Bobby Womack, Steve Cropper, Curtis Mayfield, and my favorite of all—Cornell Dupree. Unfortunately this one’s out of print and I can’t find the book that came with it, so I’m gonna have to transcribe everything I want. Should also help with kids in jazz band, finding out that middle school jazz band is essentially “blues band” and a lot of this stuff works for that, aswell.

Second one, well… you can’t teach guitar in Kansas and not teach Country, and as I push finger style as much as possible, this one’s a good fit & supplement to the Chet Atkins book I have. Bonus points… the same techniques show up in rockabilly a lot—Elvis’s first guitarist Scotty Moore was VERY influenced by guys like Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, so that’ll be good cross application.

Feeling very grateful for 2022, in the form of this little guy. I remember recording in the early 2000’s—digital amps were awful, so if you wanted good sounds you had to lug a huge amp to an overpriced recording studio and let it sit there until you were done—mic moves by 1/4” and the sound is completely different. Now I can sit in my living room, hook this up to my computer, press the button that recalls all my settings, and get a great sound. Same with my student who got one for Christmas—we can start a recording at the studio, save it to a flash drive, and she can finish it at home without any inconsistencies. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

For the boys’ last group class of the year. Good times.

I never feel like I really "know" a book of music until I do one of these for it. Usually takes a good hour, but I've never done one & not discovered a far more logical way to sequence things

I’m wrapping up the data on phase 1 of my hand strengthening/technical exercise expedition and I’ve noticed that for all involved this is generally how it looks—great progress on exercises for about a month and then a hard plateau. I know for weight lifting & such this is generally how it goes as well. Really reinforces the importance of being able to manipulate variables & continue to make progress rather than hammering the same things for weeks beyond this